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So say we all, Lieutenant.

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It’s not a deathbed until you die in it. —Dan Chiasson, New Yorker

Good morning, friends!

Issue 21 of my newsletter, This, Not That, is out! It covers the Aeneid, the Harryhausen film of Jason and the Argonauts, the Sirens from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and (bonus book rec!) Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey.

Issue 21: “Sing to me, muse, of the man. No, not that man. Maybe a different one this time.”As someone who has a professional stake in sales of the Odyssey, I can’t complain overmuch about how it has dominated cultural conversation since the arrival of Christopher Nolan’s film version. I dou...this-not-that.ghost.io

Baseball is so tough. The Blue Jays were literally an inch away from winning the World Series last fall. This year their core is a year older, and almost none is having a good year. They’ll probably be at home in October. And they won’t get many more shots with this group.

The world does not take kindly to a successful collaboration between a married couple. —Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives

“The Man I Love,” George and Ira Gershwin (1924). Not Ira’s most inspired lyrics. This is one I want to learn to improv around. I can just about hear what’s needed, but I’ve gotta put in more time and thought.

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Issue 21 of my newsletter should hit the mails later today or tomorrow. I’m sharing some good movies, books, and music about epic heroes. (Mostly not that one. Some others.) Sign up now to get it in your inbox.

lol Fingerprint Classics has a set titled The Best of Homer. Guess what they include? (And it's selling. Of course it is.) But let's use that as an excuse for a thread. Read the Iliad and Odyssey and want more? Here are some books you might try.

Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey.

Who asks you to form an opinion? —John Stuart Mill, letter

None behave with a greater appearance of guilt than people who are convinced of their own virtue. —Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives

How banal are the plots we impose on others’ lives. —Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives

Rainy day Rory.

I escape the languor of wanting to escape. —John Cheever, journal

This is so specific. It feels like when a congressperson introduces a bill trying to limit a weird little industry and you learn later that their biggest donor will benefit. Have you been talking to lobbyists, Isaiah?

Their faces shall be as flames. —Isaiah 13:8 (That’s an image that’s gonna stay with me.)

Played a little Rodgers and Hart last night. What a pair they were.

Good morning, friends!

The neglect which Ruskin bestowed so lavishly upon his wife. —Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives