Ultima Thule

"An accountant in India House in London for more than 30 years and caregiver for his sister Mary (who, in a fit of mania, had stabbed t...

The immortal Beethoven was born on this day in 1770, 237 long years ago. There is, however, some dispute as to the exact day. According to...

WHEN daisies pied and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver-white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with deli...

Today is the 200th anniversary of the first recorded meteorite fall in America, in Weston, Conn. Below is an article about this famous inci...

I found this beautiful photograph of an immense cumulonimbus on a fascinating website, The Cloud Appreciation Society . It was taken by © K...

Today had almost slipped by me when my daily email from Composers Datebook arrived, and I read the following note: "[Today we celebra...

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank. Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the nig...

Oscar Wilde seems to have been one of history's great conversationalists. In The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde , an anthology by Alvin Redma...

Looking through a collection of clippings I had saved, I came across this article from 1994; it may have been from the New York Times . At a...

In addition to overcoming jet lag, it looks like Viagra can also help a hamster with its golf swing. David Hamsters on Viagra take center st...

Our life is twofold; Sleep hath its own world, A boundary between the things misnamed Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world, And a ...

I first found this striking photograph of what appears to be a staring contest between a cat and a goldfish -- then I decided to post Gray...

This is a long essay that Helen wrote last November as an email to an internet friend. David [By Aussiegirl] There is an aspect of Buddhism...

It was on this day, September 19, in 2004 that Helen -- Aussiegirl -- began her blog. Over the next 27 months she managed to add nearly 2200...

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (in French, Frederic Francois Chopin) was born on this day in 1810 -- he was to die after only 39 short years on ...

This is a review that Helen wrote for Amazon.com last July. It is a well-writen and impassioned review, and I think it deserves to be repri...

In April 2003 Helen sent this email to her internet friend veritas about the Requiem that she loved so much. Half of the email are quotes f...

This is another very long and very beautiful email that Helen wrote to veritas, her internet friend, on October 20, 2003, soon after -- perh...