Saturday Photo: The Dude Who Divided the World..

The painting is of Pope Alexander VI (born Rodrigo de Borja, into the infamous/famous Borgia family) adoring the Christ Child, while Mary looks on.  Pietro Facettio was the artist, who reportedly made the mother of Christ look like one of Alexander's mistresses...

Quite a dude, that guy.   But setting aside his questionable morals, he is notable for dividing the world between Spain and Portugal at the beginning of the age of European exploration.  He's the reason why Brazil speaks Portuguese and the rest of Latin America speaks Spanish: the territory east of his line went to Portugal and the rest to Spain.

That's only part of the story, of course, but I'm giving it attention today because maybe, finally, after a half dozen attempts, we've come up with a title of my next book which, among other things, deals with the great linguistic divide.  We're calling it Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States.   Stay tuned for more info...