Have a drink with: Thomas Nashe It was the merry month of February… Ask him about: Valentine’s Day plans Though he lived in Elizabethan England, Thomas Nashe was not an unfamiliar figure to modern thinking: in his twenties, Nashe was out of college, short on funds and trying to make it as a writer in…
Have a drink with: Leonardo da Vinci Polymath, painter, engineer, left-handed gay underdog genius Ask him about: flying psychic unicorn voyages of the mind The surgeon and writer Leonard Shlain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008 and died less than a year later, just a week after finishing the manuscript for his book “Leonardo’s…
Have a drink with: Queen Isabella of Spain Queen, ass-kicker, Rules girl, working mom Ask her about: kicking everyone out of Spain A few year-end lists recommended Kristin Downey’s biography of Queen Isabella, so lately I’ve been knee-deep in early modern Spain and a lot of questions about the famous lady. What is image-making and what…
Have a drink with: St. Teresa of Avila Reformer, mystic, dreamer, smart lady. Ask her about: that time she told the devil to piss off. I grew up thinking saints were terribly stodgy, righteous people who had somehow gotten themselves onto life’s “Do Not Call” list for doubt and temptation. It wasn’t until later in…
