Happy Columbus Day!

I’m not really going to wade too deeply into the whole brouhaha over whether Christopher Columbus discovered America or not; whether he was a visionary genius or a syphilitic old fool; whether he deserves credit for opening up a new world and a new era in history, or eternal condemnation for exploiting, enslaving and murdering the Indians; whether he and Queen Isabella ever did the dirty deed.

As my friend Alicia says on her blog, which you can link to over there on the left, nobody really celebrates Columbus day.

Babi Leto by Ondrej Richtářik

However, since I brought it up, here are my opinions on the subject:  depends on what you call discovered, visionary genius at the start, syphilitic old fool by the end, some credit, some condemnation, in appropriate measure, and nobody will ever know, which is probably exactly as they would have wanted it.

Anyway, I am much more concerned with how to feel about contemporary figures whose work I admire but who are personally less than admirable.  Why should I care about analyzing Columbus, when I´ve got Mel Gibson and Woody Allen to worry about?

It was a lovely Columbus day today.  Indian Summer or, as they call it here, Babi Leto. (Grandmother Summer).  The autumn leaves are growing thick on the ground but we are not yet so deep into autumn that their absence is noticeable from the trees.  In the midst of all the people who were sitting in the Metro in their almost winter coats, opened to reveal the sweater underneath because it was actually kind of warm, there was a boy, I’d guess about 16,  with a T-Shirt.  He was the most comfortable person there.