I've never quite been sold on the identification, but the good people over at the Pierpont Morgan Library assure me that these little guys with big hats crawling around the margins of MS G24 are supposed to be Templars: If it's not clear, the one on the right is the "Templar". The guy on the left is...

It actually disturbs me a little that I was able to correctly identify the manuscript in the tiny, low-resolution picture used to illustrate the recent BBC story about the cybernetic William the Conqueror clone from 2055 as the Macclesfield Psalter. Probably some of my readers thought I was just mak...

lol. i just woke up. i remember passing out during the 3rd period of the game (o noez i missed us losing?) so it was a very good nap. hahah. but yeah, just updating to say i take naps at the most inconvenient times, but at least it'll hold me up until my usual 1 am bedtime? and i also don't want to ...

Marilyn Monroe filming 'The Misfits', 1960 “The Mmm Girl has left an indelible series of images in my memory ..this novel is more accurate, in many ways, than anything else that has been written about Marilyn and it is the only book to ever leave me with a lasting impression of the lon...

Sometimes people* say to me, "Carl, why always the pictures of trumpets coming out of the asses? Why always the penises that land in the treetops and the vaginas that wear hats? Do you never have the pretty pictures for us? One thousand years of history and you have only the pooping and the sex pict...

This week's image comes from the lower margin of Das Gänsebuch, a liturgical choir book made in Nuremburg in the early sixteenth century.* Das Gänsebuch, or to translate it, "The Geese Book" (so named for reasons that should now be obvious), is one of those large format books that would have sat u...

I swear, I never get tired of watching non-Newtonian fluid fun. In this case, another 2:1 cornstarch to water concoction (aka oobleck) on a speaker. I really liked it when some of the pieces started diving out of the pool. Screw this sausage pool party, I'm outta heeeeeeeeeere!! Amazing cornstarch s...

Kevin gave me two Bundt pans for Christmas: the original and the Bavaria.  Sometimes only a big boned, 10-15 cup Bundt pan will do and this, my friends, is one of those times.  This recipe came with the Bavaria pan.  I've modified it ever so slightly bc I find it easier t...

It’s odd the way that something you’ve known was a problem all along takes on vastly different proportions when it impacts someone you know and respect. That’s where my head is at right now, though, with the news that Anne Thompson is among those who just got let go from Variety. E...

Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday’s code.” — Christopher Thompson. But in case you got up anyway here is some Monday Morning Madness to get you distracted from the work you should REALLY do. Like introducing a few ne...