I know a little about the Mayan “calendar round,” and have an amateur-archeologist interest in Pre-Colombian cultures. I’ve had conversations with people who actually believe the movie and book hype, promulgated by people who’ve taken a distorted view of Mayan texts in order to sell more books or movie tickets. The Mayans believed that time was organized like a set of nested, revolving rings; they were trying to keep both lunar and solar time, and they were such keen astronomers that they worked out the cyclic nature of how the two sets of rings synced up in 52-year “short count”…
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We went to a really charming Winebar up in Antioch, IL to see our friend Jon play guitar and sing at a wine tasting. While browsing the racks, I came across a bottle of Viognier in the "Other" appellation section. We’re fans of the James May/Oz Clarke shows on BBCAmerica; one of Clarke’s favorite types of wines is Viognier, which he loved to pronounce just to wind James up. Dutifully, I over pronounced "Vee-OHN-yeh. Vee-OHN-yeh." But we bought an inexpensive Pinot Noir-based sparkling wine anyway at the owner’s recommendation, because she said it paired well with savory holiday foods. We…