Home in the Cotswolds, anyone?

[Laurel]

A cat or three could take care of the wee beasties. My Riley used to be an excellent roach catcher when we lived in the South. I won't tell you what he did with the monsters.

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Choisya wrote:
You will think I am a very strange Brit when I say that I do not like the picture postcard Cotswolds and their thatched cottages.   All those rats, mice and creepy-crawlies in the roof!  All that conformity! Give me the rough, higgledy piggedly stone houses of the North any day.     

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[Choisya]

UGH!   I have nice, well bred cats who are trained not to catch things.  They are Hindus 

[Peppermill]

The Illustrious Dead by Stephen Talty

"In this fascinating history of Napoleon's unsuccessful invasion of Russia, author Stephan Talty argues that it was an outbreak of typhus that effectively caused Napoleon's defeat. Approaching Russia in the spring of 1812 with 690,000 men under his command, Napoleon retreated from Moscow in November having lost close to 400,000 soldiers; Talty suggests that half of those were killed by typhus--carried by lice--and that those who survived likely went on to infect their families on their return home. Readers interested in either military history or epidemiology (or both!) won't go wrong with this well-researched and compellingly written history. For more on the consequences of disease in a large population, try Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, about a cholera outbreak in Victorian London. " (Local library description -- original source unknown)

A slightly different view than that provided by Tolstory?

[Laurel]

Very interesting! Thanks, P.

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Peppermill wrote:

The Illustrious Dead by Stephen Talty

"In this fascinating history of Napoleon's unsuccessful invasion of Russia, author Stephan Talty argues that it was an outbreak of typhus that effectively caused Napoleon's defeat. Approaching Russia in the spring of 1812 with 690,000 men under his command, Napoleon retreated from Moscow in November having lost close to 400,000 soldiers; Talty suggests that half of those were killed by typhus--carried by lice--and that those who survived likely went on to infect their families on their return home. Readers interested in either military history or epidemiology (or both!) won't go wrong with this well-researched and compellingly written history. For more on the consequences of disease in a large population, try Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, about a cholera outbreak in Victorian London. " (Local library description -- original source unknown)

A slightly different view than that provided by Tolstory?

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[Choisya]

Thanks P.  It is true, I think, that historians of the past have not paid enough attention to the effects these devastating diseases can have upon a country.  It is now surmised, for instance, that the Black Death which decimated Europe, so reduced the population that the whole economic structure was affected.  We now see governments putting preventative measures in place in case there is a swine flu or similar pandemic which is perhaps because they are aware of past history, like the post-WWI flu epidemic which severely affected the economics of the UK.      

However, I rather think that Tolstoy, who fought in the Napoleonic wars, would have mentioned it in War and Peace, or other writings, if typhus really was a problem. 

[Peppermill]

Purgatorio in another format.

Excerpt from article  (I presume this is Washington, DC):

"Purgatorio," a work by edgy Dutch choreographer Emio Greco that had its American premiere Thursday at the Clarice Smith Center, is heaven to watch.

Greco collaborated with theater director Pieter C. Scholten and composer Michael Gordon to create "Purgatorio," which is Part 2 of the dance/rock/opera triptych "POPOPERA" (Parts 1 and 3 are "Inferno" and "Paradiso"). Much has been written about how Greco over-intellectualizes dance. When he writes about a "synergetic environment where the body must encounter its helplessness and hopelessness in order to reach its strength," the words can leave readers, well, helplessly lost.

[rbehr]

Maby people attending the show and the critic should be required to read The Divine Comedy  

Rae

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Peppermill wrote:

Purgatorio in another format.

Excerpt from article  (I presume this is Washington, DC):

"Purgatorio," a work by edgy Dutch choreographer Emio Greco that had its American premiere Thursday at the Clarice Smith Center, is heaven to watch.

Greco collaborated with theater director Pieter C. Scholten and composer Michael Gordon to create "Purgatorio," which is Part 2 of the dance/rock/opera triptych "POPOPERA" (Parts 1 and 3 are "Inferno" and "Paradiso"). Much has been written about how Greco over-intellectualizes dance. When he writes about a "synergetic environment where the body must encounter its helplessness and hopelessness in order to reach its strength," the words can leave readers, well, helplessly lost.

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[Choisya]

I do hope y'all can pick up this ITV documentary which provides two wonderful tours of both Florence and Rome, including a guide to the building of the Duomo which Dante would have known.  . 

[Peppermill]

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Choisya wrote:

I do hope y'all can pick up this ITV documentary which provides two wonderful tours of both Florence and Rome, including a guide to the building of the Duomo which Dante would have known.  . 

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Unfortunately, it is not available here (one message suggests there are only viewing rights in Britain and Irleland,)

[Peppermill]

Bernard  -- two queries:

First, the Hiawatha threads are intermingled with Dante, Don Quixote, and Beowulf on my board.  Can the previous threads be "unpinned" (I think that is the jargon B&N moderators use) and Hiawatha threads pinned to the top of the board?   (Perhaps Jon can help if Laurel didn't pass along directions.  Or am I the only one with this problem?)

Second, how about a new meeting room for chat and miscellaneous comments and a Hiawatha sign-in thread to remind us who is around for this read?  Maybe "The Wigwam" or "The Tepee" or "The Lodge" or what is the place where initiations into the tribe are done ("The Spirit Lodge"? -- I don't remember) or...?  Or, since it is spring/summer, "The Shore" or "The Shores of Gitche Gumee"?

[Peppermill]

2010 Pulitzer Winners were announced today.

Reuters announcement.

I did a more exhaustive post on the Community Board, the "On this Day in Literary History" thread.

[Redcatlady]

I don't know how this suggestion will be received, but here goes.  Would it be possible to have two Epics sites, one for English/European poets, and the other for American?  I'd like to study Emerson, both Brownings, and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. 

What do you think?  Any interest out there?

Redcatlady

[Peppermill]

Redcatlady wrote:

I don't know how this suggestion will be received, but here goes.  Would it be possible to have two Epics sites, one for English/European poets, and the other for American?  I'd like to study Emerson, both Brownings, and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. 

What do you think?  Any interest out there?

Redcatlady

Redcatlady -- I am so far behind in my reading I can't even begin to think about participating with any fidelity to another group, but you probably noticed that Connie is looking for nominations for summer reading on the Classics board?

If you want to moderate a board or talk B&N into sponsoring one, you might also want to drop a PM to JonB or to whomever is the Administrator these days.

While I'm not particularly interested in Emerson at this point in my reading, I'd certainly at least lurk on a discussion of Wasteland.

I think some technique, maybe a thread in the Community Room, is needed to try to help communities of readers interested in a particular book or author to find each other and then perhaps create a discussion group for some specified period of time.

Pepper