Friday! A fine day for maritime disasters, casual clothes—and some quick weekend links.

Steven Hart calls Aleksandr Solzhenetsyn “unanswerably correct about one huge subject…and buffoonishly wrong about almost everything else.” I’m struck by how many great writers he could be describing.

JLJ at Per Omnia Saecula collaborates with her sister to bake medieval cookies.

The Economist notes the destruction of Beijing’s medieval streets and explains “why it still pays to study medieval English landholding and Sahelian nomadism.”

Planning a Roman holiday? Studenda Mira recommends the new Julius Caesar bio. (I do, too, by the way.)

If you didn’t get to take a summer vacation, let Wil Cone show you Provence and Switzerland.

Ephemeral in New York discovers the Jeanne d’Arc Home for “friendless French girls.”

Jake Seliger suggests that media pundits would benefit from reading The Best Software Writing.

How ’bout a Roger Miller video? Here’s Leroy Powell, giving “River in the Rain” the heartfelt cover it deserves.