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Corbiculae
The front yard is full of sunflowers and this bee has collected quite a load of pollen!
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Argonautika by Apollonios Rhodios
This is a book jot from June 2021: I just finished reading the Argonautika (3rd century BC) by Apollonius Rhodius, translated by Peter Green. It is an epic poem that relates the story of the Argonauts and the quest for the Golden Fleece. This edition includes a glossary that, at 67 pages, is full of…
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A Lear of the Steppes by Ivan Turgenev
I finished reading A Lear of the Steppes (1870), a novella written by Ivan Turgenev, translated by Constance Garnett. Those familiar with Shakespeare’s King Lear will recognize the basics of the plot, although there are numerous and substantial differences. Turgenev writes beautiful prose and the story unfolds at a wonderfully balanced pace. The characters are…
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a quote
Tyranny always starts auspiciously. —Jean Racine in Britannicus
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Dan Holiday and Box 13
I’ve recently started listening to an old radio drama I’ve never really checked out before. It’s called Box 13 and is an adventure series starring Alan Ladd. It began in 1947 and ran for 52 episodes. Ladd’s character, Dan Holiday, is a writer of mystery novels who, in an effort to garner plot ideas, solicits…
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Pea
There’s a perennial wild pea I often walk by that is growing in the ditch along an alley. I think it’s a Lathyrus latifolius.
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Britannicus by Jean Racine
I finished reading Britannicus by Jean Racine, translated by John Cairncross. It’s a play of five acts and was first performed in 1669. The plot centers on the Roman emperor Nero, his mother Agrippina, his stepbrother Britannicus, and Britannicus’s lover, June. The action takes place over a single day and tracks the characters’ attempts to…
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Willie Whitetail
When I was a little kid, I came across this book at my elementary school. I don’t recall now if it was a library book sale or exactly what, but it was discarded from the school’s library. I ended up getting two other books as well, one about a bobwhite quail and one about a…