Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Blogging “The Iliad” – 15

Homer finishes listing all the people and ships participating in the fight between the Achaeans and the Trojans. Meanwhile, back at Achilles camp…

…but Achilles was now holding aloof at his ships by reason of his quarrel with Agamemnon, and his people passed their time upon the sea shore, throwing discs or aiming with spears at a mark, and in archery. Their horses stood each by his own chariot, champing lotus and wild celery. The chariots were housed under cover, but their owners, for lack of leadership, wandered hither and thither about the host and went not forth to fight.

Achilles men were out on the beach playing frisbee and drinking beer.

Jove sends the goddess Iris ahead of the Achaean army to warn the Trojans of their approach.

Blogging “The Iliad” – 14

Blah, blah, blah.

Yet more of the list of people and ships that were part of the battle with the Trojans. I’ll say this much for Homer: At least he provides interesting little anecdotes about many of the people to try to keep it interesting. But enough already! Let’s get on with the maiming and killing!

Labeling Children

This article in the Washington Post fits in rather well with our recent discussion on the effect of praise on bright children.

Gifted? Autistic? Or Just Quirky? – washingtonpost.com
Recent studies by Dweck show how labeling children as gifted or highly intelligent can actually inhibit their achievement and self-esteem.

Galway Master Class

James Galway recently gave a masterclass in Dallas, Texas.

Here’s the first part.

And here’s the second part.

I believe there will be additional videos coming. Mark Richter, the gentleman who filmed this masterclass and is putting it up on YouTube has really performed a wonderful service for flutists everywhere. Thank you “FluteMark”!

If this sort of thing interests you, check YouTube regularly for additional installments of the masterclass.

Menopause IS NOT AN ILLNESS

Study: Hormone Patch Safer Than Pill – washingtonpost.com
For women who have struggled with the symptoms of menopause but are fearful of taking risky hormone pills, there is at last a bit of hope.

Here it is again: Another reference to the “symptoms” of menopause. People, symptoms are indications of disease. Menopause is NOT a disease. It is a natural condition in older human females. It has signs. Not “symptoms”.

Maybe you think I’m overreacting to this but, I have to tell you, it really annoys me when people discuss a perfectly normal part of the aging process as if it were a disease that needs treatment. Yes, yes — I know there are some women who really have out-of-control problems with the signs of menopause but they are a VERY small minority. As I’ve written before, if you believe you’re one of those women, chances are you aren’t. Yes — hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, and mood swings can be uncomfortable. They almost never require medication, though.

Just read this Washington Post article about all the risks associated with using artificial hormones to deal with the signs of menopause. What kind of nut would do such a thing?? I’ll tell you what kind. (Because, of course, that’s why I’m here. To point out the different kinds of nuts in the world.) A person who takes dangerous drugs in order to deal with a non-existent “disease” is a person who’s so totally freaked out about aging that she can’t even think straight. Get over it, ladies! It’s really and truly just not that big a deal.

One 63-year-old woman is quoted as saying “I have a very busy life. My sleep is important to me.” She’s been taking hormones for over 10 years. Hello? The night sweats and insomnia that can be part of menopause are only temporary. This woman, though, has been endangering her health in order to avoid this temporary discomfort. If she’d just worked through it, it would be over by now — and she’d be in better health too.

This really bugs me. I think it’s really pathetic when older women talk about menopause as though it were a disease with symptoms that need medical treatment. We’re not sick, ladies. We’re just old. Why are you buying into that whole “must be young” thing? Embrace your old self!

Blogging “The Iliad” – 12 & 13

There’s not much of great interest happening in these sections of the book.

In part 12, Agamemnon finishes his whup-ass speech about battling the Trojans and the big crowd that’s gathered around him cheers mightily. Many offerings of unblemished bulls and rams are offered to Jove. Yahoo.

In part 13, Homer lists all the different fleets of ships that were to take part in the battle and who was in charge of each fleet.

It was a heck of a force, I’m telling you — hundreds of ships with thousands of men.

It’s Hard To Be Smart

The Cult of Genius | Cosmic Variance
During high school or college, many aspiring physicists latch onto Feynman or Einstein or Hawking as representing all they hope to become. The problem is, the vast majority of us are just not that smart. Oh sure, we’re plenty clever, and are whizzes at figuring out the tip when the check comes due, but we’re not Feynman-Einstein-Hawking smart. We go through a phase where we hope that we are, and then reality sets in, and we either (1) deal, (2) spend the rest of our career trying to hide the fact that we’re not, or (3) drop out.

Julianne at Cosmic Variance has an interesting take on that article about praising bright kids that I wrote about a few days ago.

The most interesting part is the follow-up comments. Cosmic Variance tends to draw a rather smarter-than-you kind of readership and many of the people who’ve commented are, themselves, people with advanced degrees in the sciences.

Catholic League In A Twist

CATHOLIC LEAGUE for Religious and Civil Rights

Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?

A: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.

Oooooo! Ooooo! Shocking! Offensive! I’m totally freaked out by this!!

Not.

First, let me explain that the reason the Catholic League has this and other naughty anti-Catholic talk on their web site is to prove that a couple of former John Edwards campaign people really don’t like Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular.

What it proves to me is that religion still has the power to get people all riled up, even people who identify themselves as non-religious. Especially people who identify themselves as non-religious. And it also proves to me that religious people are spending way too much time online looking for stuff that offends them. How about we all get back to the business of feeding the poor, huh?

Yes, the Catholic Church is against abortion and most forms of birth control. This is one of the major bitches of Amanda Marcotte (Pandagon) and Melissa McEwan (Shakespeare’s Sister). Big deal. Big fucking deal. Does anybody (besides, apparently Marcotte and McEwan) really believe that’s stopping the majority of Americans who identify themselves as Catholic from using contraceptives? If Catholic women who’ve had abortions feel guilty about them it’s not because they’re worried about the fetus’ soul going to hell. It’s because no matter how you dress it up, abortion is still about ending a potential life. And that’s kind of sad — even if you’re not in any way prepared to have a child. People feel guilty about that. And they may feel guilty about not following the rules set forth by the religion they claim to be a member of. Concerns about limbo and hell are probably the last thing to enter a Catholic woman’s mind.

But I digress — and none of what I just wrote will make much sense until you read the Catholic League’s excerpts.

Here’s my main point: Why do people even care about this shit? Marcotte and McEwan’s anti-Christian ranting is tiresome and silly. Other people believe what they’ll believe. I may think their beliefs are stupid but so what? It’s as ridiculous for the Catholic League to get all twisted about Marcotte and McEwan as it is for Marcotte and McEwan to waste so many electrons blogging about how much they hate Catholicism.

How The Trojan War Began

As usual, it’s all the fault of some women. (Clue: I’m being facetious.)

It’s a long and involved story, so here’s the short version: The goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite were arguing over which of them was most beautiful. They decided to have Paris (a prince of Troy) decide. He chose Aphrodite as the most beautiful and, as his reward, Aphrodite made the most beautiful human woman in the world fall in love with him. Paris picks her up from her home island and sails off into the sunset with her to live happily ever after.

Her name? Helen! Helen…of Troy! But she wasn’t Helen of Troy then. She was, rather, Helen — sister in law of Agamemnon, the Achaean king. Yeah, you’ve heard of him.

The Trojan war began because Agamemnon wanted to avenge this insult to his brother and bring his brother’s wife back home.

Alrighty then. To tell the truth, the only reason I’m giving this explanation is so I’ll have an excuse to show you this painting by Rubens of The Judgement of Paris. Here he is, deciding which of the goddesses is most beautiful. I love this painting. It makes me feel so much better about having had pizza for dinner last night!

(click on the picture for a bigger version)

Blogging “The Iliad” – 11

Ulysses is still talking to the assembled Achaeans, urging them to continue the fight against Priam and the Trojans. (I haven’t mentioned Priam’s name before. He’s the king of the Trojans.) Ulysses reminds the crowd of a sign sent by the gods when they first began the war with the Trojans that had indicated that it wouldn’t be until the 10th year of the war that the Achaeans would prevail.

What’s so important, you might ask, that it’s worth fighting that long? They don’t tell us much here because Homer presumes we already know. You’ve heard of Helen of Troy, right? “The face that launched a thousand ships”?

After this rousing speech by Ulysses, Nestor (another of the Achaean leaders) chimes in with more words of encouragement: Quit acting like children! Let’s go kill us some Trojans. Yee-ha!

Oh… and to make the battle look even more appealing, Nestor includes this:

Therefore let none make haste to go till he has first lain with the wife of some Trojan, and avenged the toil and sorrow that he has suffered for the sake of Helen.

Well, alrighty then!

Nestor also suggests that Agamemnon divide the army up into individual tribe-based units. So, if one unit fails to hold up its end of the battle he’ll know who to blame. Great idea, Nestor!