Comments on: The Ides of April – or, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

By: Sally H

Sally H — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:40:57 +0000

Someday, would you do a blog posting about the music in your books? Ever since I read Drums for the first time I have ached to hear Roger’s voice. I emailed once, and your very nice assistant replied that Alex Beaton had the recorded voice you considered most like Roger’s.

Please, will you tell us more about all this — where you find the songs which you include in the books, what singers you have heard perform them, why you include those songs in particular, ….that kind of thing.

Thanks.
Sally H

ps. I had a dream the other night, about Jamie doing the sword dance on New Year’s (happy), which morphed into his memory of dancing before Culloden. I could _almost_ hear the Bodhrun.

By: Deb

Deb — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:20:05 +0000

Of course the difference between then and now is that we do elect the representatives in the legislature that taxes us… not so sure they remember who “We the people” are once they gat there: -)

By: Belinda Jonak

Belinda Jonak — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:13:41 +0000

Tea-ed off about taxes? Who isn’t? I wonder if it was Twinings tea that got dunked in the harbor (salt-tea). Our current Tea Party likes to brew tempests in teapots. S.O.S.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:28:59 +0000

Dear Diana,

You are quite welcome! Yes, the Ides were originally connected to the full moon. In their earliest history (and we’re talking mud huts alongside the Tiber here), the Romans were farmers. Their year was based on the gestational cycle of the pig and their month was divided up according to the phases of the moon. The Kalendae (1st day of the month) was the first day of the new moon, the Nonae (the 7th or 9th day of the month) was the day the first quarter of the moon became visible and the Idus (or in English, Ides) was the full moon.

As the Romans became city-dwellers they separated their months from the lunar cycle and fixed their month lengths. The Ides was assigned as the 15th day in March, May, July and October and the 13th day in all other months.

That may be more than you ever wanted to know but I love to talk about the Roman calendar! [vbg]

Best,
Sarah

By: Diana

Diana — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 17:18:13 +0000

Dear Sarah–

Thank you! I am indeed interested to hear that. What is the definition of the Ides, then? (clearly not the midpoint of the month, as I’d ignorantly assumed). Is a lunar assignment?

–Diana

By: lauren

lauren — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:01:42 +0000

Gives new meaning to “Born in the USA”

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:24:47 +0000

Love the post and the blog, but the Latin teacher in me must correct that today is not the Ides of April, that was the 13th. The only months that have the Ides on the 15th are March, May, July and October, in the rest of the months it falls on the 13th. In the Roman calendar today is a.d. XVII Kal. Mai. or the 17 days (counting inclusively, Roman style) before the Kalends (1st) of May. I wouldn’t mention it except that I suspect that you might just be interested in such minute historical details. Vale!

By: Fawn

Fawn — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:13:46 +0000

You know I am 49 years old and I have never heard this song, isn’t that just crazy?

By: Frankie

Frankie — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:29:06 +0000

I just got back from London a couple of weeks ago, and of course me and my companions had to visit the Tower of London where a Beefeater was conducting a tour for a group comprised mostly of Americans. In the course of the tour, he made a light hearted dig about how much history we Americans would have “if [we]‘d only paid our taxes”. I came really close to responding by saying, “we just buy our history, like we did London Bridge” but didn’t want to be responsible for an international incident.

By: JerryT

JerryT — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:25:12 +0000

I wonder what the Republicans and Democrats would think of this song?