Month: September 2023

The Battle of the Sexes (1973)

Though she won 67 tournament titles in her career, American tennis player Billie Jean King is perhaps best known for the “Battle of the Sexes” against former champion Bobby Riggs. In 1973, Riggs emerged from retirement and defeated Margaret Court in a nationally televised match. Proclaiming the superiority of the male athlete over the female no matter what the age, he challenged Billie Jean King, who accepted and routed him in three straight sets. How many people reportedly watched the match? Discuss

Upton Sinclair (1878)

Sinclair was a prolific American novelist and socialist activist who wrote over 90 books, including The Jungle, a best-selling muckraking exposé of conditions in the Chicago meat-packing industry that aroused public indignation and resulted in the passage of food inspection laws in the US. He also organized a socialist reform movement in the 1930s and won the Democratic nomination for governor of California but was defeated in 1934. For what book was Sinclair awarded the Pulitzer Prize? Discuss

The Death of Marat

The Death of Marat, painted by Jacques-Louis David, depicts the 1793 assassination of radical journalist and revolutionary activist Jean-Paul Marat and is one of the most famous images of the French Revolution. Marat was stabbed while writing in his bathtub, and his murderer’s name is written on the paper he holds in the painting. David’s representation of this scene is reminiscent of depictions of Christian martyrs in religious works. What is the political significance of this imagery? Discuss

Giles Corey Pressed to Death during Salem Witch Trials (1692)

Martha Corey was a Massachusetts woman hanged for the crime of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. A pious churchgoer, she had refused to confess but was convicted anyway. Her husband, Giles Corey, was also eventually accused but refused to enter a plea at his trial. In an attempt to make him enter a plea, he was pressed beneath an increasingly heavy load of stones. He died two days before his wife’s execution. What did Giles reportedly reply each time he was asked for his plea? Discuss

William Golding (1911)

Praised for his highly imaginative and original writings, Golding was a British author whose works focus on the eternal nature of man. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983 and was knighted in 1988. In his best-known work, the allegorical Lord of the Flies, he described the nightmarish adventures of a group of English schoolboys stranded on an island and traced their degeneration from a state of innocence to blood lust and savagery. What else did he write? Discuss

Olive Oil

Traditionally, olive oil, a yellow to greenish vegetable oil, was produced by crushing olives in mortars or beam presses. Modern processing involves mixing a ground olive paste with water, and extracting the oil using a centrifuge. The olive tree is native to the Mediterranean basin, where olive oil has been used for millennia as lighting fuel, anointing oil, and in food preparation. Recent scientific evidence suggests olive oil may reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes; how? Discuss