“All unperfect and incorrect”: Tracy Borman on the discovery of an Elizabethan gem: interesting for what it tells us about early modern writing practices as well as Elizabeth herself. Elizabeth’s handwriting is only evident in corrections, as most of the translation was transcribed by someone else.But don’t take my word for it – the digitized version is already available.
The Year in Aliens: TL;DR: apart from that silliness at Area 51 in September the 2017 NYT UFO article has been vindicated… in part. Note that no one’s making a hard and fast claim that what the Navy pilots saw are extraterrestrials. But the fact that they’re acknowledging them as something to be taken seriously is still noteworthy.
The Silent Twins: Part 1, Part 2: When I first encountered the story of the Gibbons sisters in a BBC dramatization it was so strange I thought it had to be fiction. This 2 part podcast goes deep into this disturbing case of folie a deux. Tangential: they were aspiring authors and copies of June’s vanity-published “Pepsi Cola Addict” are still in (extremely limited) circulation.
Mysterious Phantom Photographed on Ghost Tour in Baltimore, Maryland: a month late, but local (to me) so still relevant. It’s a damn shame I’ve never gone on any of the local ghost tours – these tend to be something I do on vacation, not at home. Perhaps I should rethink that in the new year.