As the wheel spins and turns
I cannot count this as a contributor's copy, but
selidor has sent me the very first image of Vanth, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005. Yes, I'm going to put it up on my wall. What else does one do with a sky of chthonic figures? In both senses, awesome.
Not so awesome is the smell of burning that just came in sharply through the windows and the flakes of ash falling onto our yard. I can see white and brown smoke rising when I look out the front door, a helicopter circling; I can't tell the distance. I hope it is not someone's house. The air is turning peat-blue. The first thing I think when cinders start drifting down is Pompeii.
Not so awesome is the smell of burning that just came in sharply through the windows and the flakes of ash falling onto our yard. I can see white and brown smoke rising when I look out the front door, a helicopter circling; I can't tell the distance. I hope it is not someone's house. The air is turning peat-blue. The first thing I think when cinders start drifting down is Pompeii.

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It may be a brush fire--the weather has been very dry and there have been lots of alerts. You could check the local news maybe.
That's lovely about Vanth :-)
**ETA--I guess it was just one house? Gas leak?
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The Great Meadows burned.
I guess it was just one house? Gas leak?
I think actually it was two or three.
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And yes, it is!
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Write about them!
But an image of Vanth! Your godchild. That is truly madly deeply awesome.
I hope you are not in Pompeii.
Nine
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Will you accept earthquakes? We get those rather frequently . . .
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But, truth: they do have earthquakes here sometimes.
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Is Poseidon so much less to you than Hephaistos?
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Yes. One of his oldest epithets is ἐνοσίχθων, earth-shaker. It's attested in Linear B. Ἐννοσίγαιος is synonymous; he is also called γαιήοχος, earth-holder, earth-cradler. He is closely associated with horses, but he is also the bull that roars under the earth. You should read Mary Renault's The King Must Die (1958).
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I should read it; you're right. I think I may have, long ago, but I should read it again, if so. And I may not have. I have no memory of it, but I can remember reading something by her--I may have read part but not all. Which is the one in which they do bull dancing? Is that The King Must Die? The Bull from the Sea? I probably attempted it at too young an age.
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Just earthquakes. That's syncretism for you.
Which is the one in which they do bull dancing? Is that The King Must Die? The Bull from the Sea?
The bull-leaping is in The King Must Die, although there is a very little near the beginning of The Bull from the Sea. My favorite is The Mask of Apollo, but I recommend all of her classical novels. I would recommend all of her modern novels, too, except that with the exception of The Charioteer (1953) they are almost impossible to get hold of. Return to Night and The Friendly Young Ladies (1943), the two I've lucked across, are very good. Neat genderbending.
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They're in the queue . . .
I hope you are not in Pompeii.
There is a substantial fault line in Massachusetts. No one ever remembers it exists. But this had nothing to do with it.
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We didn't catch on fire, but we were downwind. The street looked like London at the height of the coal industry.
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The smell of burning, however, is not good. I hope nobody's hurt, and most especially that it stays well away from you and yours. Wood knocked, fingers crossed, etc.
And Pompeii-type events had better not be in greater Boston, for all sorts of reasons.
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It kept me happy.
And Pompeii-type events had better not be in greater Boston, for all sorts of reasons.
How about western Massachusetts? Would you mind if a volcano developed there?
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I can't decide if that's a vote for or against.
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I'd prefer catastrophic flooding for western Massachusetts, if you please. Which we can get, too, if we break the Winsor Dam at the Quabbin.
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"The Winsor Dam and the Goodnough Dike impound the waters of the Swift River and the Ware River Diversion forming the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest water body in Massachusetts."
It does make it sound rather as though the rivers have been arrested . . .
(Also, what Murphy-baiter names a dam "Goodnough"?)
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--good thing I wasn't drinking tea just then!
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Nine
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Are they online?
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Excellent. I support all things that keep you happy.*
How about western Massachusetts? Would you mind if a volcano developed there?
Sorry, am I wrong about where it is that you live?
I'd not be pleased by a volcano in western Massachusetts, in any event, even if that's not where you are in your living. I've friends in those parts as it is. And the concertina players would be sad did they lose the Button Box in Amherst.
*Unless, of course, they include volcanoes obliterating places where other friends of mine live. Not that I'd think such would please you, but just in case I thought it should be said.
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No; I was just suggesting other nearby epicenters.
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Glad to know I'm not completely off. I rather figured it was something like that, but I thought I'd perhaps better make sure.