View from my perch

Willem Lange

Willem Lange is one of several interesting and "semi-famous" people my wife and I met on our recent trip to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Mr. Lange was there with a crew from New Hampshire Public Television working on a program about Broad-winged Hawk migration. He is the host of a program on that network entitled Windows to the Wild. To quote from that site, "this beautifully filmed program presents some of New England’s most unique natural environments." Because we live in California, we are not going to be seeing those programs unless we make a trip to New England. Mr. Lange recommended a visit to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, so perhaps during a trip there we will catch an episode or two.

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

The Vatican claimed Edgardo Mortara, who was Jewish, had been secretly baptized when he was two years old by a servant who wanted to save his soul. In 1858, when Edgardo was six, the Vatican ordered that the boy be taken from his home in Bologna, then a papal state, to be raised Catholic. In the face of an international outcry, Pope Pius IX adopted the boy.

This story is told in an episode of the PBS mini-series Secret Files of The Inquisition. It draws on the book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, by David I. Kertzer.