Prose and Passion

We used to think it was a curious thing that the vicar of Eckweiler, Johannes Weiß , married the daughter of a colleague, but after looking ...

I didn't know much about oysters until three weeks ago, but a member of the editorial team at Current Biology suggested to do a feature ...

Some things I learned from Trarbach in alter Zeit by Ernst Schütz Traben-Trarbach 1909 In my recent investigations about the Ebner a...

In the madness of the UK's Covid response, public health expert Devi Sridhar was a lone voice of reason. Remembering this, I was keen to...

When I raved about the goldsmith at Strasbourg, Franz Bolion von der Rosen , I only briefly stopped for his son who moved to Winterburg in t...

Some thoughts on The Far Edges of the Known World A New History of the Ancient Past By Owen Rees Bloomsbury 2025 Somebody left several ...

After the rather depressing outlook on AI safety (or lack thereof) I needed a bit of comfort and joy, so I jumped at the opportunity presen...

One of the perks of getting older is that I suddenly own lots of antiquarian books, although I am almost sure they were new just a few years...

(like father, like son) Philipp Nicolaus Ebner (1682-1734), vicar of Alterkülz is one of the two clergymen in the family tree we knew about...

Pirate Luthier update A special delivery brought five instruments into the pirate luthier workshop at once, namely violins 35 and 36 and ...

Among the inlaws of Conrad von der Rosen , who came from Strasbourg to settle in Winterburg in the Hunsrück area, we find the vicar and chur...

I'm not particularly interested in AI, and just wish the bubble would burst and go away, but every once in a while the problems it creat...