Yesterdog
Monday, October 4th, 2004
Archive for the ‘Journal’ Category
Consulting the tome / tomb in Spring
Thursday, March 18th, 2004In the 60’s, we called them ‘trots.’ They got us through Latin which
got us extraordinary scores on the SAT verbals which got us the college
acceptances of Spring. To Cyril Connolly in the 20’s they were ‘cribs.’
A consultative reading to weaken his conclusion. (Emphasis
added.)
“Cribs were of two kinds: pretentious
and extremely free translations in verse, to which access was easy, but
whose help was negligible; and word-for-word translations published by
Kelly and Bohn, which employed such a remote and extraordinary
vocabulary that anyone consultiing them was still wholesomely far from
appreciating the quality of the original. But in my time there appeared
another kind of translation. This was the Loeb classical library, which
printed a prose verssion of the Latin beside the original, and which,
won as a prize by one’s fagmaster, was available, by unwritten law, for
the use of his slaves. From that moment one could no longer (I was in
my tenth year of learning Latin) spend hours over an author without
discovering what he was like. And the knowledge was poison. Several of
us began to understand what we read, and to find out that we had been
learning by heart the mature,
ironical, sensual and irreligious opinions of a middle-aged Roman, one
whose chief counsel to youth was to drink and make love to the best of
its ability, as these were activities unsuitable to a middle age given
over to worldly-wise meditations and good talk. Afterwards there
remained only an equal oblivion for the virtuous and the wicked in the
unconsulted tomb.” - The Rock Pool, 1936
and extremely free translations in verse, to which access was easy, but
whose help was negligible; and word-for-word translations published by
Kelly and Bohn, which employed such a remote and extraordinary
vocabulary that anyone consultiing them was still wholesomely far from
appreciating the quality of the original. But in my time there appeared
another kind of translation. This was the Loeb classical library, which
printed a prose verssion of the Latin beside the original, and which,
won as a prize by one’s fagmaster, was available, by unwritten law, for
the use of his slaves. From that moment one could no longer (I was in
my tenth year of learning Latin) spend hours over an author without
discovering what he was like. And the knowledge was poison. Several of
us began to understand what we read, and to find out that we had been
learning by heart the mature,
ironical, sensual and irreligious opinions of a middle-aged Roman, one
whose chief counsel to youth was to drink and make love to the best of
its ability, as these were activities unsuitable to a middle age given
over to worldly-wise meditations and good talk. Afterwards there
remained only an equal oblivion for the virtuous and the wicked in the
unconsulted tomb.” - The Rock Pool, 1936
Friday the 13th., Part 22
Sunday, February 15th, 2004It started 22 years ago when we thought, ”License? License? We don’ need no steenkink license!”
But what the hell? Years pass. Attitudes mellow. Mayors surprise us all in attempts to forstall California recalls.
The Blogging Process
Thursday, December 11th, 2003A July ‘03 post pointed to by Robert Scoble. Swear to BAWP, I didn’t see this before edBlogger’s ‘Writing Process, Blogging Process’ roundtable. Wish I had. “Dave Pollard writes about the blogging process. That sounds pretty good to me.” [The Scobleizer Weblog]
more…
“As it was foretold:
Saturday, November 15th, 2003???And the teachers shall shine as the firmament. Just so has it come
to pass. All praise to them, all praise.” This month’s Harper’s
reprints from West Branch Richard Slezer’s ‘The Spinsters of Eld,’ an essay on Irish spinster school teachers. (Print only.)
Birthday
Saturday, November 1st, 2003“You’re only getting older.
You’re only getting older.
And now you’re older still.”
Blogito ergo sum.
Monday, September 1st, 2003This from Phil Wolff seems somehow appropriate today, since so many of us actually ‘labor’ at this daily writing on digital paper thing: “Saint Andre was the first to remark Blogito ergo sum— I blog, therefore I am, ???If this is your first year blogging, congratulations. Remember to celebrate your blogday. Daily writing changes you, and metablogging (blogging about blogging) is part of understanding those changes. Do you want to see others who’ve had similar existential moments? Google on blogito ergo sum for posts from Italy to Russia, from Australia to Canada. ???”[a klog apart]
more…
Open Source Yoga
Sunday, August 3rd, 2003
“So here’s an interesting struggle in a corner of creative space you might not expect???: Open Source Yoga. The attempt to resist the control of copyright over Yoga (yes, really).” via (Meryl) [Lockergnome Bytes]
During over 20 years of doing yoga, my most relaxed moment came in a teacher training class. No poses involved, no breathing, just some reading about the history of yoga. Janet Macleod, the light-hearted and far from dogmatic teacher noted an article which explored the extraordinary similarities between the traditional sun salutation sequence and the 19th. century calisthenics regime of the British Imperial army. “Oh,” I thought, “it’s just a nice exercise.” Maybe somebody can copyright ringolevio and kick-the-can.
more…
One dog stops, the other starts, eating???
Friday, August 1st, 2003
its own dog food, that is. Harry, slowly giving up the ghost, is declining most food items these days. And his “drowning in time” has inspired this new design of homoLudens in its fourth (fifth?) iteration. Thanks go out as well to Goya and Bryan Bell.
I’ve left Interactive U. (kudos for the gracious hosting, folks) and moved here to the new eBNWl domain, where hosting is independent of organizational trappings, super-charged with lots of weird plug-ins, and cheap cheap cheap. Please change your links.
Oh, and I hereby publicly swear that I will not clutter this site with all my usual messed up, poorly formatted HTML. I will even try to avoid WYSIWYG editors. For each instance of this oath being foresworn, I will donate $.05 to the Friends of Mozilla Forever.
America’s most dangerous pasttime
Sunday, July 27th, 2003Truly hilarious. More than ten years ago, I taught sixth grade. A friendly parent and I’d take two students for occasional day-long hikes in Point Reyes National Recreation Area. Adults led and the boys brought up the rear, interminably muttering Dungeons and Dragons arcana. I could never figure out the game’s attraction , but now I’ve found understanding via Scott McCloud’s The Morning Improv:
“.Heh-heh???It’s funny, because it’s true.”
more…