From The Black Death

   "usury and all commercial ventures were suspect because they assumed control over the future, a mortgage of time which was reserved for God."

"One of the most cogent comments about time was made by the humanist Leon Battista Alberti in his dialogue on family life:

Gianozzo: There are three things which man may say properly belong to him; his fortune, his body, ...

Lionardo: And what may the third be?

Gianozzo: Ah! A very precious thing indeed! Even these hands and these eyes are not so much my own.

Lionardo: Incredible! What is it?

Gianozzo: Time, my dear Lionardo."

Robert S. Gottfried

  I had picked up this book at Apple Fest at Joanna Furnace a couple of years ago. I think I've already blogged about it, and I seldom reiterate unless warranted. It was two dollars. Having read all of the plague books except for the latest omnibus that The Great Courses, that I completed, is based upon, I figured it would be samey and nearly passed it up for a bean cookbook, Jack. Kelly's The Great Mortality is my favorite, and I love Follett's novel World Without End. About the first plague book, from 1983, (I thought it was earlier), I mistook that I wouldn't get anything new from it. Wrong! Not only are all of the latter books obviously based upon this relatively short book, but I believe it is more concise. Nowadays everything is fake, phony, made-up, hearsay, and opinionated nonsense. History is "reimagined", but it was always a white man's game. Facts and evidence are scrapped. This book not only thoroughly looks into the origin of the plague, Africa, and Asia, it also calls a spade, a spade. It has no false claims. It calls theories, theories and nonsense, nonsense. It cites sources from the time. I'd call it a Ron Paul among books. It's not to be missed. Will I read the latest gigantic omnibus? Probably, I'm obsessed and always have been. I'll find the time. 🕛

Dreams, Nightmares, and Facts

 I fell asleep watching John Wayne's, The Alamo, tonight, which is likely where my latest nightmare came from. I'm writing this as commentary, as I really try to stick to my dreams and write them down exactly as I can remember them, without speculation, I'm not the news. However, like tonight, often I wake and lucidly rewrite the dream in my head, giving it the ending I desire because there are times that my dreams are so realistic that I wake sweating and out of sorts. I don't like this, of course, and don't think it's healthy, but sometimes, especially with the most terrifying of nightmares that affect me physically, the dreams prove to be very prophetic. So, I do not count daydreams or lucidity as dreaming nor do I write them down. Those are my own waking imaginings, not the product of my subconcious, which goes a lot deeper and seems to tap into something a lot bigger than my wild imagination as Mummy called it. Sometimes my dreams are brought on by all sorts of waking things, of course; but I try not to add these bits to my recollection. Just the facts, for a change.