Can’t let July come to a close without giving a shout out to Julius Caesar. This month was named for him, after all, and this is his 2126th birthday. Born in Rome on July 12, 100 BCE he conquered Gaul (now called France), wrote a book about it, and parlayed all that, plus excellent connections, into becoming a dictator. Loved by many everyday Romans, he was assassinated by his fellow Senators in 44 BCE. (The next man in charge also had a month named after him, but that’s another story and he died of old age.)
The towers beside the cake were created by an earlier version of Google’s Gemini. In reality, they were built about 1400 years later, but that’s an A.I. at work: they are anachronistic. I asked for the blood red cake layers and the splattered red cake crumbs as a reminder of how that dictator came to an end. Nevertheless…Ave, Caesar!
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Moving from the historic Romans to the ancient Greeks…
About 1200 years before Julius Caesar a massive number of Greek warriors went East to what is today Turkey to rescue a beautiful young woman, kidnapped by a handsome Prince. Sounds a bit like a fairy tale, but the result was the 10 year long Trojan War and, centuries later, the current mega-hit, “The Odyssey.”
I haven’t seen it yet, but over this last scorching weekend I read “Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller who also wrote “Circe”. I was fairly fuzzy about who did what to whom in the Trojan War and its aftermath. These two books helped give me insight. Achilles was the best warrior; Circe, a witch, came later in the events after the war. Both books are available at the Pima County Public Library. FWIW, Miller was a Classics major at Brown University and now teaches Latin and Greek.
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Now back to Tucson
When Kevin Dahl first ran for City Council I had some doubts about him. On paper with his extensive background in the environmental world he looked like a single issue candidate. He has, however, shown a commitment to Tucson people and neighborhoods and–ta-da!!!–was the first City Council person to say “Nope” to signing an NDA for Project Blue.
I subscribe to his weekly newsletter and the current one has two interesting opportunities for young adults to get paying work. While they are in the environmental arena, both entry level positions would look good on any young person’s resume, even if later they head off into another field of work. One for young people ages 19 to 28, is sponsored by Tucson Clean and Beautiful and Pima County. The other is sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund. Actually, this is less a job and more a basis for entrepreneurship for people 15 to 24. To learn more go to his newsletter. Deadlines for applications are coming up very soon, so if you know of an unemployed young person, this may be the right work for them!
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