Genesis 19

Recall that the two angels, in the form of men, left the Lord and Abraham and went ahead to Sodom to check the moral temperature of the city. We have also mentioned that, in the biblical universe, it is never a good thing to be living in the city, and Lot is learning this the hard way. Lot, like Abraham, recognizes the men and pays what hospitality he can, but things take a nasty turn:

After the meal, as they were preparing to retire for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them.”

Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. “Please, my brothers,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing. Look - I have two virgin daughters. Do with them as you wish, but leave these men alone, for they are under my protection.”

This doesn’t work. The men of Sodom are only all the more disdainful that Lot, a newcomer to the city, should be trying to dictate terms to them. The angels take matters into their own hands, and have decided that it is indeed time to put an end to this sink of iniquity, after they get Lot and his family out.

As for the striking offer of his virgin daughters, I suppose I was content to take that as a pious sacrifice for the Lord, rather similar to the way that Abraham would willingly slay his own son on the Lord’s command. Biblical logic can be rough like that.

However, Robert Alter gives us a better interpretation, one that explains the closing segment of the chapter, in which Lot and his daughters are hiding out in a cave and his daughters get him drunk to have sex with him, so that they can carry on the family line, as they are isolated in the mountains now and cannot meet other men, which is one of the top biblical stories that can squick you out. Alter argues that this concluding segment “suggests measure-for-measure justice meted out for [Lot’s] rash offer.” The offspring of this incest will be enemy peoples of Israel. Lot may have been spared from the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he is hardly the righteous man of god that his uncle Abraham is.

Genesis 19

Recall that the two angels, in the form of men, left the Lord and Abraham and went ahead to Sodom to check the moral temperature of the city. We have also mentioned that, in the biblical universe, it is never a good thing to be living in the city, and Lot is learning this the hard way. Lot, like Abraham, recognizes the men and pays what hospitality he can, but things take a nasty turn:

After the meal, as they were preparing to retire for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them.”

Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. “Please, my brothers,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing. Look - I have two virgin daughters. Do with them as you wish, but leave these men alone, for they are under my protection.”

This doesn’t work. The men of Sodom are only all the more disdainful that Lot, a newcomer to the city, should be trying to dictate terms to them. The angels take matters into their own hands, and have decided that it is indeed time to put an end to this sink of iniquity, after they get Lot and his family out.

As for the striking offer of his virgin daughters, I suppose I was content to take that as a pious sacrifice for the Lord, rather similar to the way that Abraham would willingly slay his own son on the Lord’s command. Biblical logic can be rough like that.

However, Robert Alter gives us a better interpretation, one that explains the closing segment of the chapter, in which Lot and his daughters are hiding out in a cave and his daughters get him drunk to have sex with him, so that they can carry on the family line, as they are isolated in the mountains now and cannot meet other men, which is one of the top biblical stories that can squick you out. Alter argues that this concluding segment “suggests measure-for-measure justice meted out for [Lot’s] rash offer.” The offspring of this incest will be enemy peoples of Israel. Lot may have been spared from the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he is hardly the righteous man of god that his uncle Abraham is.

Serial Killers

I was looking for something sweeter to post on this Saturday afternoon, but my storage site is down. This is a little interesting.

(Courtesy of InspirePlease)

Serial Killers

I was looking for something sweeter to post on this Saturday afternoon, but my storage site is down. This is a little interesting.

(Courtesy of InspirePlease)

June 28, 1999, Monday, 1710

When Monk opens the gate outside, he sees a grasshopper climbing it. He cannot recall seeing one of those since childhood. This is quite a substantial bug. He is nervous about opening the game, doing it slowly, even though he doesn’t believe that it is a material threat. He has one reservation about this being a grasshopper, because it’s not nearly as green as he believes grasshoppers to be. This bug is much more a lightly colored yellow.

===============

August 20, 2011

I have a slight recollection of this, though I cannot actually visualize the bug well. I’m surprised by the lightly yellow color. As I was reading this, I was prepared to read the color brown, and understanding that it was shaped quite differently from a cricket. It may have been something like the picture below, though I think that reddish spot would’ve stood out for me. In any case, I have not seen another like it since.

June 28, 1999, Monday, 1710

When Monk opens the gate outside, he sees a grasshopper climbing it. He cannot recall seeing one of those since childhood. This is quite a substantial bug. He is nervous about opening the game, doing it slowly, even though he doesn’t believe that it is a material threat. He has one reservation about this being a grasshopper, because it’s not nearly as green as he believes grasshoppers to be. This bug is much more a lightly colored yellow.

===============

August 20, 2011

I have a slight recollection of this, though I cannot actually visualize the bug well. I’m surprised by the lightly yellow color. As I was reading this, I was prepared to read the color brown, and understanding that it was shaped quite differently from a cricket. It may have been something like the picture below, though I think that reddish spot would’ve stood out for me. In any case, I have not seen another like it since.

Yuja Wang

Was the pianist's racy, form-fitting mini-dress more appropriate for rock or Rachmaninoff?

Pianist Yuja Wang struck a chord at the Hollywood Bowl this month and not just with her performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. The 24-year-old Chinese soloist had necks craning, tongues wagging and flashbulbs popping when she walked on wearing an orange, thigh-grazing, body-hugging dress atop sparkly gold strappy stiletto sandals.

In particular, Wang's outfit was a hot topic at the concert and continued after Times music critic Mark Swed's review appeared in print and online. While Swed praised her delicacy, speed and grace at the piano, his fashion comments — including the observation: "Her dress Tuesday was so short and tight that had there been any less of it, the Bowl might have been forced to restrict admission to any music lover under 18 not accompanied by an adult" — have touched off a spirited debate among music critics and bloggers about what constitutes appropriate concert attire and conversely, whether a critique of a performer's clothes has any place in a music review.

-- Adam Tschorn for The Los Angeles Times



If you got it, why not use it, right? Sexiness on a woman is a stunngingly powerful thing. One worries a little more about what it means for male performers who only have good classical style in their playing, as well as for women who do not have that kind of sexual voltage. I suppose they could still beat out a living, but the edge toward supestardom would probably go to the talented babe. We like what we like. Maybe this edge that women enjoy in music helps a little to make up for the edge that men enjoy in sports, such as football, basketball, and baseball, where there is a premium on sheer power.

Yuja Wang

Was the pianist's racy, form-fitting mini-dress more appropriate for rock or Rachmaninoff?

Pianist Yuja Wang struck a chord at the Hollywood Bowl this month and not just with her performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. The 24-year-old Chinese soloist had necks craning, tongues wagging and flashbulbs popping when she walked on wearing an orange, thigh-grazing, body-hugging dress atop sparkly gold strappy stiletto sandals.

In particular, Wang's outfit was a hot topic at the concert and continued after Times music critic Mark Swed's review appeared in print and online. While Swed praised her delicacy, speed and grace at the piano, his fashion comments — including the observation: "Her dress Tuesday was so short and tight that had there been any less of it, the Bowl might have been forced to restrict admission to any music lover under 18 not accompanied by an adult" — have touched off a spirited debate among music critics and bloggers about what constitutes appropriate concert attire and conversely, whether a critique of a performer's clothes has any place in a music review.

-- Adam Tschorn for The Los Angeles Times



If you got it, why not use it, right? Sexiness on a woman is a stunngingly powerful thing. One worries a little more about what it means for male performers who only have good classical style in their playing, as well as for women who do not have that kind of sexual voltage. I suppose they could still beat out a living, but the edge toward supestardom would probably go to the talented babe. We like what we like. Maybe this edge that women enjoy in music helps a little to make up for the edge that men enjoy in sports, such as football, basketball, and baseball, where there is a premium on sheer power.