Glass, Stone, Guns, Germs, and Steel

The April 2007 issue of Smithsonian magazine has only just made its way into my grubby hands. Allow me to recommend a number of articles:

Glass: A profile of vitreous sculptor Dale Chihuly, whose beguiling works can be seen in more detail here.

Stone: An article on the House of the Temple of the Scottish Rite, a formidable neo-Classical building in the heart of Washington, D.C., that is southern H.Q. to the Freemasons.

Guns and Germs: A report on the discovery of the lost settlement of Werewocomoco, where John Smith was held captive and later negotiated with Algonquian chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas.

Steel: A brief item on the Futurists, focusing on the works of Giacomo Bella.

The item on the Masons has an amusing reference to "Scottish Rite leader Albert Pike, a former Confederate general who spent 32 years developing Masonic rituals. Pike remains a controversial figure, with detractors alleging that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and a Satanist."

So, if the allegations are true, that would make him a Confederate general, a Freemason, a Klan member, and a Satanist. David Icke would have a field day.

I suspect he was just a joiner.