And so the Byzantine Empire comes to a violent end.

Brought to a close largely because of differences between the western and eastern Christian churches. Not to mention the ongoing trade war between Genoa and Venice.

So where to take the reading next?

The Papacy?

Venice?

More Byzantium?

Medieval theological disputes?

Beats me. Time to return these books and see what else my brother has on his shelves.

UPDATE: For kicks, Tony, I found Justinian by Turteltaub for $4 used.

Blogger James Joyner lost his wife early this morning to an unknown cause. She was 41.

Last trip to the library, I picked up Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend, written by Egyptologist Dr. Joann Fletcher.

Apparently, there's a resurgence of interest in Cleo. There's a touring exhibit in the US now, focusing on underwater excavations in coastal Egypt.

There's another biography by Stacy Schiff.

What I learned from this book: If you wish to wear your snake arm bracelets in the manner of Ptolemaic and Roman ladies, the one on the right curls up the arm and the one on the left curls down.

And, as I haven't read a lot of Roman history of the period, the Fletcher biography does a good job of elucidating the politics surrounding the death of Julius Caesar and the aftermath.

World history has been charted by a murderous bunch, including Cleopatra VII, Living Isis, Female Horus, the Great One, Lady of the Two Lands.

Can't we just skip all this and go straight to the turkey gumbo Lyman plans for tomorrow?

The boys are fans of the classic green bean casserole.

I'm not. As a compromise, today we're trying Cheddar Green Bean Casserole. I'm sure it will go over well. Son1 will eat boot soles with cheese on them.

Now, I like fried turkey as much as the next Louisianan, but look at these costs:

3 gallons cooking oil $25.00
Refill butane gas $25.00
Injection kit $ 4.00
13 lb. turkey $13.00

Total $67.00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am tempted to try Homesick Texan's recipe for Sweet Potato Salad with Cranberries and Pecans this Thanksgiving.

I registered for the free features of the Financial Times a while ago.

A few days ago the magazine offered a few headlines that might be of interest. I followed one and came upon this odd story about an art forger who creates pieces to donate to museums.

The forger, who sometimes passes himself off as a Jesuit priest, claims that his motivation is to honor his deceased parents. He feels that they weren't suitably recognized in life.

Of course he's southern. We do eccentric.

Reid Stott's granddaughter Cecily revels in "princess power."

Isn't she a hoot?

All right, then. Dessert is settled.

I tried Dave Schuler's recipe for Pumpkin Chiffon Pie. It whips up into a light, fluffy, spicy pumpkin treat. I plan to serve the filling only in dessert glasses. Dave recommends gingersnaps as a garnish.

Anyone have a good gingersnap recipe?

Nix the satsuma tarts. Flat-tasting for my purposes.

I do not like this part of planning the luncheon. I don't even like sweets.

A standard Owari satsuma:

And so Charles isn't jealous because "You put Lucy's picture on the Internet but didn't put mine," here's one of him:

Here's Lucy today:

No headline from today. I use papers our friend G. collects for us.

Here's the crazily generous dwarf satsuma tree:

Here is Lucy last month:

And today is a housekeeping day. I ran across this quote from Phyllis Diller:

Children are allowed to write their names in the dust, just not the year.

No tarts today. I've been bird wrangling, bribing, intimidating and watching.

Once a month, I roll the cages onto the back patio to give them a good cleaning and disinfection with a garden hose and Pet Focus.

Charles is not a cage-bound bird but, like the other Gore boys, he resents any disruption of his fun for something as vulgar as cleaning. It took two hours for him to come out of and off his cage and into the lexan cage (which he happily lived in for years) so I could roll the big wire cage out.

Idiot child, I planned to give it back.

It took half an hour to clean the cage.

Because Lucy is so much more tractable, she spent most of the overcast but warm afternoon outside.

A couple of cats turned up at a safe distance. Their brains must have been working overtime: bird, bird, bird, water, water, bird, water. I said loudly, "I like kitties fine but I ain't never met one that deserved an $800 dinner."

A NOTE: The other day Charles said, "I want a bath. ::snicker, snicker, snicker::"

Birds.

I tried Cleo Coyle's Colonial Cranberries a couple of days ago. Lyman said, "I would not order this twice from a menu."

And I agree. Perhaps as an unusual side dish. So that's that.

But in e-mail we have Satsuma Tarts.

The trees are loaded with fruit just about ripe. The Christmas luncheon is Dec 9 this year, so they will be available.

LSU 9. Alabama 6.

The boy makes a difference.

Look at that.

Yikes. The jury was given the case at midday on Tuesday.