Following Congressional approval on January 11, 1905, the Indian Wars Campaign Medal was authorized for wear by US Army personnel via General Order 12 in 1907. The medal was awarded for service in a variety of campaigns and engagements against Indian tribes throughout the western states between 1865 and 1891. Personnel qualified for award of … Continue reading
OK, sure, they weren’t as bad as those concentration camps established by the Nazis or the British when they were fighting the Boers in South Africa. However, these camps established by the United States during World War II (and euphemistically referred to as “War Relocation Centers”) were not exactly holiday resorts either… The first step … Continue reading
I discovered this in an antique shop and thought it was interesting enough to merit sharing with my dear readers… This bottle, made during the Prohibition era, was designed to look like a piece of wood so that it could be hidden in a pile of firewood or the equivalent: For my foreign readers that … Continue reading
In 1841, a few months before his death (in a pistol duel with a fellow officer at the foot of Mount Mashuk in the Caucasus), Mihail Lermontov (1814-41) composed a remarkably prophetic poem: In noon’s heat, in a dale of Dagestan, With lead inside my breast, stirless I lay; The deep wound still smoked on; … Continue reading
Article By Bernie Debusmann Dubai means many things to many people. There is the Dubai of the Burj Khalifa, of seven-star resorts, of drunken western tourists and of rich young Arab men with expensive cars and pet lions. There are the vibrant neighborhoods of Dubai’s largest diaspora communities, where you are more likely to hear … Continue reading
Ilya Repin Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire, 1891 This painting, which Repin began in 1880 and did not complete until 1891, is also known as Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto. The painting, which now hangs in the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg, measures almost … Continue reading
Merchants In One Of Dubai’s Souqs Photo by Eleonora Giuliani Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 