If you think about it, writers are the true Highlanders.

In the past centuries, one profession and group of people are assuredly remembered more than the rest: writers. Mostly because their names are affixed to a piece of literature, poetry, music, history or fiction, it is a name that will live on as long as succeeding generations deem the works “classic”. That being said, what of the man? Surely a writer is embodied with his work but the recent passing of two literary greats has shown us that the writer himself becomes banal, unimportant even, as he completes his cycle on earth.

Penning The Catcher in the Rye in 1951, JD Salinger gave us Holden Caulfield as the very first troubled adolescent soul that spawned the Taxi Drivers, Rebels Without a Cause and much of the past decade in fiction. Both taught and banned in schools worldwide, the book was an instant classic and gave Salinger de facto immortality. The man behind the book however continued to exist for almost sixty years, living the life of an eccentric recluse that rarely spoke in public and almost never released another word he wrote. He died at the age of 91 as a forgotten man yet as an unforgettable author. We cared little for his life and, with the media frenzy over Afghanistan and Haiti showed little interest in his death.

"Are you talking to Holden Caulfield?"

On the very same day, Howard Zinn passed away at the age of 87. Publishing A People’s History of the United States in 1980, Zinn was a left-wing historian that has been called “visionary” by some and “socialist” by others. His ultimate work is still taught in the USA as a different and more populist take on their national history and around the world as a model of the unconventional retelling of history. Zinn continued to live in the public eye after the release of his work. In fact, he was touring talk shows and collaborating with Hollywood stars just last autumn working on another “people’s” History. Despite this continuous devotion to historical dissent and philosophical activism, Zinn passed without much rumbling on news services while historical circles still cry the death of a wonderful writer and/or brilliant adversary.

The imagination of both these men set them apart as some of the greatest lateral thinkers in recent history. Now dead, we are made to wonder if the lives of these writers were as important as their works, and indeed, as their legacies.

Well, only time can tell what, if and how we will remember Howard Zinn and JD Salinger. All we can do for now is to reminisce about the passing of other great writers and how their timely deaths were at times publicised and chagrined and at others trivial and wholly forgettable.

William Shakespeare was definitely notorious and celebrated in his time but the end of his lifelong career has been of little interest to anyone except his biographers. He wrote but a few collaborations in the last decade of his life and died, a shadow of a man, weakened by age. He left a wife and two daughters, both of whom never bore a son. Shakespeare the oeuvre lives on but Shakespeare the man and bloodline were no more by the mid 1600s.

For ultimate cleverness, Shakespeare left his wife his "Second-best bed" in his will.

George Orwell notoriously wrote Animal Farm and Nineteen-eighty-four. Beyond these visionary and incisive pieces of work, Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair) died in 1950 at the relatively young age of 46, crippled by health problems. Famed science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and L Ron Hubbard enjoyed a fair bit of fame before ending their writing careers and retreating to finish their lives in disease and substance abuse. It should be mentioned that Asimov died in 1992 of an HIV infection contracted during a blood transfusion, condemning his family to complete silence about his legacy (until some of the HIV/AIDS taboo was lifted) whereas Hubbard’s works have spawned the Church of Scientology and had made him over half a billion dollars in wealth by the time of his death in 1986.

Finally, there are the writers that left us legendary pieces of literature and accordingly suffered from tortured souls and twisted lives. Dostoyevsky dies penniless and in deep depression due to an intense gambling addiction as late 1800s Russia enjoyed the Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. Mark Twain spiralled into depression as family and friends died around him and as he stubbornly continued to live despite a healthy life-long tobacco and alcohol intake. He finally left us in 1910 at the age of 75. More disturbed still were the writers that left us in their prime. The Hemingways, Plaths, Dickinsons and Woolfs that withered away, imprisoned in their own tortured psyche and whom finally took their own lives. They understood that the public had used them and no longer needed their services. We will continue to read The Old Man and the Sea and Mrs. Dalloway while being completely satisfied in our ignorance of the writer, the man, the woman, the being that may have given it all for us at the price of their own lives and importance as mortals.

The freedom to play anything you want...

1) The New York Times takes a look at the history of Superbowl hype. Meanwhile, the rest of us will watch the commercials online the following day. (Link)

2) The legendary avenue of sphinxes between the temples of Luxor and Karnak is set to be renovated…very carefully we hope. (Link)

3) Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy almost a century ago, has become an iTunes hit. (Link)

4) After forty years in prison, Bruce Davis, member of the Charles Manson cult, has been recommended for parole. Lesson learned? (Link)

5) Last week, tomb raiders were bulldozing through ancient Chinese sites. This week, the tomb of a famous Han Dynasty (c. 206 BC-220 AD) general is found. Connection? The bulldozer, perhaps a new method of excavation? (Link)

6) Danish astronomer and mustache enthusiast Tycho Brahe to be exhumed to finally elucidate his cause of death. (Link)

7) 11th-century British bridges are being preserved by…being dipped in sugar? (Link)

8 ) The BBC analyzes a history of men’s waistbands…a slow news week indeed. (Link)

9) The Adaman Islands of India once boasted thousands of speakers of the Bo language. After 35,000 years of existence, the language has finally died with it’s last speaker. (Link)

10) A History professor from the University of North Carolina compares the current relief plan of Haiti to the Marshall Plan following WW2. In this case however, he scoffs at “rebuilding” a nation that was never built in the first place. (Link)

This Week back in:

- Jan. 30th, 1972: Sunday, bloody Sunday sees the death of 13 Catholic Irishmen whom were shot by British Soldiers. (Link)

- Feb. 2nd, 1887: The first groundhog day was celebrated. We have presumably changed the groundhog a few times since then. (Link)

The lighter Side: Cracked.com’s

- “6 Enlightened Ideas Brought to you by Evil Empires” – Well if the Nazis said don’t do it… (Link)

- “9 Inventions that Prove that Leonardo da Vinci was a Super villain” – I never thought of it that way but he did design blueprints for the helicopter, tank and flying machine… (Link)

End.

Before and After

In China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park stand a multitude of ancient pillars that have been shaped by erosion over countless millennia. One of the most impressive such ‘rock-needles’ was called the Southern Sky Pillar up until last week. It is now called the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain in ‘honour’ of the recent movie. The question must be asked if historical monuments, people and places should remain untouched by man, preserving authenticity, or if, to service popular interest and financial conservation, anything should be done to advertise these institutions of the past.

The 1080-metre Avatar Mountain and it’s surrounding park constituted the very first of China’s National Parks in 1982. It was even granted a World Heritage Site status by the United Nations in 1992. The true majesty of the pillars however has been captured in ancient Chinese art and literature for many centuries. They have not only been home to some of the very first worldly inhabitants 100,000 years ago, but have also been the legendary retreat of gods and heroes. In the end, the Southern Sky Pillar was a testament to geological wonder and a witness to ancient Chinese history. Now, the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain is little more than an interesting tidbit of pop-culture.

Why name this mountain after a movie? There are/may be two very different reasons. Firstly and officially, locals insist that Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and the Southern Sky Pillar in particular were used as the backdrop for most of the recently released Avatar film. The makers of the movie only confirm that they used “many distinct sites on earth as inspiration”. As such, an official ceremony re-baptised the mountain and it will forever be linked to the theatrical release (for now). The second explanation is only a theory but there are big bucks in marketing historical sites. Not only has the mountain been named after the most successful movie in Chinese theatrical history, but it has immediately become the site of many Avatar tours. Indeed, for a few hundred dollars, one can be led on a trek through the breathtaking scenery that allegedly inspired the movie. The tour organisers say “Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near” but I say human history is a lot nearer than fictional pandering.

Pictured: Learning History

That is the gist of it. Hundreds of tourists have already signed up for the tour and will soon be escalating mountains amongst the clouds and dense foliage of the Avatar Mountain. We must wonder if it would be better if the mountain kept its name and would thus remain little known for a few more centuries…

Not exciting enough

The local officials of Hunan Province in China are certainly not the first to hatch a cunning marketing plan such as this. Several years ago and to this day, the Dan Brown “da Vinci Code” has revived interest in the past 2000 years of Western European history. As such, France, England and Scotland of course offer “Da Vinci Code Tours” leading tourists from the terraced forts of Edinburgh, through the glass pyramid of the Louvre in Paris to finally the halls of Westminster Abbey in London. Like the Chinese example, organizers are capitalizing on a pop-culture fad; incidentally however, they are also exposing a much wider range of people to the wondrous (although not magical) artefacts of the past centuries.

Not interesting enough?

Do the ends justify the means? Perhaps it IS better for people to appreciate a timeless painting and a majestic mountain for fictional reasons rather than for human history. As long as these things are remembered, I guess we at least leave the door open for future generations to perhaps rectify why these things are important.

End.

No more Beaver for Canada (2)

1) A lady coughs, trips and falls. Oh yeah, she was also at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and ripped a priceless Picasso painting. (Link)

2) 90-year-old history magazine in Canada, “The Beaver”, will change its name to evade porn filters online. (Link)

3) Macchu Picchu, the historical Incan site, is breathtaking. Tourists this week saw it otherwise as torrential rain trapped them there until an airlift was possible. (Link)

4) Viking shipwreck found off the coast of Scotland seems to have been sunk by burrowing water worms… I’m staying away from Scotland. (Link)

5) The man that shot Pope John Paul II decades ago is let out of prison. It was revealed that his holiness forgave the shooter as he was being wheeled to the hospital. (Link)

6) A ‘colourful’ historian decides to sell off some of his personal collection. He made over $ 5 million selling what turns out to be unique pieces of American history. (Link)

7) Auschwitz got it’s stolen sign back and throws a festive party to celebrate…Holocaust day. (Link)

8 ) Nazi descendants are going as far as voluntary sterilization to “not pass on the blood of a monster”. (Link)

9) Amateur archaeologists may have found a Roman aqueduct inaugurated by Emperor Trajan 1900 years ago…I remain skeptical. (Link)

10) The elusive Minoan culture of Crete 5000 years ago has left some tools that tell us…that there was a Minoan culture in Crete 5000 years ago. (Link)

11) UPDATE: Hated and loved, world famous left-wing historian Howard Zinn passed away at the age of 87. (Link)

This week back in:

- 1967: Little remembered Apollo 1 ran a test in which three astronauts burned to death. That day, we learned that Velcro, in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, is extremely flammable. (Link)

- 1998: Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber pleads guilty and is sentenced to life in prison for mailing letter-bombs for twenty years without getting caught. He just may have been bragging. (Link)

The lighter side: Cracked.com’s…

- “7 Mind-Blowing Easter Eggs Hidden in Famous Works of Art” – Michelangelo is still smirking in his grave. (Link)

- “6 Rulers Who Abused Their Power in Hilariously Insane Ways” – I think the peasants won’t beg to differ on the use of the term ‘hilarious’. (Link)

End.

Tiger Woods and Edward VIII, they just want to do their thing.

For two months now, golf superstar Tiger Woods has had to contend with a media whirlwind surrounding his alleged multiples infidelities and possible spousal abuse by his wife. These highly personal problems are probably difficult enough to deal with without the constant hounding of paparazzi and continuous coverage by a media world that seems stuck in a perpetual ‘slow news day’. That being said, no one could tell the media and the celebrity-idolizing populations of the world to ‘mind their own business’ simply because that is exactly what they are doing. It has been revealed that, beginning with Mr. Woods troubles and compounded by both his hiatus from professional golf and by the withdrawal of several of his important sponsors, the Tiger Woods Affair has officially cost the American economy over $12 billion dollars.

The alleged sleeping around and battering of the highly public figure have indeed become the problem of every American; and by extension, it has become the problem of everyone on earth. With only thirteen years of professional sport under his belt, Tiger Woods has become one of the most legendary golf and dare I say sports stars of all time. It is understandable that he must deal with the unwanted attention that comes as a side-effect of wealth and power. This, however, is something public figures do not understand and indeed refuse to accept. Such is the case now with an athlete that may cause the need for other governmental bailout and such was the case in 1930s England.

'Tiger Woods' is the new 'Sub-prime mortgage'

The Reluctant King

George V was King of England from 1910 to 1936 and like all good things, his reign came to an abrupt end in 1936 (due to lung disease). His successor would of course be his eldest son (King Edward VIII), a man whom, we assume, had all the time in the world to prepare for this day and the incredible burdens and responsibilities that came with it. People envied his position of power and everyone saw the new monarch as one the most important and influential men in the world, that is, everyone but Edward.

On the 20^th of January 1936, Edward became King of the United Kingdom and of the British Dominions as well as Emperor of India, a hefty title indeed. He was immediately an able administrator and a dignified head of state although his public persona remained wanting. Unwilling to sacrifice personal ambition and whims, Edward was never very intimate with the media of the time and indeed took decisions that pushed newspapers into the realm of destructive gossip and wild speculation. He was declared “pro-Nazi’, secretly at first and eventually, it was shouted from the rooftops. Edward seemingly did not care what his people thought of him and didn’t even care to refute the accusation. Furthermore, he continued his preoccupation with exclusively personal affairs so far as to propose marriage to a woman named Wallis Simpson. This woman had been unknown to the public yet would become Queen of England. As if the English (and everyone under British dominion) weren’t irked enough, Mrs. Simpsons was not only divorced (twice) but was also an American! The British Prime Minister (Baldwin) simply refused and condoned the marriage, a union unfit of such an important public figure.

The marriage lasted until Edward's death, 35 years later.

What happened next was unassumingly as selfish as Tiger Woods retreating from public life and making the economy nosedive a little more…King Edward VIII abdicated as Crown of England. After 10 months on the most important and far-reaching throne on earth, he stepped down in order to be with Mrs. Simpson and in order to live in peace. A part of us may think he is a human being with a full right to happiness; in December 1936 however, the British peoples did not see it this way. The following days, months and years after saw an intense constitutional crisis that very nearly abolished British monarchy (a 1000 year-old institution) altogether. The people eventually got through it, but it is amazing to see the decision of one (very public) man could plunge millions of people so deep into national dilemma.

In conclusion, Tiger Woods, much like King Edward VIII, must always think of the larger ramifications of his actions. By signing that first million dollar contract, there is an invisible clause that condemns all singers, actors, sports stars, politicians, etc. to a life of constant scrutiny along with an unfaltering responsibility to live in a way that is least harmful to society. That being said, I reiterate my statement that these public figures rarely understand this responsibility and, as we have seen, seldom accept its inevitability.

Now following therapy for sexual rehabilitation, Tiger will try to 'dig' himself out of it.

End.

One of these is a Saint of the Catholic Church... (2)

New feature – a top 10 of History news and oddities from around the web will be posted every Thursday. Enjoy and tell us what you think.

1) 15 by 60 metres, Egypt has announced that they have found and excavated a massive temple to the cat goddess Bastet in the ancient city of Alexandria. Largely intact, the structure seemingly has nine lives (pun intended, deal with it). (Link)

2) The ‘relics’ or bones of Joan of Ark that have been stored in a French holy place for centuries have turned out to largely be…those of a cat. (Link)

3) He’s been made a saint of archaeology and of strenuous scientific conservationism but a new story supposes that Howard Carter may have stolen from the tomb of Tutankhamun. (Link)

4) The Nazis stole the Amber panels from Moscow’s Hermitage museum 70 years ago. The priceless artifacts may soon be discovered or else we will all be very angry with one particular journalist claiming he found them. (Link)

5) Winston Churchill put out a cigar butt in August of 1941. In case this really interests you, there is a story attached to it. In case you are completely hellbent on the subject, you can actually buy the tobacco stump for $500. (Link)

6) Millennia of revolution and war have devastated the giant Buddha statues carved out of Chinese rock faces. Beijing now tries to preserve one of the last remaining ones. (Link)

7) Pope Pius XII let Hitler and Mussolini round up Jews in Rome…but helped thousands of them escape. Pope Pius XII tried to remain neutral and protect his Church…but helped fascist criminals such as Ante Pavelic escape. The debate on the canonization or demonization of Pope Pius XII may never be over. (Link)

8 ) Florence Green of the UK, 108 years of age, turns out to be one of the First World War’s only remaining veterans, having fought for the women’s Royal Air Force. (Link)

9) 1700-year-old bronze mirrors have been found in Japan. Perhaps the Japanese have been practicing in front of the mirror all this time…to come up with game shows that freaks the bejesus out of us. (Link)

10) After a long stay in the loony bin of public revile, Mel Gibson is set to make a Viking Epic… that presumably isn’t a sequel to Braveheart. (Link)

THIS WEEK IN :

1778: Captain Cook discovered the Hawaii Islands. Well, there were already people there but they didn’t wear pants or have a flag so Cook came to the conclusion that their land now belonged to the British Crown. (Link)

1920: Prohibition begins in America and also coincidentally begins the wealth and proliferation of organized crime. (Link)

THE LIGHTER SIDE: Cracked.com brings us -

- “The 7 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts” – Cause it ain’t quality media if you’re not reducing your public to quivering masses of fear, confusion and perhaps a soupcon of urine. (Link)

- “The 6 Most Baffling Nobel Prizes Ever Awarded” – And people though President Obama’s award was strange. (Link)

End.

Stating “The majority of the world’s countries have chosen to abolish the death penalty. We should follow this path”, Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj has refused to sign any further orders to execute the country’s inmates. He is in full constitutional right to impose a moratorium on the measure but it will be up to the parliament in Ulaan Bator to pass a complete ban on capital punishment or rather to continue offering the punishment for their most serious crimes. This will bring us to 96 countries that have abolished the penalty, excluding of course the four most populous nations on earth: Indonesia, the United States, India and China.

As we cross over into a new decade, we must review the historical reasons why most of the planet still had the legal execution of its most incurable criminals but a short century ago and if the measure is still relevant, desirable and affordable in the world of today. But first, you may denote a clear bias on my part as a pro-abolitionist of the death penalty but I should say that this view has not impeded an impartial research on my part. Indeed, I have always been against the death penalty not on the grounds that it is barbaric or useless but on the more practical grounds that it is decided and applied by humans, flawed, error-prone and imperfect humans. And finally, this is not a discussion of ethics. I believe in democracy above all else and, indeed, four separate international polls in the last five years have confirmed that approximately 55% of those consulted were for the death penalty, so there’s that.

Historically, trivially administered death penalties were the norm in the monarchies and empires of Antiquity. The very first “Code” at least establishing impartial criteria for such a penalty was the law edict of King Hammurabi of Babylon around 1790 BC. A few short centuries later, the Bible’s first five Books (Torah or Pentateuch) also seemed to support the legal execution of criminals with the famed “Eye for an eye” doctrine.

Further along, the logic that an infallible and ultimately impartial human even existed began to be questioned. Already in the Bible’s New Testament, Jesus reversed the “Eye for an eye” and instead, gave us the equally known “Turn the other cheek”. Later in medieval times, the Thousand and one Nights voiced an opposition to the death penalty, Tang Dynasty China outlawed the punishment and XIIth-century lawyer Moses Maimonides said “It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent man to death”. That being said, The Muslim World maintained an important amount of criminal executions (much like today), China reinstated the measure after 15 years (759 AD) and, as we’ve seen earlier, a majority of national populations continued to support the legal killing of accused suspects.

It was only in the XIXth century, with the birth of the Nation, the spread of democracy and the slow dusk of world empires that support for capital punishment began to wane. The State of Michigan did away with it in 1849 but to this day, only 15 of the 50 States have done so. Similarly, regional abolition of capital punishment was as far as it went for a long time. Finally in the XXth century, decolonization, global mediatization and the advent of new forensic and investigative technologies have convinced most countries to opt out of the execution measure. In fact, the United Nations now encourage abolition and the European Union has it as a requirement for joining the organization. Mongolia is simply the most recent in a long line of nations crossing over to the realization that condemning a man to death and carrying out the execution in a democratic state is indeed putting the gun/button/switch in the hands of every elector which that government represents. Not everyone may be comfortable with the prospect of one day irrefutably executing an innocent man by accident.

President Elbegdorj said that “The road a democratic Mongolia has to take ought to be clean and bloodless” and has suggested that all men on death row should simply have their sentence commuted to a 30-year prison stay (rather than the common Mongolian method of execution: a bullet to the back of the head). Many have applauded the initiative but this decision actually evokes quite a historical irony. The land of Genghis Khan and of the Mongolian Hordes has now chosen to do away with the death penalty as something that is backwards, dangerous and simply not what a modern country can afford to do in the XXIst century. There are some more “developed”, industrialized and democratically seasoned nations that should take note and reflect.

End.