Saturday, May 22, 2010

Tidbit Shortage Has Far-Reaching Consequences


Please don't worry! I am still reading CHRISTIANITY: THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND YEARS by Diarmaid MacCulloch. The only reason I didn't give you any tidbits from it yesterday is that we are at a grim part of the book, where all the tidbits are grim. In fact, they are too grim to be called tidbits. They should be called grimbits. Well, yesterday there was an amusing story about Origen's mother hiding all his clothes but it seemed to require some explanation, and once you start explaining things, pretty soon you don't have a tidbit anymore. But here's something innocuous from today's reading: followers of Apollonius of Tyana claimed that he had super vision, like Superman! Superman is my example, not theirs. And then I started second guessing myself: Superman did have super vision, didn't he? I mean, in the sense that he could see really far? X-ray vision, sure. And heat vision. I know he can blow really hard. But I decided to double check on super vision. According to wikipedia, he has it! Also: "superhuman olfaction," which sounds like a terrible thing to have. According to wikipedia, Apollonius of Tyana "lived on a frugal, strictly vegetarian diet." Stay healthy while saving money! That's a tip from Apollonius of Tyana. Doesn't it seem as though Superman should be a vegetarian? A lot of times, people you think should be vegetarians aren't, such as the Dalai Lama. I am not lying. Look it up! Oh. I'm not sure this is a tidbit, but MacCulloch refers to Edward Gibbon's writing style as "feline," which seems kind of feline in its own way! And "click" here for some of Superman's obscurer powers, no thanks to wikipedia. Lack of tidbits has made me disjointed. I don't apologize.