Category Archives: Historical Quotes

Goodbye Fidel

Posted on November 26, 2016 by jimmie

“He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.” Hamlet, act 1, sc. 2 For many across the world, the death of Fidel Castro strikes us with an obscure sensation, like that which would be felt from the sound of darkness. And though expected, there was Read More

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Victory Day Memories

Posted on May 9, 2016 by jimmie

…memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume… Macbeth, act 1, sc. 7 Seventy-one years ago, May 9, 1945, was Victory Day. Nazi Germany officially signed the unconditional surrender to the Soviet Union. For Russia, WWII became the “great patriotic war”, celebrated each year, as you know, in Moscow’s Red Square. “Nothing ‘gainst Read More

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Methinks I am a prophet…

Posted on May 3, 2016 by jimmie

No prophet will I trust, if she prove false. (King Henry VI, part 1, act 1, sc. 2)   It’s not even a question of reading “the book of fate and seeing the revolutions of the times…” (1), or of having “a thousand eyes to be filled with prophetic tears”(2). The audacious eloquence of Bernie Read More

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Arab Winters

Posted on February 4, 2016 by jimmie

“Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York…” King Richard III, act 1, sc. 1 Five years elapsed since the first of the widely acclaimed “Arab Springs”, though it does not seem that long, as the inaudible and noiseless foot of time (1) conceals its own advance. By Read More

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Plumbing for ISIS

Posted on January 3, 2016 by jimmie

“… this news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion” (Winter’s Tale, act 8, sc. 2) More than news, the following is an anecdote, of which history is full. The word ‘anecdote’ (from the Greek, meaning literally “not given out”, that is “unpublished”) Read More

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A Deep Divine

Posted on September 29, 2015 by jimmie

“…meditating with two deep divines, Not sleeping, to engross his idle body, But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.” King Richard III, act 3, sc. 7 Sipping an espresso in the park’s cafe’, I looked at the trees, thinking of that “time of the year… when yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang upon Read More

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A Tale of Two Pictures

Posted on September 10, 2015 by jimmie

Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used.  Othello, act 2, sc. 1 We accept that deception is to the art of government, what the brush is to the art of painting. But there are instances where deception oversteps even the more tolerant bounds of disgust and nausea. I refer to the heart-rending picture of Read More

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October Surprise

Posted on September 7, 2015 by jimmie

“…With colours fairer painted their foul ends.” (The Tempest, act 1, sc. 2) We are approaching the 35th anniversary of the so-called “October Surprise” of 1980. Given the workings of the inaudible and noiseless foot of time (1) most will probably have forgotten, or may have stored the event in what is loosely called the Read More

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Atom Bombs, Babes & Cakes

Posted on August 25, 2015 by jimmie

“You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow, To sound the bottom of the after-times.” (K. Henry IV part 2) Given Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, I am re-publishing this post from last year. (May 2016) I think it is relevant, for the accepted vulgata does not tell the whole story. (The year 2015 has already Read More

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Murder Most Foul

Posted on June 3, 2015 by jimmie

“Murder most foul, as in the best it is”… but the murder of yet another innocent family in Gorlovka, East Ukraine, properly qualifies for being “most foul, strange and unnatural.” And, given that brevity is the soul of wit (1), in the short video, linked to this blog, brevity is the soul of horror. We Read More

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