Jayne and all, eight days ago I presented a little papillon of a paper to the Classical Association of the Atlantic States on efforts to solve the problem of when the Roman poet Catullus was born and passed on. He’s the author of Odi et amo - “I hate and I love,” as well as searingly hostile feelthy squibs about Julius Caesar and his team, and some funny stuff, like #13 about a perfume that makes the smeller want to be entirely a nose. I was rewriting and correcting the room handout almost until we boarded the Amtrak train. Be that as it may, the presentation went pretty Aswan High Dam well, and was movied by a daughter. Jayne’s and Julie Steiner’s help and shoving last year were essential to keeping me going. Fwiw, Isbell’s fellow student in England, Gareth Williams, has a jolly little footnote. I’m still sandpapering the message, and dare to think the paper just might eventually advance general knowledge a smidge about who kissed whom in Rome and other stuff in the late 50s BC and maybe a squeak later. Fun it was.
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