Diamonds and Details

Someone dear to me, Anthony Tully, has posted about the crowns at Napoleon's coronation. Since both jewels and history have a real fascination for me, it's a must see.

Mr. Tully is a well-respected and credentialed Pacific War historian. You can buy Shattered Sword, and be on the lookout for his upcoming book about the Battle of Leyte Gulf (from Indiana University Press). But he also really loves Late Roman Empire and Byzantine history (be still, Niketas Choniates). He's the only person I've ever known whose major question in heaven would be to know the location of the Chrysotriklinos in Constantinople. He has a real gift for narrowing down political discussions to the underlying issues, and an incredible eye for photographic detail, as can be inferred from the above post.

Mr. Tully is indeed the reason this blog of mine even exists; he set it up for me himself as I refused for over a year to have my own blog and to lift a finger setting one up. So you can go over to his and at least throw tomatoes for any time you have wasted reading one of my long-winded blog entries. He also posts about politics more than I do, so be sure to harass him (or not) for his political views. One can also read my comments (pseudonym Psych) to some of his posts when in full "go sit in the corner" mode, if one wants to see my debating rottweiler persona (here and here, downright rabid and talking to myself - one can see why I don't post about politics on my own blog).