Friday Night Miscellany

Hola Darlings. It's hot as hell and I have no choice but to continue to take it - unless I move, which I'm not planning on doing until I reach retirement age. Sigh. It's Friday night and I'm feeling alright other than a mild case of heat stroke; School of Rock is on and it's tres funny - love the manic character of Jack Black. Here's a selection of this and that. First up, Frank “Boy” Pestaño's column about King Kirzan and his abduction by aliens years ago. Eight year old C H Meghna models herself after India's GM Koneru Humpy... Gee - an integrated, comprehensive and cross-disciplinary approach and interpretation of archaeological finds yields - A NEW CONSENSUS on development of civilization in the Middle East? Well, DUH! One note - Jiroft IS located on a river - the Halilrood in Iran (Lawler didn't pick that up for some reason???) - and so the model of civilizations developing around rivers/alluvial plains still holds... Lately, I've become fascinated with "Marian" apparitions. I am about to tread on some religious sensibilities here so, if you are susceptible, please DISCONTINUE READING NOW! This ties into some research I've been doing off and on for years - about sacred spaces/sacred places. In many of these ancient "places of power" (for lack of a better descriptive term), apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been seen. But, as places of power are invariably ancient, predating christianity, I believe that in those ancient places (such as Lourdes) where the "Virgin Mary" has been seen, it is actually a manifestation of an older mother goddess tradition that is "filtered" through the eyes of Christians who have seen these visions and - thus - they say it's the Virgin Mary. I know, darlings, you think I'm full of baloney sausage but you'll humor me anyway :) I would like to point out this interesting "coincidence." The ancient Egyptian goddess, Isis (Aset), sometimes wore a star-spangled cloak or cape in some of her depictions. Isis (Aset) predates the Christian Virgin Mary by 3500 years, give or take a few years. The Virgin Mary, in her manifestation at Pontmain in 1871 for instance, also wore a star-spangled cloak. Hmmm, methinks that the Goddess doesn't change over time, but our perceptions do... Dylan McLain writes about chess in the movies at the New York Times. Enjoy -