Of politicians, poetry, parasites and cicadas

The latest Front Porch program/podcast is kind of all over the place. It looks back at WV's primary election and weird political history, touches on the perennial issue of outsiders, and, most importantly, discusses cicadas in a scientific and poetic manner. Here it is.

A little good news

I don't know about you, Gentle Reader, but I could use some of that. Here are two items.

First, it looks like 12,000 new and previously uninsured West Virginians signed up for health care on the exchange under the Affordable Care Act. That means there's about 37,000 getting care through the exchange with over 170,000 more getting care under expanded Medicaid.

Second, a judge actually acted with justice (!), siding with the Teamsters union which filed a rat-smelling lawsuit about how WVU may have played footsie with labor- hating  WV Republican legislators on a bogus "right to work for less study." With any luck, the public will get to read redacted emails that went back and forth between legislative leaders and...those people.

And here's a bonus item for cicada fans. Here they come!

Who's next?

Union retired coal miners and their families hoped for justice from a federal judge in the Patriot Coal bankruptcy case--and found none. Corporate promises these days aren't worth the paper they are written on. I think it's time once again to quote Leonard Cohen:

Everybody knows the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes.
And everybody knows.

MIGHT AS WELL eat bugs.

The rest of the story (and a canine obituary)

Chiron tutoring Achilles. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Goat Rope is in the midst of a series on Everything You Always Wanted to Know (or not) About Greek Tragedy. You'll also find links and comments about current events. This week Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound is on the menu.

Most people who know anything about Prometheus myths know that he was chained at Zeus' command to a rock in the middle of nowhere and had his liver torn out daily by a vulture for giving humans the gift of fire. But there's a good bit more to the story that might be good to know before looking at Aeschylus' tragedy.

His punishment was not destined to last forever. It seems that over time Zeus recognized that his punishment was over the top. It was arranged that the great hero Heracles would free Prometheus.

Prometheus, for his part, overcame some of his haughtiness and earned favor with Zeus by warning him not to have a fling with the sea nymph Thetis, who was destined to give birth to a son who would be greater than his father. That would have been the only way that Zeus could have been overthrown. Fans of Homer will recall that Zeus married her off to the human Peleus, whose son was the great warrior Achilles.

One requirement for his pardon was that Prometheus wear a ring made from his chains with a stone from the mountain to which he was chained. That's where the custom of wearing rings came from.

Some other traditions say that Prometheus' suffering was fated to continue until another immortal agreed to go to the underworld in his place. This was done by the wise centaur Chiron (aka Cheiron), who was weary of life and suffering from an accidental wound from a poisoned arrow of Heracles.

Next time: the play itself.

CANINE OBITUARY DEPARTMENT



It is with regret that we announce the passing of Lily, the Spousal Unit's 17 year old dog. She was rescued as a pup from a dump in Brazil and had a pretty good run. Her full name was Lilushka Grushenka Arcadia Aureliania Jose Maria Santiago la Bella Garcia Lorca de Unamuno Ortega y Gasset. We wish her a fortunate rebirth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha.

BEING POOR is expensive.

HITTING HOME. Here's a good resource from the Economic Policy Institute on how the economic downturn is affecting people.

URGENT CICADA UPDATE here. Sneak preview: they like prime numbers.

WHILE WE'RE AT IT, here's an item on what makes Komodo dragons so dangerous.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

WHERE HAVE ALL THE CICADAS GONE?

(Note: the ongoing series on the Odyssey will resume Monday.)

If you were around my neck of the woods a few months ago, you would have heard something that sounded like the Mother Ship from the Crab Nebula hovering overhead. That would have been the sound of a bunch of horny cicadas who rolled into town like sailors on shore leave after a 17 year cruise.

I kind of liked it.

After an apparently zesty bout of Aphrodite's game, they passed on. It was over pretty quick. I hope it was worth it for them.



However, another crop is on the way. If you pay attention, you'll notice a lot of little new tree branches on the ground. Apparently, the little buggers lay eggs on these new growths and the cicadas-to-be bore their way in, causing the tip of the branch to break off and die. Once on the ground, they bore under and begin their 17 year underground apprenticeship.

I don't know if I'll be around to hear their sex-crazed singing next time around but it's good to know they'll be there.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

O RESONANT CICADA

The Cricket to the Cicada

(From a poem by Meleager, Greece, circa 100 B.C.)

O resonant cicada, drunk on dewy droplets.

You sing your rustic song that sounds in lonely places.

Perched with your saw-like limbs, high up among the leaves

You shrill forth the lyre's tune with your sun-darkened body.

But, dear friend, sound forth something new for the woodland nymphs,

A divertissement, chirping a tune for

Pan as the song which you sing in your turn,

So that I, escaping from Eros, can catch some noon-time sleep

While reclining there under the shady plane tree.

Translated by Rory B. Egan, University of Manitoba