What's New in Old News?
The official newsletter of the Peripatetic Historian. October 2023, Vol. 3, no. 5.
The clouds are like headlines, on a new front page sky
-Tom Waits
Welcome to the October issue of What’s New in Old News.
In this Issue:
Peripatetic Field Report: On Brevity
Book News
Then and Now
Let’s get started…
Peripatetic Field Report: On Brevity
The field report is going to run a little shorter than normal. This has been a static month; after three months of intensive travel—hiking through Portugal and Spain, a month in the United States—I’ve been downright sedentary in September.
The month witnessed the last big push on LA Birdmen—completing the final draft of the manuscript and searching for the photos that will illustrate the book—and an intensive round of travel planning for the Fear and Loathing in the Heavens UK tour. It required a surprising amount of time to pull together the transport and lodging arrangements. That task is now completed with about eight days to spare.
In short, although I munched through a prodigious plate of work this month, none of those tasks involved travel. Sometimes, even a peripatetic historian needs to sit still and do some work.
Cuckoo Brand Cigars: “A cigar of merit. There are none better and thousands worse. Ask for it.” —The Oshkosk Daily Northwestern, May 25, 1910.
Book News
Comet Madness
October Events
Fear and Loathing in the Heavens: The UK Tour
If you are a UK subscriber, or are planning an October visit to the country, take a look at the official tour schedule. Seventeen public lectures with stops in Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London. The full event calendar lives on my website’s Media Page.
LA Birdmen
This is the Zerbe Multiplane, an innovative flying machine, the brainchild of Los Angeles inventor J. S. Zerbe (seated). Will it get off the ground? Will my new book, LA Birdmen get off the ground?
I am pleased to report that the answer to at least one of those questions is '“yes.” After a month spent polishing the final draft of LA Birdmen, the book is now officially “in production.” We also have an anticipated release date: June 18, 2024.
You’ll have to wait until June to find out if Professor Zerbe managed to get his project airborne.
Then and Now
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
Although the principal point of this recurring feature is to marvel at the changes in historic places, revealed in photographs separated by decades or centuries, occasionally I am reminded of how little structures may change.
A case in point is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Built on the site where Christ was crucified (I have my doubts), the church resembles a prehistoric dragonfly, frozen in amber. It resists change, as these photos demonstrate.
Here is a stereoscopic image from 1898. Taken with a camera that had two lenses, this odd image offers a three dimensional effect when placed in a proper viewer:
And here is a photograph I made on Good Friday of this year:
The doors and crowds remain unchanged. My 50mm lens could not match the field of view from the 1898 photo, but a second photo reveals the upper levels of the church:
Do you see the ladder, propped beneath the window? Hasn’t moved since before 1898. In fact, it has stood on that ledge since 1728. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is under the joint administration of six Christian denominations, an arrangement known as the Status Quo. No changes can be made to the church—including putting a ladder away—unless all six denominations agree.
And that’s unlikely to happen…
Although the calendar declares that summer has ended and autumn is officially underway, the heat refuses to die. Ramallah continues to sizzle in the sun. But it is raining in London, and I am on my way in a couple of days. The Fear and Loathing in the Heavens Tour kicks off October 4. I’m looking forward to drizzle, cool temperatures, and a return to the country where I spent nine years of my life. Tales from the verdant, green road coming next month.
Until then, be safe, be sensible,