Month: October 2003

CNN.com – Size matters for animals that change sex – Oct. 22, 2003

Icarus: “Icarus…

The story of Icarus is one of the most tragic ones in Greek mythology. There was once a very wise king, King Minos. His wife was cursed by one of the gods to fall in love and to copulate with a beautiful bull. When Minos’ wife gave birth to the result of said copulation, the Minotaur was born. He asked Daedalus to create a maze from which the terrifying monster, the half-bull/half-man, could never escape. Daedelus was a brilliant architect who could devise an answer to almost any sort of logic problem. When he finally created the amazing maze, King Minos trapped Daedelus and his son, Icarus, into the maze along with the Minotaur. Minos did not want anyone who could guess the maze’s solution to live outside of the maze.

Daedelus’ spirit may have been hurt by his captivity, but his mind was still brilliant. After many trials, and probably many errors, Daedelus finally devised the plan of creating wings tacked together by beeswax for his son and he. The two escaped, soaring high. Before they had gotten off the ground, Daedelus had tried to warn Icarus not to fly too closely to the sun. Icarus, being an irrascible boy, did not listen.

He forgot all inhibitions when he discovered the freedom of flight. Icarus soared high and happily. Unfortunately and sadly, he got too close to the sun. It melted the delicate beeswax with which his wings were held together. As the feathers fell, so did Daedelus’ heart. His soul tore when he saw his beloved son falling into the sea from thousands of heights in the sky. Icarus found death when he tried to soar too high.

Courtney Love does the Math

Pam Anderson responds to Siegfried and Roy

Old 97’s

the pernice brothers

the austin lounge lizards

Dear goddess, do I need to get a life. I just put up a subblog for my opinions on things and then realized I hadn’t read or seen anything new lately for which I could conjure much of an opinion. I’m up in the morning against my will these days, so I’m going to make a pact with myself to do things like listen to NPR or that uber liberal thing they have on in the mornings on KXCI. I’m going to go to more intelligent websites than just humour and music links. I’m going to start behaving like a smart person again, for good or for ill. My baby will live if I start rationing her Disney channel a bit and if I’m going to be sitting around on the couch too tired to move, might as well use my ears for something, right? I’m going to start watching the news and listening to webradio and so forth. Wake up, Julie, a year’s gone by since last you were interesting.

Great,another thing I won’t be able to accomplish…

Mythology Guide – OrionOrion

Orion was the son of Neptune. He was a handsome giant and a

mighty hunter. His father gave him the power of wading through

the depths of the sea, or as others say, of walking on its

surface.

Orion loved Merope, the daughter of Oenopion, king of Chios, and

sought her in marriage. He cleared the island of wild beasts,

and brought the spoils of the chase as presents to his beloved;

but as Oenopion constantly deferred his consent, Orion attempted

to gain possession of the maiden by violence. Her father,

incensed at this conduct, having made Orion drunk, deprived him

of his sight, and cast him out on the sea shore. The blinded

hero followed the sound of the Cyclops’ hammer till he reached

Lemnos, and came to the forge of Vulcan, who, taking pity on him,

gave him Kedalion, one of his men, to be his guide to the abode

of the sun. Placing Kedalion on his shoulders, Orion proceeded

to the east, and there meeting the sun-god, was restored to sight

by his beam.

After this he dwelt as a hunter with Diana, with whom he was a

favorite, and it is even said she was about to marry him. Her

brother was highly displeased and often chid her, but to no

purpose. One day, observing Orion wading though the sea with his

head just above the water, Apollo pointed it out to his sister

and maintained that she could not hit that black thing on the

sea. The archer-goddess discharged a shaft with fatal aim. The

waves rolled the dead body of Orion to the land, and bewailing

her fatal error with many tears, Diana placed him among the

stars, where he appears as a giant, with a girdle, sword, lion’s

skin, and club. Sirius, his dog, follows him, and the Pleiads

fly before him.

The Pleiads were daughters of Atlas, and nymphs of Diana’s train.

One day Orion saw them, and became enamored, and pursued them.

In their distress they prayed to the gods to change their form,

and Jupiter in pity turned them into pigeons, and then made them

a constellation in the sky. Though their numbers was seven, only

six stars are visible, for Electra, one of them, it is said, left

her place that she might not behold the ruin of Troy, for that

city was founded by her son Dardanus. The sight had such an

effect on her sisters that they have looked pale ever since.

Here and forever more, the following features of my web site have their own independent blogs: the myth of the day

the divinatory reading of the day

critiques and opinions

So as to not clutter up my little weblog. And so as to force me to keep a proper journal.

Sublimation made a monster out of me.

Who’s more self-absorbed?

The one who always has to be right?

Or the one who always wants to be wronged?

Sometimes a differing opinion is just a differing opinion and not some sort of subtle power play or attempt at asserting intellectual dominance.

Mythic detritus