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Author Archives: Brian D. Butler
The true home of Halloween ?
Did you know that Halloween began on the island of Ireland? 🎃 The spooky season began as an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”), celebrated over 2,000 years ago. Marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of … Continue reading
Magical (not lucky) Charms
The Book of Magical Charms, is a handwritten occult commonplace book composed in England in the seventeenth century and currently in the holdings of the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois. Its author is suspected to be London attorney Robert Ashley. The Book of Magical Charms original volume, that … Continue reading
Is it human or is it AI
We have reached the point where the Authors Guild, the professional association representing published novelists and nonfiction writers in North America, is planning to offer its 15,000 members a new certificate they can place directly on their book covers. About … Continue reading
“Renaissance Baedeker”
I first learned about the 15th century incunabula Mirabilia Romae while I was researching a magazine article on the history of the travel guidebook. One of the earliest European printed guidebooks, the Mirabilia Urbis Romaea is a geographically arranged inventory of … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art, Books, Europe, History, Museums, Tourism, Travel Writing
Tagged Incunabula, Rome
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Spooky Times
It’s that spooky time of the year here in North America. Folks in the U.S. alone will be spending close to $13 billion on holiday decorations, costumes, candy, and parties. I recently spent an afternoon visiting a nearby town that … Continue reading
Airport Affairs
As international airports go, New Zealand’s Dunedin International is a very small affair. I felt quite foolish showing up two hours ahead of time for my flight from Dunedin to Auckland since there was just one other flight that morning … Continue reading
Posted in Air Travel, Public Transport, Tourism
Tagged Air New Zealand, Dunedin, New Zealand
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Trans-Global Express
If you love train travel as much as I do, I’m certain that you will enjoy this charming, award-winning film about international train travel. Alan Dransfield had an inspiration for “Trans-Global Express” and here is his story: “A tapestry of … Continue reading
Frankenstein Season
The Frankenstein Varorium is an online tool which allows the user to explore the iconic Science Fiction novel’s text through its various incarnations, allowing the user to select individual passages and see how they have evolved through different revisions of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, ebooks, Europe, History, Libraries, Writing
Tagged Bodleian Library, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Morgan Library & Museum, Science fiction
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“Get on the stick”
While I was watching the new Marvel spin-off TV series “Agatha All Along”, which revolves around a coven of witches, I wondered when witches were first depicted flying on broomsticks. Thanks to the net the answer involved the image pictured … Continue reading
Posted in Animation, Art, Books, Europe, Film, History
Tagged Marvel, Television, witchcraft, witches
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