Friday, January 13, 2012
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Out of Spite...... Pure Spite !!
That City Hall forget to send me my tax bill this year I can live with , that the Maritime Loto not pick my ticket is OK likewise .... I've even managed to get over the Santa Claus scam....However , that my so-called best friend forget my recent birthday.... Well that was the proverbial frosting on the well-known cake !! So therefore , it is with great spite , yeah out of even greater and purer spite .....and mulish stubbornness to boot.....that I wish him publicly today ... the 27th of January , 2010 .... a very Happy 71st Birthday. Have a wonderful day , Bill .... talk to you later !!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
A Tale of Two Almas !!
I find myself truly blessed in having two old family friends still alive and kicking... well , not kicking too high though !! not anything like a couple of young mules !! The older of the two is Alma Scott , my Mom's best childhood friend and bridesmaid at my parents' wedding in 1933. She turned 101 last September 25th and is presently lodged in an old folk's home not far from here. I visit her on and off and am always greeted by her adorable smile and a big " Ah ! Josie's boy , Gerd ! " .....
The second Alma ( in red above ) is Alma Joyce , the last sibling of the Joyce family still alive . This whole family ... parents included ... were among the closest friends my parents had... even tighter than kin. They were part and parcel of my childhood years.. I grew up in their midst. Alma slipped me my first drink when I was 17 years old.. a bit of a confident and a real live wire as she was 22 years older than me. Alma turned 97 last October 16th and is still as sharp as a whip. They are making her take these psychology tests nowadays to make sure she is still apt to make rational decisions about her life.... so I bought her a couple of bags of marbles to put in her purse and shall take them to her tomorrow. The next time one of the so-called psych students shows up with a questionnaire for her she'll simply say , " So you've come to see whether I still have all my marbles , I guess .....well , check my purse over there and I think you'll find my marbles are all there and accounted for ! " This should take the wind out of their sails.
P.S. The little man who looks like Doc Halladay is Uncle Mack... Gerry McElwaine , my Dad's best friend and best man et his wedding..
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Philosophically Yours
What a day for blogging ! A wild noreaster has been swirling and dumping its fair share of snow our way since early morning..... creating almost white-out conditions, Great moment to curl up with a good book and get that warm and fuzzy feeling back. The book I'm reading is entitled Caesar and Christ by Will Durant , one of eleven volumes in the collection The Story of Civilization ...... the monumental work I hope to finish sometime before the hearse pulls up at the front door , a pleasureful exercise which for me not only entails reading the tomes as such but also delving into every nook and cranny of the footnotes and cross references given within.
A while ago I came upon the following passage on page 385 as I browsed through a subsection dealing with " games " and punishments for thieves and other common criminels which normally took place in the huge amphitheatres of Rome........ and my warm and fuzzy feeling went cold ! .... my blood too !!
" Laureolus , a robber , was crucified in the arena for the amusement of the populace; but as he took too long in dying , a bear was brought in and was persuaded to eat him , piece by piece , as he hung upon the cross.Martial describes the spectacle with fascination and approval. Martial , De Spectaculis , VII "
I was struck by Durant's use of the words " fascination and approval " in Martial's treatment of the terrible punishment so I went to the source itself. From my classical Latin days I remembered Marcus Valerius Martialis ( Martial ) as the master of the epigram... a clever quip or short , witty statement.... after so many years away from " things Latin ". He was a satirist and a poet but I could not imagine him as being cruel as such. So here is what he wrote back in the 1st century AD with scholarly translation by experts. You be the judge ...
Qualiter in Scythica religatus rupe Prometheus
adsiduam nimio pectore pauit auem,
nuda Caledonia sic uiscera praebuit urso
non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus.
Viuebant laceri membris stillantibus artus 5
inque omni nusquam corpore corpus erat.
Denique supplicium dignum tulit: ille parentis
uel domini iugulum foderat ense nocens,
templa uel arcano demens spoliauerat auro,
subdiderat saeuas uel tibi, Roma, faces. 10
Vicerat antiquae sceleratus crimina famae,
in quo, quae fuerat fabula, poena fuit.
VII. ON LAUREOLUS.1
As first, bound down upon the Scythian rock, Prometheus with ever-renewed vitals feasted the untiring vulture, so has Laureolus, suspended on no feigned cross, offered his defenceless entrails to a Caledonian bear. His mangled limbs quivered, every part dripping with gore, and in his whole body no shape was to be round. In short, he suffered such punishment as one who had been guilty of parricide, or who had cut his master's throat, or had insanely despoiled the temples of their hidden gold,2 or had applied the incendiary torch to thee, O Rome. This criminal had surpassed the crimes of ancient story, and what had been fabulous, was in his case a real punishment.
Martial compares Laureolus' fate to that of Prometheus whom the Greek god Zeus punished for stealing fire and giving it to humans by tying him to a rock and letting an eagle eat out his liver..... the liver , however , growing back in day after day , etc. In readng through the Latin text and its excellent translation I personally see nowhere any signs of approval on Martial's part. On the contrary , he even seems to indicate that the punishment far outweighs the gravity of the crime..... one would think Laureolus had slit his boss's gizzard , blown up Fort Knox or torched the White House !! And while Prometheus got off Scot free with only mythical punishment ... poor Laureolus underwent the REAL McCoy !! I do NOT read approval in these lines !
P.S. Sorry about this , folks ... as this was supposed to be a short reflexion on crime and punishment.It simply got out of hand as I went along. One bit of advice I might forward here though is to check the sources before jumping to conclusions .....accepting " whollis - bollis " what you hear or read !!
