Constellations

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Angel has called his blog page “Constellations” because his therapist Dr Bacon says that star patterns are a great way to understand how we  join the dots to try and make sense of everything. But he also points out that everyone sees different pictures in the stars. For example the Plough, often also known as the Big Dipper is just part of the Great Bear, Ursa Major (Prologue).

 

What’s more, the vast majority of stars aren’t part of any recognised constellation at all, and on a starry night any of us can dot to dot them to make patterns that seem meaningful to us. These stars are like the Unjoined Dots in the endnotes of Losing our Marbles? – dots looking for a story. Angel’s blog tries to join up some Unjoined Dots and find others – ideally quirky, humorous or unexpected fragments of history.

 

He is still in contact with the various people you will meet in Losing our Marbles?  and his blog posts include exchanges with them as well as his own notes and diary entries, so it’s perhaps a good idea to briefly remind you here who they are:

 

Inspector Panettone – the famous Italian mafia hunter who loves chess and idioms and is the only person listed here who is not a member of Tom’s History Mystery team.

 

Tom – the leader of the team with a special research interest in finding Atlantis.

 

Cassie –  a Greek  archeology student and recreational cat burglar who is an activist for the repatriation of ancient treasures.

 

Finn – an old school mate of Tom’s who gave up a meteoric banking career to join the team and is brilliant at maths and IT. 

 

Puk – A Danish astronomer descended from the legendary and eccentric Tycho Brahe.

 

Ming – An anthropology PHD student from Shang Hai who is investigating the Rapa Nui (formerly Easter Island) statues.

 

Boudicca – An experienced and fiery archeologist who specialises in field work. 

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A Taxing Matter
A strange and unnerving thing happened today. I received an envelope at my safe house address that was actually addressed to me. At first I thought it must be from Inspector Panettone as no one else knows...
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Mobster or Mibster?
Ciao Angel  I am playing Deep Blue the computer that beat Kasparov at chess and losing badly. It’s a bit dispiriting so I wondered if you would like to meet up for a game of marbles. I can bring...
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Feeling Fragile?
Over a period of several hundreds of years a surprising number of people in medieval times certainly did, not because of hangovers but because they thought they were made of glass. Many of those afflicted...
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Star Signs
Hi Angel You asked me to try and explain what Dr Bacon seems to be saying about constellations.  As you know my distant ancestor, Tycho Brahe, was a bit of a wild character and among other things...
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The History of History
Studying the odd corners of history has kept me going while in hiding so, as with history as a concept, the obvious place to start this blog is Herodotus. He has been a real inspiration for “Losing our...