The Illiad - Book One - 11

by Homer

And Minerva said, "I come from heaven, if you will hear me, to
bid you stay your anger. Juno has sent me, who cares for both of
you alike. Cease, then, this brawling, and do not draw your
sword; rail at him if you will, and your railing will not be
vain, for I tell you--and it shall surely be--that you shall
hereafter receive gifts three times as splendid by reason of this
present insult. Hold, therefore, and obey."

"Goddess," answered Achilles, "however angry a man may be, he
must do as you two command him. This will be best, for the gods
ever hear the prayers of him who has obeyed them."

He stayed his hand on the silver hilt of his sword, and thrust it
back into the scabbard as Minerva bade him. Then she went back to
Olympus among the other gods, and to the house of aegis-bearing
Jove.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of First Book: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

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Thousand and One Nights - 11

The Merchant and the Genie

And when it was the second night

Dunyazad said to her sister Shehrzad, "O my sister, finish us thy story of the merchant and the genie." "With all my heart," answered she, "if the King give me leave." The king bade her "Say on." So she began as follows: "It has reached me, O august king and wise governor, that the first old man continued his story as follows: 'O lord of the Kings of the Jinn, as I was about to kill the calf, my heart failed me and I said to the herdsman, "Keep this calf with the rest of the cattle." So he took it and went away. Next day the herd came to me, as I was sitting by myself, and said to me, "O my lord, I have that to tell thee will rejoice thee, and I claim a reward for good news." Quoth I, "It is well." And he said, "O merchant, I have a daughter, who learnt the art of magic in her youth from an old woman who lived with us, and yesterday, when I took home the calf that thou gavest me, she looked at it and veiled her face and fell a-weeping. Then she laughed and said to me, 'O my father, am I become of so little account in thine eyes that thou bringest in to me strange men?'

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.


More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

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Lays of Ancient Rome - 10

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XIX
They held a council standing,
        Before the River-Gate;
Short time was there, ye well may guess,
        For musing or debate.
Out spake the Consul roundly:
        "The bridge must straight go down;
For, since Janiculum is lost,
        Nought else can save the town."

XX
Just then a scout came flying,
        All wild with haste and fear:
"To arms! to arms! Sir Consul:
        Lars Porsena is here."
On the low hills to westward
        The Consol fixed his eye,
And saw the swarthy storm of dust
        Rise fast along the sky.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates one of the great heroic legends of history. Horatius saves Rome from the Etruscan invaders in 642 BC. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Horatio at the Bridge from the first edition.

More information here:

Literature Daily

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Ruy Lopez Classical

Get ready to play in a chess tournament this weekend.

Here's a little video to help you get your engine started. (-or to just learn a little more about the game.)



The Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game) starts with the White Bishop to b5. This video introduces the Classical Defense where Black responds with his Bishop to c5. I'm not sure why I've seen this so rarely over the years. It seems solid and has good success in master play.

Chess events in your area . . . and visit jrobi who created these wonderful videos.

A Retrieved Reformation - 10

by O'Henry

Yes, there ought to be a good opening in the shoe line. There wasn't an exclusive shoe-store in the place. The dry-goods and general stores handled them. Business in all lines was fairly good. Hoped Mr. Spencer would decide to locate in Elmore. He would find it a pleasant town to live in, and the people very sociable.

Mr. Spencer thought he would stop over in the town a few days and look over the situation. No, the clerk needn't call the boy. He would carry up his suit-case, himself; it was rather heavy.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

Photo is author's home in Austin, TX. Now the O'Henry Museum. (CC) Larry D. Moore.

Literature Daily

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Wizard of Oz - Second Chapter - 10

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum


Chapter 2. The Council with the Munchkins

She was awakened by a shock, so sudden and severe that if Dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed she might have been hurt. As it was, the jar made her catch her breath and wonder what had happened; and Toto put his cold little nose into her face and whined dismally. Dorothy sat up and noticed that the house was not moving; nor was it dark, for the bright sunshine came in at the window, flooding the little room. She sprang from her bed and with Toto at her heels ran and opened the door.

The little girl gave a cry of amazement and looked about her, her eyes growing bigger and bigger at the wonderful sights she saw.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from A Retreived Reformation by O' Henry.

The trailer of Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

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Innocents Abroad - First Chapter - 10

by Mark Twain

A stay of one day will be made here, and the voyage continued to
Madeira, which will be reached in about three days. Captain
Marryatt writes: "I do not know a spot on the globe which so much
astonishes and delights upon first arrival as Madeira." A stay of
one or two days will be made here, which, if time permits, may be
extended, and passing on through the islands, and probably in sight
of the Peak of Teneriffe, a southern track will be taken, and the
Atlantic crossed within the latitudes of the northeast trade winds,
where mild and pleasant weather, and a smooth sea, can always be
expected.

A call will be made at Bermuda, which lies directly in this route
homeward, and will be reached in about ten days from Madeira, and
after spending a short time with our friends the Bermudians, the
final departure will be made for home, which will be reached in
about three days.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: "Popular Talk of the Excursion--Programme of the Trip--Duly Ticketed for the Excursion--Defection of the Celebrities

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

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Kim - First Chapter - 10

by Rudyard Kipling



The first minutes of the movie; the first pages of the book.

---

'Nay, nay,' said the policeman, shaking his head. 'I do not understand your talk.' The constable spoke Punjabi. 'O Friend of all the World, what does he say?' 'Send him hither,' said Kim, dropping from Zam-Zammah, flourishing his
bare heels. 'He is a foreigner, and thou art a buffalo.'

The man turned helplessly and drifted towards the boys. He was old, and his woollen gaberdine still reeked of the stinking artemisia of the mountain passes.

'O Children, what is that big house?' he said in very fair Urdu.

'The Ajaib-Gher, the Wonder House!' Kim gave him no title--such as Lala or Mian. He could not divine the man's creed.

'Ah! The Wonder House! Can any enter?'

'It is written above the door--all can enter.'

'Without payment?'

'I go in and out. I am no banker,' laughed Kim.

'Alas! I am an old man. I did not know.' Then, fingering his rosary, he half turned to the Museum.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

Kipling's novel of India and the British empire, published in 1900.

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Obama on Campaign Finance

If actions speak louder than words, then Obama's actions on the issue ought to outweigh his words supporting campaign finance laws and the Supreme Court rejection of them. Why did he opt out of the campaign finance system for his Presidential campaign in 2008? If he hadn't done that, he would be in far better shape on this issue today. The problem is that everyone is wondering how sincere he is on this issue.

The Illiad - First Book - 10

by Homer

And Agamemnon answered, "Fly if you will, I shall make you no
prayers to stay you. I have others here who will do me honour,
and above all Jove, the lord of counsel. There is no king here so
hateful to me as you are, for you are ever quarrelsome and ill-
affected. What though you be brave? Was it not heaven that made
you so? Go home, then, with your ships and comrades to lord it
over the Myrmidons. I care neither for you nor for your anger;
and thus will I do: since Phoebus Apollo is taking Chryseis from
me, I shall send her with my ship and my followers, but I shall
come to your tent and take your own prize Briseis, that you may
learn how much stronger I am than you are, and that another may
fear to set himself up as equal or comparable with me."

The son of Peleus was furious, and his heart within his shaggy
breast was divided whether to draw his sword, push the others
aside, and kill the son of Atreus, or to restrain himself and
check his anger. While he was thus in two minds, and was drawing
his mighty sword from its scabbard, Minerva came down from heaven
(for Juno had sent her in the love she bore to them both), and
seized the son of Peleus by his yellow hair, visible to him
alone, for of the others no man could see her. Achilles turned in
amaze, and by the fire that flashed from her eyes at once knew
that she was Minerva. "Why are you here," said he, "daughter of
aegis-bearing Jove? To see the pride of Agamemnon, son of Atreus?
Let me tell you--and it shall surely be--he shall pay for this
insolence with his life."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of First Book: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

More information here:

Literature Daily

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War Metal

I'm playing a Facebook game called "War Metal". This is looking pretty good. Most Facebook roleplaying games are knock-offs on the Mafia Wars formula. Same gameplay, only different settings.

This one adds layers of complexity and they make for better games. For example, the goal here is to not level up but to get the most powerful army. This means that you may not want to level up but to gather battle points and also tokens to unlock more powerful units.

This game has a lot of promise.

Demostehenes Vs. Phocion

Time: c. 330 B.C.
Place: Athens, Greece
Picture: Accropolis



Demosthenes:

Someday you will drive the Athenians out of their minds and they will kill you.

Phocion:

And if they are ever in their right minds, they will kill you.

These were great orators and political opponents during the rise of Macedon to power in Greece.

More information: Demostehenes, Phocion, Ancient Athens.

Thousand and One Nights - 10

The Merchant and the Genie

Quoth Shehrzad, "This is nothing to what I will tell thee to-morrow night, if the King let me live." And the King said to himself, "By Allah, I will not kill her, till I hear the rest of the story!" So they lay together till morning, when the King went out to his hall of audience and the Vizier came in to him, with the winding-sheet under his arm. Then the King ordered and appointed and deposed, without telling the Vizier aught of what had happened, much to the former's surprise, until the end of the day, when the Divan broke up and he retired to his apartments.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

More information here:

Literature Daily

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Barone 1/30/10

Democrats Heading for Epic Disaster

My take on Michael Barone's latest. His column was published in The Washington Examiner.

Summary: Polling shows Republicans doing better than ever mostly due to opposition to the Democrats.

Quote:

Nonetheless, what we have here are the makings of an epic party disaster. Whether it comes to pass is still uncertain. But it certainly could.

My Views: Let's assume that all of the Democrat's policies are good ones for the moment. I think that Obama's behavior over the last month will become the classic case of someone stepping on their own brand. Obama and his supporters in party, country, and in the media have spent much effort in developing the image of a careful, non-partisan, and thoughtful political leader. His biggest misstep recently was the Boston speech in the special Senate election where he tried to cast it as between ordinary persons and the "big Wall Street bankers".

His best (and most quoted) line in the speech was also his worst. "Anybody can buy a pick-up truck but you've got to look under the hood." That last clause was pretty good but it was belied by the first. How many poor voters heard that and thought, "I wish I could buy a pick-up."

The problem with the speech was not that it wasn't so very bad but that it was so very ordinary. Virtually any Democrat politician anywhere in the country could have made that speech. They've been making variations of that speech for years. Same-o, same-o.

Then there's the visual image. Why's he appearing around the country (like in Ohio last week) without the tie? A small thing, true. But the visual, together with the demogogic speeches, and the jarring policies create the wrong impression. To citizens who need reassurance that they've got competant, thoughtful leadership (the old Obama brand would have given them that), they're getting the image of a left-wing radical.

So, what can Obama do (assuming that he does not want to change his policies.)

First, he can put that tie back on and look Presidential. He's the President of the USA, for crying out loud. There is not more advantageous spot to be in, no matter how unpopular a pol may be. Stop diminishing that advantage and use it!

Second, explain what he's trying to accomplish and how his policies are going to accomplish those goals. En-passent, he can say that's why he needs those Democrat votes in the Congress.

Third, stop demogoging. This stuff only hurts the Obama brand. - And if you're going to criticize Supreme Court over-reach, go ahead. But not just when they make Conservative decisions. And be thoughtful in your criticism. His State of the Union speech wasn't thoughtful at all.

Fourth, he's just got to answer the public's concerns about his policies. Meaningfully answer, not clever evasions.

This last point is probably the one that spoils everything I wrote above. For if he cannot meaningfully address the concerns, then maybe he should just face the fact that his policies are just all wrong. Go back to demogoging becasue that's all he has left.

---

Once, while flipping through tv channels, I stopped at C-Span when I heard someone say something like, "The most discriminated-against group in America today are Right-Wing Christians. The Press doesn't understand them and what little they do understand of them, they don't like." The moderator of the panel discussion quickly cut him off and said something about getting back to the topic of discussion which was discrimination in the newsroom. Another panelist began speaking, saying the things you would expect and I turned the channel. But before doing that, I marked down Michael Barone as a man I would watch in the future.

He has written a remarkable series of books, the most widely known and used is in the banner.

Green Sahara

Time: 7,000 – 5,000 B.C.
Place: Sahara, North Africa
Top Picture: Landsat satellite picture of the Sahara Desert
Bottom Picture: Rock layer underneath, revealing black channels cut by the meandering of an ancient river. Taken by Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour on April 16, 1994.



It is rainy, kind of – 3 times the amount of today. The Sahara Desert is no more. Since the rains came, it is a savannah. Fish swim in the rivers. In the thousands of miles of grasslands, Buffalo, Elephants, and other large animals graze. And humans follow and they thrive.

The total world population is around 5 million; a significant part of it lives here. Small towns begin. Small farms lay beyond. With pottery, people can dine on soup, fish, and porridge. Cows lo on the farms; dogs wander the streets of the towns. If we could time-machine the Plains Indians of the American Mid-West from the days of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to these times and this region, they would fit right in.

To the east, the lower Nile River rages from flood waters from the mountains far to the south. The settlements struggle against the floods.

Times change; climate changes. The rains slow down; the rivers dry up; the grass disappears; the desert returns. To the east, the Nile’s floods moderate. People begin to leave. In Egypt, one of the world’s first civilizations begins.

The desert sands blow over a way of life.

More information: National Geographic, Wikipedia.

Lays of Ancient Rome - 9

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XVII

To eastward and to westward
        Have spread the Tuscan bands;
Nor house, nor fence, nor dovecote
        In Crustumerium stands.
Verbenna down to Ostia
        Hath wasted all the plain;
Astur hath stormed Janiculum,
        And the stout guards are slain.

XVIII

I wis, in all the Senate,
        There was no heart so bold,
But sore it ached, and fast it beat,
        When that ill news was told.
Forthwith up rose the Consul,
        Up rose the Fathers all;
In haste they girded up their gowns,
        And hied them to the wall.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates one of the great heroic legends of history. Horatius saves Rome from the Etruscan invaders in 642 BC. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Horatio at the Bridge from the first edition.

More information here:

Literature Daily

More of this Series

Scandinavian Defense

Get ready to play in a chess tournament this weekend.

Here's a little video to help you get your engine started. (-or to just learn a little more about the game.)



I played this as a child. It looks bad; the Black Queen ends up on a5 when her best square may be the one she started on, d8. Still, it opens lines up a bit. I think you need to see the Larsen game at the end of the video and play over other master games in order to get this.

I must admit, that the basic logic of this remains a mystery to me.

Chess events in your area . . . and visit jrobi who created these wonderful videos.

The Great White Fleet (Battleships 2)

Time: December 16, 1907
Place: Hampton Roads, Virginia
Picture: 4 Connecticutt Class Battleships, USS Kansas in lead, clear port on the first day of their cruise around the world.



After the Spanish-American War the battleship building program began delivering in earnest. 1900 saw 3 ships commissioned: the first of the Illinois Class and two Kearsarge Class. This increased the total battleships in service from 5 to 8.

In 1901, 2 ships completed the Illinois Class. Total battleships: 10.

After that, there was a slow period. From 1902 to 1905 one ship was commissioned per year, including the USS Maryland in 1905. The Maryland was so weak that it was really a heavy cruiser. Total battleships 13.

In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt's naval building program hit big. 6 ships were commissioned that year: 2 of the Connecticutt Class and 4 of the Virginia Class. Total battleships: 19.

It is now 1907. 3 Connecticutts and 1 Virginia are commissioned. Total battleships: 24. 16 battleships comprised the Great White Fleet that Roosevelt dispatched on a voyage around the world.

Then the British launched the HMS Dreadnought which rendered all of these ships obsolete.

More information: US Battleship Classes, Great White Fleet, HMS Dreadnought.

A Retrieved Reformation - 9

by O'Henry

Jimmy went to the Planters' Hotel, registered as Ralph D. Spencer, and engaged a room. He leaned on the desk and declared his platform to the clerk. He said he had come to Elmore to look for a location to go into business. How was the shoe business, now, in the town? He had thought of the shoe business. Was there an opening?

The clerk was impressed by the clothes and manner of Jimmy. He, himself, was something of a pattern of fashion to the thinly gilded youth of Elmore, but he now perceived his shortcomings. While trying to figure out Jimmy's manner of tying his four-in-hand he cordially gave information.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

Photo is author's home in Austin, TX. Now the O'Henry Museum. (CC) Larry D. Moore.

Literature Daily

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Board Games

A Monopoly term came up today. This reminded me that I don't see any "hits" in the stores anymore. The same games stock the shelves as when I was a boy. Clue, Life, and of course, Monopoly.

Why is this? Computer games are nice but for social purposes, there's nothing to beat gathering around a good old fashioned board game.

Diplomacy was a game that encouraged social inter-action. Its objective was to conquer Europe. People who played it as a wargame were unlikely to succeed. One had to acquire allies and that required talking. -Good old days!