Born in the American Midwest, a son of European immigrants, ordained in the Episcopal Church, with U.S. and Swiss nationality, I currently live mainly in Vienna and Paris. For many years, I lived in New Orleans and I continue to have a great passion for that wondrous place, its people and its culture, and I maintain a foothold there. I blog under the name Jacobus Ursinus after the 16th century Reformed theologian with my last name and who used Ursinus as a Latinized version of that name. This was a common 16c practice among persons who traveled frequently among various cultures and languages, I revive the practice and blog as Jacobus Ursinus a Latinized version of my middle and last names. My 21c American name is Walter Jacob Baer.