NVGAE CICERONIANAE

Back with something highly amusing

2006-05-12T18:44:00.001-07:00

I must admit, I'm a huge fan of the Bob & Tom Show, and this little clip is one of the funniest things I've heard in a while. While the puns fly fast in "Mr. Oedipus," I'm waiting with baited breath for "Homer Pyle, USMC."

Back with something highly amusing

2006-05-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

I must admit, I'm a huge fan of the Bob & Tom Show, and this little clip is one of the funniest things I've heard in a while. I can't wait for "Homer Pyle, USMC."

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

2006-03-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Ah, the famous "quote" of my beloved Tully, the moneymaking adornment of many a shirt and magnet from Amazon.com. Too bad it isn't a quote from Cicero, or any other recognized Latin author.

A gentleman came in to the library a few weeks back, and I, looking for any excuse to avoid my current research project ofr a few moments, watched him scour frantically through a pile of books he had collected from the stacks. Finally he admitted to the librarian that he was looking for the citation for that ubiquitous saying. A short bit of online research revealed that this quote is apocryphal (thanks to the Latin-L for this). The Latin phrase is most often rendered as ut conclave sine libris, ita corpus sine anima.

This got me to thinking about all the other things that we supposedly know were "said," but are in reality just apocrypha. A few that have always been my favorites:

"Beam me up, Scotty." - Nope, never said. The intrepid captain comes close a few times (Star Trek IV comes to mind), but never quite gets this one out there.

"Say it ain't so, Joe." - From the Chicago Herald and Examiner: after Jackson left the courthouse, "one little urchin in the crowd grabbed him by the coat sleeve. " 'It ain't true, is it?' he said. 'Yes, kid, I'm afraid it is,' Jackson replied. 'Well, I'd never have thought it,' the boy exclaimed."

"Play it again, Sam." - Bogey at his best, but he never delivers the line. Bergman does.

Who is this man?

2006-03-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

There is no physical proof that he existed.

If he ever wrote anything himself, it hasn't survived. We only know his teachings through the writings of his disciples.

His death was ordered by the powers-that-be for upsetting what they considered the normal order of things.

He had a long beard, was a humble man of little means who often communed with nature.

Who is this man?

Socrates.

Again I say, AWESOME

2006-03-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm sure this will be all over the blogosphere tomorrow, but from CNN.com comes the following story: Scenes from Homer found in Cyprus 'warrior tomb.'

The incipit:

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- A 2,500-year-old sarcophagus with vivid color illustrations from Homer's epics has been discovered in western Cyprus, archaeologists said Monday.

Construction workers found the limestone sarcophagus last week in a tomb near the village of Kouklia, in the coastal Paphos area. The tomb, which probably belonged to an ancient warrior, had been looted during antiquity.

"The style of the decoration is unique, not so much from an artistic point of view, but for the subject and the colors used," said Pavlos Flourentzos, director of the island's antiquities department.

This will come in handy when I teach the Trojan War and the Odyssey in two weeks to my Myth & Meaning class.

Even better than the last one

2006-03-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

From Yahoo! News:

Gourmet dine & ditcher banned from Rome.

Not that the thought didn't cross my mind after dinner at Da Pancrazio (dried deer as an appetizer?), but this is pretty amusing. I'm suprised she wasn't an American.

What have the Romans ever done for us?

2006-03-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a piece from the AP World News, courtesy of the Gainesville Sun: Tunnels Used by Ancient Jews Discovered. Here's the incipit:

Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel, archaeologists said Monday.

The Jews laid in supplies and were preparing to hide from the Romans during their revolt in A.D. 66-70, the experts said. The pits, which are linked by short tunnels, would have served as a concealed subterranean home.

Yardenna Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the find shows the ancient Jews planned and prepared for the uprising, contrary to the common perception that the revolt began spontaneously.

"It definitely was not spontaneous," Alexandre said. "The Jews of that time certainly did prepare for it, with underground hideaways here and in other sites we have found."

Awesome

2006-03-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

In preparation for my after-Spring-Break myth classes (what a way to spend the first warm day in Illinois since last fall, eh?), I found this terrific short movie about Oedipus. It is billed as a "sword and salad epic," and it doesn't fail to please. I must say I'm a bit wary about showing some hot potato-on-tomato action in a gen ed class, but I somehow think today's college students can handle it.

FINALLY! AN UPDATE!

2006-03-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

I find my lack of posts disturbing. But I've returned to a happy place, and hopefully things will be back on track. To celebrate one of my Latin students finally getting that acceptance letter to graduate school, it's high time for an update, both classical and non-classical.

Starting with the non-classical, since that's what I seem to be more in-tune with lately. I've been attempting to read more literature unrelated to my chosen profession. I'm teaching an English class this semester, which has given me the chance to read some of those book which are considered must-reads. Several of them even made this list compiled by a group of British librarians, and a few more made this one from Random House. I'm currently in the midst of a Vonnegut phase which fear (hope?) may be permanent. It's sad, I suppose, that I've neglected my fiction and modern literature over the years, especially when I have the Harvard Five-Foot Shelf of Classics sitting on a bookshelf in my living room (for an interesting take on this series, follow this link).

If reading isn't your thing, and we all need some visual stimulaton sometimes, I highly recommend checking out Chris Bliss' juggling act. Mirabile visu!

For all of us that have struggled through overly-footnoted works, I bring you The World's Greatest Law Review Article. While obviously a joke, I'm sure every classicist has felt the pain of reading articles like this one.

And since this will happen on my dies natalis, it's worth noting that there will be a total solar eclipse on March 29th. Some lucky buggers will be waiting it out in a Roman theater in Turkey.

From the "So Obvious It Needs To Be Said Again" file comes this review, which lends credence to the exclamation, "Etymology is addictive!"

Why I like hiking

2006-02-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

A Greek hiker just found a 6500 year-old amulet/necklace/thingy. I have to ask, why does every ancient artifact have to be religious in nature? Maybe people made pretty things because they were pretty! The item appears to me to look like an abstract ankh, the model for the Torino medals, or the headpiece of the Staff of Ra, which, I suppose, would make it a religious item.

This one looks interesting too..."Archaeologists Unveil Staircase in Tivoli." This appears to be related to the headless sphinx mentioned a few days ago, but still, a giant staircase at Tivoli is something to get excited about.

That's it for now, I'll probably have some more to say after I watch Seth Wescott, a high school classmate of mine, win the gold in snowboard cross.

Happy Lupercalia!

2006-02-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of the year again, when young men run around in loinclothes and young women get whipped with leather thongs. No, not those kinds of thongs. Once again we are celebrating the Lupercalia, that festival to Februs that lasted for 1000 years and found its zenith (or nadir, I suppose) in the Hallmark Company.

I'm sure there are a plethora of links out there concerning this festival, but here's one I found particularly useful. Thanks to Pope Gelasius, we have the feast of the martyr St. Valentine to celebrate today instead of the much more sexy Lupercalia. As you may know, St. Valentine is the patron young lovers. But he is not only the patron of young lovers, you see, but also of engaged couples, beekeepers, epilepsy, fainting, and plague! I suppose all of them are related in some way, but far be it from me to understand why.

For those that might need them today, here's a helpful list of patron saints you can turn to:

St. Therese of Lisieux - patron saint of florists
St. Catharine of Alexandria - patron saint of young women
St. Monica - patron saint of mothers

and depending on who you pissed off:

St. John the Apostle - patron saint of sufferers of poison
St. Raymond Nonnatus - patron saint of the falsely accused
St. Justin Martyr - patron saint of apologists
St. Jude - patron saint of lost or hopeless causes

FINALLY

2006-02-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

I don't know how I missed this one the first time, but finally someone talking some sense. Fortuitously dated a week before President Bush's "We're gonna break our oil dependency but not really" State of the Union address, here's an article about ethanol. Now I don't claim to have a degree in economics, chemistry, finance, or business, but it seems to me that using biomass makes sense. It's renewable, it's cleaner by all accounts, and since we're already putting in the gas out here and making cars that can run on it, why not look into using it on a large scale? Oh wait, that's right, oil companies would get hurt by not using oil.

Hunka hunka burnin' sand...

2006-02-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

They've found a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first since Tut in 1922. Yet another reason why I need to go to the Tut exhibit in Chicago this summer.

Here's the kind of thing that just warms my heart. Dedicated teachers doing amazing things. This teacher took her kids out a boat trip in order to help them understand the Odyssey. Innovative, dangerous, and highly effective, I wish I had come up with it. Being stuck in the middle of Illinois, however, I don't know where I would get a boat and an ocean.

Unfortunately, the time comes for the work for the day. Fridays off from teaching is a wonderful thing, but it is often spent in prep for the next week. The upshot is that I get Saturday and Sunday for research! Hopefully I can get everything done so I can watch the Opening Ceremonies of the XXth Olympic Winter Games without guilt.

Back in Black

2006-02-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

I'll get better about this regular posting business. I've been out of town for the last couple of days, and finally able to get back to the blogosphere. What should appear first but this nifty little find, a headless sphinx! Glaukopis has a link to another version of the article, this one with pictures. Call me crazy, but I'm not sure we should get all that excited about a headless ancient marble statue, but I suppose knocking the block off of a Sphinx is fairly ununsual...unless this is some sort of slap against Domitian. It's tough to keep ahead of the Classics news, since there are so many out there that do a terrific job consolidating the information, but I'll do what I can.

We've got Eta Sigma Phi inductions tomorrow, the resurgence (I hope) of a dormant chapter. I'm looking forward to seeing the standard these folks have created. If anyone notices a missing redbird statue in the morning, I have no idea where it is, I swear.

The books keep rolling in, and the money keeps rolling out. God bless Schoenhof's for their sale books in Latin, Greek, Latin studies, and just about anything else you can imagine. Half-price Teubners are nothing to scoff at. I'll hopefully be getting into the business of unofficial book reviews here, once my schedule returns to its normal state.

Underwater archaeology and other news

2006-02-02T21:22:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting article, "Robot Spots Ancient Greek Shipwreck," and a spiffy slide show from the MIT team in charge. You know it's news when it's on Fark.com! Considering the amount of shipping traffic that had to be lost during antiquity, it's pretty exciting to think of what might be out there. Too bad manuscripts don't take too well to water.

As I mentioned, the new King Tut exhibit is coming to Chicago in May. I just ran across this article claiming that ol' Tut was killed by a swordblow to the knee. I'm not sure I buy the logic behind it, but dammit Jim, I'm a philologist, not a doctor!

One more article I found interesting was this one from the Middle East times announcing the discovery of 4th-century BC fortifications on Crete.

That's enough procrastinating for now, I think. I've got to give a 45 minute talk on Cicero's political theory on Monday, which will hopefully help me land a tenure-track job. Saturnalia's over, time for this slave to get back to work.

Lots o' stuff

2006-01-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

I just spent an hour with my TV, and I'm still not clear what exactly the state of the union is. Oh well.

I just came across this online. I don't know how old the article is, but I know that I personally find comedy with Latin to be very funny, so I'm hoping this catches on (or already has).

This one has always cracked me up. Morere, Britanni, morere!

It's been a high energy day - four classes, two of which were lectures (with two broken mikes, I might add). I don't know what it is about an intstructor jumping up and down in a Latin class that always gets the students going, but if that's what it takes, I'm all for it.

Doh!

2006-01-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

This is not quite Classical, but this story I hope gets wider circulation (it's amusing in a sad sort of way):

Museum visitor trips, breaks Chinese vases

I couldn't find a picture of the vases, either before or after they were broken.

On a related note, I finally went ahead and tracked down an English translation of John XXIII's Veterum Sapientia, his document promoting the use of Latin. Here's the Latin text, with an audio file of it being read in Latin. A very enlightening document, about which I'll have more to say after I get a chance to read it closely. But for now, teaching duties call.

The Joy of Latin

2006-01-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

I've got a very dedicated, albeit small, group of fourth-semester Latin students this year, with whom I'm looking forward to working with for as long as I'm at my current post. A couple days ago, one of them went through a rather long sentence of Livy by sight, and when I told him that he had successfully converted it into English, he sat back and said, "That's awesome. I can read Latin." Needless to say, the class had a good laugh, as did I - he is the class jester, after all. But the expression of satisfaction on his face reminded me why I love doing what I do. Sure, getting paid to do research is great, and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but seeing my students succeed and seeing them feel a little bit of the pleasure I get from the Classics really makes it worth it all. I'm sure we all can remember the first time that we were able to read a Latin or Greek sentence without any assistance...and the relief and excitement that comes with it. Just a thought I wanted to share.

On more mundane topics, advance tickets for the Chicago stop of the of King Tut exhibition are now on sale. I'll be taking my soon-to-be Eta Sigma Phi students up there this summer...we are all quite excited about it. In October we went to "Pompeii: Stories from an Eruption", which, while entirely too overcrowded (bad admissions policies), was well worth the drive. The frescoes alone made the day for me.

Belated thanks to Glaukopis for calling attention to my little endeavor. I've enjoyed her blog for quite some time. And for those that missed it, do try and catch the Mythbusters episode about Archimedes' death ray.

The Battle of Cannae

2006-01-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

One of my students brought me a clip today, a reenactment of the Roman defeat at Cannae created using the "Rome: Total War" engine. I'm not sure exactly how to post it as a file here, so here's a link to the file as posted on my webpage. The resolution isn't the greatest, but you have to admire the effort, and the music is fantastic! Be warned, it's a fairly large file, about 16 megs, but I think it's worth a look.

Thanks are due to RogueClassicism for linking to my post about the Latin pedagogy workshop at the ACL convention in June. I think the Classics-related blogs can be a great way to spread information and also to encourage dialogue.

Upcoming Event

2006-01-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

Anyone who frequents the Latin blogs and usegroups knows that quality Latin instruction is at a premium in this country, at both the primary and secondary level. But we should not forget college Latin instruction. It is very likely that at most universities, all the beginning Latin classes are taught by graduate students, and quite often the only training these graduate students have is a two-day orientation, which is often, in my experience and that of others I have talked to, mostly ineffective. TAs are one of the best recruiting tools our discipline has, and improving their effectiveness in teaching is an important goal.

To help remedy this situation, several colleagues and I have been invited to put together a workshop for graduate students who will be teaching for the first time in the fall. This panel will take place at the ACL convention in Philadelphia this coming June. Feel free to contact any of the presenters, and flyers can be sent your way. This workshop is sponsored jointly by the ACL and the APA.

IT'S MONDAY

2006-01-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, and that means only one thing....Latin! Not a bad way to start a Monday, though from what I heard on Bob & Tom this morning, today is the most depressing day of the year. It's not too depressing for the Swiss Guard, though, as Benedict XVI has kicked off a year-long celebration for 500 years of service by the Michaelangelo-bedecked soldiers.

Moderately difficult tasks

2006-01-21T22:07:00.000-08:00

CNN.com has an article posted called "Study: College students lack literacy for complex tasks." In the article, the following appears: "Most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed intermediate skills. That means they can do moderately challenging tasks, such as identifying a location on a map."

Now, perhaps I'm missing something here, but I'm not sure that identifying a location on a map is moderately challenging. If they mean finding Maine on a map is moderately challenging, for example, this is indeed very bad news. That we over here on this side of the pond know very little about the world around is not news. Anecdote time: during a class on Roman history I was recently involved in, more than a few students identified the river that runs through Rome as the TIGRIS river. This is especially disturbing, since American troops have been fighting and dying on the banks of the Tigris for going on three years now. But to return to the original point, I hope that our graduates are making it out of college with abilities that go far beyond map-reading. Let's just hope this article was referring to topographical maps.

Lorum ipsum

2006-01-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

A test of the new blog. Please excuse the mess while I get this up and running...