by beatriceotto | Oct 18, 2018 | a quote to note
I loved the slowly growing momentum of this vast wave, though one has to hope it would never make landfall, but could gently dissipate its force and dimension in travelling across open ocean. See also the bestellar review of this stupendously lean and powerful...
by beatriceotto | Oct 18, 2018 | a quote to note
A few signals to keep an eye out for so you don’t miss the moment a god may show up: it could be aural, olfactory, visual or just a change in temperature. In this case it was the perfume of oceanic lavender that first hinted at the arrival of a goddess-mother,...
by beatriceotto | Oct 11, 2018 | a quote to note
I liked these piled up and shamelessly outrageous examples of cleverness, although of their various skills, the first is the most impressive, suggesting an astonishing level of practical competence and dexterity. It deserves to enter the language as standard:...
by beatriceotto | Oct 10, 2018 | a quote to note
This intriguing picnic caught my eye, in particular the honey-water soaked barley bread. “… straight to Pluto’s palace. But don’t forget to take with you two pieces of barley bread soaked in honey water, one in each hand, and two coins in your...
by beatriceotto | Oct 4, 2018 | a quote to note
A wonderful comment by Zorba regarding the mental development of his boss. Not, perhaps, a line to try on your own boss, however true it may seem. See also his equally crushing comment on his boss’s behaviour towards the workers. “I hope you don’t mind my...
by beatriceotto | Oct 4, 2018 | a quote to note
Here Zorba points out the choices his boss has to make, since you can’t prattle about socialism and be a capitalist at the same time, or at least not without some hypocrisy. See him also put his boss in his place as far as mental development is concerned. “Look...
by beatriceotto | Sep 27, 2018 | a quote to note
In Patrick Leigh Fermor’s telling of it, the Mani region of Greece comprises two harsh elements: searing sunlight and endless stoniness. Here, a Maniot sums it up with what appears to be characteristic pithiness. “When God had finished making the world,...
by beatriceotto | Sep 27, 2018 | a quote to note
Here Patrick Leigh Fermor tests the veracity of a much touted myth about Maniots in the Peloponnese being bull wrestlers. I liked the progressive debunking of the myth, starting out with simple denial, then embellished with further evidence, all the way down to a tin...
by beatriceotto | Sep 20, 2018 | a quote to note
This is an opening line in Christa Wolf’s novel Till Eulenspiegel. Something about it haunted me, two colours flying as emblems of the Middle Ages, and since I took the photo on a brilliant day in October, they are equally pennants of autumn. Hence posting this...
