[Boston-area] Ride Request

Hi,

Next Friday (Mar. 21st) I'm flying out of Logan. I have to be at the airport around 2pm. Is there someone in the Boston area who'd be willing to give me a lift? I'd arrange to meet you in town somewhere (and my capable wife will handle getting my car back).

Then, on Sunday (Mar. 30th), around 3pm, I could use a lift back.

These don't have to be the same people (although it's handy if they are).

If you can help out, let me know.
Thanks
Tom

[Boston-area] Ride Request

Hi,

Next Friday (Mar. 21st) I'm flying out of Logan. I have to be at the airport around 2pm. Is there someone in the Boston area who'd be willing to give me a lift? I'd arrange to meet you in town somewhere (and my capable wife will handle getting my car back).

Then, on Sunday (Mar. 30th), around 3pm, I could use a lift back.

These don't have to be the same people (although it's handy if they are).

If you can help out, let me know.
Thanks
Tom

Off on the Road to a Book Review

Hey,

So, I’ve been reading a fair amount of dramatic works by Ben Jonson, but I’ve managed to pull in Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk. I read the older University of Amherst press edition from 1980, the more recent 2006 version might have been updated.

But basically, this is the story of the archaeological looting of China in the early 1900s by teams of British, German, French, Russian, Japanese and American explorers. The hellish deserts of Eastern China once contained a number of flourishing city-states and kingdoms that formed around a series of oasis on the northern and southern fringes of the desert. These would become the vital links of the Silk Road as well as a hotbed of cultural influences. When the high mountain glaciers whose runoff watered the cities melted away, the cities were abandoned and gobbled up by the desert where the dry winds buried and then preserved the wall paintings, statutes and books left behind.

At the turn of the century, these ruins were uncovered and set off a race between various archaeological adventurers, all anxious to find and claim vast hordes of ancient art and artifacts. They’d go racing into the desert in the winter (apparently severe frostbite was considered a better risk than roasting to death), dig up huge large ruins and pull out everything they could find (including sawing off the wall paintings).

Eventually, China wised up to what was going on and closed their borders, but not before tons of material had been spirited away. A great deal of it lies nearly forgotten in the British Museum and some of the most impressive wall paintings were destroyed by Allied bombing in WWII. Sadly, many of the sites still remaining in China were later vandalized by various groups that inhabited the area, although a number remain intact.

It’s an interesting book. A little dry, though, and most characters get pretty short sketches. But there’s a lot of interesting characters jostling in the region so perhaps a quick overview is all that can be spared. It certainly makes for some interesting reading about a little known part of the world.

It also makes me want to run an Ars Magica game where lost magical kingdoms are buried in the dunes and the magi must make perilous runs out into the wastes to dig up ancient treasures and then puzzle out what they do once they get home.

later
Tom

Off on the Road to a Book Review

Hey,

So, I’ve been reading a fair amount of dramatic works by Ben Jonson, but I’ve managed to pull in Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk. I read the older University of Amherst press edition from 1980, the more recent 2006 version might have been updated.

But basically, this is the story of the archaeological looting of China in the early 1900s by teams of British, German, French, Russian, Japanese and American explorers. The hellish deserts of Eastern China once contained a number of flourishing city-states and kingdoms that formed around a series of oasis on the northern and southern fringes of the desert. These would become the vital links of the Silk Road as well as a hotbed of cultural influences. When the high mountain glaciers whose runoff watered the cities melted away, the cities were abandoned and gobbled up by the desert where the dry winds buried and then preserved the wall paintings, statutes and books left behind.

At the turn of the century, these ruins were uncovered and set off a race between various archaeological adventurers, all anxious to find and claim vast hordes of ancient art and artifacts. They’d go racing into the desert in the winter (apparently severe frostbite was considered a better risk than roasting to death), dig up huge large ruins and pull out everything they could find (including sawing off the wall paintings).

Eventually, China wised up to what was going on and closed their borders, but not before tons of material had been spirited away. A great deal of it lies nearly forgotten in the British Museum and some of the most impressive wall paintings were destroyed by Allied bombing in WWII. Sadly, many of the sites still remaining in China were later vandalized by various groups that inhabited the area, although a number remain intact.

It’s an interesting book. A little dry, though, and most characters get pretty short sketches. But there’s a lot of interesting characters jostling in the region so perhaps a quick overview is all that can be spared. It certainly makes for some interesting reading about a little known part of the world.

It also makes me want to run an Ars Magica game where lost magical kingdoms are buried in the dunes and the magi must make perilous runs out into the wastes to dig up ancient treasures and then puzzle out what they do once they get home.

later
Tom