October 2009
26 posts
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The Ph.D. Problem →
Illustration by Stephen Anderson.
Louis Menand writes:
That it takes longer to get a Ph.D. in the humanities than it does in the social or natural sciences (although those fields also have longer times-to-degree than they once did) seems anomalous, since normally a dissertation in the humanities does not require extensive archival, field, or laboratory work. William Bowen and Neil...
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“A certain man came out of a brothel while Cato [the Censor] was going by. When...”
– Pseudo-Acron on Horace Sat. 1.2.31-32
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“‘Punning’ is, it is true, an unfortunate description, because it connotes for us...”
– Excerpts from JD Denniston’s Greek Prose Style, from Laudator Temporis Acti.
Just another reason why reading Greek needs a completely different mindset sometimes.
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Beyond the Fringe - ‘Home Thoughts from Abroad’
Peter: Of course, one thing you’ll notice about America, is that they’re a very young country—rather like Ghana in that respect.
Jon: Of course, they have inherited our two-party system, haven’t they?
Dudley: How does that work?
Jon: Well, let me see now. They’ve got the Republican Party, you see, which is the equivalent of our Conservative Party, and then there’s the Democratic Party which is the equivalent of our Conservative Party. And then, of course there are the liberals, in the shape of people like…um…well…
Dudley: Are the liberals Democrats or Republicans?
Alan: Yes—as is convenient for them.
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“Come on, people, let’s get going here! I’ve got a to-do list here that’s longer...”
– Welcome back, Malcolm Tucker.
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Mission of Burma - Academy Fight Song
Here’s...
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Flight of the Conchords - Rambling Through the...
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it took me a while to get it
man at bus stop: So what do you do?
me: Well, I study Classics.
man at bus stop: So what’s new in the Classics?
Fall break!
It’s not so much a break as a crashing my friends’ couches and not doing any Greek or Latin for a few days, thank the baby Jesus, but here goes:
Wednesday: Fly to New York Friday: Bus to Boston Saturday: Bus back to New York Sunday: Fly back to Nashville
We don’t get much of a fall break over here (but we do get all of Thanksgiving week off). I’m just looking forward to the prospect of not...
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Book. →
Languagehat translates Ivan Bunin’s The Book (Книга, 1924) into English. Having to read books for a living reminds me that it is also the reason I don’t have a life:
Lying on a stack of straw on the threshing floor, I had been reading for a long time – and suddenly I revolted. Once again reading all morning, once again with a book in my hands! And it’s been that way day in, day out, since I...
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Dialogues of the Courtesans 8: Ampelis and Chrysis
Ampelis: If a man isn’t jealous or angry, Chrysis, and never hits you, cuts your hair off, or tears your clothes, is he still in love with you?
Chrysis: Are these the only signs of a man’s love, then?
Ampelis: Yes, these are the signs of a burning love. All else, the kisses, the tears, the vows and the frequent visits are the signs of a love that is beginning and still growing. But the real flame comes from jealousy. So if Gorgias hits you, and shows jealousy, as you say, you should be thankful, and should hope that he always continues in the same way.
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BRB reading about lesbian threesomes
it’s for my presentation tomorrow.
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Janus Rising — the State of Classical Studies at... →
I like how Classics has to keep justifying its existence.
This particular quote worries me, though:
Many majors admit they have no intention of a career in classics.
Oh, shit.
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Liddell and Scott in verse, by Gordon Messing
(via Laudator Temporis Acti, and Thomas Hardy also wrote a little something called Liddell and Scott on the Completion of their Lexicon)
Says Scott to Liddell,
“Is there some jot or tittle
Of Greek that we’ve not
In our lexicon got?
Editions reach nine
And I want to resign;
I’m just skin and bones,
Though we did bring in Jones.”
Says Liddell to...
“Aw, yes. So many things are difficult to accept until Malcolm Gladwell explains...”
– Merlin Mann or: why Malcolm Gladwell has always bugged me.
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I swear to God by the time I am finished with this...
I will not be able to look at anything over 700 years old without throwing up
I will not be able to see or hear any Greek or Latin without wanting to self-harm
I will have developed a debilitating drinking habit
I will have become extremely good at hiding said d.d.h.
I will have taught myself how to cook exactly four recipes, but absolutely nothing else
I will have learned to open beer...
“The Greeks were not tolerant of the well-meaning idiot.”
– Professor Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, the former Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University, who died on October 5 aged 87. More.
Headlights - Get Your Head Around It
Tuneage...
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Classics MA Reading List or: My life from now on
Greek
EPIC
* Homer, Iliad, Bks 1-4, 6, 9, 11, 16-18, 22, 24 AND
* Odyssey, Bks 1-6, 9-12, 19, 23-24
* Homeric Hymn to Demeter
* Hesiod, Theogony
LYRIC
* Selections of Lyric Poets (Campbell)
* Pindar, Olympian 1; Pythians 1, 3
DRAMA
* Aischylos, Agamemnon
* Sophokles, Oidipous Tyrannos, Antigone
* Euripides, Hippolytos, Bakchai
* Aristophanes, Frogs
HISTORY
* ...
“God’s rentboy army is going dominate us with their weapons of mass destruction.”
– crowth. It makes sense in context, but the sentence by itself is fantastic.