Moses Battles the Pterodactyls (2)
[We resume the serialization of my talk on the cultural hurly-burly that greeted Darwin's theories. As we open this section, our animal friends are really going at it.] Lions and tigers make ligers...
View ArticleAlfred Jarry in the Medical Museum
Jarry? In the medical museum? It’s a funny place to find him, but there he is: the following prose poem, “Les Cinq Sens” (“The Five Senses”), is taken from his first book, Les Minutes de sable...
View ArticleJohn Michell
One of the grand old men of British forteana, John Michell, died on April 24. I only met him a few times; he was always kind and gracious. The last time I saw him, we discussed our common fascination...
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Good-bye, John Keel
John A. Keel died a few days ago, on Friday, July 3, 2009. As some of you may know, I knew him for many years. Larry Sloman and I were his medical proxies for the past couple of years, and did our...
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Teenage mumbo-jumbo?
I think my high school offered one basic course in psychology, which I did not take. Surely it dealt in stripped-down basics – the classification of emotions, some de-sexualized Freudian theory, and...
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The Magic Door of Massimiliano Palombara
You can find la Porta Magica in Rome, on the Piazza Vittorio. It’s what remains of the villa of Massimiliano Palombara, a 17th century occultist. There are at least two competing stories about it....
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Adventure on Barren Island
Ancient coral or ancient ladies’ swimming cap? On the first day of spring, which in New York City was particularly welcome and unseasonably warm, I took a long walk on the sands of Dead Horse Bay, a...
View ArticleThe Ukulele Recital
From the audience, Angela Alverson captured a snippet of the recital at the Jalopy Theatre. My beginning uke class made its first public appearance with this blues chorus. From left to right:...
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Ben Loves Bio
We return to that interesting character, Benjamin De Casseres. There are only a few pictures of him online: a caricature, for example, and a photo of him celebrating the 21st Amendment. So, here’s a...
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Ron Cobb’s Philosophical Mandala
Ron Cobb is known particularly for his crisp and trenchant political cartoons, which were once a staple of the underground press. He also designed the ecology flag, contributed designs to a number of...
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Ionel Talpazan
I was saddened to hear of the death of Ionel Talpazan, who died on September 21 of a stroke, complicated by diabetes. When he was a boy in Romania, Talpazan had an encounter with a blue light, which...
View ArticleAvocado Seed Soup
As an admirer of Slim Gaillard’s inimitable creation, The Avocado Seed Soup Symphony, I wondered if I could indeed make avocado seed soup. A search of the internet yielded the information that avocado...
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