new Archimedes

I admit, my first exposure to Archimedes was through Merlin's pet owl in The Sword in the Stone, but it's the classicist in me that finds a discovery of some previously unknown texts of his so exciting. The story is here, and includes some cool pictures.

A book to make your skin crawl...

I found on the Drudge Report today a link entitled, "Ancient Book May Be Covered in Human Skin..." This piqued my interested, because "books" in the ancient Mediterranean were originally made with papyrus (into rolls) and then also with wood and wax (as notebooks, as the work could be "erased"). Then came the transition from roll to codex, when paper was made from worked vellum (calfskin, kidskin, or lambskin). By the Middle Ages, the vellum codex was the way to go-- the baby farm animal skin made a smooth and durable writing surface.

But human skin? I had never heard of such a thing in the ancient world! Here is the link to the article. You'll notice that the "ancient" book is only 300 years old! The OED gives the first definition of ancient as "old," so technically, 300 years ago could be considered "ancient." I'm fine with that, but I'm much more comfortable with the second definition: "2. esp. Which existed in, or belonged to, times long past, or early in the world's history; old." I like that "especially."

And the third is the best: "3. a. Specifically applied to the period of history before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In this sense contrasted with modern, and medieaval. b. Concerning or relating to ancient times."

By the way, the Yorkshire Police article is appropriately more subdued about the "human skin" aspect of the book. And here are some pictures.

Potato Chip Mystery

Today at lunch I was enjoying "Herr's Kettle Cooked Potato Chips, Mesquite BBQ flavored." While I ate, I read the ingredients, as I am wont to do. Here they are:

"choice potatoes cooked in vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, cottonseed, soybean), sugar, dextrose, malted barley flour, torula yeast, salt, tomato, paprika, onion, monosodium glutamate, garlic, citric acid, spice, mesquite smoke, extractives of paprika, grill flavor (partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oil), less than 22 PPM sulfiting agents and not more than 2% silicon dioxide added (as anticaking agent)."

Did you catch it?

"choice potatoes cooked in vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, cottonseed, soybean), sugar, dextrose, malted barley flour, torula yeast, salt, tomato, paprika, onion, monosodium glutamate, garlic, citric acid, spice, mesquite smoke, extractives of paprika, grill flavor (partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oil), less than 22 PPM sulfiting agents and not more than 2% silicon dioxide added (as anticaking agent)."

What is this "spice," that it should be labeled separately from salt, paprika, etc., but not defined? Mysterious. Similar to the "natural flavor" phenomenon, where products list both "natural and artificial flavors" as well as other specific ingredients. Why are some shrouded in secrecy, hiding behind these generic names?

I was also curious about "torula yeast." According to Park Tonks Ltd., based in the UK, "Torula Yeast is an inactive yeast, grown as a natural culture and then pasteurised and spray-dried. Torula Yeast is a fine, light grey-brown powder with a slightly yeasty odour and gentle meaty taste. This product is vegan, GMO free, Halal and Kosher certified." And my favorite, "Due to the product's high nutritional value, Torula Yeast is an ideal inclusion into pet foods to improve flavour and palatability."

I also found a definition from Spicy Globe Enterprises, based in Canada, "The Candida Yeast, also known as Torula Yeast, is cultivated in a pure culture containing the sugars and minerals derived from wood. After the fermentation is terminated, the yeasts are separated from the substrates, subsequently are washed carefully to eliminate any residues. Then, the yeast is thermolyzed, pasteurized and pulverized. The yeast cells burst during the thermolysis process and become inactive. They lose their capacity of fermentation but are considered a highly digestible and nutritious food."

Yum yum!

Oh, and I love the word "anticaking," which, incidentally, is not found in the OED.

My friend was enjoying the unflavored variety of Herr's Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. The ingredients:

"choice potatoes cooked in vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, cottonseed, soybean) and salt. no preservatives added."

He didn't know what he was missing.

Sub Colosseo

I took this photo in the summer of 2002. It reminds me of the image posted on December 15, 2005 in the post Photo test--Temple, in that the angle and the way the sun hits the building each make the Colosseum look majestic.

"Happy" Ides of March

Alright, so today is the Ides of March, so I thought I'd do a little post in honor of Julius Caesar. Since it is upon Shakespeare that the popular understanding of the term "Ides of March" depends, I thought I'd pull a little quotation from the play to pay homage.

His wife Calpurnia is trying to get Caesar to stay in today, as there have been several prophesies of his death. But our Caesar, who had faced and defeated thousands upon thousands of barbarous Gauls and not quite so many Britons, Republicans, and Africans, was not worried about that togate band, most of whom he had previously pardoned. Here's what Shakespeare has him say in Julius Caesar, Act II, scene ii:

Servant: They would not have you to stir forth to-day.
Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
They could not find a heart within the beast.

Caesar:  The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Caesar should be a beast without a heart,
If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he:
We are two lions litter'd in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible:
And Caesar shall go forth.

The part about the beast without a heart is based on an actual quotation reported by Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar ch. 77.

I'd also like to remark also upon the famous last words of Caesar according to Shakespeare. et tu, Brute? "Even you, Brutus?" That's pretty good drama. Even cooler though is the phrase ascribed to him by the ancient, albeit sensationalistic, Suetonius. καὶ σὺ τέκνον; "Even you, child?" "Child" being perhaps particularly appropriate because at one time Brutus might have been engaged to Caesar's beautiful daughter Julia and that Caesar had a long-term affair with Brutus' mother.

P.S. According to Wikipedia, Caesar was the first Roman to have his portrait put on coins while he was still alive. Check out his issues with thumbnails or without.

Housmania

I was first introduced to A.E. Housman (1859-1936) by my professor of 17th c. poetry back in undergrad. He saw that I was always picking up on and excited about classical references in our Marvell, Donne, et al., so he told me to check out A.E. Housman's To An Athlete Dying Young, which echoes Pindaric odes. When I came to graduate school, I learned that Housman was a classicist as well as poet-- in fact, the best of his generation, particularly known as a textual critic. So today I thought I'd post that poem, which is good even without Pindar in your pocket.

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears;

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

return to the rostra

I know, I know, it's been a while. New semester.

Last night President Bush gave his State of the Union address (by the way, isn't it funny that the corresponding governor's speeches are called 'State of the State' addresses?), and both the NBC commentators and President Bush himself called the platform from which he spoke a "rostrum." The fellow classicists in the room and I were puzzled, because in Latin, a rostrum is a beak of a ship. The speaking platform in the Forum from which greats like Cicero and Ceasar spoke was the rostra, the plural of rostrum, because it was adorned with ship's beaks to commemorate naval victories. So, dutifully, I looked the word up in the OED to see what the current English usage was. The first entry describes the Roman rostra as an English word, and then goes on to say, "The singular form, though strictly incorrect, is the one commonly employed in this sense (i.e., the sense of a speaking platform)." So I guess it's okay to say "rostrum" when describing a place for public speaking, since it's in the OED and all, but it sure sounds weird when you know it means a ship's beak. This meaning does still exist in English, as well, and is found in the lower recesses of the entry on rostrum in the OED, so it's not just that Latinists are remembering something wholly lost in English.