Michael Flynn's Blog, page 68

John Thomas Flynn

The 24th of July

Yeah, I know it's the 25th, but I'm behind. 

John Thomas Flynn, my grandfather's grandfather, was born in the early 1840s to Martin Flynn of Loughrea, Co. Galway, and his wife Honora Mahoney.  Martin was born ca. 1803 in either Loughrea or the nearby townland of Kilnadeema.  There are Flynns today still living in that area, and other scattered from Australia to Canada to Britain.  The story, told by a John Flynn of Ballinlough, Co. Roscommon, the old stronghold of the O'Flainn...

Why Amateurs Should Avoid Tampering

The Silly Season

The Wall Street Journal mentions:
The General Court of Massachusetts "is poised to give final approval this week to a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote," the Boston Globe reports:

Under the proposed law, all 12 of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.

If only they'd thought of this 40 years a...

This Writing Life

Who Do You Write Like?

Or is that Whom do you write like? 

Paste a sample of your writing into the box here: iwl.me/b/d7939cdb

and it will tell you which other writer your text resembles. 

I tried out the opening scene from IN THE LION'S MOUTH

The winds whistling o’er the breasts of the Dōngodair Hills carry much of the loneliness that can be found in those remote peaks and scatter it like pollen across the eastern plains, so that the Beastie boys, and the Nolan Beasts they tend, suck it in...

Beware

the Awesome Power of the Mega-Blimp of Death! 


America's battleship of the skies! 

Although a flying aircraft carrier for airplanes seems odd.  Don't the planes already fly?  For symmetry with naval aircraft carriers, perhaps the Akron could have carried little boats. 
I notice the footer runs: "Inventions for September."  The heart skips a beat wondering what they might invent for October. 

Hypatia IX

Continued from Part VIII

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part IX
The Sources

1.       Synesius.  The Letters.  Contemporary.  The primary source for Hypatia’s teachings.  Some interpretation is required because Neoplatonists kept their teachings largely occult.  The letters do not cover the events in Alexandria leading up to her murder. 

2.       Socrates Scholasticus.  Ecclesiastical History.  Contemporary.  He covers major events preceding and including the murder and provides a...

Hypatia

Continued from Part VII

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part VIII
The Aftermath

Scholasticus, writing in Constantinople at about the same time as the murder, tells us that Cyril and the whole Alexandrian church came under opprobrium because of this.  Whose opprobrium?  That of the opposing party of Orestes, for one – and that included most of the better classes in Alexandria.  Outside of Alexandria, there was Antioch, always butting theological heads with Alexandria.  And...

Hypatia VII

Continued from Part VI

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part VII
Murder Most Foul

AD 414/416.  Rumors Fly in the Naked City.  Why is Orestes so obstinate?  Why will he not make kissy-face with Cyril?  Rumors begin to circulate that Hypatia is the obstacle.  It is her counsel that keeps the prefect at odds with the patriarch, and therefore perpetuates unrest in the City. 

An account written two centuries later states that she was also rumored to be a witch and magician, but neither...

Hypatia VI

Continued from Part V

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part VI
The Feud of Cyril and Orestes

AD 412  A Fateful Year.  Orestes becomes the new prefect of Egypt.  He meets Hypatia (now aged 57) and they become friends.  Perhaps, like other important officials, he attends some of her public seminars.  In any case, he consults with her (as with other important citizens) on public questions.  Later that same year (15 October) Theophilus dies.  He had opposed the Novatians and pagans...

Hypatia V

Continued from Part IV

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part V
After Graduation: The Calm Before the Storm

AD 395.  The Augustus Theodosius dies.  He has already appointed his two sons as Augusti to succeed him: Honorius in the West; Arcadius (left) in the East.  No one realizes it quite yet; but the Empire will never again be united. 

AD 395/6.  Synesius returns home.  The next year, he is part of the Pentapolitan embassy to Constantinople.  While in the capital, he is baptized.&nbsp...

Hypatia IV

Continued from Part III

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part IV
The Teachings of Hypatia

 

AD 392-395.  Synesius and his friends study with Hypatia.  There is no evidence that Synesius and his chums took part in the Serapeum affair.  Synesius’ oldest surviving letter is dated to AD 394, two years after the riot and the consequent imperial edict.  Neither was Hypatia there.  She was prominent enough that if she had spoken up in defense of the pagans, it would have been mentioned by...