Tom Roper's Weblog

Sappho in LRB

In my long struggle to learn classical Greek (which has become much easier now I attend the splendid classes at the University of Sussex taught by Vassiliki Dimitropoulou) I took a couple of months ago to trying to read Sappho. Apart from the subject matter, I also thought that the brevity of her surviving work might make it easier for a tyro like me, differences between her dialect and the Attic I'm learning notwithstanding. Even with the help of a parallel text from the Loeb library , I'm finding it hard going.
But the London Review of Books has an article by Emily Wilson reviewing a new translation of the poems by Anne Carson, a book on the reception of Sappho by Margaret Reynolds and Erica Jong's new novel Sappho's Leap.

Online poker

Nothing to do with rugby or horseracing, but the Times for two days now has been flogging online poker for all its worth. Is this simply journalists trying to fill space, do News International own an online poker site, or is there some other explanation for this puffery?
It seems to me entirely pointless, just like the lame attempts of some bookies to offer what they called "virtual horseracing" a few years back. Only the most compulsive gambler could gain any pleasure or interest from what is nothing more than a rather complicated online fruit machine. I haven't played the game for many a year but the essence of poker has to be the physical presence of the cards, the hands, the dealer and the other players and the interplay of them all is something that cannot be reproduced online

More obits

I should not have spoken of my frustration with recent obituaries. Hard on the heels of Jennifer Ross came Dinsdale Landen and the Catalan who invented a child's sweet and commissioned Salvador Dali to design the wrapper. All made fine reading for obituary addicts like me. De mortuis nil nisi bonum,

Commenting

Coming soon, commenting, courtesy of the rather good Haloscan service, which other ibloggers have used, just as soon as I work out how to put the code into my templates.
Of course no one will use it as I have yet to find any evidence that any one other than me has looked at this blog. Maybe just as well....

1st January 2004

Cheltenham selections

Undocumented successes

Good stuff on Tuesday. Poor racing, I thought at first, but looked at the Stratford card and made selections for each race: again I made a 50% strike rate, and at workingmens' prices too: Knightsbridge
King in the 210 at 5/1, Monte Cristo in the 240 at 4/1 and The Grey Butler in the last at 5/1 again.
But no selections at Cheltenham today (visit to aged parent in Cambridge coupled with child care duties made serious study of form impossible). Have had an e-mail saying that the UK fantasy horseracing site is being relaunched. A good thing, but in its heyday (when i won the December 1997 title) it was free, whereas now they want £3 a month membership.
New Year's Eve stretches ahead: possible evening with neighbours off, which is perhaps a good thing, wife retired to bed unwell, children watching awful rubbish on television. What else to do but blog, unless I go out for a run?

Jennifer Ross 1916-2003

"Cultured chocolate heiress" (The Times)

Observer cartoon

Today's Observer runs a cartoon (Roasted) in which two employees of a Starbucks-like coffee house discuss rugby. " Karl, is rugby unfashionable again?. asks one, "any day now" replies the other, "thank God" says the first.
I agree: the consequences of winning the World Cup have been unfortunate and unsportsmanlike. The post office sells stamps emblazoned with the 20-17 final score. When the Webb Ellis trophy was paraded at the Varsity match last month, many of the crowd were more interested and excited by this pointless half-time ballyhoo than by the game itself. Let the game return to decent obscurity.
The other problem with contemporary rugby is that the fans are so ghastly. More of this anon. I have promised my son that I will take him to a Saracens game.

Kempton non-runner

Un Jour a Vassy doesn't go at Kempton, so I've gone for Mighty Strong instead. But it's not very promising so far; a 40-1 shot, Sunray, won the first Chepstow race I had an interest in.

Old Persean Boxing Day match