Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, January 5 release Barnes & Noble

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Kindle edition at Amazon.com

Lost is my Quiet, SACD, amazon.co.uk

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande, Magdalena Kozena, Christian Gerhaher, Gerald Finley, SACD, amazon.co.uk

What hidden knowledge lies in our ancient past? A team of renowned scholars has come together to go beyond the surface-level myths, artifacts, and mysteries found in ancient texts and lost cities from around the world. Journey through Eden and the Gnostic Garden to the Pyramids and the Tower of Babel to decipher the code scattered throughout ancient civilizations.

FREE INTRO EPISODE: GAIA.com’s New Series | Ancient Civilizations

Paul Ryan Says Medicare Privatization Is On

In 1637, soon after the first performances in France of Pierre Corneille’s famous play Le Cid, English poet and playwright Joseph Rutter translated the play from the French rhyming alexandrine couplets into English iambic pentameter verse. Two pupils of Rutter, Richard and Edward Sackville, sons of Edward Sackville, fourth Earl of Dorset, may have contributed to Rutter’s translation.

Rutter’s translation was performed at the English royal court before King Charles I and his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, and subsequently at the Cockpit Stage, Drury Lane, London, by the king’s players.

The play, described as a tragicomedy, tells of the Spanish military hero who must avenge an insult to his father by killing in a duel the father of the woman that he loves.

I have edited the 1637 text and have updated the spelling for a new paperback edition of The Cid, and also for a Kindle ebook. I have also added my own translation of two soliloquies that Rutter’s translation had omitted.

Both the paperback and the ebook can be purchased from Amazon.

It irritates me to hear TV newspeople say “passing” when they are speaking of a death.

In his 1983 (or 1984?) book Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, Paul Fussell wrote, “And of course the middle [class] is where you hear false teeth called dentures, the rich called the wealthy, and dying called passing away (or over). (Proles are likely to be taken to Jesus.)”

“The middles cleave to euphemisms not just because they’re an aid in avoiding facts. They like them also because they assist their social yearnings toward pomposity.”

And in the 1950’s, Nancy Mitford in her essay “The English Aristocracy” characterized “die” as U (Upper Class) speech, and “pass on” as non-U (not Upper Class) speech.

Happy 95th birthday, Carol Channing!

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Amazon.co.uk Christmas gift guide

Career of Evil, Kindle edition, amazon.com

This is the third novel in the Cormoran Strike series that J. K. Rowling writes under the pen name Robert Galbraith. Strike and his employee Robin Ellacott remain interesting characters. However, the story seems contrived and, to me anyhow, not really believable and not always interesting. Robin accepts delivery of a package that contains a leg that was severed from a murdered woman’s corpse. The perpetrator is a serial killer with a grudge against Strike. Strike names four suspects. One falls away, apparently having a good alibi, and three remain. Strike and Robin conduct an investigation that involves going to interview people and sometimes watching people’s movements. Not very interesting. The book has more violence, mayhem, and rape than one book needs. Meanwhile, Robin is planning her wedding to Matthew. She is also a potential target of the killer. Eventually we find out who the killer is. Well, it had to be somebody, but so what?