570th Anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople

This year - and indeed today - is the 570th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople. May 29, 1453, also marks one of the rare times when we can pinpoint an exact date of the events of one of John Bellairs's novels - namely, The Trolley to Yesterday (1989).

Bombing Around with Cats

The bombing with cats is a difficult matter
As the history of warfare is blurry
First strap on firepower and light with a spatter
And hope toward your foes will it scurry.

My apologies.  But two things came to mind reading this recent article entitled "Cat Bombs More Prevalent Than Previously Thought": the image looks like a spacey sci-fi cartoon from the 1980s (even though it's centuries old), and this is one of the dumber ideas our species has had.

But wait.  They did it with birds, too.

The Supersizing of the Last Supper

Knowing that Leonardo da Vinci's 15th century painting The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time, I'm sort of surprised Bellairs's didn't find a way to spoof it somewhere in Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies.

Anyway - when an academic study decided to show proof of food portions increasing over time, how far back did they go? How about all the way back to the Last Supper, as this March 23 Reuters article noted:

Time Capsule: 1453

May 29, 1453 - Bust out your copy of The Trolley to Yesterday and read along as the Byzantines and their city of Constantinople fall to the Ottoman Turks - 553 years ago today!