Intervene in Syria?

I have been following Joshua Landis at Syria Comment since before the Civil War broke out in Syria, and I found him to be a sensible guide. Here is what he says n...

How the combat worked at the Red Knight's Deed

Some of you will be interested in this. Almost all the weapons, pole axes and spears apart, were steel weapons, rebated in some cases. There were two types of combat: unarmored and armored. In unarmored combat, the fighters wore armor on heads necks hands and lower arms and generally some type of gambeson or pourpoint on the body. The vast majority of the pieces were in medieval...

Red letter day

Starbucks in North Bay....

Deed of the red knight

As many readers know, I have been participating in the Society for Creative Anachronism for decades. One of the things I have done in that time is designed and run medieval – style tournaments. So my scholarly work on formal combats ( deeds of arms) has been paralleled with attempts...

Boucicaut the younger, another medieval nut case

Boucicaut the younger, as readers of my book Deeds of Arms know, was one of the most prominent fighters of formal combats in the late 14th century. He was, for instance, one of the three French champions at St. Inglevert. His performance as a bold champion raised his profile to the point that he was made a marshal of France, a high command position, by the age of 25. Some people...

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes "How I met your your mother"

An excerpt from the Atlantic:But mostly I am thinking of you. I want to tell you that I have fallen for Paris. I think you know. I think you know because I am stupid and I am cliché. A serious man should should fall for some village in Moldova, for brandies made from magic apples, or ham taken from a rare and endangered hogs. A serious man should claim to have discovered Nashville,...

Canada as bad example

Australia is in the midst of an election where climate change is one of the biggest issues. Climate change is hitting Australia hard now. Guess what country embodies the fears of many political observers? One of Connor’s biggest fears is that the country emerges from all this political upheaval looking something like Canada has under the anti-environmental government of Conservative...

My new e-book, Formal Combats in the 14th Century

My first e-book is now available through Amazon and soon through Barnes & Noble. It is called Formal Combats in the Fourteenth Century and consists of three chapters adapted from public presentations I gave over the last 10 or 12 years. If you have already read the book Deeds of Arms you may not need this book, though I think there is enough original material in it that you...

Bad times in Big Egypt -- Arabist.net

Short and not at all sweet: August 14 in Egypt in numbers Ursula Lindsey Dead (according to Ministry of Health, and still counting): 525 Wounded: 3,500 Churches, monasteries, Christians schools and libraries attacked (Source) : 56 Days that Mohamed ElBaradei lasted as a civilian figure-head of the army-run "second revolution" before resigning in protest: 28 Other resignations:...

Another amazing but unknown -- to me -- piece of Canadian monumenal architecture

The Brooks Aqueduct in Alberta. Saw it this morning on a spot on an Alberta TV station. Its size is quite understated by this still pho...

What was the point of the Combat of the Thirty (1351)?

At this year's Pennsic war, as for several preceding this one, there was a reenactment of the combat of the  thirty, which took place in Brittany in the year 1351 during the first phase of the Hundred Years War.As every time before, the sides were not even. Despite a big discrepancy in numbers, the sides are not evened up. The combatants chose to stay with the signs they had...

I had no idea

The Saguenay River, Quebec:I was reading about it, and decided to look it up...

Why the Middle Ages Are Important

This talk, prepared for a exhibit opening at North Bay's museum, was never delivered as written; I gave a much more informal presentation that involved talking about items and displays in the collection.  I just now stumbled across this script and I like it. May 24, 2008@Discovery North Bay, opening of"Once upon a time..."I would like to thank @Discovery North Bay for...