I find the coolest stuff doing image research. Often it has nothing to do with the book I’m researching at the moment, but it’s what makes my job so awesome. Case in point: I stumbled across this portrait of the… Read More
Right now in the headlines there’s a big controversy–in California particularly, but in other states as well–over parents’ right to opt out of having their children vaccinated. As of last week, the California House passed a proposal that would make… Read More
Most people are familiar with the name Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823), a country doctor whose smallpox inoculation led to that dreaded disease’s eventual eradication. Jenner became intrigued by the fact that milkmaids who had contracted coxpox, similar to smallpox… Read More
My oldest son will be attending college next fall, and he’s now in the fun-but-fraught phase of trying to decide where he’s going, so college is kind of on my mind.
Recently I came across a passage in a book… Read More
The most complete account of the death of Hercules (also called Heracles) appears in a play by the ancient Greek dramatist, Sophocles. Hercules was presented with a cloak by his beautiful wife, Deianira. She had smeared it with a magic… Read More
By the time Elizabeth I was on the throne (in 1559), the ideal of female beauty was a snow-white face, with daubs of red on each cheek. To achieve the deathly pallor, women relied on ceruse, which is white lead.… Read More