2004-11-28...I bought this in Florence, and read it in Venice. Heather read it on the plane home. Before our trip to Italy I had a deep ignorance. I won't embarrass myself directly by revealing some of the things I did, or rather, didn't know, but I was less endowed with clue then one should be.

Now I am slightly less unendowed with clue.

From the Amazon review:

Filippo Brunelleschi's design for the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence remains one of the most towering achievements of Renaissance architecture. Completed in 1436, the dome remains a remarkable feat of design and engineering. Its span of more than 140 feet exceeds St Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome, and even outdoes the Capitol in Washington, D.C., making it the largest dome ever constructed using bricks and mortar. The story of its creation and its brilliant but "hot-tempered" creator is told in Ross King's delightful Brunelleschi's Dome.

The point of these 'reviews' is to serve as a reminder to myself of things read...so pardon the lack of original comment... In Italy I worked hard to not buy every darn book that caught my eye in every gift shop. Too often we suffer from 'last exhibit syndrome' where you feel that where you are is the most interesting place you've ever been, and so well worth investing the money, and the time! to buy and read books about that place.

I managed to escape the Colosseum book store without a purchase-though if the catalog for the exhibit had been available in English I would have bought it!, but Finally I cracked in Florence. I didn't buy 'Symbols in Christian Art' at San Marcos, but later I bought Brunelleschi's dome, and glad I was for it.

This is a fun and readable account of one part of Renaissance Florence.

What if predators 'decided' that harvesting flesh from their prey, while not killing the prey outright, was a superior survival strategy? And so developed the ability to infect the prey with a 'virus' that would protect the prey from death, even as huge chunks of meat were 'harvested' from the prey?

That would be part of the premise of The Skinner. So ho-ho-ho merry christmas to you all.