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I agree. Achilles is constantly described as “The swift footed”. From this, and the typical physique of the Greek warrior statues of that time, I take it that quick, violent attacks were favored. This requires a lithe frame with the over-developed glutes and hamstrings of a sprinter, which is exactly what the statues show us. Moreover, if you look at the surviving examples of Greek armor and helmets from the time, you’ll see that men were much smaller. Thus, it may be that the man-killing Achilles of 1300 BC was no taller than today’s fifth-grader.

I’ve just started Wilson’s translation of the Iliad, having decided to give it a fair shot. So far, I am only through the introduction, which, quite honestly, is excellent. We’ll see.

It was actually the other way around. The real Achilles was a draft dodger who hid out among the women to avoid going to Troy. It was the clever Odysseus who found him out when it was noticed that one of the women preferred playing with a sword instead of the usual women’s’ things. Another interesting point which comes the same legend is a hint that Achilles had red hair since the name he adopted as a women meant the red-haired one.

I used to work in the library at night while going through law school, and one of the fellows with me on that shift was an older black fellow who worked as a clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court. He had something like six or eight kids, and needed the money, as I did. His job at the court was to review petitions for their technical correctness, and he would act without mercy in enforcing even the pettiest rules. His job gave him great satisfaction, and he would often come in chuckling about the pleadings he had rejected that day. I recall once his telling me that he had struck a petition for Cert because the cover was yellow and not gold, and the distress of the counsel when he told him the news.

https://www.babycenter.com.au/baby-names/most-popular/top-baby-names-2026

Note that the second most popular name for either boys or girls is Oliver/Olivia, and that No. 28 for boys is "Bean", as in Mr. Bean. What are those Ozzies thinking?

The conditions which lead to the isolation of Israel, including the rise of Left-Wing Fascism and the dismemberment of the traditional values at the core of Western Civilization, are the same factors which threaten Finland, Japan, and, ultimately, us.

I have been told that one cannot truly appreciate the beauty of the Iliad in any form of translation. The same is apparently true of Russian literature. With Shakespeare, at least, we enjoy the other side of the equation. Still, I hope I live long enough for some poet to do with the Iliad what Seamus Heaney did for Beowulf.

Sadly, I cannot read Ancient Greek, but I know a nun who does and she has tutored me a bit. Whenever I want to judge a translation of the Iliad, I go to Book XXI and read of the death of Lycaon. It is simply the most terrifying, but poetically lyrical passage in all of literature, IMHO. Even a poor translation is certain to give you a chill; a good one you will remember for the rest of your life: “…And the silver-sided fish will dart from beneath the shadow of a dark ripple to nip at the white fat of Lycaon”.

Mexican food in Australia is a wonder. To say that the palate down under is bland understates it. The "hottest" Mexican sauce there consists of flour, vegetable oil, and food coloring. I don't think a pepper or even a tomato comes anywhere near it. The same is true of their Italian fare, even pizzas. It is remarkable. This said, I did find some reasonably good pulche in a Mexican restaurant outside of Sydney. As I say, it is a wonder.

Give credit where credit is due: where the Aussies have the world beat is on the potato. Their French fries -- they call them chips -- and something they call potato scallops, which are large ear-like, thick slices of fried potato, are to die for.

I have to say that my experiences with food in Mexico was a bit different. I found the more up-scale food in Mexico City to be very greasy, whereas the cheaper food in the rural areas was much like Tex-Mex, except there was an astonishing variety of things never seen north of the border. Amoebae were always a concern, however, when sampling food off the street, and I once paid a heavy price for it, losing fifteen pounds in a matter of days. In fact, I am lucky to have survived.

Sing, Goddess, of Achilles’ rage,
Dark and murderous, which cost the Greeks
Unmeasurable pain, and pitched the souls
Of countless heroes into dark Hades ,
Leaving their bodies to rot as a feast
For dogs and birds, as was Zeus’ will to be done.

This reminds me of something I heard on the BBC World Service about a month ago. The woman presenter was making the point that Trump was destroying small boats in the Caribbean without any evidence that they were involved in drug trafficking. Her tone was the typical snide, superior mocking voice of a media Karen, made even more insufferable by her RP British accent. To add emotional weight to her argument, she played an interview with a Venezuelan woman whose husband was lost in one of the strikes. "We are so poor, he had no choice but to take a job on a drug boat" she said, thereby sinking the BBC's objectivism as well.

That poor guy in the bread truck; “Another day, another job.”

If the PT boats in WWII did nothing else, they got MacArthur out of Corregidor.

Back in the day when such payments were actually made by a paper check, and not through an electronic transfer to a bank account, can you imagine what it must have been like in some neighborhoods on the day the checks were delivered. It would have been like a festival of some sort, with everyone out waiting for the postman, and who-knows-how-many hangers on and con men waiting to get their share.

https://youtu.be/VqomZQMZQCQ?si=CsbmA2lLniOnTLAM

I recently visited the island of Dominica, not to be confused with the Dominican Republic. What I saw there was interesting. It has a remarkable abundance of energy from several sources: (1) it has steady, strong winds from off of the Atlantic, enough to run any number of wind-generators, (2) it is nearly always raining in the mountain tops and there are many hydro generators taking advantage of that, and (3) it has abundant geo-thermal energy to drive an unlimited number of cheap steam turbines. Yet, with all that, Dominica is desperately poor. Barbados, nearby, has none of that, except solar, but does have a small, but mature oil producing infrastructure. By contrast, Barbados is remarkably wealthy and supports a variety of profitable industries.

Exactly as much as is needed.

Those votes they find will always be on misplaced thumb drives from Fairfax, Loudoun, or Prince William Counties.

I was looking at e-bikes the other day and saw that at least two brands, Veloctric and Aventon have some impressive anti-theft features. These include Apple “Find My” tracking built in and powered from a battery separate from the removable bike battery, a Geo-fencing program which allows you to restrict the bike’s movement from your cell phone wherever the bike may be, and automatic wheel locking and motor disabling, again activated from your cell phone.