Author: Quintus Curtius

The Travels And Achievements Of Giovanni Belzoni

Quintus Curtius Travel & Exploration , , ,

Giovanni Battista Belzoni ranks as one of the most unexpected and fascinating of European travelers.  With little formal experience and education, he managed not only to explore and document various parts of the Arab world, but also to carry out engineering and logistical feats that would have daunted even the trained professionals of his era.  This fearless Italian was born in Padua in 1788.  He was but one of fourteen children, and the son of a barber; finding few career prospects in his native city, he set out for Rome at the age of sixteen with the intention of pursuing a monastic career.  The Church at least could offer him food, drink, and a roof over his head; and for a poor youth, these inducements were considerably attractive.

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Ringing In 2020: A New G Manifesto Tweet Reading

Quintus Curtius Podcast , ,

We’re ringing in the new year with another G Manifesto tweet reading (even though he’s already in 2022). The topics are: custom suits, nootropics, game meats, mountain villages, ocean swims, beautiful girls, and avoiding weesh dudes. What more can be said? Kick back, have a drink or two, and laugh along with us! Life is too short!

(Most will never get something like this).

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What Knowledge Comes To Us From Dreams?

Quintus Curtius Thought , , ,

Arthur Conan Doyle’s sinister short story “The Leathern Funnel” deals with a phenomenon called psychometry:  the supposed ability of material objects associated with emotionally charged experiences to preserve and transmit a record of such events.  Published in 1900, the tale begins innocently enough with a meeting between friends, then slowly builds to an ominous crescendo of unease and sadistic malignancy.  Lionel Dacre, a wealthy owner of rare curiosities, owns a very old leather funnel from seventeenth-century France; the funnel has mysterious scratches, or bite-marks, on its neck.  Dacre persuades a friend (the unnamed narrator) to sleep with this funnel by his bedside.  In his dreams that night, the friend makes a horrifying discovery:  the funnel was actually used as a water-torture device during a pretrial procedure euphemistically called the “Extraordinary Question.”

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T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”: A Reading

Quintus Curtius Podcast ,

No short literary effort quite captures the shadowy nothingness, the husk-like, desiccated essence of modern man, as well as T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men.”  This is my reading of his poem.

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Movie Roundup (1/12/2020) (Podcast)

Quintus Curtius Podcast , ,

In this movie roundup we discuss “1917” (2019), “Earthquake Bird,” (2019), and “Furthest Witness” (2017).

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Accountability And Discipline Must Apply Equally To All

Quintus Curtius Thought , ,

Yacub Ibn Al-Laith Al-Saffar (يعقوب بن الليث الصفار) lived from A.D. 840 to 879, and is credited as the founder of the Saffarid dynasty of Sistan.  Sistan is the geographic area now known as eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan; its capital was the city of Zaranj.  The word saffar in Arabic means “brass founder,” an artisan working in brass; but Yacub was said to be a coppersmith.  His biographer Ibn Khallikan credits Yacub with this wise saying:

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If You Cannot Be Great, At Least Do No Harm

Quintus Curtius Thought , ,

Aesop tells us a story of a hunter who was once looking for the tracks of a lion.  Searching here and there with no success, he paused to ask a local woodcutter if he had seen the footprints of a lion, and, if so, where he thought the lion’s den might be found.  The woodcutter responded that there was no need to bother with prints; he would be happy to take the hunter to the lion’s den himself.  Instead of being pleased at this news, the hunter began to show signs of extreme nervousness and fear.  He then extricated himself from the situation, telling the woodcutter, “Thank you for your offer, but I am really only interested in finding the tracks of the lion, not the lion himself.”

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Movie Roundup 1/5/2020 (Podcast)

Quintus Curtius Podcast , , , ,

In this roundup, we discuss four recent movies:

Mike Wallace Is Here (2019)
Destroyer (2018)
At Eternity’s Gate (2019)
Meeting Gorbachev (2018)

Tune in for the discussion!  Trailers for each film are shown below.

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Never Surrender What Is Most Important

Quintus Curtius Thought , , , ,

There is a fable in Aesop that involves the behavior of the beaver.  In ancient times, beavers were often hunted for the scented oil, known as castorea, that was found in sacs near its genital area.  The beaver liked to rub its hind parts against trees and logs, thereby possessively marking them with his scent; and this scent apparently had to humans a pleasant aroma, reputed to be evocative of vanilla.  The ancients mistakenly thought that this valued aromatic came from the beaver’s scrotum, rather than from special internal sacs adjacent to the genitalia.

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The Instituto Ricardo Brennand, And The Praia Dos Carneiros

Quintus Curtius Travel & Exploration , , ,

The Instituto Ricardo Brennand is a Recife cultural institution containing a museum, library, and armory.  Founded in 2002, it is an impressive complex and well worth the visit.  I always try to see local museums when I travel, and I was glad that I came here.

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