Valentine’s Day morning sky, the slender Moon rising.
The recurring festival of love falls on a Saturday as it did ten years ago. What better to say about its theme than to quote again that anonymous lover who may have perished under the volcanic ash that buried Pompeii but whose graffito was preserved by it:
Quisquis amat valeat, pereat qui nescit amare.
Bis tanto pereat quisquis amare vetat.
Long live whoever loves! Perish who knows not how!
Whoever love forbids, twice over perish!
Still All Too Relevant
is our ironic Valentine to Vlad M’Dear. But Venezuela should be added to the empire-builders’ list, and it would be all too easy to throw in a few more nicknames for the emperors – Tantrump, Truculump, Rasputin.
__________
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or, if you click ‘Refresh’ or press function key 5, you’ll see the latest version.
Trumprodigy would be a fitting nickname.
Thanks for the awesome quote about love. I think it ‘s the greatest force in the universe.
Rick, your TruProfligate is rushing to ensure the destruction of human life and all life by throwing away the climate treaty and re-starting the nuclear arms race. No exaggeration. One egomaniac in power can now wreak far more damage than in the time of Napoleon.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/opinion/trump-nuclear-treaty-expired.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Trumprofligate. That’s funny.
Trump is like a bull in a china shop but I think he loves America and all people of the world. When America is strong it provides a deterrent to bad actors. It’s like the quote, “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”.
On the other hand, if you and the NY Times are right, Trump may just be a pawn paving the way for Jesus’ second coming to rule as the king of the Earth just before we all self-destruct.
Or the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a nuclear bomb is a good guy with a bigger nuclear bomb. The discredited doctrine known as MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction.
Copy that. (That’s trucker talk for I agree with what you said.)
BTW., I’ve been studying Astro Companion lately while eating dinner, particularly Position and Precession.
Thank you for all your amazing publications.
Your study of the Latin verse of the graffito reminds me orffully much of the musical setting of the Carmina Burana!
Yes, Orff cpuld have set “Quisquis amat” to music, but didn’t, did he? It remains for someone else to “find out its musical tune”.