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tidbits cross time
Oct. 17th, 2012 08:33 pmEdmund Burke, in his speech on conciliation with America, alluded to the way they had revoked "the ancient government of Massachusetts". Ain't semantic drift grand.
The pentacle was, until the 19th century, a magical thing to ward off evil spirits. Only at that time did someone devise the notion of using it to summon them.
The Battle of Lepanto is known in Ottoman histories as Singim -- the Rout. Nevertheless, the Sultan asked whether they could replace the fleet and was assured they could do so and supply the new ships with silver anchors, silken rigging, and satin sails, which was not that much of hyperbole.
Pliny wrote to the emperor Trajan that the Christians had one good effect: all sorts of people, knowing they could be suspected of Christianity, thronged to the temples, rites were being resumed, and people actually bought sacrificial animals.
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The pentacle was, until the 19th century, a magical thing to ward off evil spirits. Only at that time did someone devise the notion of using it to summon them.
The Battle of Lepanto is known in Ottoman histories as Singim -- the Rout. Nevertheless, the Sultan asked whether they could replace the fleet and was assured they could do so and supply the new ships with silver anchors, silken rigging, and satin sails, which was not that much of hyperbole.
Pliny wrote to the emperor Trajan that the Christians had one good effect: all sorts of people, knowing they could be suspected of Christianity, thronged to the temples, rites were being resumed, and people actually bought sacrificial animals.
( Read more... )