On paths to Hell, mighty ships and graduation gowns

Sherman Fairchild, on the Feast of St. Ephrem of Syria

No, I don't have anything interesting to say. The lab has finally settled into its new home at Sherman Fairchild (we were on the third floor of the CGR before, but we got kicked out on account of the new director who apparently is so important that she needs a whole floor to herself), and I rather like our new "home away from home" so to speak. It looks more like a traditional lab, but the furniture is still new, and our desks are close to the lab benches. I even have my own desk and half a bench, a definite upgrade from sharing all my space with the post-doc. I am writing from this new desk of mine at this very moment.

In the meantime, more interesting quotes from Claudius the God:

"Taenarum is the southernmost promontory of the Peloponnese, where there is a short cut to Hell which avoids the River Styx. It was by this way that Hercules dragged the Dog Cerberus to the Upper World. The thrifty natives of Taenarum bury their dead without the customary coin in the mouth, knowing that htey will not need to pay Charon their ferry-fare."

Why didn't Orpheus take this path? If I recall correctly, he charmed even Charon's stony heart with his song, but he wouldn't even had had to bother if he took the shortcut. Did he travel back across the Styx with Eurydice? I don't remember, but if he didn't, perhaps they walked the Taenaran road back to the living world (well, before he made the mistake of looking back, anyway).

"The obelisk-ship deserves more than a passing mention. It was the largest vessel ever launched. It was no less than two hundred feet long and broad in proportion, and its main timbers were of cedar. [...] To understand what a monstrous sort of ship it was you must be told that its seventy-foot main mast was a silver fir eight feet in diameter at its base; and that among the ballased used to keep it steady when the obelisk and pediment were secured on deck were one hundred and twenty thousand pecks of Egyptian lentils--a gift for the people of Rome."

Eight feet in diameter! And that just the mast? My mind is thoroughly boggled.

The Yard is closed today for commencement, and people are walking by in billowing black and crimson gowns that look much better than the ones we wore for high school graduation. The Divinity School graduates are wearing little haloes on their hats (caps?), the Law School graduates are carrying gavels, and I hear that the International Studies program has little globes. Nan told us at lunch that the Lowell House seniors marched out from the House led by bagpipe players, and Daera and I saw drummers dressed in colonial-era outfits on our way to lab this morning. It's quite the pageant!

I did indeed manage to update postboxes with a new letter, if you're interested. ^_^

Yours &c.