Poem for Tuesday

From Doctor Faustus
By Christopher Marlowe

Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I'll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them ev'ry morning to thy bed:
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Were she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Sava, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.

--------

This one also snicked from a Washington Post Book World article, this time Michael Dirda's review of The World of Christopher Marlowe. He noted of the lines quoted above that the focus unexpectedly shifts from fair women to male beauty, "the same kind of slither that takes place in the latter part of the gorgeous soliloquy about Helen of Troy":

O, thou art fairer than the evening's air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appear'd to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azured arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour.

Mephistopheles used sex to divert Faustus from having any real earthly impact after selling his soul, so it's interesting that a male god is Faustus' point of comparison for Helen. Edward II is of course Marlowe's more famous play about a man in love with a man, though very dark. Dirda didn't love the new biography, but he does offer a list of alternatives and has put me in the mood to reread plays I haven't looked at since grad school more than ten years ago.

: "Riddikulus" for the "cranky" challenge. this week is Severus' birthday which I believe I covered already -- how many spankings does the man need? Heh, never mind, don't answer that one!

Nothing exciting to report from my day. Took kids to the mall after school because older son needed to have his glasses repaired; made the mistake of going into Game Stop at their request and then had to deal with meltdown because I refused to buy a Kirby game on the spot (older son has a $35 Best Buy gift card that has been sitting at home since his birthday in September, no way was I letting him spend cash on a mall-priced game), bought them Dippin' Dots which apparently did not make me the good guy, dragged them into Ritz looking for a decently padded neck strap for a tiny digital camera, came home and overate just because the spicy peanuts were there. I feel like I'm drowning in stuff -- too many games the kids can't fit on their shelves, too many CDs we can't fit on the rack, too many computer parts we no longer use...anyone need a Mac (SCSI) Zip drive, unused for two years but in great shape, takes only 100 MB disks? Free to anyone willing to come and get it.

Incidentally, are there differences among brand names for SD cards? How come some have more little gold contact points on the back than others? Is it necessary to store them in little plastic cases away from the batteries or do they do all right just dropped in a camera bag? How come I can get a Kingston 128 MB card for $15 but would have to pay nearly $70 for a Panasonic 256 MB card?

And while I'm asking questions, has anyone found a downloadable version of the first 5 minutes of Elektra, posted on Yahoo!, which apparently contains the entirety of Jason Isaacs' part in the movie? I would so love a link, as I can't figure out a way to save it and I really don't want to see the film but I was whimpering over his accent. ETA from : here! Thank you, sweetie! (I assume most interested people will have found 's Phantom of the Opera in 15 Minutes but I will link to it anyway just in case, because it made me howl so!)

Gacked from , my angst tastes like licorice, like hers, which pleases me because it means my breath probably smells sweet, but I'd rather my angst taste like dark chocolate.

My angst tastes like...

Black Licorice
Find your angst's flavor

And asked whether I had any photos of Matildaville, the remains of the village near Great Falls, Virginia. These are a couple of years old, but as you can see, there is very little left of Matildaville, so it changes very little year to year...


Matildaville, named by its founder, Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse" Harry Lee (the father of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee) in honor of his first wife, Matilda. It once contained the Patowmack Canal Company superintendent's house as well as a market, mill, foundry, inn and some private homes.


What's left now are the foundations of some of the buildings, the locks of the now-dry canal, and stories about George Washington's passion for trying to build a canal to make the Potomac River navigable for commerce...


...which eventually happened, but by then the railroads were faster and more efficient at moving the goods. Here's how the holding basin looks nowadays.

Having lunch with my beloved , shall answer comments later!