Was Achilles a Hoopy Frood?

Eureka! (I'm going to lay some Ancient Greek on you today ... and anyone who has already scrolled down far enough won't be complaining.)

No, that's not the sound of bathwater splashing you hear; nor is Keegan likely to go streaking into an unsuspecting street, nekkid or towel-clad. That kind of activity, we leave to Ancient Greeks ... which is not to say that 94 year old Greek guys look any more terrific than ANY guys at a similar age ... but if we're talking about Greek dudes circa 1200 BC in towels, all you have to do is turn on TROY. I have to say, I don't think anybody ever looked better in a towel. Or out of it, for that matter. [grin]

All of which has absolutely nothing to do with the bellow of "Eureka!" which heads off this post. I admit, I digress ... but then again, if one is going to digress, one should at least have the common decency to digress in the direction of Greek superheroes (in or out of towels), right?

The "Eureka" was all about (don't worry: we'll return to Ancient Greek superheroes in a little while) Keegan finding a copy of the 20 POEMS ebook, after a half hour of searching every drive and disk in this zipcode area.

Now, the version of it I found (and at this point it is the ONLY copy) is the version I gave at Christmas 2004 as a Yuletide gift to members and visitors at Mel Keegan OnLine. The whole content is identical ... I tell a lie; I just changed the contact information in the back. Okay, it's almost identical. The only part you'll have to ignore is where I say, "Merry Christmas 2004" ... and I don't honestly want to alter that, because this is the version of the ebook which dates from that time.

Click here to download the MEL KEEGAN: 20 POEMS ebook. The size is about 500kb (we compressed the hell out of it; believe it or not, it's also beautifully illustrated, at this size). You're downloading a zip file, from which you'll extract a PDF, and you're in business. You don't need passwords to open the file, but we secured it to prevent copying and printing and so on, with the rationalization that an eBook is an eBook ... which made sense at the time. If you absolutely need a printable copy, drop me a line via the website or the blog here.

Enjoy!

Now, back to far more important issues.

I came across some production photos which even exceed one's twenty-first century fascination with bathroom accoutrements. Cellphones. Cameras. Beachtents ... on the frontlines at the battle of Troy. There is something delicious about ooparts, and before anyone says I just invented a word -- it's a 1980s archaeological term meaning "out of place artifacts."

The pictures, below, are irresistable. One can only hope that the archaeologists workling at sites like TROY will start turning up the cellphones and cameras soon. Maybe, in the ancient world, burying cellphones and cameras along with the dead was a taboo, which is, of course, why tomb raiders never find them.

Click for a larger view of the images; I have no idea where they originate. I suspect they're culled from some magazines, but couldn't tell you which. Again ... enjoy. These HAVE to be worth a chuckle.