THE PAGE TURNS

November 19, 2025November 20, 2025

Not Going Gentle (Part I): Mose Triplett

These are tough times. But we are a tough people, we humans. I came across a story last week about how strong people can be, how they can–as Faulkner said–endure the most extraordinary things. Sometimes we’re just too ornery to quit.

It was a rabbit hole, and I am infamous for not knowing when to stop. The rabbits multiplied in their little warren so much that this became two stories. If you like human interest stories, I promise this pays off.

The starting point was two weeks ago, when I failed a little history quiz. It was the Saturday Times Flashback test, the one where you have to put historical events in order. This ought to be my wheelhouse, but there’s always that one trick question that mars my perfect score and makes me curse the quiz-writer.

For this November 8th quiz, you had to guess the approximate date for when was “the last Civil War pension check distributed”? You had hints–it was either before or after 1957 and before or after 1823. I thought I had this one for sure! Definitely before 1957 but after 1823. A man was in the Civil War, let’s say as young as age 15, then his child maybe was born as late as 1880 and died in… NOPE! Not even close. She was born in 1930 and died in 2020. WTF?!? Yes, WTF indeed.

That was just the start of this intriguing story about the father Mose and the daughter Irene. Most of the info we have is about Mose, who fought in the Civil War–on both sides. Much of the legwork was laid out in a 2014 a Daily Mail story augmented by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael M. Phillips. Irene was tracked down by Lorraine Orton, a historian with the Women’s Relief Corps, and her husband Jerry, who found Irene after thirty years in a nursing home.

The news articles follow the journalist rules, laying out key known facts. But I find myself trying to understand the people. What kind of a person does THIS? What kind of a person could live through THAT? Today: “Uncle” Mose’s story. Tomorrow: Lydia and Irene’ story.

October 15, 2025November 20, 2025

Don’t Overlook Hamburg

“We don’t fly to Hamburg,” the woman with the fancy-schmancy cruise service told me. “It’s not a tourist destination. For an extra fee…”

I disagree. Not with the fee, though I didn’t like to pay it, but of course I did because I wanted to go visit my son in his temporary home, Hamburg. What I disagree with is the disdain for the touristability of Hamburg. This city has a lot to see, do, and–most especially–eat. It may not quite be a tiny, picturesque village, but what it lacks in castles, it makes up for in Franzbrötchen. Plenty of cathedrals. Views to die for. Bakeries up the wazoo. Places for children and places with no children allowed. Herein, I will make the case for Hamburg. The post’s a bit long, but at the end of my travels, so think of it as a summary of all things German.

Keep Your Apple Store, We’ve Got A Particle Accelerator

First of all, Hamburg has world class scientific facilities. Not in a giant megalith concrete building like in Thunderbolts or The Incredibles. This one’s in an office park, lined with lovely trees and walkable, rather than the car-park laden Silicon Valley offices, famous for refrigerators stocked with free Red Bull, bouncy ball pits, and 20-year-old millionaires.

Entrance to DESY, photo from wikipedia because my son was talking too fast past the guard for me to take a picture.

October 10, 2025October 17, 2025

Up the Main/Rhine: Restoration

Marksburg Castle, a rare, preserved medieval castle in Germany. Kajmeister photo.

What is our responsibility to the past? Must we remember things as they were, and, if we must, how and why?

Yesterday, we visited the “last remaining medieval castle” in Germany. But other cities and other castles had been destroyed and rebuilt. Art had been hidden in bunkers, then replaced with missing bits filled in. The famous castles along the Rhine were mostly built after 1850, and you can tell the medieval English style chosen for design from the medieval German style chosen, by 19th century architects. The Germans have found many ways to embrace their past. How do they approach their history, and can we learn from it?

Recreating What Was

As we walked around Marksburg castle, a historical site near Koblenz on the Rhine in western Germany, our guide kept emphasizing that these were the original timbers, the authentic tapestries, the slippery stone steps that prevented attack, which have never been improved in nearly a thousand years. Imagine storming this medieval castle! Imagine the duke sleeping upright in the tiny bed or using the stone toilet in the Great Hall while the door was open!

Tourist sites emphasize these ideas of real, authentic, preserved, or original. But much of what we’ve seen in Germany had decayed or had been destroyed and was decidedly not original. Does it matter? Germany makes the argument repeatedly that it does not matter whether it is authentic or original. What matters is the memory.