One For Dr. Lorimer

Speaking of 'the ruins of civilizations that were mighty in their day'...

This is the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, king of Sidon (one of the great port cities of ancient Phoenicia, located in modern-day Lebanon). Dr. Lorimer and I admired it at the Louvre.

The inscription comprises a little genealogy, a little self-promotion, and a little admonishment to potential treasure seekers. ("[T]he sacred gods shall inflict extirpation on them.")

But what I really like is how the translator phrased this bit:

For, graced by the gods, I am carried away. The time of my non-existence has come; my spirit has disappeared, like the day, from whence I am silent, since which I became mute.

I should very much like to have that on my tombstone one day.


source: Dr. Nicholas C. J. Pappas

One Reviewer's Take on The Odyssey

"I picked up this Library book [The Odyssey] because I am in love with the story Troy. It makes the movie more put together."

source: Amazon.com

Bookish Voyeurism

I'm a sucker for gizmos and statistics.

In LibraryThing, you can add other users to what they call your 'watch list'. The watch list appears in the sidebar of your profile page. This makes it easy to see your friends' collections grow.

Anytime you click into another user's catalog, LibraryThing helpfully tells you how many books you have in common with that person.

As of yesterday today:

• Daisy and I currently share 62 books. (cool, go Daisy!)
• Indy and I currently share 42 books.
• Skywolf and I currently share 26 books.
• Skits and I currently share 20 books
• Emma and I currently share 20 books
• Rian and I currently share 3 books.
• Emano needs to add more books.

Updated to add Emma and Skits

Bookish Practicalities

LibraryThing is turning out to be good for more than "Oooo lookit all me books". I know. Shocking, 'innit?

• Discovering duplicate copies. (As in: Why, why, why do I have 3 copies of Jane Eyre??)



• Pinpointing which books have gone walkabout over the years. The ones I don't remember are probably no great loss, but the ones I miss and can't locate are.



• Finding gaps in series. (Ehm, why do we have books 2 and 3, but not 1?)



• Realizing just how many Pratchetts we have accumulated. (Egad, we have HOW many?)

Mother's Day

When you've got the munchies...

Narrisch sat on the walk this evening and watched Baby Bunny chow down on lawn.

He can't be more than a few weeks old. I'd guess he's a smidge tinier than my hand.



Every time someone drove by, he'd hop back to the safety of... the rain spout?



I didn't manage to get a shot of him sitting with his nose in the spout.

(OK, you're tiny, but really, bunny, you aren't going to fit up there).

There is a drainage pipe (black) that runs under the lawn. You can see it below the rain spout. Bunny &Co. live in said drainage pipe. Goodness knows how they all fit.

Should we give him a name?

One for Skits

From time to time in my genealogical travails, I'll come across a source that has nothing to do whatsoever with my family, but rather something that is interesting in its own right. Sometimes amusing (Brigham Young's marriage -- to multiple nubile maidens, all on the same day), sometimes shocking ($40,000 for 100 acres during the Civil War?!), and sometimes just for fun.

And so, a few years back, I ordered out the film for Steventon Parish in England.

Jane, daughter of the Rev'd Mr George Austen,

Rector of this Parish, & Cassandra his wife was

privately Baptiz'd Dec'r 17th 1775

Rec'd into the Church April 5th 1776

source: Church of England. Parish Church of Steventon. Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society of Utah. FHL #1,041,307.

Random Quote Generator

I fixed up a little javascript quote generator for Indy's sidebar last night. If anyone else would like one for their own blog (with your very own selection of witty sayings, natch), just give a holler. 'Tis simple enough.

Far and away

Zanzibar's magical - yet crumbling - Stone Town

Another item for the long list of "Someday".

Preorders

The next Hobb book (US edition) is available for preorder from Amazon and Powells, as of today or yesterday (I think).

Apologies if it's already old news.

sunset, prayer flags

Taos, New Mexico

Question of the Day

Do you typically read:

• Only ever one book at a time?
  
• Several books in parallel?