In a casual perusal of the shelves at our local bookstore, it was hard not to notice a prominent display groaning with investment ‘how-to’ guides. Maybe it’s because folks are mindful of the upcoming tax season and ruminating hopefully on where to plant their anticipated windfall. Or maybe those who observe Lent are watching their […]
Monthly Archives: March 2020
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it is said. It is also held that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Part of our everyday lexicon, such aphorisms speak to the subjectivity of taste and individual predilection. However, some appetencies are less subjective, some foodstuffs are – at best – ‘an acquired […]
In Europe of the early modern period, one now common item came to be regarded first with suspicion and then with outright fear. A silent killer, it appeared to afflict only the wealthy classes, leaving its victims writhing in cramping constipation, succumbing to the malaise of intense nausea, and enduring the twin torments of diminished […]