The Blork Blog

Via Giulia, one of my favorite streets in Rome, turns 500 this year.

According to this New York Times article, via Giulia is named after Pope Julius II, who commissioned the street as part of a plan to square off the streets around the Vatican. That’s fairly odd, as it’s not all that close to Chez […]

Happy St-Jean Baptiste day!
I took this photo during the St-Jean Baptiste Day parade some time in the early 90s – possibly 1990 – and it had languished in my archives of transparencies for many years. I found it about eight months ago, and promptly scanned it. I’ve been waiting since then, for the fête nationale, […]

After last week’s lengthy discussion on religion and atheism, commenter Jim Royal pointed to a recent lecture by TED Prize winner Karen Armstrong. (If you’re not familiar with the TED lectures – “Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers” – you should make a point of looking into them.)
In the lectures, Armstrong discusses […]

(Postscript: I changed the title of this post from “Faith in the Unknowable” to “Chris Hedges on Atheism” to more accurately depict the topic of the post.)
Chris Hedges was on “The Hour” with George Stroumboulopoulos last night promoting his new book I Don’t Believe in Atheists. In the book, Hedges speaks against the rise […]

We went to Vermont over the Thanksgiving weekend to visit friends and to get in a bit of country living. On Saturday evening we drove over to Hartland, VT, for the Unitarian Church’s “famous roast beef dinner.”
The fame is deserved – the meal was old fashioned and delicious. We sat at folding tables set for […]

Gregory Charles is everywhere. He’s a multi-talented, classically trained pianist and singer who hosts TV and radio shows in French-speaking Quebec, has acted in numerous stage and TV productions, gets tremendous airplay for his recently released easy-listening record album, and makes guest appearances on every second TV and radio show in Quebec (at least the […]

Martine and I were sitting on the front terrasse of the St. Sebastien on rue St. Charles in Longueuil tonight having a drink and some dinner. As we sat there enjoying the evening light, we were presented with a seemingly endless parade of convertable cars driving by.
We saw:
Several (A) Mazda Miatas, (B) a Toyota Solara, […]