Author Topic: Classics Forum  (Read 350599 times)

Frybabe

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #400 on: March 22, 2012, 06:03:53 PM »


The Classics Forum


Paestum

Paestum, a complex of Greek Temples in  Southern Italy.


Welcome to our Classics Forum, which is our public discussion for those interested in the Classics. Since our Latin Classes are not visible to the public but we have a great many people interested in talking about the Classics, we've put this discussion up for your interest.

Please share here news, clips, magazine or newspaper articles, movies or television shows and especially books  you find that would be of interest to those of us who love the classics world.

Everyone is welcome!


It's never too late to learn Latin!



Interested in learning more about our Latin Courses? Click here: Learn More About Our Latin Courses




Just out!


We are very excited to announce the 5th edition of our Ezine Ecce, a publication of our SeniorLearn Classics Project and it's incredible this time. Our UK Editor, Maryemm, has outdone herself, and Marcie's work on the layout put the icing on the cake.

We have articles by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, a very interesting short piece on Sian Phillips, who played Livia in the I, Claudius production and who turns out to be, like Boris Johnson, a total fan of Latin.

We have articles by  prominent archaeologists,  Cambridge Don Mary Beard, articles of new finds and old places, and best of all, we have articles by our own current Latin students which are absolutely fascinating  on a variety of wide ranging subjects. What a talented and accomplished student body we have here! I particularly like the fact that each of our 6 Latin classes is represented in this issue.

Take some time to immerse yourselves in this exciting issue! We hope you enjoy it!

http://seniorlearn.org/classics/ecce/ecce5/titlepg.html  



MaryEmm. When something is declared a treasure. Do the finders get what, a percentage of value or auction price, or a set fee for finding them? If it is not declared a treasure then I assume that the finder is free to do with it as he/she pleases.

George was just telling me last night that he watched a program where people were metal detecting along the Thames. He told me that there is a license that people have to get to do metal detecting and that the fee price depends on the size of the metal detector head. On top of that he said that the license fees are different depending on which side of the Thames the detecting is being done. Sounds strange. Is the licensing of metal detectors a local revenue thing or is it a national thing?

Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #401 on: March 26, 2012, 10:27:40 AM »


Fascinating questions. I have never found any "treasure" and so  I have never really thought about the answers!


Quote
Today the common law of Treasure Trove, which dictates that all treasure found, belongs to the Crown until an owner is established is no longer in effect in most of the UK.  Instead, the Treasure Act of 1996 replaced the Treasure Trove laws carefully outlawing what qualifies as treasure and what does not.
 
However, those who go metal detecting in Scotland still are obliged to follow the Treasure Trove laws as they are still in place and thus must turn over any treasure they find to the Crown by heading to a local museum who can determine if the item needs to be given away or if the finder can keep it.

from :  http://www.treasuretrove.org.uk/

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/24/contents

http://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/summary

http://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/finders

http://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/adviceonbuying

http://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/forearchaeologists


MUDLARKS : the name given to people who search for items in rivers.

The following link has an excellent video that will give lots of information.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8496000/8496903.stm

The following link is truly interesting as there are loads of images of finds. But BEWARE : the language is a bit iffy  and some of the "cartoon" comments are a bit rude! I am aware of the sensitive natures of the readers here! ;D

http://www.thamesandfield.co.uk/







Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #402 on: March 31, 2012, 12:02:50 PM »
 I have just finished reading "Master and God" and have to admit that although I enjoyed reading it and, as usual, Lindsey Davis brought Rome to life, I felt that two books are combined here : an historical one dedicated to Domitian, and a "romantic" one detailing the love affair between Lucilla, court hairdresser, and Gaius Vinius, Praetorian Guard.

As a L. D fan I hate adversely criticising her work but I found the book too long and my attention wandered. Sometimes a bawdy earthiness seemed to be dragged in and I found this irritating and off-putting.

I have read each one of all her other books at least four times but this one will be lucky (!) to get another read.

I hope it's me. I like Lindsey Davis's novels.

On the plus side I want to find out even more about Domitian. I had no idea he was such a tyrant. I can see why Frybabe does not list him amongst her favourites!



 

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #403 on: April 01, 2012, 08:13:56 AM »
 I generally like Lindsey Davis, too, MARYEMM.  I agree, tho', that when anything gives the feel
of having been 'dragged in', it definitely spoils the flow of the story.  Haven't read this one, but
may read it anyway to learn more about Domitian.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

Mippy

  • Posts: 3100
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #404 on: April 07, 2012, 11:50:34 AM »
UPDATE on restoration of Pompeii, in NY Times today:

THE GREAT POMPEII PROJECT, as the program has been named, received a contribution of $137 million (euros ? or dollars? ) from the European Union.  The Italian government announced a four-year plan for the protection of Pompeii.  Around 2.3 million people visit the ruins each year.   Some of the funds will be used for diagnostic purposes to determine which areas are most at risk.


                   
As all of you probably have read, the state of the ruins have become more precarious lately.   In 2010 another area gave way.
Ginny ~  are you going again this summer?
quot libros, quam breve tempus

Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #405 on: April 15, 2012, 09:12:54 AM »

Here in the UK., starting this coming Tuesday, Professor Mary Beard will be presenting a new programme,
"All Roads Lead to Rome".

Read all about it here at:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ghsjx


Sounds great!

(She was kind enough to allow us to publish some of her work in "Ecce")

ginny

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Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #406 on: April 15, 2012, 04:25:13 PM »
Mary, thank you for that, I hope that somebody will put it on Youtube so we can see it in the US. I hear somebody has put up her Pompeii series on youtube, also.

Mippy, yes, I am planning, if nothing happens, to make my 19th visit this summer.

But look what's new: see next post!
SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

ginny

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Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #407 on: April 15, 2012, 04:38:56 PM »
The waiting is over and the results are in and once again our Latin students have distinguished themselves by winning awards on the National Latin Exam!!!

This year 148,000 students from all 50 states and 13 foreign countries including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe from all levels including college and university, took  the National Latin  Exam.

We are very proud to announce our winners:

Introduction to Latin Exam: First Place, Outstanding Achievement, Purple and Gold Ribbon: Perfect Paper: Perranza

Introduction to Latin Exam: First Place, Outstanding Achievement, Purple and Gold Ribbon: Perfect Paper: Suetonius

Introduction to Latin Exam: First Place, Outstanding Achievement, Purple and Gold Ribbon: Harry10

Introduction to Latin Exam: First Place, Outstanding Achievement, Purple and Gold Ribbon: Marilyn

Introduction to Latin Exam: First Place, Outstanding Achievement, Purple and Gold Ribbon: Collie Rose

Latin I Exam: Gold Medal, Summa Cum Laude, Perfect Paper: Geoff

Latin I Exam: Gold Medal, Summa Cum Laude, Perfect Paper: Josh Young

Latin I Exam: Gold Medal, Summa Cum Laude, Perfect Paper: Mogamom

Latin I Exam: Gold Medal,  Summa Cum Laude, Perfect Paper: Roxania

Latin I Exam: Gold Medal, Summe Cum Laude: Yvonne Miller

Latin II Exam: Gold Medal, Summa Cum Laude, Perfect Paper: Hidaroupe

Latin II Exam: Cum Laude: Bow_Belle


Many congratulations to all of you for this incredible achievement!!




SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

roshanarose

  • Posts: 1344
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #408 on: April 15, 2012, 11:11:11 PM »
Fantastic effort all!  How beautiful those medals and their ribbons are.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9936
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #409 on: April 15, 2012, 11:15:43 PM »
Congratulations everyone!

ginny

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Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #410 on: April 18, 2012, 08:50:50 AM »
ISN'T this exciting? And thank you for the nice comments, they deserve them. We are so proud of ALL of our students, those who took the test and those who didn't, it's exhilarating!


Here's something everybody who is interested in Classics might appreciate, brought to my attention yesterday by a 200 student.

(Did everybody see The Swerve won the Pulitzer for Non Fiction?) The Classics is certainly hot right now. This article is about a year old,  but  new to me, and well worth reading:


The Classics Rock

Eleven reasons Plutarch and Herodotus still matter.
BY JAKUB GRYGIEL | APRIL 2, 2010

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/02/the_classics_rock?page=0,1&hidecomments=yes

SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

Tomereader1

  • Posts: 1850
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #411 on: April 18, 2012, 11:22:00 AM »
For those here who love the Greek history, etc, this month's "Bookmarks" magazine has a wonderful article "Novels of Ancient Greece".  Even I recognized some of the titles by Mary Renault. There is a fairly recent (2011) book by Madeline Miller, "The Song of Achilles", which I had previously read a review of in some magazine in a waiting room.
The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.


André Maurois

eyelcu

  • JimF
  • Posts: 1324
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #412 on: April 18, 2012, 12:36:15 PM »
Roshanrose, I am fascinated to read your quote below your posts;
Quote
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

My reason is that there is a new, mid-season TV show called Awake (NBC, thursdays at 10 pm Eastern), whose premise is that a detective is having separate but intertwined days, and he doesn't know which is a dream and which is his real, daily life.

Who says that the classics have no relevance to modern life??!!
JimF

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9936
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #413 on: April 18, 2012, 02:03:30 PM »
I've separated out my Roman History ebooks and my Latin language/literature ebooks into their own folders now. I am up to seven ebooks in the language/literature folder; the latest download is "Beginning Latin Poetry Reader: 70 Great Passages from Classical Roman Verse and Drama" by Gavin Betts and Daniel Franklin. It is from McGraw-Hill's Latin Reader Series. It was a freebie. At least I don't remember seeing a price on it, but I might be surprised when I get my bill. Copyrighted 2007, it is also in print.

roshanarose

  • Posts: 1344
Re: Classics Bulletin Board
« Reply #414 on: April 18, 2012, 10:41:59 PM »
Thanks Jim for your post.I do believe in parallel universes.  I think that when people mistakenly label people as schizophrenic that they are not cognizant with the fact that many people do live separate lives in their heads, I know I do.  Schizophrenia, although "schizo" is Greek for split does not mean split personality at all.  What it does mean is a separation from reality.  My daughter, who is a Clinical Psychologist and I were discussing this last night actually.  She said, and I agree, that like pleasure and pain that there is a very thin line dividing sanity and insanity.  I actually hate using these labels, but apart from telepathy between humans it is difficult for me to describe.  btw my other daughter was schizophrenic.

Tomereader - I have Miller's "The song of achilles" on my Sony Touch reader.  It is in a long line of TBR's but I will let you know what I think of it.  Yes.  We Hellenophiles cut our teeth on Mary Renault, but probably the most influential in introducing me to Greek myths and heroes was a writer called Gustav Schwab.  He made them come alive.  And they were all waiting for me on my first trip to Greece  ;) and we remained good friends up to and including my second trip.  Now I just love them from afar.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #415 on: April 19, 2012, 05:59:25 PM »
 WOW!!! I am so proud of our Latin students.  I brag to my family about
the brilliant people I associate with daily.  8) ;D

  If I were better at graphics, I'd add one of my own.

CONGRATULATIONS!
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9936
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #416 on: April 20, 2012, 08:44:19 PM »
Don (Radioman), just posted the rest of the pix from his most recent trip to Israel. He has some wonderful pix of Caesaria on posts 223 and 221. I had no idea that Caesaria was so large. The chariot race circuit looks like it is right on the beach. If you don't have a Senior and Friends account you can still see the pix. Just click on page 8 and scroll down to the pix.

http://www.seniorsandfriends.org/index.php?topic=1239.0

ginny

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #417 on: April 21, 2012, 11:13:27 AM »
Thank you so much for all the nice comments and wonderful bits of news! This is a great place to talk about books  about the classics, we're interested in all your opinions on each, so don't spare them.

Frybabe, those are wonderful photos! Thank you for bringing them here.



Latin sure is hot lately, I  just saw this on the Merriam Webster site today:




Top 10 Latin Words to Live By:

Over the centuries, certain Latin phrases have been used widely enough in English to get included in the dictionary. This list contains some of our favorites:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-latin-words-to-live-by/amor-vincit-omnia.html
SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #418 on: April 23, 2012, 12:13:21 PM »

 GREAT RESULTS






Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #419 on: April 23, 2012, 12:14:13 PM »




Rome's desperate housewives: Forget orgies, over-eating and incest, Mrs Average in Caesar's reign was just like us (but x-rated).

By Mary Beard



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2133010/Romes-desperate-housewives-Forget-orgies-eating-incest-Mrs-Average-Caesars-reign-just-like-x-rated.html#ixzz1ssdJPG95


Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #420 on: April 23, 2012, 12:22:54 PM »


Italian 'finds' sculpture of Antony and Cleopatra's twins

Work identified in Cairo's Egyptian Museum


http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2012/04/20/Italian-finds-sculpture-Antony-Cleopatra-twins_6752091.html



roshanarose

  • Posts: 1344
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #421 on: April 23, 2012, 11:56:08 PM »
Ginny and Maryemm - Thanks for those interesting links.  Ginny, I shall attempt tp slip those Latinisms into my next "Friends of Antiquity" meeting at the University.  8)  The first and last are my favourites.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

ginny

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #422 on: April 25, 2012, 05:38:01 PM »
Excellent! You'll WOW them!




The hottest thing on tv today in the UK is a series running in several parts by Mary Beard on the BBC called Meet the Romans. This series is not available in the US yet but there are three excerpts here on youtube from it, including an spectacular catacombs like structure, not to be missed.  Each snippet is 5 minutes long but her entire program on Pompeii is also there and it's a treat:


Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town

The Mary Beard BBC Special not available in the US:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sap5A4Vk-Wo&feature=related


The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in the year AD 79. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 meters of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1749. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire.

_________________________________________________

Mary Beard, Cambridge don and professor of classics, is currently being shown on the BBC in a several part series called Meet the Romans.

It's not available here, but here are three 5 minute segments from each to whet the appetite: first a trip into an incredible columbarium and tombstone reading:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_VcMlQsrzE&feature=email

Mary Beard Shows us a Remarkable Ancient Roman Communal Tomb - Meet the Romans - Episode 2 - BBC Two


____________________________________________

Then series I:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRf42bh-BlE&feature=email

Mary Beard Shows Us a Roman Gladiator's Helmet - Meet the Romans with Mary Beard - BBC Two


_____________________________________

Then finally from the 3rd series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUiNHWDPgog&feature=email

Some of the Remarkable Objects the Romans Left Behind - Meet the Romans with Mary Beard - BBC Two

Enjoy!

We can only hope that we can see these in their entirety soon.





SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #423 on: April 26, 2012, 03:53:45 PM »
I loved Mary Beard's "Meet the Romans" Part 1. Missed the second one and hav been frantically trying to find out if it is being repeated.

Horrified to read that the Professor is being criticised for not looking like a bimbo. AA Gill journalist for a Sunday newspaper has been scathingly rude in his criticism of her appearance and this has created quite a furore.

One article in her defence:

AA Gill, drop the cheap jibes about Mary Beard – and learn something




Mary Beard hits back at AA Gill after he brands her "too ugly for television"  



What an obnoxious man! I hope Nemesis notes all this.

ginny

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #424 on: April 26, 2012, 06:57:14 PM »
I cannot believe people are commenting negatively on  her appearance!  What is the matter with people today?

What  a ridiculous inconsequential thing to address and quite stupid: I think she's very attractive, tho that's not the point of the program, and I love her enthusiasm for what she's doing and her obvious knowledge.   Have we come to this in 2012?

 I'd rather watch her read a tombstone  than the most gifted and beautiful actor read his or her lines: (which somebody else, probably her,  would have to write first). SHE'S the original and  real and she's doing something nobody else is.  I think she's absolutely  fabulous.


I loved the snippets I put here and saw, and just look at this one, here's another:


It shows the Porta Maggiore in Rome, up close,  but does not identify it.  Our Latin 101 students  remember the Porta Maggiore from our aqueduct chapter as showing the Aqua Claudia as it enters the city, but here you can get a real idea of the size of it close up!  And she explains the strange tomb of Eurysaces the Baker which everybody always wonders about.  Not to be missed: the best couple of minutes you'll spend today:

Mary Beard Introduces Us to a Resident of Ancient Rome - Meet the Romans with Mary Beard - BBC Two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSB-kRfyWD4&feature=email



I am on fire to get a copy of that DVD, in any format.
SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9936
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #425 on: April 26, 2012, 08:45:02 PM »
I think Mary Beard hit the nail on the head. I wouldn't have called Gill's remarks misogynist. I would have called HIM misogynist. He seems to have a habit of putting down educated women. Feeling a little inadequate are we Mr. Gill?  

Oh, and the youtube bit about the furniture. How wonderful to see these. I am surprised she was touching them without gloves on.

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #426 on: April 27, 2012, 08:28:26 AM »
  I can remember way back when, a columnist whose name I've happily forgotten, who was
so infuriatingly chauvinistic people hated him. Oddly, I read him for a while just to
see what snotty remarks he had to make that day. Maybe Gill is pitching for that kind
of following. I didn't continue to irritate myself for long; soon decided it wasn't worth
the aggravation.
  I agree, GINNY. From the picture in the link, Mary Beard looked to me to be warm,
attractive, with a face alive with humor and intelligence.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

PatH

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10916
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #427 on: April 29, 2012, 01:46:48 PM »
Our May book club online is "Women in Greek Drama": reading three Greek plays featuring strong women. Find out why these women have been famous in literature for two thousand years. The pre-discussion is here:

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=3156.0

We’ll start the first play, Sophocles’ Antigone, on May 15, so there’s still plenty of time.

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #428 on: May 02, 2012, 08:44:45 AM »
I know i don't usually post in here, but just had to let off steam - that truly appalling Samantha Brick woman has just been extensively quoted in the Daily Mail (one of worst and most reactionary newspapers) as saying that Mary Beard should not be allowed on TV because she is too ugly.  No kidding. 

Fortunately I think Mary B is very sensible and quite robust enough to ignore this rubbish (she was in fact a graduate student when I was at Cambridge, and taught some of my friends who were reading Classics,  They loved her.), but just who does this Brick woman think she is?  Last week it was how hard it is for her to be as beautiful as she thinks she is, now she is having a go at an intelligent, interesting, independent woman.  AA Gill is clearly terrified of clever women, but Brick has even less excuse.  She is just dreadful.

Rant over  ;D

Rosemary

ginny

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #429 on: May 02, 2012, 09:09:25 AM »
Oh for heaven's sake.

Here's one article on it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9240477/Samantha-Brick-Mary-Beard-is-too-ugly-for-television.html

I can't get over how the pot is calling the kettle black here. First Mr. Gill who appears to be some sort of vampire movie hold over and now  this woman.  Huh?

I don't find Ms. Brick beautiful, at all. I'm astounded she thinks she is, perhaps it's a publicity stunt. SHE'S the one who wrote people hate her because she's pretty?

She  can mark one more person in me who "doesn't hate her because she is beautiful,"  off the list. She isn't, to me, anyway.


In her argument tho she keeps talking about being  a "presenter," there's a difference in a "presenter" and Mary Beard.

Did you know Mary Beard when you were at school?

Pretty is as pretty does.

SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9936
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #430 on: May 02, 2012, 01:50:18 PM »
The difference between a "presenter" and someone like Mary Beard is that a presenter doesn't usually know beans about their subject other than what is scripted. Ms. Beard is the real deal, and therefore, much more appealing to me.

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #431 on: May 03, 2012, 08:29:35 AM »
 I would suggest that Samantha Brick is too ignorant and thick-headed to be allowedin print.   :P
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

rosemarykaye

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #432 on: May 03, 2012, 09:22:08 AM »
 ;D  ;D

Maryemm

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #433 on: May 05, 2012, 11:53:15 AM »
 I am beginning to believe that this is a publicity ploy on Ms Brick's part. She actually said that at a dinner party ten out of ten men would be attracted to her.

 Another so-called celebrity, Nancy Dell'Olio, has gone a step further: she says any man would want to flirt with her. If he doesn't, he's gay!  :o

 Well that's their opinion and they are entitled to it but when Ms Brick is disparaging about Professor Beard then that's another matter.

 It seems to me that the world today has become a place where bullies flourish. No wonder there are bullies in schools, on Facebook etc., when people like AA Gill and Ms Brick get away with their nasty little comments.


ginny

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #434 on: May 05, 2012, 03:15:16 PM »
Absolutely! I agree 100 percent, Mary, and with you all here too, so well said.

We have become a culture of Appearance. Look at John Edwards and his 700 dollar hair cuts. He is a nice looking man on the surface but apparently below it he's the worst of the worst: a scum bag by any definition.

The thing I can't come around to, aside from the impropriety of even being ignorant enough to comment on such an insignificant  thing as Mary Beard's appearance, is, at the end of the day,  this  Brick woman is not pretty? She's not beautiful by any standard and to me she's not even pretty, she's kind of plain or something, is that a bad photo of her?  And who cares what she looks like anyway: she's uncharitable and hateful and would not be pretty now to anybody,  no matter what she did.

The woman currently doing the potato chip commercials to the Al Green song Let's Stay  Together in the US is beautiful. Her features are beautiful. The Brick woman is plain, I'm sorry, if that's the best they can do with all that million dollar "presenter"  make up, she's just not pretty. It's got to be a joke. Maybe it IS a publicity stunt, if so it's going to backfire: she's what we call here a plain jane.

 I can't believe she thinks she IS beautiful? Are the two countries that different? Wasn't Elizabeth Taylor from the UK? 
SPRING BREAK NEWS:

Our Spring Break in Latin will begin March 4 and we'll return on March 21.

Babi

  • Posts: 6732
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #435 on: May 06, 2012, 08:31:10 AM »
  All of which reinforces my happy decision to totally ignore the 'celebrities'. If their
'celebrity' consists of being highly visible, rich, and scandalous, I really don't
care to know the details of their private lives, or what their opinion is on any
matter.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #436 on: May 06, 2012, 09:58:39 AM »
Ginny, yes Elizabeth Taylor was English.

I don't know anyone here in the UK who thinks that Brick woman is pretty.  Or that oily woman either.  And I too hate the way bullies are playing an increasing role in society.  Was forced (well sort of - too lazy to move!) to endure Top Gear on TV last night.  Jeremy Clarkson (who is a great chum of AA Gill but considerably stupider) and his sidekicks are just awful - horrible public school boys who've never grown up and who think anyone who doesn't laugh at their puerile, sexist, comments 'doesn't have a sense of humour' or is 'frigid', etc.  Awful, awful, awful.  Unfortunately also v popular.

And of course the worst public schoolboys of them all are our current leaders, though I'm glad to say they have received a major drubbing in last week's local elections.

Rosemary

Frybabe

  • Posts: 9936
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #437 on: May 06, 2012, 12:50:17 PM »
I too was forced (like you to lazy or polite to get up) to watch Top Gear a few times. One thing that sticks out, other than I am not interested in the program, is one of the shows they did in the US. I had seen the same one before, but didn't a nickname they used for their driver didn't mean anything to me the first time. The second time, after I had read several of Jasper Fford's Thursday Next series, I got the reference. One of the guys called the driver "Stieg" (or Steig, forget the spelling). That is the name of a Neanderthal character in the books. I am wondering which one was truly Neanderthal.

Maryemm

  • Posts: 629
Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #438 on: May 06, 2012, 05:13:45 PM »


Quote
She's not beautiful by any standard and to me she's not even pretty
: Ginny

That is the general consensus here but her "reply" is that we are all jealous.

 Now I would LOVE to look like Anjelina Jolie, or the late Ava Gardner, or Hedy Lamarr!

Incidentally, did you know that the latter "was co-holder in 1942 of a patent on spread spectrum radio, a technology that would eventually underlie today's mobile and cordless telephones, the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS."

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/315458#ixzz1u7siF2v3

If I'm going to be envious of anyone i'm going to be envious of Ms Lamarr.  ::)

 

roshanarose

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Re: Classics Forum
« Reply #439 on: May 07, 2012, 12:48:48 AM »
Frybabe - I believe the "pet racing car "driver you are referring to is "The Stig" and much has been made of him.  Evidently there was a rumour that he was a real-life racing car driver, some even said Schumacher, who enjoyed the part of "pet racing driver".  It cannot be denied that he drives a whole lot better than any of the others.  I think "The Stig" retired/or was sacked and his true identity never revealed.  I am rather partial to seeing the beautiful cars and I used to watch the program a lot.  I haven't seen it for ages, though.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato