St Mary’s church in my hometown of Youghal in County Cork, Ireland, is a venerable pile dating from Norman times. Standing before the altar gazing down the length of the nave to the great west door, one can detect, high above and slightly to the right, a small opening. From this vantage point many centuries ago the town’s lepers, reaching the opening by a special entry, could peek out at the devotions of the notables and merchants clustered below. Hence the ancient name for such an opening, ‘the leper’s squint’. Such is the vantage point available to leftists in America today.
Excerpted from the Golden Age is in Us, by the late Alexander Cockburn, who I suspect didn't particularly mind being the town leper. He certainly had one hell of a squint. I'll miss him.
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