Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 29, 2020 14:19:16 GMT -8
Arson and Olive TreesOh, olive tree, olive tree Standing so green and compatible But please watch that match, sir My bark is oh so flammable Oh, olive tree, olive tree You do all that we ask-oh Anointing our veggie salads And giving zest to the antipasto
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Do you think that’s all a little to formal and highfalutin?
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Post by artraveler on Jan 29, 2020 17:05:10 GMT -8
Furthermore, if they were still around, they were probably not complete idiots like many of the yutes around me. There is a bakery near me that has a table set aside for vets. One of the regulars is a WWII vet Frank, he is I believe, 96 now and lives in the veterans home just down the street. He doesn't say much just drinks coffee and eats his donut, but just his presence lends more dignity to our morning coffee and BS sessions. |
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Post by timothylane on Jan 29, 2020 17:28:18 GMT -8
The oil comes from the olives themselves as far as I know, so I don't suppose the bark is any more flammable than the bark of most trees. Oil palms may be another matter, and even there I'm not sure. (Well, this would be available on wikipedia, I guess.) We saw olive trees often enough in Greece, and I don't recall our parents mentioning anything of the sort. (We came back from Greece with several large tins of Kalamata olives packed in olive oil. They eventually all got eaten. Ummm.)
It occurs to me your poem is close to "O Tannenbaum" in scansion. Maybe you might make use of that.
We used vinegar and oil (or sometimes just vinegar) for salads, and for that matter, greens. I never had any other salad dressing until I encountered salad bars (then a new concept) at the dorm cafeteria at Purdue. For that matter, we never used steak sauces until a sauce tray was brought in when we had some steaks for dinner at a restaurant on Crete. We always used salt on rice until I came across soy sauce. We always used butter on baked potatoes until I came across sour cream.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 29, 2020 19:05:35 GMT -8
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Post by lynda on Jan 29, 2020 22:24:53 GMT -8
Arson and Olive Trees
When ashes settle on the leaves
Of Poseidon’s verdant Olive Trees
Beware, an arsonist afoot
Who threatens branch, and trunk, and root.
Whoa be to one, so blatant ars,
To threaten such an orchard sparse.
For when the flaming fool is found
To the court of gods he’s bound,
Where once was venge’d Halirrohthius
On solid Areopagus.
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Post by timothylane on Jan 30, 2020 6:53:18 GMT -8
The olive tree was actually a gift of Athena, though fortunately the scansion would be the same. There was a contest between her and Poseidon over whom the city would be named after, so each provided a useful gift. He gave man the horse, and she gave man the olive tree. She won, and thus the city is Athens.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 8:32:24 GMT -8
Brilliant, Gibbnonymous. So upper-class, almost Homeric (of the Odyssey, not The Simpsons). And you even worked in Areopagus. First class work.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 30, 2020 8:55:05 GMT -8
Sounds like a classic to me lynda.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 8:58:27 GMT -8
I found this poem about olives. I like the first stanza but then my eyes glazed over trying to read the rest of it. Here’s a somewhat odd one from a Scot which includes: Then, of course, you have the top 25 Olive Tree Quotes (I didn’t know they could talk). I liked this one from Freddie: William C. Bryant (not sure if related to Anita) wrote: “The groves were God’s first temples.” I like that. I think this next one was written by Marco Rubio because I cannot understand it: “Under the olive trees, from the ground Grows this flower, which is a wound. It is easier to ignore Than the heroes' sunset fire Of death plunged in their willed desire Raging with flags on the world's shore.” Here’s an unintentionally funny quote from a decided un-optimist: “Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.” Come on. Shakespeare didn’t do too badly. I think John Muir might have been smoking a little dope when he wrote: But there are some nice sentiments in that, nonetheless. And leave it to Alfred Lord Tennyson to go very plant-happy: Let us leave the last word on olives to Boris Johnson:  |
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Post by artraveler on Jan 30, 2020 9:47:34 GMT -8
In ancient times war was not waged as total war. It was considered a horrendous crime to destroy farms and orchards. Any army seeking dominance knew that destroying farms and orchards was to devastate the economy of the country. Thus, not to the benefit of an invader. Since olives were a mainstay of every economy from Italy to Persia the olive tree became a symbol of peace and restraint. It was ok to kill the farmers, but destroying the farms and groves was anathema. Scripture reinforces this concept as does Homer. Troy survived 10 years of siege by the Greeks. Homer does not talk about the farms the Greeks did not destroy. War had limits and, in general, most stayed within the accepted norms.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 10:23:22 GMT -8
Interesting.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 10:24:16 GMT -8
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Post by timothylane on Jan 30, 2020 10:31:37 GMT -8
During the Archidamian War, the Peloponnesian Alliance would invade Attica each year. The Athenians would evacuate everyone into the walled area (Athens, Piraeus, and the Long Walls connecting them), which incidentally probably encouraged the plague that killed (among many others) Pericles. Then Archidamus would burn out a district to punish them for not fighting against the odds.
Fredrika Bremer's quote about the olive is exactly what Athena pointed out in her contest with Poseidon -- the numerous uses of the olive tree. I didn't know the leaves were edible, though. Ogden Nash's famous parody of Joyce Kilmer (which he titled "The Song of the Open Road", a Whitman parody) was about all trees, not olive trees in particular. I think he may also have said "indeed" rather than "perhaps". But it's a fun poem, anyway, possibly the first of his I ever encountered.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 30, 2020 14:26:16 GMT -8
I think this might be Boris unchained.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 14:38:41 GMT -8
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 30, 2020 14:47:02 GMT -8
Very droll.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 14:55:15 GMT -8
 Don't encourage him. |
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Post by timothylane on Jan 30, 2020 14:56:12 GMT -8
Nice showing an Olivetti typewriter. I was a programmer there (mostly doing cost-estimating for printers) from December 1975 to July 1977. I remember a programmer in the New York office explaining the finances of multi-national corporations. Their official headquarters was in Liechtenstein, I think, and they arranged that all their profits around the world accumulated there. I also once attended a class there on a new system -- held in Ossining, New York, formerly known as Sing Sing. (The prison is no longer active.)
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 14:56:20 GMT -8
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 30, 2020 14:57:08 GMT -8
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