Arnold Arboretum is a gorgeous public garden S of Boston favored by longboarders, botanists, and parents. Well worth a visit if you’re ever in town, but do it when things are blooming.

BHodges, as the first to vote, you win the lottery and natural philosophy will be up next.

I never win anything, so this is obviously a treat!

Rick’s reference to Alonzo Potter and his sermon to the missionary association for seaman reminds me of the Seaman’s Church Institute here in New York, which “advocates for the personal, professional, and spiritual well being of merchant mariners around the world”. In our neighborhood, there was a Norwegian Seaman’s Church (now, alas, converted into condominum apartments) and a google search of seaman’s church pulled up references to Swedish and Danish seaman’s churches.

It seems that the sailors of the world were viewed as being in serious need of salvation. I suspect that these churches grew up in an attempt to provide entertainment and fellowship for sailors at someplace other than the tavern and the brothel.

Researcher beat me to it in #8. I had that thought immediately. With 6 kids, it’s hard not to jump to that conclusion.

Researcher, I had to Google Albus Severus Potter. (I’m afraid my cultural references are pre-1980.) Once I understood the reference, I laughed.

At some point in the conversation I said, “And who is A. Potter?”

“Albus Severus Potter,” replied my 12 year old without missing a beat.

Nicholas Murray was a Presbyterian minister who wrote a series of letters (signed under the pseudonym Kirwan) to Bishop John Hughes of the Catholic Diocese of New York, in 1847, explaining how he had moved from being a little Irish Catholic boy to Presbyterianism. I guess that Cartas de Kirwan is a collection of those letters–translated into Spanish?

There’s a great description of those letters in Rev. Murray’s obituary, which appeared in Harper’s Weekly, February 23, 1861.