"We call them 'Amusement Influencers' now," the man explained. "They cobble and post on Instagram." "And the reindeer?" "Well, Blitzen left our crew to go into Bitcoin. And Rudolph's red nose?" "Yes?" "Glows with a Waze guidance system now, so's I don't go down any wrong chimneys. Things change. Like your daughters," he told me. "I see they're grown. Can't just put dolls under the tree anymore. But I get reports. They're both smart, funny and kind."
One time fairly recently, I was at a drive-thru and my total was something like $15.05. I handed the kid a $20 and a nickel that I had dug out of my change stash. He proceeded to start counting out coins from his drawer. I tried to help him understand that he just needed to give me a $5 bill, and he looked at me with the most incredulous
In the Middle Ages, the moon was often imagined as a radiant and alluring deity. We will look at medieval literary and artistic depictions of two moon goddesses from different parts of the world: Chang'e and Diana. Both Chang'e and Diana are presented as deeply powerful and immensely beautiful, and they appear in many different contexts. What follows draws on research from my new book The Medieval Moon: A History of Haunting and Blessing, which studies the moon from a global perspective.