Born Today:
1856 - Lyman Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
1859 - Pierre Currie, French chemist and physicist.
1903 - Maria Reiche, German-born mathematician and archaeologist
1914 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary to top of Mt. Everest
1937 - Madeleine Albright, Former U.S. Secretary of State
1990 - Risa!!

Events:
1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers his harmonics law
1795 - Napoleon enters the Lombardian capital of Milan in triumph
1941 - Baseball player Joe Dimaggio of the NY Yankees starts his record-breaking 56-game hitting streak.
1958 - Sputnik III is launched by the Soviet Union
2008 - Risa turns 18!

Beyond the Subtitles

Have you ever seen a foreign film in which the native language is translated into nifty little subtitles for us English-speakers to read? You follow along, but are clued into the plot by the actors' faces, pitch, body language and vocal tones. You can't understand a word they're saying, and yet you understand perfectly.

Now imagine watching the same film, but with nothing but the subtitles. There's nothing to watch or see except for those blaring white words at the bottom of the screen. There's no sound, and there are no actors to be seen. No scenery to look at, no words or music to be heard, what you get are just the subtitles.
They're the same words, the same timing....and yet the impact is lost.

That's exactly what you get when you read a translation of Homer, of Oedipus Rex, of Dante. You're at the mercy of the translator. Instead of feasting on the author's original words, you're forced to digest some Englishman's version of a Classic. Not that all translations are fraught with error or dullness, but can you actually taste a painting of a grand feast?

When you learn the ancient language for yourself you open the door onto an intimate conversation with the author. You're finally allowed to feel the terrible wrath of the angered god Apollo, comprehend the incredible grief of wretched Oedipus, the horror of Dante's Inferno.

Can you imaging going to Egypt and knowing the the hieroglyphics mean?

Imagine traveling to Mars Hill and being able to read the New Testament in its original Greek.

Imagine decoding the Dead Sea Scrolls in their native ancient Hebrew.

Imagine a whole new world!

But you've got to see beyond the subtitles.

This week in my study I came across a script to be used for an imaginary "psychiatric hotline", the kind of recorded message we might hear when we call for psychiatric help. It went like this:

"If you are OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE, please press 1 repeatedly.

If you are CO-DEPENDENT, please ask someone else to press 2.

If you have MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES, please press 3, 4, 5, & 6

If you are PARANOID, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line and we'll trace the call."

Couldn't Resist:

"If we are really going to have an effect on controlling our border, we can't be having eight-to-ten year delays on these really small sections [of the fence]," Rep. Duncan Hunter said. "I think we actually waited a full year on a study to see if the gnatcatcher would fly over the fence. While we were analyzing that, tons of cocaine were coming over that border."

Give it some time, my friends, but someday this is going to be me. Feast your eyes:


Then                                                                      Now (that's a Corsair's wing, by the way)

It's called Underwater Archaeology. Those divers are called Underwater Archaeologists.
I cannot wait to DO THAT!!