Sunday, July 1, 2007

Beginning Again

Carissimae Carissimique--

I don't know if anyone still reads this, but I thought I would drop this note as the proverbial message in the bottle (btw, I just saw an old movie titled exactly that-what a tearjecker!). Now that the dust has settled and I am back home (gasp! did I just say that?!!) I am hoping for our long awaited and long overdue reunion sometime in July. I am having the presemester jitters today, because tomorrow morning at 10 am I start teaching the summer Latin class and I got 35 kids there. Why does this happen every single time?! I must have taught this class a bazillion times and it's always new to me...But heaven forbid I ever get bored; then I will know it's time to retire and I ain't going anywhere for the next 30 years!

I was browsing the Times this morning and look what I found: they finally caught on the 'Are we Rome' book, news of which Rachael posted so intuitively a while ago! I do agree that Rome is everywhere in the modern imagination, but I don't think that the prez is Diocletian--more like a cross between Claudius and Galba (not one of the stars, but an interesting emperor in his own right...). I am posting below the link to the article --and stay tuned if you will for vacation pictures and the posts from the new generation of Latinists (they have no clue what they are in for...he he he!!)

Vestra, in aevum aevi-

EM.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/weekinreview/index.html?8dpc

3 comments:

RaeS said...

I still read the blog, Prof. M! Just about everytime I'm able to get online, now in rural Virginia... Tonight, the fireworks were unexpectedly set off down at the NASCAR speedway... Everyone here thought they'd be doing them tomorrow night, when they usually do, on the actual 4th, and we were quite surprised... We could only see the fireworks reflecting off the clouds and hear all the patriotic country music blaring from the speakers. I will have to read the Times article another time because it's getting pretty late and we're driving back to South Carolina tomorrow...

I have forgotten the password and the username to sign in and make posts though... :-(

I've much to post about... For now, I'll just say two things:

1.) I am very much looking forward to a reunion and also to seeing pictures from Greece. I can't really think of date and time for the reunion with any certainty at the moment because I don't have my calendar with me and I'm lost without it (but lost on vacation, so it works for me...). Will post again once I have my calendar in front of me...

2.) I want to share the Project Laundry List newsletter, "Hanging Out," with y'all! I wrote two articles myself, one on page 6 and one on page 10 and I was the uncredited, but much appreciated, assistant editor on this issue... First time I ever did something like that... Anyway, here's a link to it, if you have the time and inclination to take a look: http://www.laundrylist.org/hangingout/Summer%202007.pdf

E Pluribus Unum said...

Did you say NASCAR???!!!

LOL, you *were* in the deep south, you weren't kidding!!

I will take a look at your project as soon as my coffee brews here. It's funny to me that what was my reality for the past month and a half is elsewhere a project...I love switching gears with my trips to Greece and Italy...

And bring your own pix from the holidays! Did you go to the NASCAR races too?!

EM.

RaeS said...

LOL! Absolutely NASCAR and absolutely the South... I'm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia right now. I'd post a map, but can't find the password to do that right now... Anyway, the Martinsville Speedway is one of the oldest NASCAR speedways in the country... quite small by today's standards, but they still do some races there and of course the Fourth of July fireworks.

There were no races there last night, just the fireworks. We could almost see them from my grandmother's house, but not quite... All we could see was the different color lights reflecting off the clouds, but we could hear the country music blaring from the speedway's sound system. That's actually what brought us out into the front yard to begin with. My sister and I were sitting in the den, watching something on tv (I don't remember what) and all the sudden we heard a comotion from outside. We went out to the front door to see if maybe some of the neighbors were celebrating early or something, but no... it was the fireworks down at the speedway, which is just a few hill tops over from my grandmother's house.

I most certainly will bring pictures to the reunion! ;D