Three Quick Things

1. Wow. The “recent Classical manuscript discoveries”:http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=630165 are huge huge huge (via “Ed”:http://www.goesping.org/). And yet a quick glance at wapo.com and cnn.com turns up no front-page coverage. Silly, silly new outlets.

The previously unknown texts, read for the first time last week, include parts of a long-lost tragedy – the Epigonoi (”Progeny”) by the 5th-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles; part of a lost novel by the 2nd-century Greek writer Lucian; unknown material by Euripides; mythological poetry by the 1st-century BC Greek poet Parthenios; work by the 7th-century BC poet Hesiod; and an epic poem by Archilochos, a 7th-century successor of Homer, describing events leading up to the Trojan War. Additional material from Hesiod, Euripides and Sophocles almost certainly await discovery.

UPDATE: Thanks to “Mark”:http://kaedrin.com/weblog/ for pointing out that the claims of the importance of the find in _The Independent_ “may have been exaggerated”:http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050420-4827.html. It appears the lack of coverage elsewhere was actually a case of proper restraint. Open mouth, insert foot.

2. Jim, at his quotable best yet again “here”:http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2005/04/17/4148, this time in regards to the Italian intelligence officer killed by U.S. troops in Iraq a few months ago. Can’t decide on an excerpt — read it all.

3. Steve Clemons’ “The Washington Note”:http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/ has been an interesting read these past few weeks. He’s devoted all his blogging (and, it seems, all his personal energy) to defeating John Bolton’s nomination to the U.N. by the Senate. Now if this where any ordinary blogger, the effect might be minimal, but Clemons is a well-connected playah, and if the Senators in the subcommittee don’t read TWN, people on their staffs certainly do. Clemons has been targeting his comments to the Senators’ interests, and to specific people (which in this case means mostly Lincoln Chafee). Anyway, it’s getting near the end of the road, but things might get interesting before they’re over. It’s been a fascinating experiment in single-issue blogging.