What's New in Old News?
The official newsletter of the Peripatetic Historian. August 2023, Vol. 3, no. 3.
Welcome to the August issue of What’s New in Old News.
In this Issue:
Peripatetic Field Report: 280 Kilometers on the Camino Portuguese
Book News
Then and Now
Let’s get started…
Peripatetic Field Report: 280 Kilometers on the Camino Portuguese
Whole sardines, the size of small trout, grilled with their heads and entrails still in place. Pimientos de Padron: green, thumb-sized peppers, sauteed in olive oil with a spicy surprise lurking in about five percent of the specimens. Polvo (octopus) tentacles, sauteed in at least one cube of butter. Wine from the Douro Valley, grown on the same stony terraces that produced vintages during the Roman occupation. The formidable Francesinha: a pressed sandwich that layers bread, meat (veal, sausage, chorizo, linguica); the chef melts a block of cheese over the top to seal in all that cholesterol, drowns it in a ladle of beer and tomato sauce, and then, just in case your arteries haven’t completely seized up, slides a fried egg on top of the mountain.
And, oh yes, a 280 km walk from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
It all raised an obvious question: which would kill me first, the hike or the food?
The Camino de Santiago de Compostela is a network of pilgrimage routes that reach their end in Santiago. According to tradition, after the Apostle James was executed in Jerusalem, his disciples shipped his body to Hispania (modern Spain) and buried him on the northwestern Atlantic coast. When ninth century Christian forces required a spiritual champion in their war with the Islamic armies, the apostle’s carefully concealed corpse was miraculously discovered. The tide turned and ultimately the Christians took control of Spain and Portugal.
Although some of the elements of this story seem a bit far-fetched, there is no doubt that by the tenth century the Camino de Santiago had evolved into one of Europe’s most popular and important pilgrimages, rivaled only by the roads to Rome and Jerusalem. It remains popular today with more than 300,000 peregrinos hiking to Santiago every year.
The Camino is not a single path but rather, like a fraying rope, its strands spread across Europe. Peregrinos can begin their hike in England, France, Germany, southern Spain, and even distant Jerusalem. In 2017, Mary and I walked the most popular trail, the Camino de Frances, a 500 mile track across the north of Spain that begins in St. Jean Pied-de-Port, France. Pressed for time this year, we elected to try the Camino Portuguese, which runs north through Portugal. Lasting only two weeks it was not our longest hike, but it was an invigorating change from the stresses of our life in Palestine.
Our route paralleled the Atlantic coast for the first week and we walked on mostly level ground beneath a cooling ocean breeze.
At Caminha we turned inland, crossing into Spain at Tui. The terrain began to roll in Galicia, but it did not rival the mountains we scaled in our walk from France. Too quickly we found ourselves ascending the final hill to the Cathedral in Santiago.
As the world’s foremost peripatetic historian, I enjoy a good, long walk. When I am able to string together a series of days filled with pleasant jaunts, beautiful scenery, and amazing food, my goblet bubbles over. Our two weeks on the road reignited my desire for an even longer trek (Jerusalem to Santiago, anybody?). I’ve temporarily hung my backpack on a closet hook, but I’m looking for my next chance to return to the Way.
Book News
Great news: this section has expanded. Keep reading to find out why.
Comet Madness
Upcoming Events
August 17, 2023, 10:30 a.m. Fear and Loathing in the Heavens: How the 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet Terrified a Nation. The Benton County Historical Society, Corvallis, OR.
A full event calendar may be found on my website’s Media Page.
Recent Podcasts & Interviews
Here are a few interviews that dropped in July. Tune in if you want to learn more about Comet Madness.
Thursday Arts (P)review: Interview with E. J. Iannelli, Spokane Public Radio (KPBX).
History Nerds United: An interview with Brendan Dowd.
History Unplugged: An interview with Scott Rank.
LA Birdmen
I am delighted to announce that my next book, LA Birdmen, will be published by Prometheus/Rowman & Littlefield in July 2024.
LA Birdmen is an exciting addition to the history of early aviation. Skirting the oft-told tale of the Wright brothers, LA Birdmen explores the neglected story of California flyers. In the first decade of the twentieth century, August Greth, John J. Montgomery, Lincoln Beachey, Roy Knabenshue, and Captain Thomas Baldwin were America’s pilots. The Wrights claimed they could fly; the Californians demonstrated it—thrilling millions of spectators.
The impetus and energy of the California fliers coalesced in 1910, when the aviators, a skilled promoter named Dick Ferris, and the city of Los Angeles hosted the International Aviation Meet. It was the first airshow ever held in the United States, an event that established Los Angeles’ importance as a leading center of manned flight and launched the West Coast aviation industry.
When Dreams Outpace Reality
And speaking of early aviation, this month sees the release of a new article in Aviation History magazine, inelegantly titled: Was this Dirigible Builder (a) Stock-Swindling Grifter or a Deluded Visionary?” My original title was “Morrell’s Folly: The Rise and Fall of a California Dream.”
It’s a fun story from 1906 which examines the question of whether San Francisco native John Morrell, who tried to build a colossal 450 foot long dirigible, was a con artist or simply a man well ahead of his time.
Read it here:
Then and Now
Last month in my Then and Now feature I offered two photographs of Amman’s Roman amphitheater, views that were separated by 124 years. The structure was little changed, but in the intervening century and a quarter, a major city sprang up to flank the theater constructed to honor Emperor Antoninus Pius.
This led me to think about cityscapes that might remain unaltered by the passing of a century. Few appear able to resist the lure of modernization and renovation. There is, however, one exception, my favorite place in the world: Venice.
Here is a photo made from near Accademia, looking east toward the church of Santa Maria della Salute. The picture was taken around 1890.
And today:
Like a dog with fleas, the modern rendering has picked up a couple of fiberglass boats, but, apart from the different angle, the view remains strikingly unchanged. Rome is labeled the ‘Eternal City,’ but I do wonder if Venice isn’t more deserving of the title.
I still have a lot of traveling left in this summer, with flights to Washington D. C. and then back to the Middle East. If all goes well, I will be back in Palestine for the September issue.
Until then, be safe, be sensible,