Pertinax

If any non-UK members are thinking of coming along please pm myself asap. This also applies to the likely 2008 UK meet in York (though immediate action is not needed, but a stitch in time..), I wouldnt want anyone to cross the herring pond and find themselves without board and shelter.

There are some charts buried in Viggen's gallery entries showing the global distribution of members , (perhaps about 18 months ago), I was just thinking of asking if he had an update of that info -but , he is away for a while .I will pm him when he returns to see if he has an update. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1033 If you explore round this link there are quite a few charts.Welcome to the Forum. BTW watch out for GO , he is round the corner from you, and is a Neapolitan-American tough guy..

Better be big olives... I personally can't make myself stop at 5! (Though calorie wise I should!) So you could become a big as? Please forgive me.

Isn't diction just word choice and pronunciation? If you get rid of pronunciation, the credit for word-choice surely doesn't go to the Jacoby. Would "enunciation" be a better word for the concept you'd intended? Yes ,you are more accurate, though diction does include style of expression (but, also distinct vocabulary..hence I doff my hat to you!).The original definition of diction is ,I believe, merely "to speak" (as in to speak "well").

So one could make an as of oneself quite cheaply?

Shame about pronunciation, but , the diction is good. Doc makes a good point above, I was mindful of what Prince Charles had to say about the word "valet" , a definite frenchy "go boil your bottom silly Arthur King" word if I ever did...His Royal Highness (Charles , not Arthur) commented that (and I paraphrase) that we "must pronounce it val-et with a hard T to show that we are English using a word we know to be French , but subsumed into our language ..we therefore actively disassociate ourselves from the soft val-eh ending of the "true" French word".This does of course make a lot of assumptions about the educative standard and the vernacul;ar speech of the parties to the conversation, namely that a rough ,tough Northern (British) type might emphasise the flat vowels and a hard T anyway (because he wouldnt pronounce some effeminising French metric stuff).Of course the other minefield of manners is the desire not to express oneself with too many hints of Middle Class arriviste (note the irony) lingua franca.The other slight problem is the very modern (last 100 years or so, with the coming of the Railways initially) homogenisation of accents . Phew, I got carried away in someone else's specialism.

Staying in Carlisle and moving West is not unreasonable (by car at least). Please check myy pm to you AC. Looks like im driving anyway.

"Passover" aired tonight. We seem to have veered towards melodrama.The division beetween historical "veracity" and character driven continuity sems to have developed further.

Even Graves' autobiography is inaccurate, but its a great read.

Kyle, you're fired! Welcome and good luck. Hello and Welcome Kyle..ignore GO he has eaten depraved oysters (again).

I didn't doubt it! I was looking for your books today in Luguvallum , but the frontier town bookshop didn't have any in stock

There's an entire section in The Sirens of Surrentum where FG lists ten poisonous plants, their descriptions, uses, poisonous parts, symptoms caused, and antidote. It's cooool. (And, I wish I'd had Locusta as a teacher when I was a little kid. She's FUN! Heheh.) -- Nephele Ha Ha ! Yes but she came to a bad end did she not? How did Galba finish her off after her Neronian immunity lapsed-a witty Emperor would have offered her some "bad" figs?

Just a reminder of the excellent blog for Deva - though its historical context is "any era" with a tendency toward Romanopilia. http://capweb.blogspot.com/ The camera on the main dig site seems to be having gremlins at present. Im hoping to look in their tomorrow.

FG do you name your poisons? I should I invest and find out myself?

Excellent. Now we must all offer sacrifice and libation for clement weather and strong livers. Coventina is particularly appropriate in relation to the River and watercourses in the area, and Cernnunos can be sensed in the dark, rich wild landscape.

So you cannot visit and issue edicts and anathemae from your palanquin? We are very keen to see you , and regale you with delicate viands: http://www.buryblackpuddings.co.uk/

I dont find any reference (as yet ) to the appearence of the cheeses that I mentioned. I have to suggest that it is at least plausible that a mature cheese (especially when stored in a cool dampish place ie: a cave or cellar) will quite naturally become veined and marbled. This is not strictly kosher here but I thought my fellow bon vivants might enjoy it: http://www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk/

This 6 disc CD set has arrived in my contubernium today. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Twelve-Caesa...2647&sr=8-3 On listening to disc 1 , I am very impressed by Jacobi's excellent diction. I will report fully in due course.

Any more UK members as yet not contacted AC or NN please?

The impregnation of Danae seems a quite contemporary motif. I see Caldrail supports my line.

Happy Birthday, I wish I could remember that far back.

Early BCE origin and production seems to have been Indus valley (modern Pakistan as a possible source area). Pliny is very vague (chap 26) on cotton as a possible resource(the reference is said to be a straight lift from Herodotus).Once again perhaps AD can help with likely import routes? The two main species are attested as separate cultivated economic plants in the Old and New Worlds early BCE. I wonder if processing temperature and humidity(or lack of) were the key factors in preventing the manufacture of cotton on an industrial scale rather than as a luxury good, our own Brigantine homeland was especially suitable for cotton processing (in later history) due to its high general humidity (ie: worked fibre tended not to split easily due to dampness), and its lowish general temperature.

Indeed ,sadly premature.

Well I think you should.

Ah ha the Lorde of Adderse Blackke is Backke. Yo my homey. Is that correct vernacular?