to losers

Says Aeneas,

"Revocate animos maestumque timorem
Mittite; forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit"

THAT E.F. Benson?

I was browsing the bibliography of LOA edition of Tuchman when I found this entry:

THE KAISER AND ENGLISH RELATIONS, by E.F. Benson

I rubbed my eyes: who? Surely NOT the author of that famous Mapp & Lucia series?

To my surprise, it was indeed the same author lol.

Now why did Tuchman include that book for Guns of August? Interesting...

Tolstoy's shocking? credo

From Hello Goodbye Hello, p. 159

Tolstoy holds forth his view of woman sexuality to Maxim Gorky('bitter');

"If the girl is over 15 and healthy, she wants to be hugged and squeezed"

True to his word, he in fact PRACTICED his credo, abusing tenant girls and all, as evidenced in Rosamund Bartlett's bio of him , Tolstoy: A Russian Life
Naughty, Naughty.

Surprising splash of Michael Carter-Williams

I heard from an acquaintance that Philadelphia 76ers rookie PG

1 Michael Carter-Williams G 6-6 185 10/10/1991 Syracuse/USA R

is creating a sensation,and that it is a quite surprise, his doing SO well.

A pure PG that has a potential to be the Next Penny Hardaway, should check him out.
Funny, for a sport that's pretty much decided by physical talent, there are quite a lot of surprises concerning new players, always has been. Even more so than Tennis, for example.

It's pretty rare for a relatively unknown junior player to achieve star status in college tennis.

For example Sabrina Santamaria, Pre-season(this year) #1 and recent NIIC semi finalist(her first), wasn't even the top dog in California in her senior year, that honor goes probably to Monica Turewicz, Ojai winner and IW PQ finalist(even defeated Schnack, if I remember correctly, then lost to Hardebeck in the final). That year, the #1 was Trice Capra or Robin Anderson. Granted both of these super stars have done well, but the upsurge of Sabrina is surprising and uplifting; it's also probably the triumph of USC tennis program.

The thing I have common with Tacitus

Maybe I'm a bit like Tacitus, resolved to write "sine ira et studio"(Ann. I. 1.6) yet unable to do so lol.

(but funny, that quote was on the introduction of Loeb edition of his Histories, yet when I checked the Annals OCT edition I couldn't find it -_-;; WTF)

Why not THIS Nancy Reagan episode?

Enjoying Craig Browns' expose, Hello Goodbye Hello, a brutal and hilarious portrait of celebrities.

Yet I was sorely disappointed by him not including the legendray episode of Reagan and Miles Davis.
I mean, can you top THAT lol.

The peril of a tome

Who doesn't love a doorstep of a tome? But it has its demerits.

It certainly LOOKS lovely, but it's quite awkward to flip through, let alone carrying along.

For example, I was exultant after FINALLY buying BN edition of Jules Verne at a 30% discount, but found out that the translation is not the best one. It lacks notes, either.
Probably buying Oxford pbk editions translated by William Butler would've been more prudent.

Same goes to my biggest book, Douay-Rheims & Clementina Vulgata (English and Latin Edition) Bonded Leather by Roman Catholic Church (Author)
Sure it's GORGEOUS, but it's really too big and hefty lol. Baronius Press sells pbk editions in 3 volumes, that might've been a better purchase.
The peril of my being too weak on visuals.

Kidman > Lawrence

Just watched Paperboy.

Nicole was way better than Jennifer. I've seen most of Jennifer's movies and can't understand the hype. Her enumerating the football scores at the end of SLP...looked so fake lol

Some interesting books

Found some interesting books at the library:

 Schnitzler's Century: The Making of Middle-Class Culture 1815-1914 by Peter Gay.

Actually Gay has written some interesting books, such as his highly regarded Enlightenment series.

--

Reformation Europe by G.R. Elton.

I was actually longing to read a book about Reformation, probably by MacCulloch.

--

A new translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron by Wayne A. Rebhorn. I'm a sucker for new books, so...mightily tempting lol.

I actually have an Easton Press edition of it.

Lucretius & Ovid editions

After using some, my thoughts;

For De Rerum Natura, I strongly recommend Martin Smith's

On the Nature of Things, Translated by Martin Ferguson Smith (Hackett Classics Series) [Paperback]

Prose translation, but it's silky smooth, with plenty of explanations to help through(no latin text).
It's him who revised Rouse's Loeb edition, and imo it's actually better.

I would rather avoid Anthony Esolen's prose translation, it's not quite faitful to the original latin text.
Although the frontpiece painting is gorgeous.

On Ovid's Metamorphoses, I recommend Margaret Musgrove's.

It's only a selection, with no english translation, but there's actually plenty of help on the back. Slim, but pretty good.

As I said before, Peter Jone's has vocabularies on the same page, and quite helpful commentaries, also on the same page.

Anderson's has the most in depth commentaries(for example, detailed explanation on meters), but I doubt one really needs it unless you're really into it.

Ovid] The Golden Line

Dunno why both William Anderson & Peter Jones say it's a golden line, but here it is;

Obviaque adversas vibrabant flamina vestes,

Line 628, Book I

Jones mentions another one:

Mollia cinguntur tenui praecordia libro

More books on WWI

Barbara Tuchman's classic account

Barbara W. Tuchman: The Guns of August & The Proud Tower (Library of America)

Fritz Fischer's epochal book that enraged his fellow German historians

Germany's Aims in the First World War

Max Hastings'

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War

I don't think I can renew Hasting's book since there must be tons of holds placed on the copies lol. Should read it first.

Let us go to the sky

Holmes mentions this phrase uttered by Daedalus in his book Falling Upwards:

"Terras licet et undas obstruat;

Et caelum certe patet; ibimus illac!"

Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk 8, line 185-6

History by art historians

Came upon a history book by Gombrich at Norton Simon store yesterday.

A Little History of the World


Kenneth Clark also wrote one.

Civilisation: A Personal View

Curious how they'll approach history from an art historian's perspective.

Useful latin

Spectat inornatos folio pendere capillos,

Et 'quid, si comantur?' Ait.

...videt oscula, quae non est vidisse satis

...si qua latent, meliora putat.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk 1 line 497-502

To Norton Simon I go

So, so far pretty instructive reading Kenneth Clark's

Landscape into Art, since I'm pretty ignorant in that area.

I think the book got my attention due to Folio's advertising. I could have gotten that book free by answering the mail..ah well, it's too late now.

Now, to 'test' it.. should head to the museum and check it out.

Disruptions

When one read some books, sometimes they are hooked and want to explore further, or want to tackle some book which is mentioned in that book, same with me.

For example, after reading Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire, I'm tempted to explore further, such as his other books;

Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe

The Restoration of Rome

I actually just borrowed this book which was mentioned(and praised) in Heather's book;

The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture

----

Was curious at Jacques Barzun mentioning that Montesquieu discussed race in his magnum opus

Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws

Thankfully the local library has an older edition of this book(not the sleek Cambridge one)

----

And why am I reading Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz (on kindle, though, downloaded it free and almost finished anyway)

----

Also got curious about Mary Poppins after reading the portion of the titanic struggle between Walt Disney and the book's author P.L Travers in Craig Brown's 'reportage' compilation Hello Goodbye Hello, so am tempted to at least read just that book..lol.

By the way loved Julie Andrews in the movie(also have the dvd), and
Saving Mr. Banks (focusing on that exact episode, Travers vs Disney) just got released, hope I can borrow it soon from the library(since I don't go to the theaters any more due to my hearing loss; need subtitle).

Readings from May

It has been a profictable reading for the second half of the year, from Summer;

May
Le Cid by Corneille
Mythologies by Roland Barthes
The Italian Renaissance by Peter Burke

June
Inferno by Dan Brown
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 by Christopher Clark
The Cambridge History of German Literature
Renaissance People: Lives that Shaped the Modern Age by by Robert C. Davis,Beth Lindsmith
Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (Liberation Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 by Lynne Olson
Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (New Approaches to European History) by Charles G. Nauert
The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor
Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings
The Struggle For Mastery in Germany, 1779-1850 (European History in Perspective) by Brendan Simms
Why don't we learn from History? by Basil Liddell Hart

July
Decline of French Patriotism, 1870-1940 by Herbert Tint
Palmerston: A Biography by David Brown
English Civil War: Conservatism and Revolution, 1603-1649 by Robert Ashton
The Lord Chandos Letter by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

August
The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 (Making of the Modern World) by Julian Jackson
Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 by William Dalrymple
The Course of German History: A Survey of the Development of German History since 1815 (Routledge Classics) by A.J.P Taylor
Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler

September
The Count of Monte Cristo (Oxford World's Classics) by Alexandre Dumas, David Coward(tr)
1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War by Charles Emmerson
Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party (Studies in Postwar American Political Development) by Geoffrey Kabaservice
The Iliad by Homer, bk 2
Physics And Politics Or Thoughts On The Apllication Of The Principles Of 'Natural Selection And Inheritance' To Political Society by Walter Bagehot
The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China by David J. Silbey
Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD by Peter Brown

October
The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies by David Thomson
Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War (Pivotal Moments in American History) by Richard Moe
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

November
Notre-Dame de Paris (Oxford World's Classics) by Victor Hugo, Alban Krailsheimer Iliad, bk 3 Caesar: The Gallic War (Loeb Classical Library) by Caesar, bk 1
Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Latin edition) by J.K. Rowling, Peter Needham(tr), ch 1
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians by Peter Heather
1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler-the Election amid the Storm by Susan Dunn
Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War (New Studies in European History) by Annika Mombauer

Heraclitus

Just read a polemic against Heraclitus by Lucretius(line 635-644)

And the note(dunno if it is by Rouse or Smith) says that H contended that "strife is right" and "war is the father of all".

Now I should check what H says.

Highly recommended] Geiss' 'July 1914'

Quite impressed with his book, so far. If you want the German side of the equation concerning WWI, I think this book is indispensable. It's really rather eye-opening.

 I didn't know Max Weber was a typical liberal Imperialist(well, that was quite fashionable at the time).
 And more you know about its history, more does Hitler appear as a rather 'typical' German product, not as an anomaly.

 For example, Kurt Riezler, influential advisor to Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg, proclaimed that 'the eternal struggle-for obtaining world-domination-was the supreme aim of all nations' (Geiss, p. 33)

 'Eternal struggle'. You can't but remember Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'(My struggle)

 What about the memerandom which Pan German leaders sent to German Crown Prince(a notorious nationalist) in Oct. 1913;

It 'suggested the abolition of the constitution, suppression of freedom of the press and discriminatory legislation aimed at the Jews' and proclaimed that 'even an unsuccessful war would be preferable to cowardly peace'

 Exactly what Hitler achieved, no?

 You have to wonder, what kind of Germnay would have emerged had they won the WWI, even without the emergence of Hitler. Even SPD meekly acquiesced to the idea of Weltpolitik. A.J.P Taylor's view in his 'The Course of German History' seems rather perceptive..

Two gashes: me and my car

On the 10th, I went to the gym to play basketball, to relieve some stress.

I was the only one, so borrowed the ball and was practicing.

In comes 3 guys, asking to play 2 on 2; I refused, not wanting to die again lol but they said there was no extra ball at the front desk.

So what can I do...we played.

I was again naturally the shortest guy, and my partner wasn't tall either and we both wore glasses: the opponents were definitely taller and better built lol. The outcome was already preordained.

So they naturally dominated the board with their height and athleticism, yet the match was surprisingly close because of...me lol.

After some misses my jump shot at last began to go in(4 or 5 pts?), made some steals, and made some drive in baskets as well.

And of course, relentlessly passed inside.

My partner surprisingly was a decent mover, so made quite a lot of  A passes lol.
The problem was that his finish wasn't so good..lol. Anyway, it was a nice match, of course I was half dead later in the match lol.
It felt weird when I received a thumbs up when I'm usually the one to give one lol.
And I got a cut on the face.

Later, another car made a deep gash on mine at the parking lot lol..so had to leave it at the service center on the day of CIF SS Team Final.

That's the story of me and my car, receiving gashes lol.

Cicero's Verrine oration I & Geiss' 'July 1914'

I was dreading reading Cicero again, but surprisingly, it's a rather pleasant read: sentences are prettily structured, even. Is this one of his easier works, or did my latin comprehension got better, dunno lol. So also looking forward to read his Philippics later as well.

Imanuel Geiss' book is a profitable read. Very nice and detailed Introduction on the era. This book is mainly a compilation of important related diplomatic documents leading to WWI, so it's worth buying if you are interested(borrowed it from the library but am sorely tempted to buy lol). Each chapters are headed by his detailed intros as well.