A Conversation With the Friar
Many of you know that I'm an ancient history nut, and essentially minored in it at university, which is to say that as a history major, I took each and every ancient history course available. These are the courses that were taught by Professor Augustus (hence the code name).
What most of you probably don't know, save for April and a couple of others, is that I met Friar Dave in person when he invited me to go to Italy with him, since none of the other folks in his study abroad group in Cambridge were interested in going. We keep in pretty regular contact.
What most of you also probably don't know is that one of my pet projects while I've been at college has been the location and acquisition of hundreds of electronic texts, ranging from Tacitus' Agricola (which only classicists have heard of) to the Rusiyya of Ahmed ibn Fadlan (which was half the basis for Michael Crichton's book, Eaters of the Dead, which was the basis for the Antonio Banderas film The Thirteenth Warrior). Over the past two years I've assembled them into a nice little archive with convenient HTML menus and my very own banner image. The name? You guessed it: The Fly's Classical Archive.
So I sent the good Friar a copy a couple of weeks ago, having meant to have sent one much earlier. Today, we had this conversation over AIM.
Friar Dave: Fly, i owe you a bag of M&M's
The Fly: Huh?
The Fly: I hope this is archive related. That would make my day.
Friar Dave: so im taking a paleography course this summer...how to read handwriting on manuscripts...we got our first transcription assignment last week, and the prof said, a bag of M&M's to whoever can figure out what the text is
Friar Dave: caesar's gallic wars, book 2 chapter 6
Friar Dave: located thanks to your archive
The Fly: HA!
The Fly: Outstanding.
Friar Dave: i thought so
The Fly: Wow, so how much did you have to dig?
Friar Dave: not much
The Fly: Did you have many clues?
Friar Dave: well yeah. lots of celtic references in the text (bulgae and gallarum) and others about fighting (pugnare etc)
Friar Dave: so i knew what it was from, just not which book
The Fly: So you were searching the Latin text?
Friar Dave: right
Friar Dave: and it was an early book, so i was rewarded pretty quickly
The Fly: Well, that's outstanding, mate.
The Fly: Yeah, Caesar's pretty standard as a beginning Latin text.
There you have it, folks. I'm responsible for contributing to the good Friar's education through hours and hours (and more hours; you wouldn't believe how much time I've spent on this thing) of hard work and dedication to the pursuit of outstanding nerdery.
What most of you probably don't know, save for April and a couple of others, is that I met Friar Dave in person when he invited me to go to Italy with him, since none of the other folks in his study abroad group in Cambridge were interested in going. We keep in pretty regular contact.
What most of you also probably don't know is that one of my pet projects while I've been at college has been the location and acquisition of hundreds of electronic texts, ranging from Tacitus' Agricola (which only classicists have heard of) to the Rusiyya of Ahmed ibn Fadlan (which was half the basis for Michael Crichton's book, Eaters of the Dead, which was the basis for the Antonio Banderas film The Thirteenth Warrior). Over the past two years I've assembled them into a nice little archive with convenient HTML menus and my very own banner image. The name? You guessed it: The Fly's Classical Archive.
So I sent the good Friar a copy a couple of weeks ago, having meant to have sent one much earlier. Today, we had this conversation over AIM.
Friar Dave: Fly, i owe you a bag of M&M's
The Fly: Huh?
The Fly: I hope this is archive related. That would make my day.
Friar Dave: so im taking a paleography course this summer...how to read handwriting on manuscripts...we got our first transcription assignment last week, and the prof said, a bag of M&M's to whoever can figure out what the text is
Friar Dave: caesar's gallic wars, book 2 chapter 6
Friar Dave: located thanks to your archive
The Fly: HA!
The Fly: Outstanding.
Friar Dave: i thought so
The Fly: Wow, so how much did you have to dig?
Friar Dave: not much
The Fly: Did you have many clues?
Friar Dave: well yeah. lots of celtic references in the text (bulgae and gallarum) and others about fighting (pugnare etc)
Friar Dave: so i knew what it was from, just not which book
The Fly: So you were searching the Latin text?
Friar Dave: right
Friar Dave: and it was an early book, so i was rewarded pretty quickly
The Fly: Well, that's outstanding, mate.
The Fly: Yeah, Caesar's pretty standard as a beginning Latin text.
There you have it, folks. I'm responsible for contributing to the good Friar's education through hours and hours (and more hours; you wouldn't believe how much time I've spent on this thing) of hard work and dedication to the pursuit of outstanding nerdery.
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