THEN AND NOW.
A NOW AND THEN NEWSLETTER
October 2022
The war in Ukraine and political instability have been front and center in my thinking this month. On my blog ( https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog ) I’ve tried to dig beneath the surface of some of these issues , especially where attention to language, symbols and history give a fresh perspective. A bonus: probing into these matters has also helped me with my “Thinking Greek,” project, namely some fresh ideas about hybris. As you browse through recent blog posts you’ll find discussions of Liz Truss and Vladimir Putin, Grigory Potemkin, and (with help from Paul Woodruff) Livy and Machiavelli. Also you’ll see why I think it’s so important to Keep Your Eyes on Kherson. Check these posts out here.
--
There’s also been room for some verbal fun:
Best Bilingual Pun:
“Peccavi.” That’s the one word message General Sir Charles Napier. telegraphed back to London when he captured Sindh (now in Pakistan). (Thanks to Roland Machold for steering me to this pun.)
PS If your Latin is rusty, peccavi means “I have sinned.”
--
Best Opening Sentence in a Book Review:
A review of The Blog People by the Danish scholar Peter Glob, , began “Glob on bogs is a good job, and many will be agog at Glob’s bog job.”
That’s right: You will not get bogged down in reading this book, and will lavish on it your own globs of praise. But I have forgotten who wrote this unforgettable sentence. Can you help?
--
Quotable: Is Harder Better?
Ralph Fiennes chose to perform T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets “as a post-pandemic pick-me-up … , about as difficult an evening as you can offer. The thing about Ralph is that he has the easiest, most relaxed relationship with high culture of anyone I know. He doesn’t give a damn about whether things are too difficult for people. He just thinks difficult stuff is good.” Maureen Dowd quoting David Hare in The New York Times October 22, 2022/
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Riddle of the Month:
The solution to last month’s riddle (“Why is a bat like a eunuch?) is “A bat is a bird that is not a bird; a eunuch is a man that is not a man” (Athenaeus book 10).
Riddles in modern English are rarely of this type, for example. “What begins with E and ends with E but has only one letter?” (Answer in next Then and Now Newsletter).
--
Neologism of the month “Humbition” It’s a fusion of humble and ambition brought tgether by Walter Kaufman. (Thanks t Gary Pence for steering me to it.) It’s helpful, I think, to bring these two apparent opposites together.
--
A Continuing Polemic against “Happiness talk”::
Readers of this Newsletter will know I am wary of all the happiness talk in our culture. (I have argued that happiness is a byproduct, not a goal.) Recently I noticed that contemporary translations of scripture use “happy” where older ones said “blessed.” For example, Psalms 1.1. You can compare English translations of the passage here. The early translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, the Septuagint, has makarios (blessed) in Psalm 1 not eudaimon.(happy). Readers who know biblical Hebrew can help fill in this picture – please.
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Botticelli’s Well-kept Secret: (and the Renaissance, too):
Joe Luzzi’s new book is just out:. Botticelli’s Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance. A guaranteed good read.
--
Freedom and Free Speech, then and now:
Paul Cartledge recommends a half dozen books on this subject. See his recommendations at: https://shepherd.com/best-books/freedom-and-freedom-of-speech-in-ancient-greece
--
News bout the Athenian Agora: :
The excavation of Athens’ ancient marketplace and civic center is probably the most ambitious American archaeological effort in Greece. Here’s an update on changes in its leadership:
* First I note with sadness the death of T. Leslie Shear Jr. on September 28th of this year. He was for many years director of the excavation (and my colleague and friend at Princeton.)
* His successor as director, John Camp, another friend of many years, has now retired.
* John Papadopoulos has been appointed as the new director. Best wishes for the continued success of the Agora excavations.
--
Forthcoming: The November Then and Now Newsletter will have another riddle, another word of the month, and another chance for you to steer us toward something interesting, both then and now. You can contact me at [email protected] to unsubscribe or (better idea) give a gift subscription to a friend. .
--
STOP PRESS: Just as I was getting ready to press SEND, I came across Pamela Paul’s op ed essay, “The Season of Dark AcADEMIA.” in today’s New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/opinion/dark-academia-halloween.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
. She does what I have not quite dared to do – draw a connection between the psychological suffering state of many of today’s students, and institutions’ drift away from the joy of learning for learning’s sake.
--
Thanks!
Bob Connor
October 30th, 2022
THEN AND NOW.
A NOW AND THEN NEWSLETTER
October 2022
The war in Ukraine and political instability have been front and center in my thinking this month. On my blog ( https://www.wrobertconnor.com/blog ) I’ve tried to dig beneath the surface of some of these issues , especially where attention to language, symbols and history give a fresh perspective. A bonus: probing into these matters has also helped me with my “Thinking Greek,” project, namely some fresh ideas about hybris. As you browse through recent blog posts you’ll find discussions of Liz Truss and Vladimir Putin, Grigory Potemkin, and (with help from Paul Woodruff) Livy and Machiavelli. Also you’ll see why I think it’s so important to Keep Your Eyes on Kherson. Check these posts out here.
--
There’s also been room for some verbal fun:
Best Bilingual Pun:
“Peccavi.” That’s the one word message General Sir Charles Napier. telegraphed back to London when he captured Sindh (now in Pakistan). (Thanks to Roland Machold for steering me to this pun.)
PS If your Latin is rusty, peccavi means “I have sinned.”
--
Best Opening Sentence in a Book Review:
A review of The Blog People by the Danish scholar Peter Glob, , began “Glob on bogs is a good job, and many will be agog at Glob’s bog job.”
That’s right: You will not get bogged down in reading this book, and will lavish on it your own globs of praise. But I have forgotten who wrote this unforgettable sentence. Can you help?
--
Quotable: Is Harder Better?
Ralph Fiennes chose to perform T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets “as a post-pandemic pick-me-up … , about as difficult an evening as you can offer. The thing about Ralph is that he has the easiest, most relaxed relationship with high culture of anyone I know. He doesn’t give a damn about whether things are too difficult for people. He just thinks difficult stuff is good.” Maureen Dowd quoting David Hare in The New York Times October 22, 2022/
--
Riddle of the Month:
The solution to last month’s riddle (“Why is a bat like a eunuch?) is “A bat is a bird that is not a bird; a eunuch is a man that is not a man” (Athenaeus book 10).
Riddles in modern English are rarely of this type, for example. “What begins with E and ends with E but has only one letter?” (Answer in next Then and Now Newsletter).
--
Neologism of the month “Humbition” It’s a fusion of humble and ambition brought tgether by Walter Kaufman. (Thanks t Gary Pence for steering me to it.) It’s helpful, I think, to bring these two apparent opposites together.
--
A Continuing Polemic against “Happiness talk”::
Readers of this Newsletter will know I am wary of all the happiness talk in our culture. (I have argued that happiness is a byproduct, not a goal.) Recently I noticed that contemporary translations of scripture use “happy” where older ones said “blessed.” For example, Psalms 1.1. You can compare English translations of the passage here. The early translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, the Septuagint, has makarios (blessed) in Psalm 1 not eudaimon.(happy). Readers who know biblical Hebrew can help fill in this picture – please.
--
Botticelli’s Well-kept Secret: (and the Renaissance, too):
Joe Luzzi’s new book is just out:. Botticelli’s Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance. A guaranteed good read.
--
Freedom and Free Speech, then and now:
Paul Cartledge recommends a half dozen books on this subject. See his recommendations at: https://shepherd.com/best-books/freedom-and-freedom-of-speech-in-ancient-greece
--
News bout the Athenian Agora: :
The excavation of Athens’ ancient marketplace and civic center is probably the most ambitious American archaeological effort in Greece. Here’s an update on changes in its leadership:
* First I note with sadness the death of T. Leslie Shear Jr. on September 28th of this year. He was for many years director of the excavation (and my colleague and friend at Princeton.)
* His successor as director, John Camp, another friend of many years, has now retired.
* John Papadopoulos has been appointed as the new director. Best wishes for the continued success of the Agora excavations.
--
Forthcoming: The November Then and Now Newsletter will have another riddle, another word of the month, and another chance for you to steer us toward something interesting, both then and now. You can contact me at [email protected] to unsubscribe or (better idea) give a gift subscription to a friend. .
--
STOP PRESS: Just as I was getting ready to press SEND, I came across Pamela Paul’s op ed essay, “The Season of Dark AcADEMIA.” in today’s New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/opinion/dark-academia-halloween.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
. She does what I have not quite dared to do – draw a connection between the psychological suffering state of many of today’s students, and institutions’ drift away from the joy of learning for learning’s sake.
--
Thanks!
Bob Connor
October 30th, 2022