Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Fragment: What sort of men the Swedes are

From: Gjerstad, Einar. Ages and Days in Cyprus. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology., Pocket-Book 12. Göteborg: P. Åstrom, 1980.
I shall never forget one spicey, heavy evening at Alambra, when young Polykarpos  sang his song of love and suffering, so the stars trembled in the heavens, nor one afternoon with Andreas, the paralyzed café landlord at Ormidhia. He lay silent in bed, contending with his rheumatic pains while the farmers were making a noise all round him. Suddenly he raised his huge head and shouted to the boys in the room to be quiet. Then, with blazing eyes, he sang a dithyramb about the heroic deeds of Charles XII to show what sort of men the Swedes are.
page 82

Fragment: Approbation

From: Wilson, John A. Thousands of Years: An Archaeologist’s Search for Ancient Egypt. New York: Scribner, 1972.
It is a commentary on the attitudes of the faculty at an American university that I received more approbation from my colleagues in other departments for resigning from administrative office than I had ever received for accepting such an office.
Page 85