To be great is to be misunderstood.

Posted on September 19, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, Collected Essays, First Series (1841)

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Creation Myth

Posted on September 18, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Origin Myth Map is an interactive world map of the stories cultures have told about where the universe, Earth, and humanity came from. This is a fascination tool to explore the narratives that formed many of the world’s cultures and religions. Users can navigate through time, filter by themes, or follow the lineages and relationships between myths. Every creation archetype, from primordial waters and cosmic eggs to world trees, opens another path. But beware, there goes an hour or three.

 

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Family Business

Posted on September 17, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

I have often been intrigued by stories about the oldest business, or restaurant, or hotel in a place that I’ve visited, and in fact have been in some that claimed the title. So, I fell down the rabbit hole of a post on the oldest family businesses in countries around the globe. In the process, I discovered that I had indeed visited the oldest family run establishment in Iceland. Now I must admit that Bernhöftsbakarí bake shop is not my favorite in Iceland, but I was there for the first time more than four decades ago.

These maps come from PayrollPrices.com and show the oldest family business in every country that is still in business. Maybe you’ve been to some of them ?

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my act of being imperturbable

Posted on September 16, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

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Pooh at 100

Posted on September 15, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

A new exhibition at the New York Public Library opened last week  celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Winnie-the-Pooh.

Silly Old Bear! Winnie-the-Pooh at 100 is a special pop-up display at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street showcasing the origins of the story by A. A. Milne, running through November 30.

Highlights include:

  • Roo, a 3.5-inch-tall single-issue stuffed animal gifted by Queen Camilla in April 2026 after the original toy was lost in an English apple orchard in the 1930s
  • a first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh (London: Methuen & Co., 1926)
  • Winnie Ille Pu, the Latin translation that was the first non-English work to make The New York Times bestseller list in 1961
  • Winny-Puh L’orsetto (1979) and Kuma no pūsan: ehon (1905), Italian and Japanese translations of Winnie-the-Pooh
  • maquettes and page proofs of later Pooh books Now We Are Six (1927) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928), by A.A. Milne
  • examples of E.H. Shepard’s illustrations for the books
  • Lottie the Otter, a stuffed animal representing the pearl-wearing, cricket-playing character who made her debut in the authorized sequel Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus in 2009

Visitors to the Library can also see the original stuffed toys that inspired A.A. Milne’s story, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, and Tigger which were donated to the Library by Dutton Children’s Books, the original U.S. publisher of Winnie-the-Pooh, in 1987. They are on permanent display in the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures.

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Hemingway’s reading list for a young writer

Posted on September 14, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Ernest Hemingway’s reading list for a young writer: 1. Stephen Crane – The Blue Hotel – The Open Boat 2. Gustave Flaubert – Madame Bovary 3. James Joyce – Dubliners 4. Stendhal – The Red and the Black 5. Somerset Maugham – Of Human Bondage 6. Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina – War and Peace 7. Thomas Mann – Buddenbrooks 8. George Moore – Hail and Farewell 9. Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov 10. The Oxford Book of English Verse 11. E. E. Cummings – The Enormous Room 12. Emily Brontë – Wuthering Heights 13. W. H. Hudson – Far Away and Long Ago 14. Henry James – The American

 

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a sight to behold

Posted on September 13, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Colorful Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall
Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Lima
Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)Explanation: What a sight to behold, when a night sky became filled with colors that appeared to rain over the Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland. This image was taken in a single 5 second exposure by the photographer in April 2025. Seeing an aurora is on many people’s bucket lists. But it is not easy. It requires high solar activity, dark and clear skies, and usually a viewing location at high latitude. That makes the northern lights more easily seen than the corresponding southern lights, simply because there is less landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, especially around the Antarctic Circle. Auroras are caused by charged particles from the solar wind that are captured by the Earth’s magnetosphere and guided by the magnetic field to a region close to one of the poles, where they collide with gas particles in the atmosphere. Different colors indicate interactions with different gases at different altitudes, like oxygen (red and green) and nitrogen (blue and pink).

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American Road Trip

Posted on September 12, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Kyoto Book Festival

Posted on September 11, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

I never considered visiting Kyoto during Japan’s notoriously hot and humid summer until I read about The Shimogamo Nōryō Furuhon Matsuri (下鴨納涼古本まつり)  Japan’s largest annual outdoor secondhand book festival. It takes place in the ancient, protected primeval forest of Tadasu no Mori, which is located on the grounds of the UNESCO World Heritage site, Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto.

Held for five days every August, it’s the largest outdoor booksale and literary event in Japan. The Shimogamo Nōryō Furuhon Matsuri offers more than half a million  antiquarian and secondhand books across Tadasu no Mori, the ancient grove of Shimogamo Shrine. Edo-period printings sit beside paperbacks and one of the largest children’s sections in Japan; booksellers have gathered there for thirty-nine summers, and the shrine has stood since the sixth century. The city has the same hold on its writers. These books will let you travel there.

What to Expect

  • Massive Selection: Dozens of local and regional booksellers from Kyoto, Osaka, and Shiga gather to set up tables under the forest canopy. They present anywhere from 300,000 to over 800,000 items. 
  • Diverse Treasures: Inventory ranges from cheap pocket paperbacks starting at just 100 yen, up to highly rare Edo-period woodblock prints, vintage posters, art books, old maps, vinyl records, and historic scrolls. It also features one of the largest children’s book sections in Japan. 
  • The Atmosphere: The word “Nōryō” means “cooling off in summer.” The dense shade and natural breeze of the ancient forest offer a relaxing, cool escape from Kyoto’s intense August humidity while you hunt for bargains. Food and drink stalls are usually available on-site. 
  • Pop Culture Tie-in: The unique setting of this forest book festival is famously depicted in the acclaimed anime film The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl.

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Books Are Weapons

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

“Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons.”

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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