Friday Night Feast: Sangria

“We’ve just got back from Spain” To those growing up as a child in 1960s London, especially in poorer working class districts, those words rang with magical prestige. Few of us had even been on an aeroplane, let alone to somewhere as warm, as sunnily sandy, and as downright distant as Spain. If you were lucky enough to have a holiday at all it would be a week in a Victorian boarding house in some windswept grey town like Blackpool or Bognor Regis. But these lucky people brought back tales of modern hotels with receptions, swimming pools ,and bars, just like the ones in James Bond films. And the artefacts! Curious little black bulls in hollow plastic. Dolls in exotic flamenco costumes, arms frozen in some eternal paso doble. And funny china jars with a picture of Minorca on them, drinking cups to match. Which, they proudly informed us, were all for the drinking of Sangria. A taste for it was born; and we think it still remains one of the best parts of an Iberian holiday today (you can get it in Portugal too)

The aim is to make it with lots of ice, so that beads of dew form on the outside and trickle down in the hot Spanish night to the sounds of a flamenco guitar(these days it’s more likely to be Rosalia or Aitana; but no somos nadie as they say in that country) After all the ice, there as many variations on the theme as there are bars in Benidorm. This BBC recipe produces an out come as good as any which we have tried down the years. [1] 3 parts of a good full red wine such as one from the Duero or Rioja, one part of orange juice and two of lemonade will get you over the line. After which you can add the sorts of fruits you want, though it being Spain and all that, oranges and lemons seem almost statutory. A little twiglet of mint will give the whole things a most Pimms like ambience, and the scaling up possibilities for two to fifty drinkers are manifest.

The word sangria of course comes from the Spanish word sangre, or blood, as anyone who has holidayed in somewhere like Magaluf or Torremolinos will recognise at once: a reference to the deep red colour of the wine. There are records of something like it in eighteenth century Spain and Portugal. Though the Romans had been experimenting with similar wine punches long before. Don’t accept ones made with rose or white. they are poor imitations , avoided by locals and experienced costa hands alike And so, even though the nights are drawing in we raise a metaphorical copa of the stuff to you all gentle readers, and hope it evokes memories of happy sunny holidays. Thanks again for all your comments, ideas and other general feedback.

[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sangria_93847

#Spain #Portugal #sangria #wine #holiday #costa

How climate change drives the return of deadly diseases

We never thought we’d see it. But Malaria is making a comeback in the British Isles [1] According to the latest findings from the UK Health Security Agency(UKHSA) cases rose by a whopping 32% from 2022 to 2023 making them the highest in 20 years. More than 2000 cases in fact. Now some of this is due no doubt to travel bounce backs after the COVID 19 pandemic. But once put into a broader context. the real pattern becomes both clear and alarming. Global warming is driving a massive spread of insect vector diseases. Dangerous diseases that almost seemed under control until the oil companies unleashed climate change on an innocent world

Staying with Britain just for now, William Hunter of the Mail [2] reports on the appearance of two deadly mosquitoes in the UK: the Egyptian mosquito Aedes aegypti and the appropriately named Tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus. For now these are isolated events, and under current conditions their spread may even be containable. But every year the climate gets a little warmer. Every year brings a higher chance that these vectors will spread their deadly triple load: Dengue Fever, Chikungunya and Zika. With all the consequences which wel- seasoned readers of this blog will recall from our earlier outings on this theme (see LSS 25 3 25, 25 10 21 and many others)

We confess to becoming a little angry when we we write stories like this: such disasters could have been so avoidable. Once, not so long ago these diseases were unknown in this islands except as travellers’ tales, or as the province of medical specialists. Now a wave is crossing the world. We know what the remedy is. If by any chance you are a parent reading these lines: this story is one more line of evidence among many. Your children can never be truly safe until global warming is finally controlled and reversed.

[1]https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/21/how-we-protect-the-uk-from-vector-borne-diseases/

[2]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15151429/tropical-diseases-britain-mosquitoes-dengue-fever.html

[3]https://wellcome.org/news/how-climate-change-affects-vector-borne-diseases

#disease #malaria #dengue fever #climate change #g;obal warming #health

The Best time to be alive: The University of Paris in the Middle Ages

Paris. Everyone knows what that word means, even though most people have never been there. Style. Sophistication. Fashion. Learning. Power. Money. A place to be, a box that must be ticked. How did one more city in northern Europe get ahead of all its peers? What is the secret of Brand Paris?

We think the answer lies in the foundation of the University of Paris. Starting as an adjunct to the Cathedral school before 1100, it gradually expanded into a powerhouse of teaching which began to attract the best minds from all over the world. It drew the patronage of magnates such as King Phillipe Augustus and Pope Innocent 111, who recognised the value of cultural capital and soft power. While the roll call of alumni from the earliest time to the present includes such names as Peter Abelard, St Francis Xavier, John Calvin, Marie Curie, Louis de Broglie, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Simone de Beauvoir and Yann Le Cun. This was where it was at, to coin a phrase: and the network of hotels cafes, art studios, bookshops and spin-off enterprises simply grew around in a multiplying effect that would gladden the heart of any fan of Keynesian economics. (For the curious the Sorbonne started as one college of the University, but expanded so much that its name became metanymic for the whole thing)

It was one of the earliest Universities in Europe, and even today its successor institutions remain among the best. But if you had been a student there, perhaps of Abelard, you would have known yourself at the start of something big, new and world changing, that was going to last the ages. But let’s close when our own original thought When they set it up, the costs must have seemed rather large, the incomings rather small. No doubt the same argument was advanced against the Pyramids in Egypt or the monuments in Rome. But they have paid for themselves over and over again in tourist revenue alone ever since. As its greatest alumnus of all, St Thomas Aquinas said

“Sicut enim maius est illuminare quam lucere solum, ita maius est contemplata aliis tradere quam solum contemplari.”

“Just as it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so it is better to pass on what one has contemplated than merely to contemplate.”

And we agree.

#france #middle ages #university of paris# #sorbonne #philosophy #learning

Heroes of Learning: Alexandra David-Neel

Today we celebrate the life, travels and accomplishments of Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969) who died tragically young, one month short of her 101st birthday. Yet in that time managed to pack in as varied a CV as anyone ever has. Explorer, feminist, writer, mystic, opera singer, anarchist and first westerner to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa. [1]

Her exposure to the world started early when her father took her to visit the memorial to the recently executed Communards in1871. Whether this troubled her we cannot say. But her teenage years were certainly feisty. By the age of 18 she had clocked up travels to England Switzerland and Spain, on the way encountering controversial characters like Madame Blavatsky and getting herself enrolled in the 30th degree of Scottish Freemasonry.By 1899 she had written her first books and converted to Buddhism. But it was only as the curtains lifted on the twentieth century that she really got going. The next 46 years read like a whirlwind of adventure which would leave Indiana Jones green with envy. She got out East by becoming a successful opera singer in what was then called Indo China. After that her perambulations included vast stretches of India, Sikkim(where she lived as an anchorite in a cave) China, Mongolia, Tibet (hence the Lhasa episode), interspersed with marriage and a peaceful interludes in Digne-les-Bains in Provence.

It was here she finally retired for last decades of her life, . as the burden of her exertions caught up with her. It is interesting to recall that this quintessential nineteenth century explorer actually died after Neil Armstrong had placed his famous first step on the Moon. But we guess that she must have approved. We hope our links will tell you more about this energetic, learned and above all courageous woman. A beacon of learning indeed in dark times.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_David-N%C3%A9el

[2]https://avauntmagazine.com/alexandra-david-neel

#tibet #buddhism #lhasa #dalai lama #provence #china #sikkim #neil armstrong

The Best time to have been alive #4: Al-Andalus

Des kand meu Cidello venid/ton bona al-bishaara /com ray de shol yeshed/fi waad al-hiraaara*

When my Lord Cidello comes, what good news! He shines like a ray of sun on Guadalajara

When someone suggested we tackle Muslim Cordoba at its peak (roughly, the Emirate and Caliphate, 750 -1031 AD in the western calendar), we were unprepared for the cornucopia of historical riches that awaited. But, as both frequent holidaymakers in the Iberian peninsula, and speaking a smattering of Spanish at least, here goes anyway.

The story starts with Abd al-Rahman I, the “Falcon ” who fled a purge in Baghdad and founded the Emirate of Córdoba in 756. His survival story—crossing the Euphrates, losing his brother, and arriving in al-Andalus as a lone prince—is cinematic. He united fractious Muslim territories and laid the groundwork for a multicultural society. Córdoba became a haven for Muslims, Christians, and Jews, with Arabic, Berber, Romance, and Hebrew spoken in its markets and courts. The Great Mosque (Mezquita), begun under his reign, symbolized this fusion—its horseshoe arches and layered aesthetics echoing both Damascus and Iberia

Under Abd al-Rahman III, who declared the Caliphate in 929, Córdoba reached its zenith. The city boasted paved streets, public baths, and over 400,000 catalogued books in al-Hakam II’s library. Irrigation systems turned Andalusian soil into a breadbasket, exporting silk from Toledo, leather from Córdoba, and steel from Damascus- Scholars like Ibn Masarra and later Ibn Hazm flourished, while Jewish thinkers such as Hasdai ibn Shaprut advised the Caliph and translated medical texts. The court at Madinat al-Zahra shimmered with diplomatic prestige, hosting envoys from Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire.

But all golden ages come to end. After the fall of the last strongman, Al Manzor, the Caliphate quickly declined into petty little kingdoms called taifas, each jealously guarding its privileges and rights. Easy prey indeed for the larger Christian states to the north. Yet the legacy of convivencia—coexistence—echoed through European Renaissance thought. Andalusia wasn’t just a place, but a possibility. A cultural experiment in coexistence, beauty, and intellectual ferment[2] which makes it a contender for one of history’s “best times to be alive.”

[1] Al-Andalus – Wikipedia

[2] The Ornament Of The World by Maria Rosa Menocal | Waterstones

*Yehuda Halevi celebrating Yosef ibn Ferrusiel in a kharja ending a muwashshah c 1100 AD

* Kharja attached to a muwashshah attributed to Yehuda Halevi c 1095 AD

#al-Andalus #islaam #abd-al-rahman #Cordoba #Caliphate #Emirate #Spain #Portugal #Arabic

Best Time to be alive: California 1960-1980

California dreaming. A tumultuous, fractal, sub-infinite series of images. Deep green forests and rugged mountains. Sun-drenched coasts with surfers riding unfeasibly large waves. Burning deserts and fertile valleys. Vast sprawling townscapes scattered with deep blue pools linked suburb to suburb by enormous, mustang-filled freeways. UCLA. Berkeley. All those funny people camped out in VWs around Mt Shasta. La Jolla and the Scripps Institute, Everything the good life could be, democratically arrived at, and mass produced for ordinary people. Which made this State, in the peak years 1960-1980 the cultural and social centre of the world. Our hope, our dream, our shimmering light.

It was defence that caused California to boom as the USA began its long tilt towards the Pacific after 1945. The US Government’s act of undeclared Keynesianism funded Cold War icons such as Lockheed (Burbank) North American (Inglewood) McDonnell Douglas(Santa Monica, Long Beach), Hughes(Culver City) and Northrop (Hawthorne). As the money flowed through these companies and out the other side, it funded not only the great learning institutions, but also one of the most comfortable and agreeable lifestyles that had ever been known. Everyone, potentially, was in, although if you were black or Hispanic, your share of the pot was going to be much, much smaller. Hollywood, to its credit, was self-funding. But its endless output of iconic films and TV shows afforded the USA a soft power capability that was equal to at least ten carrier battle groups. All of this in turn grew the next generation of industry: Information, games and now AI. For this was a culture built not on oil, or gold or military power, but in the last resort on brains. In places, it still is.

You will by now, gentle reader, have intuited your own huge list of favourite films, TV shows, books popular musical singers, foods and brands which are your California. Yet it is poets who see most clearly, capturing the distilled essence of time and place most of all when they set their thoughts to music. Those poets were Eagles Don Henley and Glenn Frey, whose songs such as Tequila Sunrise, Hotel California, The Last Resort and others managed to capture the crazy contradictory kaleidoscope of hopes, dreams, indulgences and despairs in a land and place at the leading edge of our species’ experience. Perhaps the shimmering light it is now growing dim. . But for us the word “California” carries the hope that somewhere out there still lies the possibility of a prosperous, future.

#california #cold war #JM Keynes # The Eagles #Los Angeles #hollywood

Friday Night: Madeira Wine

When we sat down to prepare this week’s Friday article, one of our researchers suggested” why don’t you do Madeira wine?” Which created rather a problem: How can we praise Madeira wines without sounding like one of those articles you find among the pages of in-flight magazines or tourist guides, which seem increasingly to have been written by something other than a human intelligence?

Our first decision was let the experts do the heavy lifting. on subjects such as heritage, production, availability and so on. We have posted two links here, one to the Wine Society[1] and a second to the indefatigable Blandys [2], more of whom below. There are actually many types of wine produced on this famous subtropical island: But the sort everyone talks about, the eponymous Madeira is a fortified wine which comes in four types Sercial, Verdelho, Boal and Malvasia. And the angle we want to take is history, not of the wine which our links cover, but of our own first experience of it when we visited the Madeira wine lodge, still run by the Blandy family in Funchal, 34 long years ago

We will not detain you long with the excellence of the place, the helpfulness of the guides nor the dark wood beams and casks, the rich aroma of grape, all of which are the same today. Rather it was our arrival, post tour, at the tasting session, where we learned that not only does the wine come in four types(see above) but that each type was produced by one of four traditional families: Blandy’s , Cossart Gordon, Miles and Leacock. A truly scientific tasting would therefore require an array of 16 (4×4) glasses, as any expert in the mathematics of set theory could quickly tell you. What we had not realised was the potential wallop carried by even a small glass of the stuff. With the result that our tasting rapidly descended into a blur of ill-remembered labels, mixed tastes, and a growing feeling of confused tiredness inconducive to sustained intellectual effort. Eventually our companion was forced to take us to recover in a nearby park with some friendly swans upon its lake. Which kept us pretty well occupied until her return from some serious shopping.

And the moral is? Blandy’s Wine Lodge is a first rate tourist spot, which you must visit if you are ever on the island. Madeira wine is delicious, but strong. We have visited the lodge often on our subsequent six voyages to the island. But now a single glass, often the the slightly sweet Bual, is more than enough to content us. . But we steadfastly urge you to try one too.

[1]https://www.thewinesociety.com/discover/explore/regional-guides/madeira-ultimate-guide

[2] https://blandys.com/en/about-madeira-wine/?doing_wp_cron=1755271440.1276309490203857421875

#Madeira #Blandys #tourism #wine #holiday

The best time to be alive: Candidate #1 Tang Dynasty China

Imagine you lived in the greatest city in the world. Its streets are bustling with merchants who buy and sell goods from every known country, and many more that lie beyond the limits of knowledge. Such was Chang’an, (now Xi’an) capital and chief entrepot of China’s Tang dynasty (618-903 CE)[1][ With nearly a million residents and over 100 ethnic communities, it was more Babel than Beijing. Zoroastrian fire temples stood beside Buddhist pagodas and Nestorian churches; street food fused Middle Eastern spices with Chinese noodles. Foreign diplomats rubbed shoulders with camel-driving traders from Samarkand. The city was so tolerant and worldly that speaking Turkic or Persian on the street raised no eyebrows. Poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu flourished , as did artists such as Han Gan and Zhang Yuan. There were far reaching technological advances such as wood block printing and all presided over by relatively benign Emperors backed by a professional and highly educated Civil Service.

We’ve picked the Tang because it illustrates the essential doctrines of the great Professor RH Davis who knew that it was trade that made cities, and cities which make humans civilised. He was writing about Europe. Yet Chang’an under the Tang was one example of what humans can achieve when they try. No wonder the modern Chinese feel they need take no lessons from westerners in how to run a civilisation. The Silk Road was essentially a Chinese invention. It was, and maybe still is, the greatest trading system in the world.

It all ended in tears of course, as did many of the other examples we shall consider in this series. The Lushan rebellion of 755-763 inflicted economic and human wounds so deep that the dynasty never fully recovered. And obviously there have been many advances in technical knowledge and in things like medicine, since the Tang fell. But if you wanted to give an example of when the ordinary Joe, people like you and me, could step from their house and feel a glad confident good morning, Tang China is a very good place to start.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_dynasty

[2] RHC Davis: A History of Medieval Europe from Constantine to St Louis 2nd edition Longman 1988

#china #Tang dynasty #trade #silk road #civil service #history

Friday Night Feast of Fun: Strawberries, cream and what to drink

As May rolls into June, England hits peak summer. All those muddy football players yield to natty cricketers and immaculately coiffured green wickets . Gardens fill with flowers. At Wimbledon and a thousand other places, the air is filled with the thwack of racket on balls. Nothing captures the ambience like a well-turned bowl of strawberries and cream, that near quintessential accompaniment to a day out at the tennis or the Derby. Ok there’s one rival, but we’ll be doing that next week

People have been eating strawberries as a summer dessert since at least the sixteenth century. However the big ones we take for granted today didn’t really come about until the middle of the eighteenth, [1] as a result of a wheeze by an enterprising Frenchman called Amédée-François Frézier . Frankly we found all the botany and genetics in the Wiki article a little cognitively challenging: suffice to say he crossed a North American version with one from the southern continent to produce that plump juicy berry which not only tastes good, but is admirable to look at. And our recommendation to go with them? Cream, single or maybe double. Not ice cream, not clotted, not that funny squirty stuff that comes out of tins from some of our cheaper supermarkets. And certainly no sugar. Just good, old fashioned cowsmilk cream. Gottit?

Now for the really important question: what to drink? Our Intelligent researchers came up with the following list, each perfectly tailored to a different aspect of your dish. Bowl. Whatever.

 Sauternes – A classic French dessert wine with honeyed sweetness that complements the creaminess.

Coteaux du Layon – A Loire Valley wine with citrus and honey notes, perfect for the richness of cream.

Pinot Noir Rosé – Light and fruity, with strawberry and peach notes that enhance the fresh berries.

Demi-Sec Champagne – The bubbles and brioche flavors contrast beautifully with the sweetness of strawberries.

Riesling (Spätlese) – A German Riesling with floral and orchard fruit notes that highlight the strawberries.

Prosecco – Slightly sweeter than Champagne, making it a great match for ripe strawberries and cream.And much, much cheaper!

Gewürztraminer – Aromatic and floral, with lychee and ginger notes that pair well with strawberries.

And with the end of that list, may we wish you another happy Friday night feast.

[1] Strawberry – Wikipedia

#strawberries #cream #summer #wine #garden #tennis #cricket #wimbledon

Is this a collapse of Civilisation?(they’ve happened before)

Do Civilisations collapse? Do elaborate trade networks fall apart? Giant cities turn into uninhabited ruins? Ancient systems of law, education and custom vanish entirely ? Leaving nothing but an illiterate dark age, racked by violence and disorder? Yes, they can. We’ve alluded once or twice here to the collapse of the Greco-Roman world (LSS 10 3 21; 17 12 22) Professor Harper makes a convincing case for climate change and disease pandemics as the causes of that one. We in western countries are haunted by the Fate of Rome; it was relatively close in time. But there have been others.

The Bronze Age collapse 1200 BCE is further back in time, and has left fewer records, That it occurred there is no doubt. [2] For several centuries a large network of trade had built up across regions which we now call the Near East and Europe. There were cities, elaborate systems or wring and belief, Considerable prosperity; for some, and by the standards of the time. Around 1200 BCE all this was suddenly and violently cast down, with waves of wars and invasions. It took four or five hundred years at least for order of a sort to be restored and progress to resume, Further afield , the collapse of the Shang dynasty in China (c. 1050 BCE) and the Olmec Civilisation of Central America (c, 400 BCE) are chilling reminders that civilisational collapse is not unique to the West.

Art this distance in time it is possible to see a pattern. The natural human instinct to trade and ma make a bit of spare cash gradually leads to the growth of larger and larger cities. These require common systems of law to maintain the rising levels of prosperity. The resulting peace is very pleasant to live under for a few generations. But lurking in the trade routes are the pandemic diseases which can shake societies to their foundations. When you combine that with the ability to cause massive changes in climate(no one would dream of blaming the Myceneans for that!) the potential for sudden catastrophic failure is multiplied exponentially.

Such an event would confront the educated classes(of which the readers of this blog are such valuable members) with a number of inconveniences. We will look at possible responses in the next few blogs,

[1]Kyle Harper The Fate of Rome Princeton University Press 2017

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Bronze_Age_collapse

#olmecs #shang dynasty ##kyle harper #pandemic #climate change #global warming #collapse