It was so funny listening to Bob Costas talking about the Greek island of Lesbos tonight on the Olympics broadcast. He totally skipped over the one question that had half of America giggling. i can imagine all the Beavis and Butthead imitations going on in living rooms across the country: "huh-huh... he said lesbos... huh-huh."

Yes, strictly speaking, a lesbian is what you call someone from Lesbos. So how did that word become transformed into a gay moniker? And what does that have to do with poetry day? Read on:

The most famous lesbian of all was the classical Greek poetess Sappho, who lived in the seventh century B.C. She ran a school for girls on Lesbos that was sort of the artistic hippie commune of its day. She was such a revered poet that people called her "the tenth muse."

Sappho wrote a series of beautiful lyric poetry that survives only in fragments. It was written on stone tablets, which broke over the years and many of the pieces are missing. The only thing left of much of Sappho's work is a line here and a line there, leaving only glimpses of some romantic and evocative poetry, now lost forever.

Some of Sappho's poem fragments have been interpreted as evidence that she was indeed a lesbian, in both senses of the word. Thus the modern meaning of "lesbian." Although there is still some dispute about whether Sappho really liked girls or whether it was more of a sisterly thing she was writing about.

Sappho's poems have consistently resisted translation into English in a way that reveals their beauty to the non-Greek speaker. Or so i'm told. i took Latin, not Greek in high school, so i'll just have to take the poetry scholars' word for it.

Mary Barnard's recent translation is very nice, although i'm not sure how faithful it is to the original. Today's poem is an especially pretty translation by Barnard, which seems to be from a more intact fragment.

Yes, Atthis, you may be sure

          Even in Sardis
Anactoria will think often of us
of the life we shared here,

          when you seemed
the Goddess incarnate
to her and your singing
          pleased her best

Now among Lydian women she in her
turn stands first as the red-
fingered moon rising at sunset takes

precedence over stars around her;
her light spreads equally
on the salt sea and fields thick with bloom

Delicious dew pours down to freshen
roses, delicate thyme,
and blossoming sweet clover; she wanders

aimlessly, thinking of gentle
Atthis, her heart hanging
heavy with longing in her little breast

She shouts aloud, Come! we know it;
thousand-eared night repeats that cry
across the sea shining between us

Posted by: annika at 10:09 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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[an experiment in contemporaneous blogging]

. . . i despise Katie Kouric. i really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really despise her . . .

. . . i just turned the thing on. What's up with the glowing pregnant chick? That shit is straight up weirding me out . . .

. . . Kouric's tone of voice is soooo condescending. She talks down to the viewing audience like we're a bunch of fucking babies. God she's annoying. She almost makes me not mind the short guy. What's his name? . . .

. . . Costas . . .

. . . Interesting that Bulgaria sent an all male contingent of athletes this year . . .

. . . i'm sure the German team didn't mind following the French team in the parade of nations. Germans are very used to seeing the backs of Frenchmen . . .

. . . Cool, no boos for the Americans. But what's up with that music? Is that a techno version of Albinoni's Adagio? Couldn't they have picked a happier tune for the parade? . . .

. . . i've heard from Europeans that we Americans walk differently and we're easy to pick out from a crowd because of the way we carry ourselves. It doesn't matter what we wear, either. i can't put my finger on the difference, but i see it when i look at our team. It's almost like an optimism, if it's possible to exude optimism while walking . . .

. . . Best looking guys so far have been on the Bosnia-Herzegovinian and Irish teams . . .

. . . Italy too . . .

. . . i bet that blue haired Cameroonian chick was pissed when she saw the blue haired Italian chick steal her idea . . .

. . . Del Harris?! What the fuck are you doing on the Chinese team? He's the Manchurian coach! i hope no one shows him the queen of diamonds. Damn traitor . . .

. . . Time for another beer . . .

. . . The Iraqi team got a nice reception too. That's very cool . . .

. . . The Cook Island team wins the gold for having the most fun during the parade of nations. i wanna party with those guys . . .

. . . More blue hair. This time on a Mexican chick . . .

. . . That guy carrying the flag of Mauritania looks like the black dude from Gladiator . . .

. . . The Brits are all dressed like they just came from the Village. (not Shyamalan's village . . . McGoohan's) . . .

. . . The Olympic Stadium really was worth waiting for. It is spectacularly beautiful . . .

. . . But is there anything more boring than an Olympic opening ceremony? Maybe an Olympic closing ceremony . . .

. . . Still, it is amazing when you think that the Olympics were invented in that exact place, three thousand years ago . . .

. . . AθHNA . . .

. . . Now here come the runners, passing off what appears to be the largest fattie spliff ever rolled . . .

. . . Holy shit. At first i thought the dude was using that fattie to chain light the world's most gigantic joint. But then, as the torch slowly began to rise, it's true symbolism became obvious. Those perv Greeks built a huge working replica of an erect phallus! . . .

. . . i think i'm blushing . . .

Posted by: annika at 09:04 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 The Aussies have the same walk. I didn't notice it on anyone else, but I didn't stay to the end.

Posted by: Erik at August 13, 2004 10:46 PM (eKeht)

2 i don't doubt that at all.

Posted by: annika! at August 13, 2004 11:38 PM (XUQP4)

3 I was kind of wondering I've heard that thing about how Americans walk before, and I've always thought that Americans walk just like everybody else... But the only "everybody else" I'm familiar with is Aussies.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 14, 2004 01:05 AM (+S1Ft)

4 I am not sure if its fortunate or unfortunate - but yes Americans are known throughout the world - immediately. Spot us from the way we dress - to the way we walk - to our fat. You can walk into a crowded club, restaurant - and you can pick us out immediately. Its not optimism. Its cockiness. The only people cockier than Americans are the British. And then there are the Aussies. All British colonies. Sometimes it makes you proud. Sometimes its embarrassing. Especially Americans abroad for the first time. "You know in America - McDonalds is HUGE..." "You know in America - everything is NEWER..." "Thats so stupid - why do Europeans do it that way... In America - we do it this way - and its BETTER..." Shit, you are not in America. Sigh.

Posted by: gsj at August 14, 2004 08:07 AM (ftDX1)

5 my mom said stuff like that when she visited me in England. And she's Danish!

Posted by: annika at August 14, 2004 09:01 AM (fxEID)

6 Here is a difference I have found between American and European women: When you walk down the street and look an American woman in the eye and smile, most of the time (young or old), she will smile back. If you do the same thing to an European woman, she will look at the ground and not change her expression. European women must feel oppressed.

Posted by: Jake at August 14, 2004 11:54 AM (h4tU8)

7 Maybe if your fly wasn't open....

Posted by: Casca at August 15, 2004 05:51 AM (q+PSF)

8 ROTFL

Posted by: annika! at August 15, 2004 06:33 AM (iUHC/)

9 A friend of mine and his wife went on an overseas trip with a group of Brits, and the Brits were openly hostile to my friends, being Americans. They made the trip really miserable for them, and my friends couldn't figure out why. One of the guys actually had the guts to tell them why: "When we first met you, you guys were laughing and having a good time...you were happy. And that really, is annoying." Then he said "Another reason we don't like you is because we do everything first, but you do it better." I can't believe the guy was so candid, but also, so petty in the first place? They didn't like the Americans because "they were happy"??

Posted by: Neil Uchitel at August 15, 2004 12:47 PM (Q+NnP)

10 Imagine being happy while at the Olympics. God knows how long and how much effort it took to actually qualify. As of this writing, Americans lead in the medal count with 39. Not to be cocky, of course.

Posted by: Mark at August 19, 2004 08:17 PM (Vg0tt)

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In keeping with today's football related theme, i want to share a pretty cool website i discovered. It's called Football Poets, and it deals with that other football, which Americans call soccer, and which i call kickball.

i may sometimes deride soccer fan, but it's an uncomfortable truth that your average hooligan has a lot in common with your stereotypical Raider fan.

Read the following poem, by a poet named simply, Glenn. Tell me if it doesn't remind you of any beloved black hole dwellers you know.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

He wakes up to the siren of the clock beside his bed,
He rubs his eyes and starts to feel the banging in his head,
It's 8 o'clock on Sunday morn, he's only had five hours,
But he mustn't let his mates down so he summons up his powers.

He drinks a litre of diet coke to ease the dehydration,
Then sets off down to meet his mates at the petrol station,
His lift turns up and they all pile in, squashed and jammed up tight,
The car is filled with smells of beer and curry from last night.

He shouts and swears with all his mates as they change in a cold, damp room,
The boisterousness holds no bounds, it's Sunday in the tomb,
He strides out through the mist that hugs the rutted council pitch,
Up to the centre circle, hand down shorts, attending to the itch.

He tentatively shakes the hand of his foe in black and red,
Then shouts 'tails' as the tarnished coin spins above his head,
He runs, he kicks, he hurts, he spits, his vitriol unchecked,
He courts displeasure of the man, who is in black bedecked.

He leaves the battered field of play, threatening retribution,
Knowing, deep down inside, his worthless contribution,
And afterwards in the bar he's pompous, rude and haughty,
'Cos this is Sunday football and tomorrow he is forty.

He knows his days of mud and blood are nearly at an end,
The paunch that sits upon his belt is now his new best friend,
He'll fill him up with pie and ale until he's fit to burst,
But he will go on drinking to satisfy his thirst.

He staggers off the bus and somehow opens the front door,
He slumps down in the armchair and sleeps three hours or more,
He wakes up to the siren of the ambulance outside
Then cries as he realises, that Sunday football had just died.

Posted by: annika at 04:19 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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i was pleased to see that Cal's football team is ranked in the top 25 on at least six pre-season polls. The latest is a number 22 ranking on Sports Illustrated's poll. SI ranks USC at number one, which is no surprise, but guess which Pac-10 team handed the Trojans their only defeat last year?

That's right, it was the Cal Bears!

Some other rankings are:

• ESPN/USAToday coaches poll: 15th


• Blue Ribbon Yearbook: 11th


• Athlon Sports: 14th


• Phil Steele's College Football Preview: 10th


• Lindy's: 17th


• Congrove Computer Rankings: 18th


• Pac-10 Media poll: 2nd (in conference)

Posted by: annika at 02:02 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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