Monthly Archives: March 2012

What was the capital of the United States? It certainly wasn’t Washington, D.C. – the nation’s current capital city wasn’t approved by the US Congress until 16 July 1790 and wasn’t founded until 1791. So which American city can claim to be the first capital? It is a surprisingly difficult question to answer – different places served as temporary capitals at different stages in the USA’s […]

Philly the first – where was the USA’s first capital?

Political turmoil can result in thousands, even millions, of people being displaced and becoming refugees. Driven into cross-border wanderings or beating a hasty exile, they form a diaspora that is testament in misery to the upheaval in their homeland. But it is not only the living that are affected by such devastating changes in the political wind. The bodies of the politically active or symbolic can […]

Well travelled corpses

If you are asked to put together a list of a best-selling authors you’d probably think of Stephen King, John Grisham, Agatha Christie or even Charles Dickens. Martin Luther, German priest, monk, author of the 95 Theses and iconic instigator of the Protestant reformation, is not normally thought of as a best-selling writer. But, even more than being remembered as a writer, should Luther also be […]

Martin Luther and the first best sellers

This week, Sour Times sees that the grass is not greener and that people are just as dumb on the other side of the world. A rare occurrence took place at Sour Towers last week, with the arrival of an actual letter amongst the cheap pizza menus and religious pamphlets promoting insanity, and it was with unreserved joy that I received birthday greetings from my great-uncle Griffiths, […]

Muddying the waters

There is an episode of South Park were the children discover that pesky adults and their rules could be made to disappear if they utter a magic word – molestation. Soon, South Park has no adults left as they have either been arrested or have fled to avoid being denounced. It seems far-fetched, but has a disturbingly real parallel in the Soviet Union during the turmoil […]

Denouncing your parents

Of all the possible insults to fling at H G Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Beatrice Webb, calling them idiots seems off the mark. All were successful writers, with passionate interests in social reform and the progress of humanity. They were the creative idea-forgers, opinion formers and protest leaders. Amongst their achievements was the foundation of the London School of Economics and Political Science, attempts to […]

The Kremlin’s useful idiots

Hispaniola (La Española) is the historic heart of the Spanish Empire in the new world. The Caribbean island was visited by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the Americas in 1492. Hispaniola would become home to the oldest European settlements in the new world, first La Navidad (in present day Haiti) and then La Isabela (in the Dominican Republic). Both of these settlements were ultimately […]

The oldest European city in the Americas

Hispaniola is the second largest Caribbean island, and the Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean state (the island and country are both pushed into second place by Cuba, which is almost 50% larger). Hispaniola is the most populous of the Caribbean islands, with about 19 million people. The Dominican Republic has just under 10 million citizens, and thus the second largest population in the Caribbean […]

Hispaniola – Caribbean paradise?

There is a tendency amongst autocrats and dictators to name things after themselves. I suppose it can’t help but boost your ego to have cities, mountains, flowers and even the days of the week reflecting your personal glory. To really appreciate the extent of dictator megalomania you could visit Stalingrad (mercifully permitted to assume the more sensible name of Volgograd in 1961). Or you could celebrate […]