It seems that Life is getting the better of all of us these days and it's apparent that it's gotten the better of me from this blog. So... What's been going on. With Covid raging, grad school was a quick no-go. With all the time and money spent on trying to get in on top of the current crisis, that means that it's probably "two strikes and you're out" for me. That doesn't mean that I won't eventually have to do an M.A. as part of a career change, but the grand dream of a Phd. is out. That means I've ended up job-hunting in the middle of a pandemic with a wife whose job has moved online and requires additional child care. Right now, that's me. Oh, and I got parasites and ended up floored for five weeks and ended up having them blasted out of my guts with antibiotics that were almost as bad as the disease. Somewhere in there, my wife experienced a carjacking. The police caught the thieves, but not before they totaled her car crashing it into a police cruiser. Thanks to family and stimulus checks, she's finally getting a nicer replacement car this week. Oh, and baby is very healthy and curious except that she doesn't sleep. Did I mention Life seems to have gotten the better of us? Anyhow, that's why things have been slow around here. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of you, especially those who've had a worse time of it than we have.
Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...
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But also... you have a baby?! Congratulations!