Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) was many things: renegade monk, heretic, revolutionary, sorcerer, proto-scientist.  He suffered exceptionally brutal torture after a failed revolution against the Spanish authorities in Naples, and spent 28 years in prison.  There, he wrote most of his works, including the classic utopian fantasy, The City of the Sun. He was also a poet, whose […]

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Our second fish game is simply called “Fish Card Game,” and was issued by the U. S. Playing Card Company in 1993.  The other fish are the Striped Suitfish, the Goldfish, the Sea Horse, the Swordfish, the Sunfish, the American Eel, the Stingray, the Shark, and the Angelfish.  They’re all pretty lively.  (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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Get busy, scientists!  Count those stars! Recently, an elderly woman approached me at a market in upstate New York to upbraid me for wearing black.  “You must admit that it’s unusual,” she snapped.  I tried to tell her that it wasn’t, really, but it was no use: obviously, she knew better. A little wine will […]

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