The Essential Nostradamus: Richard SmoleyFrom his predictions about life and death in the French court of Catherine de' Medici to his uncannily suggestive preconceptions of World War II, Michel de Nostradamus has aroused continual fascination and commercialization in the West. Today, many search his elliptical "centuries" or collected verses for new truths about 9 11 and End Times, while supermarket tabloids routinely falsify and exploit his pronouncements. What is the difference between