Alex Beam in the Boston Globe reveals 22 things he didn’t know (besides Lady Gaga’s real name), inter alia: 15. Here is something you don’t know: There have been four new translations of Virgil’s “Aeneid’’ in the past five years. Dude is Kardashian-level hot! via Alex Beam doesn’t know Lady Gaga’s real name, among many [...]

I’m kind of glad I don’t get Syfy … here’s an excerpt  from a television column: “Destination Truth” is best described as the lovechild between “Ghost Hunters” and Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” as Gates spins off witty one-liners and asides in the fast and furious pace of the latter show, and then examines paranormal lore [...]

Lycidas was criticized big time by Samuel Johnson (as the intro to this piece notes); folks will probably want to read Johnson’s thoughts (lines 180 ff) before reading the commentary to the poem and the poem itself: Poem of the week: Lycidas by John Milton | Guardian.

… from a Vanity Fair interview with Michael Lewis (inter alia, natch): Which is a good segue to my next question. If you could buy the Acropolis, what would you do with it? When I went over there, it was one of my missions to figure out what the Acropolis would cost me. I thought [...]

Interesting discussion over at Biblical Archeology Review that I just came across for some reason (not sure how old this one is): The Garum Debate: Was There a Kosher Roman Delicacy at Pompeii? – Biblical Archaeology Review.

A monumental tomb/sarcophagus find dating from the third century B.C. made during sewer/pipeline construction; it appears to be undisturbed. The find includes a lamp and a belt/bracelet of some sort, but we have no photos, alas.  The article mentions the possibility of some connection with the necropolis of the ‘subcolony’ of Croton, which would be [...]

From the New Zealand Herald: Millions of books have been thrown from the shelves and an acclaimed collection of Greek and Roman antiquities worth millions of dollars has been badly damaged at the University of Canterbury. Reports are emerging of varying degrees of damage to buildings and contents within some of the region’s schools and [...]

Long-time Campus Mawrtius blogger Dennis is involved in what seems to be a rather silly dispute with Zazzle and/or Volvo over the above phrase being put on t-shirts: the CAMPVS » Blog Archive » Who owns the Latin language?.

Inter alia: In the ancient times, honey was not only used for culinary purposes but also for embalming the dead and in some accounts, honey was used instead of gold to pay taxes. For Queen Cleopatra, honey was a vital supplement to preserve her beauty. She used it for facials as well as in bathing [...]

Archaeology Magazine is hosting, natch: Interactive Dig Crete – Zominthos Project.

Online Course: The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization … by Gregory Nagy: via The Center for Hellenic Studies.

Sarah Ruden: Guggenheim Fellow Translating Tragic Masterpiece at Wesleyan.

From the Huffington Post: We probably don’t know exactly when a substance was first used on teeth. But research suggests that the Ancient Egyptians first developed a dental cream as far back as 3000-5000 BC. This dental cream was comprised of powdered ashes from oxen hooves, myrrh, egg shells, pumice, and water the actual “toothpaste” [...]

Gizmodo notices the ancient world: Overwhelming Proof That The Romans Were Addicted To Facebook | Gizmodo. Since Gizmodo ties this image to Facebook, I guess the Greeks must have been addicted to MySpace: … and of course, the Greeks were already dealing with the problems of students texting in class:

Hot on the heels of the most recent calling-attention-to-the-impending-flooding-of-Allianoi, come this bizarre cliam from Turkey’s environment minister via Hurriyet: Controversy over plans to bury an ancient city in western Turkey with sand ahead of a new dam project was overshadowed Wednesday by revelations from Turkey’s environment minister that the site did not, in fact, exist. [...]

Gordon Willis Williams, Thacher Professor of Latin Literature Emeritus, has died aged 84. Born in Dublin in 1926, Professor Williams was educated at Trinity College Dublin and at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Yale, he enjoyed a distinguished career as Fellow and Tutor at Balliol College, Oxford and as Professor of Humanity at [...]

Actually, it’s Mary Beard’s: My hero: Jane Ellen Harrison|The Guardian.

Interesting item mentioned in passing in the Record, inter alia: Scones are to the British what bagels are to New Yorkers. Food historians say that scones actually originated in Scotland, first appearing in a 1513 Scottish poet’s translation of Virgil’s “The Aeneid.” In other words, these quick breads have been around a long time. via: [...]

From AFP: Builders have completed another stage of restoration of the Acropolis in Athens with the removal of scaffolding from the temple of Athena Nike, the head of renovation efforts said Friday. “The entrance to the Acropolis is free of all scaffolding, a sight not seen since the end of the 1970s,” Maria Ioannidou said, [...]

From Novinite: Bulgarian archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov has discovered two tombs of Ancient Thracian rulers near the famous rock city and sanctuary of Perperikon. The tombs are dated to 1100-1000 BC judging by the pottery and ceramics found in them, which are characteristic of the later Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. One of the [...]