Month: February 2008

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Crystal Mess

In my e-mail box this morning, from Macy’s:

Waterford crystal NY Giants football

Sadly, the odds are that someone in my office will buy this.

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What it is: 2/4/08

What I’m reading: Sophocles’ Ajax, and Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha, Vol. 5

What I’m listening to: The Last Post, by Carbon / Silicon

What I’m watching: we finished with the first season of The Wire and caught The Corpse Bride and half (okay, maybe a third) of The Return of the King

What I’m drinking: Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale (because the position of the skeleton on the side of the six-pack made it look like Pogue, and I thought that was funny)

Where I’m going: We didn’t get up to Providence this weekend. Next week, I’ve got a  trip to Belfast to visit a client. I’ll have Sunday & Monday on my own, so if you have any suggestions for sights to see in Belfast & environs (I’m thinking of day-tripping up to the coast to see Giants Causeway), mention it in the comments!

What I’m happy about: THE GIANTS WON THE SUPER BOWL!

What I’m sad about: NOTHING! SEE ABOVE!

What I’m pondering: The relationship of men and their gods. Here’s a passage from Sophocles between Athena and Odysseus, after Ajax goes insane and believes that he’s killed Odysseus and the other generals:

   ATH: Do you see, Odysseus, how great the gods’ power is?

Who was more full of foresight than this man,

Or abler, do you think, to act with judgment?

    ODY: None that I know of. Yet I pity

His wretchedness, though he is my enemy,

For the terrible yoke of blindness that is on him.

I think of him, yet also of myself;

For I see the true state of all us that live —

We are dim shapes, no more, and weightless shadow.

    ATH: Look well at this, and speak no towering word

Yourself against the gods, nor walk too grandly

Because your hand is weightier than another’s,

Or your great wealth deeper founded. One short day

Inclines the balance of all human things

To sink or rise again. Know that the gods

Love men of steady sense and hate the proud.

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Congress should pass the Patriots Act

Arlen Specter wants to get to the bottom of the Patriots’ spying scandal, which broke early this season. And he’s mad that the NFL erased the evidence that the Pats turned over:

“That requires an explanation,” Specter said. “The N.F.L. has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption. The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game. It’s analogous to the C.I.A. destruction of tapes. Or any time you have records destroyed.”

In a certain very literal respect, I suppose destroying those tapes does compare to the CIA’s destruction of tapes. But in most other respects, I don’t think we’re served well when a senator compares the outcome of football games to CIA torture of terror suspects who were shipped to secret prisons.