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KARBACH BOTTLES ARE BACK - $7.99/case (12)
We just received shipment of another pallet of empty second-hand 22 oz. bottles from Karbach. Like new for $7.99 per case! While they last. . . which won't be long!
Our shipment of 30 lbs. each of Centennial & Cascades fresh, green, undried hops have arrived! We're selling these at last year's prices of $9.99 per 6 oz. bag. These will not be around for long, so act now! Click here for more details!
STELLA LINK - Don't forget, this Saturday, we demonstrate just how easy it is to make beer. We'll show you the various steps you'll need to follow to produce great beer, even on your very first batch. Starts at 11 am. No sign up required and the price is right!
Finally, some relief from the summer heat. Time to brew up some darker beers so they'll be in their prime during those brutally cold Gulf Coast Winters. Choose from:
Baltic Porter
Smoked Porter
Mr. Coffee Porter
We are also offering a $2 discount on a featured Dog Day Recipe Kit (our Eight Liter/Two Gallon Mr. Beer Size Kit). This month we are featuring:
Dog Day Pug Porter
It's September, and that means our special once a year port releases have arrived! This year, we're offering the following:
Winexpert Chocolate Raspberry Dessert Wine (aka "Port!")
Winexpert Chocolate Orange Dessert Wine (aka "Port!")
Winexpert Chocolate Salted Caramel Dessert Wine (aka "Port!")
Also arrived:
RJ's Craft Wine Raspberry Mocha Dessert Wine (aka "Port!")
RJ's Craft Wine Coffee Dessert Wine (aka "Port!")
Every spring, we try to get as many folks to pre-order these as possible. This will help us put together a realistic order and try to avoid disappointment for our customers. So, if you're one of the lucky (& smart) people who pre-ordered, come get'em! We do order a few "non-reserved" ports, so if these sound like fun, act now! Our stocks of non-reserved ports are very limited, and we will not be able to order more until next spring for fall delivery!
Every fall, Winexpert announces their line-up for the Winter & Spring limited releases. These high-end kits are only available on a pre-order basis. We have a mere two months to get the word out regarding the goodness to come! While we do order an extra four or five of each release above and beyond the pre-orders, the only way to guarantee that you will be able to get the wines that you want is to pre-order! Don't hesitate, place your pre-order now! Here's what's in store for early 2016:
January 2016
Red - Barbera (Piedmont, Italy) - $149.99
White - Pinot Grigio Verduzzo (Veneto, Italy) - $144.99
February 2016
Red - Mosaic Red (Paso Robles, California) - $149.99
March 2016
White - Gewurztraminer/Verdho/Muscat (Murray Darling, Australia) - $144.99
April 2016
Red - Fourtitude with skins (Riverland, Australia) - $169.99
As sales of canned malt extract continue to drop, we are obliged to discontinue more of these old workhorses. Our loss is your gain. We are pricing the following at $15.99 ($6 off regular price):
Cooper's Original Real Ale
Cooper's Classic Dark Ale
Cooper's International Australian Pale Ale Only 1 left!
All Mr. Beer Refill kits are on sale! Some we are clearing out because they are past their "Best Before Date (just barely)!. Ouch! More losses for us, more gains for you. Here is the breakdown on varieties & pricing:
2.87 lb. Kits (Regular Price - $24.99) Sale Price $14.99! Winter Dark Ale
Kits Not Out of Date Yet, But Will Expire Soon!
2.87 lb. Kits (Regular Price - $24.99) Sale Price $15.99! Diablo IPA
1.87 lb. Kits (Regular Price - $18.99) Sale Price $13.99! American Ale
1.87 lb. Kits (Regular Price - $18.99) Sale Price $14.99! American Porter
Some of these refill kits we only have two or three on hand. Others we have more. Fresh Yeast Will Be Provided With Each Kit!
All Fresh Stock Mr. Beer Kits are on sale, as well! Click here for more details!
The Grainfather takes the best brewing practices from craft breweries and fits them into a simple to use, all in one system to ensure everyone can brew a professional craft beer at home, no matter their brewing experience. This an all-grain brewing system that will yield 5 -6 gallons. The system is very compact with built-in pump, heat coils, thermostat, brain, counter-flow wort chiller, etc. It is very easy to use and easy to clean. For more information, go to the Grainfather website. These are selling for $890.
You can now sign up for our popular fall homebrewing classes! These classes tend to fill up quickly, so you would be advised to act quickly if you are interested. Late Fall classes begin Tuesday, October 20th. We have been offering these classes for about 25 years now, but they have become amazingly popular in the last seven or eight years. The classes run five consecutive Tuesday evenings beginning at 7 pm. We brew an intermediate batch the first evening, bottle it the second evening, taste it along with 12 - 14 ales of the world the third evening, taste it again along with 9 - 10 lagers of the world the fourth evening (followed by a field trip to a local craft brewery), and lastly, drink (as opposed to "taste") it the fifth evening as we brew an all-grain, scratch recipe. Lots of fun, lots of beer education!
Just arrived! The Cool-Brewing Fermentation Cooler! Simply place your fermenter into the Cool-Brewing Fermentation Cooler, along with a few frozen plastic bottles of water, and away you go! This quality-built fermentation cooler is insulated, completely sealable and specifically designed to control fermentation temperatures while your homemade wine, beer, cider or mead ferments away!. Click here for more details!
We find ourselves a little overstocked on BarleyCrusher Grain Mills. Rather than waiting around for these to sell down to normal stock levels on their own, we've decided to slash our pricing! Here's what the pricing breaks down to:
7 lb. BarleyCrusher - Regular Price - $139.99. Sale Price $99.99! Click here for more details!
15 lb. BarleyCrusher - Regular Price - $159.99. Sale Price $119.99! Click here for more details!
We have purchased nearly a third of a million Ft. Bend Brewing Company bottle caps and are offering these at half the going price for our regular oxygen-scavenging caps: $2.99 per canful (180 - 200 caps)! Because we have so many, we are offering them in bulk for even cheaper pricing: $19.99 for 10 canfuls (about 2,000 caps). If the color of the bottle cap is no big deal to you, save 50% or more off your cap costs!
The address is: 16532 Sea Lark, Houston TX 77062. Phone (281) 486-1141. Our hours are:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday - Friday: 11 - 7
Saturday: 10 - 5
Sunday: 12 - 4
P.S. By the way, the sign on the photo has been "photoshop-ed". Any signage must comply with local civic association deed restrictions, so we're flying under the radar now with an indoor banner by one of our windows and a re-purposed banner outside. One more hurdle to clear!
The DeFalcoids
Product Categories
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- Shop Gifts
- Wine & Beer Making Classes


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Royal Oak
Climate change program
Royal Oak Public Library
222 E. 11 Mile Road Royal Oak
Michigan 48067
222 E. 11 Mile Road Royal Oak
Michigan 48067
October 10, 2013
Royal Oak Public Library
222 E. 11 Mile Road
Royal Oak , Michigan 48067
Map and Directions
Telephone: (248) 246-3714
Time: 7 p.m.
Category: Educational Events
Royal Oak resident, Mary Janet Dunn will discuss the possibility of climate change, and its effect on Michigan.
Location Map and Directions
October 05, 2015
Romeo Bulldogs
Romeo remained undefeated by defeating Macomb Dakota 26-14 in a Macomb Area Conference crossover that paired two of the top-ranked teams in Michigan. Romeo's defense came into the game having surrendered just 13 points all season, and helped seal the win with a safety and interception return for touchdown by Brad Tanner in the fourth quarter. Romeo earned its first win against Dakota since 2010.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I think you're stunnin' from you're style to your curly hair
But clearly that's not all, you've got many layers
Understandin', intellectual
But underneath it all I know you're sexual
Lyric Meaning
The lyric attempts to capture my interlocutor in her full glorious complexity. The point here is not that she is essentially sexual, but that she is multi-layered, primitive like all of us at the core but wonderfully evolved beyond it.
Improve the quality of Drop Lyrics by leaving a suggestion at the bottom of the page


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Select Local Merchants
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Proactive shoppers can get a head start on next season's holiday shopping at specialty gift store Two the Moon's (6501 29th St. N) upcoming Christmas in July sale.
Two the Moon, which opened last year, sells an eclectic selection of primarily local merchandise, ranging from pottery to greeting cards to baby clothes. During the one-day Christmas in July sale, owner Johanna Braden says all holiday items in the store will be 40 percent off, including holiday merchandise for the upcoming seasons of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. All other store items will be 10 percent off.
The bulk of Two the Moon's offerings are made in Arlington or, barring that, somewhere in the USA. The shop currently carries goods from about 25 different Arlington artisans, including headbands and bows, jewelry, handmade cards and canvas tote-bags. Braden also works to hire locally and says she has given both neighborhood mothers and kids jobs at the store.
Braden opened the store on Sept. 2, 2014 after ending her 35-year career in nursing. Owning a local gift shop had long been a dream of hers, and because she knew that nothing like it existed in the Williamsburg neighborhood where she lived, she decided to give it a shot.
Braden says that business has been "phenomenal" ever since she opened up shop last year.
"Just the other day, someone came in and told me that on the last day of school this year, all the kids came in with gifts for their teachers, and they were all Two the Moon bags!," said Braden. "It's great — that's just so great to hear."
The Christmas in July sale is scheduled for July 18 from 10 a.m.-7 p.m., with a "rain date" of July 19. Regular store hours are Sunday 12 p.m.-5 p.m. and Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Arlington's offices and schools will be closed on Monday, Jan. 19 for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
On Friday, Jan. 16, the district, circuit and family courts, sheriff's office and the Department of Motor Vehicles in Arlington will also be closed for Virginia's Lee Jackson Day, and all will reopen on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Arlington's county offices will be open on Friday, as will schools and community centers, but all will be closed the following Monday in observance of the holiday. Arlington's libraries and human services offices will also close.
Parking meters will not be enforced and ART lines 41, 42, 51, 77 and 87 will be operating on a Saturday schedule. STAR transit will provide dialysis runs only, and the rest of county-run public transportation will not be running.
Trash and recycling collection will be on normal schedule on Monday
For many, the holiday season is a time of happiness, family and gifts. For others, it's also a trying time and a reminder of recent losses.
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (4444 Arlington Blvd) is holding a service this Sunday for those who experience what the church calls "the dark side of the holidays."
"This time of year can be a stressful time for most, but it can be especially difficult for people who may have suffered a major loss or have had a major life-changing experience in the past year," the church wrote in an email. "Even happy memories can bring pain during the holidays. And, today's commercialization and idealized images of what our holidays should be like are standards and expectations enough to stress the most ardent among us."
The service will be on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. and is open to all, but is not appropriate for young children, the church said. The service, called "Standing Outside the Season," will be hosted by Rev. Aaron McEmrys. Childcare will be provided.
(Updated at 4:35 p.m.) December is here, and with it comes a month-long celebration of the holiday season.
There are numerous events around the county this month, from holiday markets to ice skating "winter spectaculars."
Here's a selection of some of the more notable events in the area:
- Shirlie Lights Up the Village, an annual tree lighting event with live music, carriage rides and a visit from Santa Claus, will take place in Shirlington Village on Dec. 3 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
- This Friday, Dec. 5, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., Miracle on 23rd Street is back for another year. At the Linden Resources at 750 23rd Street S., Santa Claus will ride through on an Arlington County Fire Department truck, kicking off an evening of children's activities and holiday music.
- On Dec. 5 and 6, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., the Rosslyn Business Improvement is bringing back the Rosslyn Holiday Market for another year. More than 35 vendors with products as diverse as soaps, gourmet popcorn, metalworks and French macarons will be on hand to offer shoppers heaps of gift options. After Friday's market closes, the BID will hold a ceremony lighting up Rosslyn's skyline.
- Pentagon Row is hosting "Let It Row," a winter event at its ice rink, on Saturday from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. The event is free and features a DJ and a "s'mores bar."
- For the first time, Penrose Square on Columbia Pike is hosting its own "Winter Wonderland" event, on Sunday, Dec. 7 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. They will have their own Santa Claus available for pictures, plus carolers, hot chocolate and cookies from Giant and ornament decoration stations. The event will close with a tree lighting ceremony in the breezeway outside Giant.
- Market Common Clarendon, at the intersection of Clarendon Blvd and N. Edgewood Street, is hosting a "Winter Wonderland," on Saturday Dec. 13. This free event is replete with Santa Clause on a fire truck at noon, ice carvings and characters in life-size snow globes.
- The Arlington Career Center, at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive, will host this year's Arlington Holiday Bazaar on Dec. 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There will be pizza provided by RedRocks, more than 40 vendors, singers from the Wakefield High School choir and manicures from Career Center students.
Photo courtesy Linden Resources. Disclosure: Rosslyn BID is an ARLnow.com advertiser.
Arlington County government offices, courts and schools will be closed on Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving weekend.
Arlington Public Schools close Wednesday and remain closed until Monday, Dec. 1. Arlington's Circuit Court, General District Court, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court will all close at noon Wednesday and reopen after the holiday break.
Arlington County Police Department won't enforce parking meters on either day, but Saturday will be treated as a regular weekend day before parkers get another day off from meters on Sunday.
Park grounds will be open, but all parks and recreation classes, programs and indoor facilities, like community centers, will be closed on Thursday and Friday.
Trash, recycling and leaf pickup will continue on a normal schedule, the county says, as will brush, metal and electronics pickup. Leaf pickup is cancelled for Thursday, but if you live in Zone 5, your service will resume on Friday.
Only ART routes 41 and 51 will run on Thanksgiving Day, and they will run on Sunday schedules. On Friday, route 41, 42, 51, 77 and 87 will run on Sunday schedules.
County Government Open on Columbus Day — Even though it's a federal holiday, Arlington County government offices will be open for Columbus Day on Monday. Courts, DMV offices, the Sheriff's Office and other state-related offices will be closed. Arlington Public Schools will be closed for a teacher work day. [Arlington County]
Antique Plane Fly-Over — About 30 World War II-era planes will be flying over the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery around
12:30 p.m. today 11:55 a.m. Saturday. [WTOP]
Higher Charges for DCA Passengers? — Reagan National Airport is expected to have its traffic increase by another two million passengers next year, while overtaking both Dulles and BWI in passengers by the end of this year. To help keep up with the growth, and perhaps encourage use of the recently-upgraded Dulles International Airport instead, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is considering an increase of the passenger fee at DCA from $4.50 to $8.50. [WTOP]
Metrorail Ridership Continues to Slide — Ridership on Metrorail is continuing its five-year-slide. Ridership has slipped from a high of 225 million annual trips in 2009 to just over 200 million annual trips now. A shrinking federal workforce, increased telecommuting and increased bike and bus commuting are said to be the main drivers of the decrease. [Washington City Paper]
Office Buildings as Schools — Converting older office buildings into schools is increasingly being eyed as a two-fold solution to office vacancies and a school capacity crunch in Northern Virginia. In Falls Church, a five-story office building was converted into an elementary school — although a full gymnasium has yet to be built. [Washington Post]
'Historic' Garage Move Considered — Arlington's Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board will meet on Wednesday and consider a proposal to move a "historic garage" from county property onto the now privately-owned Fraber House site in Cherrydale. Preservationists might not be thrilled about the move, which would also require the removal of an oak tree. "Historic preservation advocates had wanted the county to draw the historic district line around the garage so that this wouldn't have to happen… oh well," one tipster told ARLnow.com. [PDF]
Photo courtesy @ClarendonScene
Arlington County schools and government offices will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Arlington administrative and human services offices, libraries, and schools will be closed on Monday, Jan. 20. Parking meters will not be enforced. Courts and the Sheriff's Office will be closed on Friday and Monday.
The Arlington Mill Community Center will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., but all other community centers will be closed.
ART buses and Metro will operate on a holiday schedule. Pools will also operate on a holiday schedule. Trash collection will proceed as normal.
Arlington will hold its annual tribute to Dr. King from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 19, at the Washington-Lee High School auditorium (1301 N. Stafford Street).
"The program, now in its 45th year, will feature live music from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Show Choir, dance from Lesole's Dance Project and spoken word from Arlington's own Joan Trumpauer Mulholland," according to the county website.
Disclosure: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute is being advertised on ARLnow.com.
Retail sales are an important component of Arlington County's economy.
The top 8 retail centers in Arlington, including the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City and Ballston Common Mall, alone house 644 stores. Arlington retailers recorded a total of $3.27 billion worth of taxable sales in 2012.
The holidays are obviously a crucial time for retailers, providing on outsized portion of annual sales and profit. But with retail sales growth sluggish compared to the growth in online sales, and with the large regional malls in Tysons Corner and outlet stores elsewhere continuing to lure shoppers, the holidays could be a struggle for some local stores.
As such, we were wondering, dollar-wise, what percentage of holiday present purchases made this year by Arlington residents were actually made in Arlington stores.
If you're preparing to travel during the holidays, you're in good company. AAA Mid-Atlantic predicts nearly half of the residents in the D.C. metro region will leave the area in the next few days.
Nearly 2.4 million people, or about 41 percent of the metro region's population, are expected to travel 50 miles or more during the time period from this Saturday, December 21, through Wednesday, January 1. That's a small increase of 0.1 percent over last year. This will be the fifth consecutive year for such an increase, and the highest recorded travel volume for the winter holiday season.
"Unfortunately, a number of Washingtonians sat out three of the first four holiday travel periods of the year as an upshot of all the political drama in the nation's capital and the economic stress it engendered. But they will not be denied nor deny themselves or their families during the Christmas and New Year's holiday travel period," said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic's Manager of Public and Government Affairs.
Air travel is expected to slightly decline to 129,300 travelers, compared with 130,400 last year. The number of people traveling by train or bus is also down this year, by about two percent. Automobile travel, however, is expected to increase by 0.3 percent, to more than 2.1 million people.
D.C. metro area residents plan on traveling an average of 965 miles for the holidays. That's up from 805 miles last year.
In light of the holiday party season being in full swing and lasting through the new year, the Arlington County Police Department reminds residents to pay attention and stay safe on the roads.
ACPD reminds drivers to use seat belts, drive safely and pay attention to the roads. In addition to an increase in drunk drivers and distracted drivers around the holidays, police report 32 percent of drivers are more likely to drive more aggressively during this time.
Police had noticed an uptick in drunk driving incidents last month, just before Thanksgiving. During the Thanksgiving weekend alone, Virginia had 11 traffic fatalities. The ACPD hopes drivers will heed its safety message in order to avoid a similar scenario around the Christmas and New Year's Eve holidays.
Here are the safety tips offered by ACPD:
- Buckle up — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that more than half of the people killed nationwide in traffic collisions were not wearing seatbelts.
- Protect Child Passengers — The safest place for child passengers is in the back seat. Be sure they have a child safety seat and that it is used the correct way.
- Don't Drink & Drive — Every 45 minutes in the U.S., someone dies from an alcohol-related crash. Be responsible and don't drink and drive. If you do drink, designate a sober driver or take a cab or public transportation. The Arlington County Police Department is participating in the annual "Drive Sober Or Get Pulled Over" enforcement initiative that continues through the New Year's holiday.
- Avoid Distractions — 10% of fatal crashes and 18% of injuries caused by crashes were distraction related in 2012. Distractions to avoid while driving include, but aren't limited to, cell phone use, texting, eating, drinking, and using in-vehicle technologies or portable electronic devices.
- Prepare for Inclement Weather — Last year, 4% of car crash fatalities over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend were weather related. Be sure your car is weather ready and fully serviced. Should the weather be bad, avoid driving. If you are driving, be sure to drive slowly and know your vehicle.
The department added the following greeting: "From our family to yours, the Arlington County Police Department wishes you a safe, happy, and accident free holiday season."
During the holiday season, the need for volunteers is especially high, but it continues beyond the holidays as well.
There's an immediate need for people to help this week with sorting and distributing donated coats, or next week with distributing donated children's holiday gifts. In the coming months, people are asked to help out with tasks like income tax preparation.
Numerous opportunities can be found on the Volunteer Arlington website, such as the following:
- Children's Gift Distribution — Volunteers have already sorted most of the donated children's gifts for the Salvation Army's Angel Tree holiday program, but help is needed for distributing the items. Distribution takes place next Wednesday, December 18. Volunteers must be at least 13 years old, and those between the ages of 13 and 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Contact Luisa Slay at 703-979-3380 or online.
- Coat Drive Distribution — Nauck Community Services Center has collected hundreds of coats and had them cleaned, and now volunteers are needed from 7:00-9:00 p.m. this Friday, December 13, to help sort the items. Volunteers are also needed from 8:00-10:00 a.m. this Saturday, November 14, to help neighbors in need pick out the perfect coat for themselves and family members. Contact Bri Sheffey at 703-229-5650 or online.
- Ship Bicycles to Africa — Bikes for the World is looking for people to help load hundreds of donated bikes and bike parts into 40 foot shipping containers. The items are used for health, education and jobs programs in Africa. Training will be provided. A number of dates are available over the next few months. Contact Yvette Hess at 703-740-7856 or online.
- Income Tax Assistance — Volunteers are requested by the DC EITC Campaign for helping people with income tax preparation early next year. A number of positions exist, including tax preparer, client coordinator, greeter and savings promoter. Training will take place in January and helpers must pass an IRS volunteer test. Shifts vary throughout the 2014 tax season. Contact Elizabeth Rosenberg at 202-547-7773 or online.
- Tutor Young Adults — Helpers are needed for assisting students in trying to earn their high school diplomas. Communities in Schools of Northern Virginia requests tutors to work on-site at a local high school to assist students with English, reading, science or math. A commitment of 2-10 hours per week is required. All tutors must be 18 or older and have a high school diploma. Volunteers must also complete a background check. Contact Daphne Charles at 703-228-8694 or online.
Police had a particularly busy afternoon on Sunday (November 24) due to a number of hit and run DUI incidents.
The Arlington County Police Department responded to 14 DUI incidents this weekend. On Sunday afternoon alone, there were four DUI hit and run cases. Police say that number is more typical of a Friday or Saturday night, not a Sunday afternoon.
"This is not a typical shift, with four similar DUI hit and runs. We were able to locate the individuals and apprehend them a short time after the incidents," said ACPD spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. "This is unusual for a Sunday afternoon."
One of the incidents involved police receiving calls about a car on I-66 westbound with what appeared to be one missing tire. Officers checking out the reports saw the driver of the vehicle hit another vehicle and attempt to leave the scene. She then reportedly hit the concrete barrier, which stopped her car near Glebe Road.
Officers had to remove the woman from her vehicle because they said she was unable to stand or hold up her own head. She was taken to the hospital as a precaution but did not have any serious injuries. Blood drawn at the hospital showed the woman had a blood alcohol level of .36. She was arrested for DUI and hit and run.
All of the drivers in the other three hit and run incidents were also tracked down and arrested for DUI and hit and run, among other offenses.
ACPD cautions drivers that DUI incidents tend to increase during holiday weeks. The department will have addition patrols out this week checking for drunk drivers in light of the Thanksgiving holiday.
"If you're driving, please don't drink," Sternbeck said. "If you do drink alcohol, please use a sober designated driver and wear your seatbelt."
Arlington County is asking residents to donate gift cards to help needy families and children in foster care for the holidays.
The gift cards, distributed by the county's Department of Human Services, will help foster children, people with disability and low-income buy gifts or food for the holiday season.
Cards from grocery stores, drug stores, clothing stores and department stores like Target are encouraged. DHS requests gift cards instead of gifts to empower the recipients to buy what they need most.
The gift cards should be of no more value than $25, but Secret Santas can send multiple gift cards. The gifts should include the value of the card and be sent by Dec. 17 to:
Secret Santa Program c/o Kurt Larrick
Department of Human Services
2100 Washington Blvd., 4th Floor
Arlington, VA 22204
If you include a return address or email address, the county will send back a thank you note and a tax receipt.
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No Metro Work This Weekend — In an occurrence that's somewhat rare these days, there is no Metro rebuilding work planned on the Blue, Orange or Yellow Lines this weekend. [WMATA]
New Rosslyn Cafe to Open Monday — Caffe Aficionado, a new independent coffee shop at 1919 N. Lynn Street in Rosslyn, is scheduled to officially open on Monday, according to owner Adiam Berhane. The cafe is also holding events for neighbors today and Saturday.
Chamber Joins Small Biz Shopping Initiative — The Arlington Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the organizers of Arlington Small Business Day. The Chamber will help promote the holiday shopping day, which debuted last year and is scheduled for Nov. 30. [Sun Gazette]
Flickr pool photo by Ddimick
Arlington County offices will be open on Columbus Day (Monday).
County offices and libraries will be open for the federal holiday. ART buses and Metro will run on a holiday schedule. Courts will be closed.
Parking meters will be enforced. Arlington Public Schools and administrative offices will be open, but students will not have class.


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I need to interface with a database for which I cannot change the collation and charset. However, I would like to pick some binary data from it, interpret it as if it were UTF8 and then do an UPPER on it (since just doing UPPER() on binary returns the raw value).
I would assume that this works:
SELECT UPPER(Filename.Name) COLLATE utf8_general_ci FROM Filename;
but it doesn't and complains that
COLLATION 'utf8_general_ci' is not valid for CHARACTER SET 'binary'
which is fair enough, I need some incantation to cast the binary field as being utf-8. How do I do a select which gives me a computed column with the right character set assigned to it?


text:
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Dads of Destiny Clan Tee
As a new father and a member of the Dads of Destiny clan, I wanted to give my fellow fathers a chance to show their support for this group and have a shirt they can wear while gaming that can withstand all the bodily fluids we as dads get on us.
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text: I am a Cal-Mex guy, but this is as good as it gets in the Northeast. When I am eating there, I go with the Tacos, but these days its more take out. I go with the carnitas burrito, extra cilantro and salsa verde, but it is all good. Get's my head right. I do take out at least every... read more


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Remembering the Less Fortunate the 13 of October
Photo: Gare do Oriente, the main transport hub of Lisbon, Portugal. Designed by Arch. Santiago Calatrava
This 13 of October, the OSMTHU in Portugal remembered the martyrdom of the Templars by helping the less fortunate.
In the last few weeks a spontaneous movement gained momentum: A Few Hours Dedicated to Your Fellow Man. With the help and involvement of members of the Order, a growing group of anonymous people and most recently local celebrities, started gathering every Monday night in Lisbon's iconic Gare do Oriente, the well known railway station designed by renowned Architect Santiago Calatrava for the 1998 World Expo and now the main transportation hub of the capital city. The railway/bus/underground station is sought after by homeless people that choose the architectural marvel to spend their night with a roof over their heads. And they are dozens. And dozens. Of all ages and backgrounds. Since the worldwide crisis reached Portugal and the national government was forced to ask for help from the IMF, the European Bank and the European Union, unemployment has risen to unheard-of numbers and salaries plummeted to a level where some people, although they still work, can't make their ends meet for them and their families. All sorts of welfare support and pensions were cut down, leaving the most fragile in Portugal in a situation close to the most abject poverty, stripped of their livelihood and dignity.
This last 13 of October, instead of a gala dinner event, a nice ceremony or a simple prayer, the Templars of Portugal decided to honor those fallen in France in 1307 by remembering those falling close to us who do not have the benefit to have access to a simple bed or the most basic food. This 13 of October we gave our time to help others.
It was with a great sense of humility and compassion that the Portuguese Knights, Dames and Squires came to the Gare do Oriente, bringing food, first-need goods such as blankets, clothing, soap and hygiene products, and sat down with homeless men and women at a long table specially prepared in a local restaurant. They sat, they ate, they talked and heard firsthand the stories and misfortunes that seem to befall more and more people around them. Nobody dressed in regalia. There wasn't even a Templar cross to be seen. Nobody tried to convert anyone else to a religion or way of thinking. They were all equals at the table and for a couple of hours the dream of a life without inequality was lived at that table.
What better lesson could we teach our Squires that are ready to become more fully committed with the Order's values and duties?
Well, if you want to know, join us in Lisbon next Monday. Every Monday.
Luis de Matos
Prior General, Portugal
Dia de São Miguel
Hoje foi dia de São Miguel. O Arcanjo que encabeça as milícias celestes. O que eleva a espada ao céu e traz a justiça aos injustiçados. O que não dá tréguas às criaturas dos abismos nem paz aos senhores da guerra. Lâmina afiada, corta a direito. Desfaz a escamosa goela num golpe, esventra a peçonha, rompe a perfídia em farrapos finos. Não é mandado por Deus à cabeceira do doente para lhe dar força e confortar. Não canta no coro das esferas celestiais. Não traz novas de vida com o lírio na mão. Não sopra ao ouvido cândidas palavras. Não guarda do infortúnio. Não dá a mão ao débil. Não. Deus não o fez Senhor das Milícias para que fosse admirado, mas para que fosse temido. Não para que deslumbrasse em halo radiante, mas para espavorir os adversários da luz. Não é um anjinho de peanha. Não é uma cara fofa da renascença. Não agarra as saias da Virgem. É o medo na sua mais pura forma. O medo imparável do férreo castigo que tem por lei a lâmina, para quem tem por anima não ter lei. É o dia do fim dos que roubam na noite. É o tormento dos que atormentam. O suplício dos perversos. O carrasco dos assassinos. Algoz dos tiranos. Verdugo dos opressores. É a lei em forma de espada flamígera e fatal. Espada em brasa, rubor de lume e dor, golpe desferido do alto, certeiro, imparável e preciso como um diamante cortante.
Dia de São Miguel. Da milícia de justiça. Vértice celeste da Cavalaria terrestre. Protege-nos, nosso chefe arquiangélico. Tu, que ouviste o nosso humilde murmúrio nos corredores do Templo: ao Teu nome dá glória. Ao teu nome dá glória. Ao teu nome dá glória; e respondeste no teu silêncio sereno: Quis ut Deus?
Luis de Matos
Prior, Osmthu Portugal
Business of knights
In 1565, being on the small island of Malta in the Mediterranean meant the possibility of war. The Ottoman and Christian empires were scrambling for position. Frequent raids on trade routes and territory battles were commonplace. For the Knights of Malta, war was business as usual. Little did any of them know that their preparations for war in the spring of 1565, and the way they fought through the summer, would define the outcome of one of the greatest territorial battles in medieval times. Jean Parisot de Valette, grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (later to be known as the Knights of Malta), was given the terrifying honor and opportunity to lead the knights.
They did their research: War took a long time to get off the ground in 1565, and Valette, a seasoned and dynamic leader, knew this. He sent his spies into Constantinople (not Istanbul) in the fall of 1564 and received intelligence well in advance that the Ottomans were amassing a force and planned to assault the Mediterranean. Although historians are unclear on the exact number, it is estimated that more than 48,000 men in 193 ships launched from Constantinople to attempt to take territory, including Malta. The Knights of Malta: 500 strong.
They prepared: Valette's response to the intelligence was immediate and focused action. He created coastline garrisons and started recruiting fighters from the civilian population. Training commenced for the civilians while crops were harvested early or destroyed on the majority of the island, preventing the presence of easy supplies for the enemy forces. He became an active voice in his community, quickly rallying allies and uniting dissenters in the population. By May, as the Ottoman fleet made landfall on Malta, he had grown his force to over 6,000 men.
They picked their battles: As bombardment started on Malta from the Ottoman invaders, the knights patiently waited to engage the enemy. More than 100,000 cannonballs fell on Malta during the summer of 1865. Civilians and knights took refuge. At St. Elmo, a courageous force of 1,500 men would hold their positions despite overwhelming odds while under siege. St. Elmo, a strategic fort in the harbor, would hold for sufficient time to allow the knights to call for reinforcements from Europe to Malta. Although all 1,500 defenders were killed during the fight for the fort, taking St. Elmo cost the Ottomans more than 6,000 men, and nearly a month of the summer. (War was a seasonal business back then.)
They leveraged their advantages: As the Ottomans shifted their attack to St. Michael/Birgu, Valette was careful to take account of their strategic advantages. On receiving intel that the Ottomans were building siege towers, a crew of engineers and knights tunneled out under the wall of the city and destroyed the apparatus. When the Ottomans broke through the walls of the city, Valette rallied a small force of 100 men, and with focused attacks, he drove the Ottoman force through the narrow streets of Birgu and out. Valette was 70 at the time. In each case in which the Ottoman forces overextended themselves, Valette took full advantage and committed only necessary responses, eventually causing complete desperation among the Ottoman forces.
They knew when to strike: As the Ottomans loaded their artillery back onto ships in preparations to leave, reinforcements pressed the retreat, further decimating the Ottoman fighting force, pushing them onto their ships and ensuring that Malta would be uncontested in the near future. Though about a third of the knights had perished and only about 600 men able to fight remained, the knights had inflicted more than 35,000 casualties on the Ottomans. Malta would not fall until the invasion of Napoleon some 200 years later.
Courage is rewarded: Valette's efforts during the siege of Malta were recognized widely. Money began pouring into the island to strengthen the knights. With this sudden growth in resources, Valette founded the current capitol of Valletta, and strengthened Malta as a strategic defensive position for Europe.
History teaches many lessons, and the student of history begins to see patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed. For the business owner or the business banker, defining and using these key lessons can put us in good company.
In: Vail Daily
By: Ben Gochberg, commercial lender and business finance consultant.
Exorcism and the Catholic Church
Although the Catholic Church strayed from exorcisms during Pope John Paul II, the practice has received renewed focus in recent years. Information has recently hit the news that Mother Teresa actually underwent an exorcism. Even the venerable Pope John Paul II performed exorcisms. According to the Italian news channels, he attempted an exorcism on a 19-year-old girl.
Compared to previous years, exorcisms are growing at an alarming rate in the United States. There are ten official exorcists known to be working in the United States. A decade ago, there was just one. These exorcists report experiencing supernatural behaviors like wounds, levitation and unusual scars.
For a Catholic exorcism, the ritual is planned out in advance and takes several hours to finish. It involves sacred objects, holy water and the cross. To carry out the exorcism, priests use a manual that was recently updated by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
In early July, the news began reporting on Pope Francis' stance on exorcism. He has recently given his support to priests who exorcise demons. Altogether, there are 250 priests who are a part of the International Association of Exorcists. Pope Francis has stood out from previous popes due to his focus on personifying Satan and his works. Video footage from 2013 shows Pope Francis praying over a boy in a wheelchair. Within moments, the boy exhaled and slumped deeper into his chair. Although the incident was downplayed by the Vatican, further reports showed that Pope Francis used a prayer to rid the boy of evil.
Dealing with exorcisms is not new for Protestants and Catholics. In the United States, there are more Protestant exorcists than there are Catholic exorcists. Many Protestants who believe in exorcisms believe that it is a natural way to deal with evil. Unfortunately, the techniques used by some Protestant ministers has resulted in death. In 1997, a 5-year-old girl was forced to swallow ammonia and vinegar that ultimately killed her.
Forget The Da Vinci Code: this is the real mystery of the Knights Templar
Not so long ago, casually throwing the Knights Templar into polite conversation was a litmus test of mental health. One of Umberto Eco's characters in Foucault's Pendulum summed it up perfectly. He declared that you could recognise a lunatic "by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars".
But all good things come to an end. The enigmatic medieval monk-knights are no longer a fringe interest for obsessives. They are now squarely mainstream. And as 18 March 2014 draws closer, Templarmania is going to be ratcheted up several more notches.
Everyone loves an anniversary, and this is going to be a big one. It will be exactly 700 years since the legendary Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Templars, was strapped to a stake in Paris and bonfired alive. For centuries after de Molay's execution in 1314, everyone wanted to sweep the ashes of the whole dreadful affair under the carpet. The official line was that the Templars, the former darlings of Christendom, had fallen from grace. Power had gone to their heads, and they had degenerated into something unspeakable (for a medieval order of monks, at any rate): spitting and urinating on crucifixes, worshiping idols, and finding sexual release with each other.
King Philip IV "the Fair" of France had personally overseen seven years of inquiry into the order's suspicious practices. Based on the information it unearthed, he was convinced that he had exposed something rotten in society. The world, he was sure, would be better off without their sort — so he moved to have the Order stamped out. In the end, faced with Philip's sustained pious outrage, the yellow-bellied pope of the day (a stooge who owed everything to Philip) had little alternative except to close the Templars down on the basis their reputation was irreparably shot. Philip then spent the next few years getting his hands on the Templars' vast wealth, which he justified as compensation for having financed the enquiry to expose their dreadful sins.
For the following centuries, no one really spoke of the Templars. They were an embarrassment, and the less said about them the better. It was as if they had never been.
An attempt to rehabilitate them came first from a Scottish Freemason in the early 1700s, but his views did not spread wider than the royal Jacobite court where he presented them. A century later, the Order's traditional reputation as depraved deviants re-emerged, but this time as the arch-villains in books – most famously in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. But fast-forward to 2013, and for some reason the Templars are everywhere. Promotional stands in bookshops buckle under the weight of credulity-busting Templar plots. Bug-eyed computer gamers, cloaked in the Templars' iconic white robes and blood red crosses, slash and parry through historical adventures of derring-do. Cruise-ships of sightseers descend on original Templar buildings. And in central London, you can now even unwind with a pint in The Knights Templar pub.
Yet the increasing popularity of the Templars is something of a mystery, because it is hard to see how or why the modern world identifies with the Order at all. The Templars were medieval monk-knights, the crack troops of the Crusades – so effective and feared on the battlefield that Saladin once famously executed all captured Templars for fear of ever having to face them again. As a sideline to fund their wars, the knights experimented with international finance. They proved so talented at it that they were soon richer than Europe's leading kings, whom they dutifully bankrolled.
They were, by anybody's standards, then or now, a startling bunch: one only the medieval world could have conceived of. It is difficult to imagine what a modern equivalent would be. Perhaps a massive international army of chaste militant Christian zealots who also happened to own most of the world's investment banks? It is hard to see how such a modern group would be remotely popular with the public. So what do people see in the Templars?
Darker interests focus on the Templars as the rallying point of a network of violent European white supremacism – a lodestar of racial hatred around which extremism can gravitate. The appeal of the Templars to extremists is probably inevitable. The Templars were founded during the Crusades, which can hardly be described as a time of religious and cultural tolerance. But the Templars are always full of surprises, and the historical record shows that even in that climate, the Templars' sworn mission was in fact to protect pilgrims and the vulnerable. Nowhere in the over 600 provisions of their medieval Rule does it ever refer to anything approaching a mandate for ideological murder of people holding a different faith.
The extremists' vision of the Templars as a kind of proto-SS ethnic extermination squad is simply ahistorical. The evidence does not bear it out. For instance, take Usamah ibn Munqidh, an adventurous 12th-century Syrian nobleman, diplomat, and poet. He recorded that when he used to visit Jerusalem, the Templars, who were his friends, would let him into their headquarters in the Temple of Solomon (the al-Aqsa mosque), where they would clear a space for him to pray. On one occasion, a nameless European knight repeatedly seized him, and spun him so he was facing East, ordering him to pray as a Christian. The Templars quickly intervened and ejected the knight, before explaining apologetically to Usamah that the knight was fresh off the boat from Europe and new to the ways of the Orient.
Accounts like this have spawned a growing camp of people who look to the Templars' spiritual side, and see in the Order a fascinating enigma. The idea that the Templars had an alternate spirituality, perhaps even a slightly mystical one, is, interestingly, not a New Age invention. People were saying it before the Templars were closed down. The poet-knight Wolfram von Eschenbach, writing sometime between 1200 and 1225, gave the German people their first Holy Grail epic: Parzival. In it, he described how the Grail was kept at the castle of Munsalvaesche, guarded by a company of chaste knights called Templeise. This is the earliest association between the Templars and the magical supernatural, and predates The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail crowd by at least seven-and-a-half centuries.
The other ancient association of the Templars with the supernatural is perhaps better known, but sadly more garbled. It was reported by medieval chroniclers that as the flames of the funeral pyre began to lick at Jacques de Molay, he prophesied that within a year the king and pope (who had together effectively destroyed the Templars and condemned him to a heretic's death) would meet him before God's celestial tribunal, where they would be judged for their corruption. Although both men died within the year, the story of Jacques de Molay's "curse" seems to have been embellished from his actual words, which may have been a simpler threat that God would avenge his unjust death.
Nevertheless, versions of this legend are widespread, and have long added to the Templars' mystique. Although all King Philip's public statements on the Templars were steeped in a viscous piety and an endlessly-repeated desire to act as the Church's protector, the reality was the magnetic opposite. His "inquiry" was, in fact, a brutal persecution, which involved seven years of barbarous incarcerations, horrific tortures, and multiple burnings at the stake. Philip was not remotely motivated by religion, despite his sanctimonious flannel. His coffers were filled with nothing but dust and air, and he urgently needed eye-watering sums of money to fuel his appetite for European wars. At the same time, pope-baiting was high on his list of hobbies, and he clearly felt that destroying the Vatican's invincible army would be a distinct milestone in his effort to position France as the dominant power in Europe.
Unsurprisingly, it was fashionable for many years to see the Templars as the wholly innocent victims of Philip's squalid politics. Philip was indeed shameless in the way he hurled as many charges at the Templars as he thought were necessary to whip up public outrage and disgust. He was an experienced master at the all-important game of spin, having garnered support against the previous pope using the identical charges of heresy and homosexuality. It had worked magnificently on that occasion – his men even kidnapped the elderly pope, and when the old cleric died of shock, Philip insisted on a posthumous trial to prove the trumped-up charges against the dead pope. So there is no doubt that Philip was a gifted bully – a spectacularly unscrupulous manipulator with no concern at how much blood needed spilling for him to get his way.
However, there are always twists in the tail when it comes to the Templars, and it seems Philip may have found a tiny ember of genuine Templar heresy, which he deftly fanned into a fire big enough to consume the Order. A detailed reading of the complicated sequence of confessions and retractions made by both the rank-and-file knights and the leaders of the Order leaves little doubt that the Templars were up to something. King Philip's allegations of them worshipping a head that could make trees flower and the land germinate were plainly fabricated, and no evidence of anything remotely related was ever unearthed. Likewise, his accusations of institutionalised homosexuality proved to be invented. But many knights, including Jacques de Molay and some of his most senior lieutenants, did openly admit, at times with no torture, that new members of the Order were pulled aside in private after their monastic reception ceremonies and asked to deny Christ and spit on a crucifix. None of the knights could give an explanation why this was done. They said it had simply always been a tradition, and that the new brother usually complied ore sed non corde, with words but not the heart.
After so many centuries, we can only guess at the bizarre ritual's significance. It may originally have been a character test to get some idea of how the new recruit might react if captured and subjected to religious pressure. But no one can say for sure. Nevertheless, it does clearly demonstrate that the Templars were subversive when they wanted. In fact, the clearest evidence that the Templars were not all they seemed is largely unknown, even among Templar experts. But it is potentially extraordinarily important. It takes the form of an original Templar building, still standing, nestled in a quiet corner of green countryside. Inside, it contains an enigma that may yet cause experts to revisit the entire question of the Templars' religious beliefs.
It is not Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, which has no Templar connections at all, having been built a century and a half after the Order was suppressed. Instead, it is a small mid-12th-century chapel in the village of Montsaunès, set in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, on one of the principal medieval highways leading from France into Spain. It was in a critical location. The fight to wrest Spain back from Islam was in full flow, and Montsaunès was on a strategic defensive line. Surviving medieval charters prove beyond doubt that the chapel was unquestionably built by the Templars, then occupied and maintained by the Order for 150 years. It was the heart of one the Order's great European commanderies (fortified monasteries), although nothing else of it survives.
The reason for its importance to the question of Templar spirituality is immediately apparent the moment you enter the ancient building. The whole interior is painted, as most medieval churches and cathedrals were. But the Templars' chosen decorations for this particular chapel were not saints, bible scenes, and the usual range of religious imagery. The surviving frescoes are a bizarre collection of stars and wheels, rolling around the walls and ceiling in some mysterious, unfathomable pattern. Interspersed among them are also grids and chequer-boards, painted with equal precision – but also with no apparent sense or meaning. There is nothing remotely Christian about it. The overall effect is calendrical and astrological, with a whiff of the Qabbalistic. It is like some strange hermetic temple, whose meaning is obscured to all except initiates.
The conclusion of the few experts in medieval art who have looked at the frescoes is that they are unlike anything else they have ever seen. They are "unknown esoteric decoration". Anyone studying the startling paintings quickly realises that they transcend the small French commune where they remain unnoticed, 850 years on. They demand answers. What did they mean to the Knights Templar? Why did they paint them so meticulously? And what prompted them to put them in their chapel, the building at the heart of their spiritual life, which they entered to pray in nine times a day?
We simply do not know the answers. But the chapel at Montsaunès is proof, in its own enigmatic way that the religious life of the Templars was not as straightforward as we have perhaps come to believe. As Umberto Eco's lunatics, and a growing swathe of more ordinary people, prepare to mark the anniversary of Jacques de Molay's death, there will be discussions about individual freedom and the abuse of power, about political show trials and miscarriages of justice, and about Europe's transition from theocracy to autocracy. But there will also be time to think again about what knowledge went up in flames with Jacques de Molay, and to the grave with the other knights.
The little-known chapel at Montsaunès reminds us that there is much we still do not know about the Templars, who increasingly baffle us the more we discover about them.
Dominic Selwood's new thriller The Sword of Moses features the Templars, Montsaunès and a number of the themes discussed in this article.
in The Telegraph
by: Dominic Selwood
Dr Dominic Selwood is a former criminal barrister, novelist and historian with a passion for the less visited corners of the archives. He is the author of the crypto-thriller, The Sword of Moses (2013), and the textbook on the Knights Templar, Knights of the Cloister (1999). He tweets as @DominicSelwood
This is the man who turned Christianity into a global religion. Do you even know his name?
Who founded Christianity?
It is an age-old debate.
Christ? Well, yes. Of course. Obviously.
St Peter? Also yes. Christ built his church upon the rock — so the faithful believe, following the Gospel of St Matthew.
St Paul? Yes again. In first century Galilee, there were no schools for those who farmed, fished, or worked with their hands. St Peter was a simple workers from an agrarian community, and there is no reason to suppose he could read, write, or speak any language other than his native Aramaic. By contrast, St Paul was a highly educated and literate intellectual. He was a Roman citizen of Cilicia (south-eastern Turkey), and his native language was Greek — which enabled his letters and public speaking to be understood across the vast reaches of the empire. His indefatigable thinking, preaching, and writing unquestionably defined great swathes of Christianity.
Yet in some senses, asking who founded Christianity is a fatuous question. The Greek honorific title Christos (meaning the Annointed One) and the word Christianos (Christian) would have meant nothing to Yeshu'a, which was the Aramaic name Jesus would have answered to. The words were never used in his life time. The first recorded occasion was years later, miles to the north-west in Antioch.
Beyond the words, how many of Christianity's reported 41,000 denominations would they recognise today? Would any of the buildings, activities, liturgies, theologies, vestments, ecstatic glossolalia, and all the rest be familiar?
Whatever the answer, there is, in fact, one more person to add to this list — and he definitely would recognise the 1.5 billion Catholics and Orthodox Christians alive today. He was not a founder of Christianity. But he was definitely one of its most important figures. Ever.
Flavius Theodosius was born in Spain in AD 347, and one of his two most memorable achievements was to be the last man to rule over both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.
But his truly lasting achievement was perhaps one of the ten decisions that have most shaped the post-Roman world.
Today, the 27th of February, in AD 380, Theodosius proclaimed Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.
It is our desire that all the various nations which are subject to our clemency and moderation should continue in the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition, and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus … . We authorise the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians. (Theodosius I, Cunctos populos)
At the time, the empire heaved with colourful temples to everything you can think of. Cicero called the Romans "the most religious people" (religiosissima gens), and the sheer variety of popular cults proves it. Worshippers could find everything from traditional Graeco-Roman deities, the Egyptian cults of Isis, Osiris, and Serapis, the ubiquitous near-eastern mystery religions of Mithras, Cybele, and Attis, and hundreds of others — all spiced up with the usual sacrificial fare and traditional temple prostitutes.
But enough was enough. To reinforce the status of Christianity as the sole imperial religion, Theodosius outlawed all pagan practices.
It was a highly controversial move, and he must have been aware of its enormity.
Even the Serb, Emperor Constantine I (AD 305 to 337), had not gone that far.
It is true that Constantine is reported to have fought and won the decisive battle of the Milvian Bridge with the Chi Rho daubed onto his men's shields. He had apparently seen a vision of the Christian symbol in the sky, along with the Greek words ἐν τούτῳ νίκα (en touto nika, "In this, conquer"), and it had inspired him. Once emperor, in AD 313 he promptly enacted the Edict of Milan to guarantee freedom of religion throughout the empire.
Of the things that are of profit to all mankind, the worship of God ought rightly to be our first and chiefest care. Christians and all others should have freedom to follow the kind of religion they favour. We therefore announce that all who choose Christianity are to be permitted to continue therein, without any let or hindrance, and are not to be in any way troubled or molested. At the same time, all others are to be allowed the free and unrestricted practice of their religions; for it accords with the good order of the realm and the peacefulness of our times that each should have freedom to worship God after his own choice. (Constantine,The Edict of Milan)
Perhaps the drafters of the First Amendment to the American Constitution had this edict in mind, although they expressed their version significantly less eloquently:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Constantine did not stop with freeing everyone from religious persecution. In AD 325 he convened, presided over, and paid for the first ecumenical Church council. He held it at Nicaea (modern-day Iznik in Turkey), where it oversaw the resolution of numerous key decisions regarding the early Church and its structure. Yet Constantine did it all while still a pagan and pontifex maximus, or head of Rome's pagan priesthood — a role he officially retained until his death, even after his personal conversion to Christianity late in life. Theodosius was, unsurprisingly, the first emperor to abandon the priestly title, which in time migrated across to the pope.
Today, Christianity has 2.2 billion followers (32 per cent of the world's population), making it by far the largest, and most evenly spread, religion on the planet. Islam is next at 1.6 billion (23 per cent), followed by Hinduism at 1 billion (15 per cent).
Theodosius is perhaps more responsible for the massive spread of Christianity than either St Peter or St Paul, for the simple reason that religions and their denominations benefit from political backing to light the afterburners and tear free from the pack. This should come as no real surprise — it is how human society generally works.
We have even seen it in England. In the late middle ages, Lollards and the occasional disgruntled theologian grumbled on and off. But it took almost a century of the sheer absolutist power and political resolve of the Tudor monarchs to carve a new church into the ages-old landscape of England.
The same union of religion and politics can be seen elsewhere, too.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–92) was an Islamic preacher and reformer who wished for a simpler form of Islam that better reflected early practice. In many ways, he was the equivalent in Islam of those medieval Catholics who sought the apostolic life of the early desert fathers, or the later Protestant reformers of Europe who strove to take the Church to a perceived former simplicity. Abd al-Wahhab's ideas were powerful, but they truly became globally significant after they were endorsed and promulgated by Muhammad ibn Saud, whose legacy has shaped the modern state of Saudi Arabia, and whose influence can be felt throughout the Arab world.
Therefore, when Theodosius adopted Nicene Christianity as the imperial religion in AD 380, he set a precedent whose impact is now felt globally. For as the Roman Empire in the West fell, the monarchs who were to fill the void in Europe for the next millennium and a half largely kept Christianity as their state religion. And when they conquered and colonised, they took their religion with them.
Unlike ancient Rome, we no longer exterminate those who profess other religions.
So as Prince Charles ponders becoming Defender of the Faith (a title first given to Henry VIII by Pope Leo X, but then revoked and now conferred by Parliament instead), he has a few questions to consider.
What does it mean, historically, to defend the faith? Henry VIII was given the title in recognition of his most Catholic written refutation and execration of what he saw as Luther's pernicious heresies. Henry wrote up his passionate arguments in a book he nattily entitled Defence of the Seven Sacraments, which he dedicated to the pope.
That is what it meant to defend the faith in the early 1500s. But what does it require now? In the 21st century, is Defender of the Faith an honorific title, or does it mean something more?
And equally as important. should the Defender of the Faith choose to be a Constantine or a Theodosius? Should he rule over a realm in which he protects his subjects' freedom to practise a religion of their choice, or should he defend only the state religion?
Prince Charles has made his position clear. He will be the Defender of Faith. Happily the Latin, fidei defensor, does not change with the loss of the definite article.
He has history on his side. For it is interesting to note that everyone has heard of Constantine the Great's religious toleration — but, for all his seismic historical importance, how many remember Theodosius I?
in The Telegraph
by: Dominic Selwood
Dr Dominic Selwood is a former criminal barrister, novelist and historian with a passion for the less visited corners of the archives. He is the author of the crypto-thriller, The Sword of Moses (2013), and the textbook on the Knights Templar, Knights of the Cloister (1999). He tweets as @DominicSelwood
What the Crusades tell us about shifting borders in the Middle East
The Levant, the region running inland from the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean, has been fought over for millennia. Its vital trade and military roads linking Anatolia to north Africa and Arabia have been guarded and coveted since time immemorial. Control is everything, as Moses found out to his cost when he wanted to move north up the ancient King's Highway out of the Sinai and into Edom (modern day southern Israel):
"Now let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from any well; we will go along the King's Highway, not turning aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory." But Edom said to him, "You shall not pass through, or we will come out with the sword against you." The Israelites said to him, "We will stay on the highway; and if we drink of your water, we and our livestock, then we will pay for it. It is only a small matter; just let us pass through on foot." But he said, "You shall not pass through." And Edom came out against them with a large force, heavily armed. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through their territory; so Israel turned away from them.
(Numbers 20:17–21)
Countless cultures have fought for dominance in the region — Canaanite, Philistine, Hebrew, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Seljuk, crusader, Ayyubid, Khwarazmian, Mamluk, Ottoman, British, French, Jewish, the list goes on. Most of the conquests have been bloody. All have caused regional upheavals. Some have spread even further, sending international shockwaves east and west.
This week marks two major anniversaries of crusader history, both of which had a profound impact on the whole of Europe. On 4 July 1187, Saladin crushed the crusaders at the battle of the Horns of Hattin — one of the most important military encounters of the medieval world. Ninety years later, on 1 July 1277, Sultan al-Malik Baybars died. Although less well known in the West than Saladin, Baybars was a far more brutal and effective warlord. It was his devastating campaigns that finally ripped the heart out of the crusades, propelling the whole project into its darkening, twilight years.
When the crusaders had first conquered Jerusalem in 1099, waves of elation crashed across Latin Christendom. Jerusalem was the umbilicus mundi, the centre of Europe's conception of the world as depicted in medieval maps like Hereford's glorious Mappa Mundi. God clearly favoured the Christian settlers, and had given their armies Jerusalem to prove it.
The crusades were not the first time Jerusalem was under Christian rule. The Holy Land had been Christian in the days of the Byzantine Empire (c. AD 325–637). Emperor Constantine the Great and Empress Helena had Christianised the city, renaming it "Jerusalem" and wiping out the pagan remains of Aelia Capitolina built by Hadrian in AD 130 on the rubble of Jerusalem. At the heart of his new Jerusalem, Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and made it the pre-eminent Christian pilgrimage destination. However, since the Rashidun Caliphate under Umar the Great had conquered the Near East in AD 637, Jerusalem had been under Islamic rule.
Hand in hand with the crusaders' initial elation in 1099 came the practical problem of controlling vast swathes of conquered territory far from home in their new land of "Outremer", the place "beyond the sea". The result was countless famous battles in which the pendulum swung one way then the other during the 192 years of crusader presence in the Levant. Although many of the engagements are still famous — like Jacob's Ford and the Field of Blood — the Horns of Hattin stands head and shoulders above them as one of the turning points of world history.
Today, as the politically unrelated and separate conflicts in Syria and Iraq coalesce and evolve into an all-consuming regional power struggle, it is worth looking at the battle of the Horns of Hattin as a reminder of the region's merciless ability to keep redrawing its borders and reinventing itself in blood.
First, put Ridley Scott's epic 2005 film, Kingdom of Heaven, out of mind. It excels in evoking the existential crisis of the crusader kingdom at the tail end of the reign of the leper king, Baldwin IV. And it is a seductive and visually sumptuous world, where faith, honour, ideals, and love vie alongside ambition, bloodlust, venality, and the ugly side of unchecked militarism. But it is not a faithful account of the events leading up to the cataclysmic battle of Hattin and Balian of Ibelin's doomed defence of Jerusalem. For a start, the real Balian was 44 years old at Hattin, did not know one end of an anvil from the other, was married to a member of the Byzantine royal family, and was born and lived his whole life as a powerful, wealthy noble in the crusader states.
The true story of Hattin is nevertheless every bit as soaked in romance and ambition as Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.
Some years earlier, Lucia of Botrun, a beautiful and wealthy Levantine heiress, was ignominiously placed onto a huge set of scales and publicly weighed. A merchant from Pisa piled up the pan on the other side with gold bezants until he had measured out her weight in gold, which he then gave to her overlord as payment for her hand in marriage. In the wings, a headstrong Flemish crusader, Gerard de Ridefort, vowed revenge. He had previously asked Lucia's overlord, Count Raymond III of Tripoli (of Toulouse) for her hand, but his request was refused. Despite the fact Raymond was one of the kingdom's wisest and coolest heads, Gerard immediately left Raymond's service, nursing a grievance that would lead to the downfall of a kingdom.
After recovering from a serious illness, or perhaps sensing faster promotion as a professional crusader, Gerard soon took the dramatic step of professing solemn monastic vows as a Knight Templar, devoting himself to a celibate community life of praying and fighting. His exceptional abilities were quickly recognised, and he rose swiftly through the Order's ranks to become their tenth Grand Master. This unique position gave him privileged access to Christendom's royalty — especially in Jerusalem — an influence he used, among other things, to oppose and thwart Raymond whenever he could.
In 1185, on the death of the leper King Baldwin IV, his seven-year-old nephew took the throne under the regency of Raymond. But when the young king died within a year, the crown passed to his mother and step-father: Sibylla of Jerusalem and Guy of Lusignan. The kingdom promptly tore itself into two poisonously opposed factions — those like Gerard de Ridefort and the Templars who supported Queen Sibylla and King Guy, and those like Count Raymond who backed Isabella, Sibylla's half-sister.
With the kingdom hopelessly divided, the scene was set for a catastrophe. It just needed someone to light the touchpaper.
King Guy counted among his camp a maverick one-man army: Raynald of Châtillon, "the Elephant of Christ". Raynald had been in the crusader states since the second crusade, and had spent 15 years in a Muslim jail before leading the crusader forces to a spectacular victory against Saladin at the fêted battle of Montgisard, Saladin's most crushing defeat. Raynald was therefore a seasoned operator in the region, and had been rewarded with the lordship of Oultrejourdain (the lands beyond the River Jordan). However, he is usually most often remembered for his cruelty, endless piracy and plundering, unwillingness to obey kings, and repeated breaking of delicate truces to the annoyance of all sides.
In 1187, when Raynald again broke a truce and attacked yet another Muslim caravan travelling the King's Highway near his Red Sea outpost at Kerak, Saladin could stand by no longer. He declared the truce to be a sham, and led an invasion army across the Jordan. Raynald's lawlessness had finally provoked the largest united Muslim force the crusaders had ever seen.
The end began quickly. On 1 May 1187, at the Springs of Cresson near Nazareth, a small group of around 140 Templars and Hospitallers found themselves confronting a 7.000-strong detachment of the Muslim army under al-Afdal, Saladin's son. The master of the Hospitallers and several senior Templars counselled retreat, but Gerard de Ridefort accused them of cowardice and ordered an attack. The result was a charnel house. Gerard de Ridefort and two other Templars were the only known survivors.
Back in Jerusalem. King Guy and the royal court knew that a full-scale onslaught from Saladin's 30,000 men was now imminent. All they could do was wait to see where it would come.
Saladin made the first move. He advanced to Tiberias on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. The castle belonged to Count Raymond III of Tripoli, who was away with the royal court, leaving it garrisoned by Eschiva, his wife.
On 2 July, King Guy held a war council to decide on a response. And it was here, at this critical moment in the history of the crusader kingdom, that the memory of Lucia of Botrun on the gold scales filled the room. Count Raymond calmly advised King Guy that Saladin was setting a trap, trying to get the crusaders to leave the safety and water of Sepphoris. He was, Raymond explained, hoping to lure the crusaders onto arid open ground where the Muslims' numerical advantage could be best used. But whatever Raymond said was always wrong in the eyes of Gerard de Ridefort and Raynald of Châtillon, who shouted him down, accusing him of cowardice. They argued long into the night that King Guy should immediately lead the crusaders to march on Tiberias. In undoubtedly the worst decision of his life, Guy allowed himself to be persuaded by Gerard and Raynald, and ordered the army to ready itself. He was a politician not a soldier, and his lack of experience was about to cost the crusaders dearly.
The following day, 3 July, the pride of the crusading army thundered out of the springs of Sepphoris heading east for Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee. From the moment they left, the outcome was sealed. Saladin had to do very little. The summer heat was unbearable, and the mail-clad crusaders lacked water. To make them even thirstier, Saladin lit brushwood fires around them, engulfing the advancing columns in clouds of billowing smoke. Panicked, choking, and dehydrated, the crusader army broke apart, allowing Saladin to encircle them. The crusaders were finally corralled on the two hills known as the Horns of Hattin, just six miles short of Tiberias, where the massacre began.
King Guy, Gerard de Ridefort, and Raynald of Châtillon were all taken prisoner. The crusaders' most sacred relic, the True Cross discovered by the Empress Helena in the AD 320s, was also captured, taken in triumph to Damascus, and never seen again.
As depicted in Kingdom of Heaven, Saladin invited King Guy and Raynald of Châtillon into his tent, where he offered a groggy Guy a cup of iced water to slake his thirst. When Guy then passed the cup to Raynald, Saladin responded that he had not personally offered refreshment to Raynald, and was therefore not bound by any rules of hospitality towards him. He asked Raynald why he had broken so many oaths over the years. Raynald replied that kings had always acted thus, and he had done no more. Saladin then personally beheaded Raynald, before dragging his decapitated body over to a terrified Guy. "Kings do not kill kings", he reassured Guy, but explained that Raynald was an oath-breaker whose repeated "maleficence and perfidy" had warranted immediate death.
Guy and the other captured nobles were all eventually ransomed, apart from the 230 Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller whom Saladin judged too militarily dangerous to be allowed freedom. He ordered them beheaded on the spot:
With him was a whole band of scholars and sufis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics, each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve. Saladin, his face joyful, was sitting on his dais, the unbelievers showed black despair.
(Imad ad-Din, On the Conquest of the Holy City)
With their army decimated, the crusaders could only watch as one by one their cities then fell. Queen Sibylla and Patriarch Heraclius mounted a last-ditch defence of Jerusalem, before roping in Balian of Ibelin, who had dropped by to collect his family. Balian's involvement was in strict defiance of an oath of non-belligerence he had given Saladin in order to be allowed to travel to Jerusalem, but he wrote to Saladin to explain his predicament, and Saladin seemed happy for Balian to try to organise Jerusalem's defences. In any event, they both knew Jerusalem could not withstand a siege. Balian had only a handful of knights, so spontaneously knighted the city's squires to help in the effort. But it was largely symbolic. On 2 October, Balian went to Saladin's tent. Saladin confirmed that he had sworn to kill all Jerusalem's men and to enslave the women and children. In response, Balian threatened to execute the 5,000 Muslim prisoners in Jerusalem, kill the crusaders' families and livestock, destroy all treasures, and raze the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock to the ground before he and the men marched out to meet their glorious deaths at Saladin's hands. Unnerved, Saladin suggested a peaceful surrender, which Balian accepted. Saladin then granted safe passage to all inhabitants who could pay their way, and sold the remaining men, women, and children into slavery.
The reaction across Christendom was utter disbelief. It was unthinkable that Jerusalem was no longer a Christian city. Four generations of Western children had grown up knowing that Jerusalem was part of Christendom. The grief at losing it tore deep into the soul of the West. On hearing the news, Pope Urban III died of shock. Within two years, Europe's leading warrior, Richard the Lionheart, was personally in Outremer to set things right. But the tide had turned, and he failed ever to set eyes on Jerusalem.
Although the crusader states would limp on for another 105 years from their new headquarters at Tyre and then at Acre, medieval Christendom never again owned Jerusalem outright, and life became immeasurably harsher for the remaining crusaders and settlers — notably as a result of the campaigns of Sultan al-Malik Baybars, who died on 1 July 1277, providing the other major Levantine anniversary this week.
Unlike any of the crusaders' previous opponents, Baybars was a military machine. On some levels, Saladin was not an especially talented general — over the course of 17 years of campaigning against the crusaders, he was regularly not successful on the battlefield. Baybars, on the other hand, was a highly effective general. He rose to power by murdering two Sultans of Egypt (including the last Ayyubid of Saladin's dynasty), before finally taking personal control as Sultan, leading a hardened army of Mamluks from Egypt and Syria. He was a warlord who had built Egypt's military caste of slave soldiers (mamluk means slave) into a juggernaut that dominated without opposition, steamrollering both the crusaders and the Mongols invading from the east. To put that into perspective, the Mongols had recently blitzkrieged their way from China to Poland, slaughtering entire populations. No terror like it had ever been seen. In many cities, there was no one left to clear away the mountains of rotting bodies. When Baybars and his Mamluks defeated them in AD 1260 at Ain Jalut (in the Jezreel Valley, Galilee), it was the first time the massed Mongol forces had ever been convincingly beaten. It is little wonder that the Islamic world has always told stories of Baybars, whereas Saladin fell into relative obscurity until resuscitated by Western interest.
Saladin may have broken the crusaders' hearts, but it was Baybars who effectively snuffed out the crusade movement. As the news from Syria and Iraq in the last few weeks now makes clear, the complexion of the Levant region is changing again. The vacuum in Iraq and the disintegration of society in Syria have created new groups, alliances, and interests. We do well to remember that the region is one where nothing has ever stood still for long.
in The Telegraph
by: Dominic Selwood
Dr Dominic Selwood is a former criminal barrister, novelist and historian with a passion for the less visited corners of the archives. He is the author of the crypto-thriller, The Sword of Moses (2013), and the textbook on the Knights Templar, Knights of the Cloister (1999). He tweets as @DominicSelwood
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Luna Unrepentent On School Reform
After a crushing defeat for his so-called education reform, Superintendent Tom Luna issued this release this morning:
"I still believe that Idahoans want better schools through education reform. I still believe that empowering local school boards, phasing out tenure, giving parents input on evaluations, helping students take dual credit, paying teachers for more than just years of experience and amount of education, and making sure every classroom is a 21st Century Classroom are critical if we want an education system that meets the needs of every child. We have now had a 22-month discussion about what this should look like. I understand Idahoans have expressed concerns, yet I do not believe any Idahoan wants to go back to the status quo system we had two years ago. I am as committed as anyone to finding a way to make this happen. We must find a way because our children's future is at stake."
Question: Is Tom Luna absolutely tone deaf?
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text: The Leonard Lopate Show Edit this Published in The Leonard Lopate Show The Warrior Listen 17 min Queue Download this audio Want to embed this player? Use the code below. More info. <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="130" width="100%" src="https://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/wnyc/#file=/audio/json/51163/&share=1"></iframe> Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email a Friend Writer and director Asif Kapadia is gaining a reputation as one of Britain's most exciting new filmmakers. His ambitious first film, "The Warrior," is a samurai story set in India. It's just been released on DVD, along with his short film "The Sheep Thief," which won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Music: Kronos Quartet and Asha Bhosle Track 4: Ekta Deshlai Kathi Jwalao / Light a Match


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