The Sorrows We Bear: Personal and national grief

Click Here to Read: The Sorrows We Bear: Personal and national grief by Elliot Kirschner on his through the Fog website by February 18, 2026.

Abraham Lincoln. Moses Parker Rice (1839-1925), possibly one of Gardner’s former assistants, copyrighted this portrait in the late nineteenth century, along with other photographs by Gardner.  Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

Click Here to Read: Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) Art, beauty, and terror in perfect rhythm by Robert Goodman on the Spoken Word Poetry Substack on January 28, 2026.

Edgar Allan Poe. Image: W.S. Hartshorn (1848 daguerreotype). C.T. Tatman (1904 photo of a c. 1848-1860 photo of daguerreotype missing since 1860).  Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The strange tale of Sigmund Freud’s begonia: How the gift of a plant helped Emma Freud finally get to know her great-grandfather

Click Here to Read: The strange tale of Sigmund Freud’s begonia: How the gift of a plant helped Emma Freud finally get to know her great-grandfather By Emma Freud in The Observer on  January 2,  2026.

Love Actually With Richard Curtis LukeParkerBowles and EmmaFreud Photo courtesy of Neil Grabowsky, Montclair Film Festival. Image: Montclair Film.  Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Dante and Milton, Religion and Politics

Click Here to Read:  Dante and Milton, Religion and Politics: Four centuries and a thousand miles apart, each epic poet was traumatized by bloody factional strife that tore his country to pieces. One craved a worldwide monarchy. The other supported a regicide by Jamey Hecht on his Substack on January 6, 2026.

Gustav Doré, Satan Confronting Sin and Death at the Gates of Hell, c 1880. Woodcut on wove paper by Francois Pannemaker and Albert Doms. Collection of the Satanic Temple.  Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.