With the appearance of American Pharoah in Vogue, the magazine considers the relationship of “Horse and Rider” in the inaugural exhibit of the online Vogue’s Gallery, a subject that dates from ancient times and that may see a resurgence with the Pharoah’s success.
Among my favorite horse-and-rider works are those involving Alexander the Great and his faithful steed Bucephalus – or “Ox-head,” for the white, ox-shaped marking on his forehead -- whom he tamed when he was just a boy. (Alexander noticed that the big, black stallion was afraid of his shadow and so turned his head toward the sun so he couldn’t see it. The story sounds like a legend, but many historians agree that it’s probably true. Bucephalus and Alexander were a team for many years until the horse died at age 26 in modern-day Pakistan, where he is said to be buried in a town named for him.) ...
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Read MoreVive la France and vive Pluto.
Tomorrow, July 14, Bastille Day (alias the Frenchy Fourth of July), New Horizons spacecraft will do its Pluto flyby. NASA TV will have a live broadcast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. EDT. But here’s the thing: We won’t know if the flyby has been successful – or if the probe, which looks like a grand piano wrapped in gold and silver foil, has hit debris and exploded – until 8:53 p.m. EDT when we get our first bit of data. We’ll get our first look at Charon, Pluto’s rival moon, at 7 a.m. EDT Wednesday, July 15. (Remember that Charon in Greek mythology is the ferryman who delivers the dead to Hades, or Pluto, lord of the underworld, so it’s all good in terms of keeping our mythological ducks in a row.) We’re also going to get a gander at Hydra, another of Pluto’s five moons. (And another Greco-Roman mythological reference: The Hydra was the seven-headed monster Herakles, or Hercules, had to battle.) Then at 3:25 p.m. Wednesday, finally, it’s Pluto time, with the little planet that could showing us its heart. (No, Pluto, we heart you.) ...
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Read MoreIn my debut novel “Water Music” – the story of the rivalries and loves among four gay athletes – Spyros Vyranos is a successful shipping executive in a country whose glory days seem momentarily long behind it.
“The money’s all in Russia and China these days,” Spyros complains bitterly to his son, Alexandros. That the continuing Greek fiscal crisis may be in large part of the Greeks own making is not lost on Alex, who has a strong sense of history and irony ...
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