Illiad

I am re-reading the Illiad. I watched the movie Troy on television and seemed to remember it differently than the movie depicted so, as another of my innumerable memory tests, I decided to re-read it. I don't think that Menelaus was killed at Troy and I am certain Agamemnon wasn't Orestes's life would have been much easier if that was so. So far memory is doing well. There are things that I am probably misinterpreting. It appears that the reference to Myrmidons is that they were women. This would have pleased Patroculus, no competition. I probably won't finish as my propensity for minutia has already arisen. There are 1186 ships, I counted them. Some ships had 120 men, some had fifty. Taking an average of eighty-five, this results in 100,810 Greeks. I think that Homer wasn't aware that his pants were on fire. One thing has come to mind. The problems of the Greeks were precipitated over the capture and treatment of the daughter of Chryses. Hmmm, crisis? This is what happens when a person has nothing to do and too much time to do it. I know that I won't finish, I am currently in the middle of four books.

Bad news for Huckabee

I have some bad news for Mr. Huckabee. My Father told me that the difference between Republicans and Democrats was that Republicans are mean and Democrats are thieves. Thieves will only steal so much until they get nervous and become reformers. Mean goes on forever. I have never voted for a winner, Mr. Clinton excepted. I think that Mr. Huckabee is a good person and tells the TRUTH. I have decided to vote for him. Given my past performance, this is bad news for him. I wanted to vote for Mrs. Clinton but I think that she is caving in to business as usual. I respect Senator McCain very much but I think the Republicans will say that he was hiding behind his aeroplane instead of piloting it. He would have been better off if he had joined the Alabama Air National Guard. That way he could have stayed in bed instead of Hanoi.

stew

Yesterday was beef stew. Just like the soups, it was passable but not great. I think the problem is that when I make stew or soup, I tend to clean out the refrigerator. All of those little darlings that have been waiting on the shelves, so patiently for so long, get a chance to strut their stuff. The remains of the relish jar, beard and all, made it into the bean soup, those poor innocent beans, but I don't think it was the relish, maybe it was the Hershey bar. I have to remember K.I.S.S.. The corn bread was good. I feel guilty because I used canned beef broth for the stew instead of making it. I can't get meaty beef bones out here. I don't understand why as there are a lot of French people out here. Another disadvantage of living away from the poor part of a city. You should see what they do to a poor fish out here. Two things are in the near future, the new recipe for macaroni and cheese and the garlic shrimp recipe. There will be a problem with the seafood. I got spoiled by living close to New Bedford. I haven't seen a monkfish tail anywhere around here. I wonder who is raising the boneless cows.

firefox

Kristen, boy were you right about Firefox. It looks like Netscape and Explorer were the problem, we'll see.

Attempt

This attempt looks like it might be successful. The snow is not as deep as the prophets of doom suggested. The plow trucks are still circling around in glee although one has gone to tell the king that the snow is falling. I went out yesterday before the snow started and returned just as it was starting. I made pizza again and this time it was good. It took a long time to get the sauce right but it was worth it. I watched the snow fall while drinking cocoa, made from Ghiradelli cocoa that three of the world's most wonderful people gave to me. Friend, I am not up late, I am up early. I find that I wake up about midnight each day. This is probably because I go to bed at five p.m. each evening and continue on my quest to read the entire Story of Civilization series by Will and Ariel Durant. I read the first volume about fifteen years ago and can remember a great deal of it, especially the part about India and the Vedas. I am now on volume eight, the age of Louis XIV. I find it difficult to retain the entirety of what I read now. I have even resorted to rereading. I may be able to finish the series because the Durants are dead and it seemed that they could write faster than I could read. Snow storm outside a warm room, a warm blanket,hot cocoa, a good book to read, does life get any better than this. I gained a new appreciation of Luther. He was pudgy and therefore has my respect." Not by works", that goes along with what I have always felt, as if God needed my help to right the wrongs of the world. "But by faith alone", that is the part that has started the thinking. How does one know that they really have faith? Pascal advised faith based on probabilities, imagine a dead athiest (all dressed up with no place to go) but then realized it was not possible to reason faith. It must just be faith. Augustine of Hippo said the same. Abelard, the long suffering genius agreed with Stevie Wonder "If you believe in things that you don't understand, superstition that's your name." Aristotle, lets leave the Trinity and Socrates and Menon out of this, said "If you understand your god then your god is not a god." These were some of the greatest minds mankind has ever produced. They agree on virtually nothing. All the reading I do seems to agree that in the beginng, if there was one, there was only God. Use the word Logos and you could have become kindling a thousand years ago. O.K., here I go. In the beginning everything was condensed into something smaller than an atom. Then BANG. Hydrogen, space, and time were formed. Hydrogen became stars, which grew older and exploded, forming new elements and new stars. These stars went through the same process. Eventually the leftover elements coalesced and formed planets. Primordial Soup led to people. O.K., go back. In the beginning there was just God. It seems to me that the only source of everything else has to be the only available resource. We are star stuff because the elements that compose us were made in stars. Stars were made from God. Do the math. We live in a habitable zone. Any time the Sun acts up, the Earth compensates. Coincidence? All of the early religions seem to have the same basic concepts which were handed down orally. Words. Now all of the religions have separated into infinitesimal differences. These differences were all written down in Sacred Books. How do you get other people to read what you have written? You have to write something new or different, words. To me, the problem seems to be words, not Words. Kind of brings me back to Pascal. How can I ever be sure that I truly have faith and am not just playing the odds? Only I can know this and I am not sure. Reason, like Twinkies, is awfully tempting and just about as good for you. See what happens when you are up late at night and have had four cups of deliciously strong coffee?

Attempt at posting

Today I will go walking. The scenery is beautiful. All of the trees look like glazed honeydip doughnuts. The sidewalks are like glass. I will wait until the sidewalks melt. I went walking yesterday and discovered that ice and sneakers are a bad mix.
I was up quite late reading Pascal. How much human suffering could have been averted if he and the Jansenists had come before Luther? He had the answer to the question I have always had about faith. Maybe he and Abelard suffered enough to understand but I guess understanding is the difference between them.