My Down Memory Lane

Born in 495 B.C. about a mile northwest of Athens, Sophocles was to become one of the great playwrights of the golden age. The son of a wealthy merchant, he would enjoy all the comforts of a thriving Greek empire. He studied all of the arts. By the age of sixteen, he was already known for his beauty and grace and was chosen to lead a choir of boys at a celebration of the victory of Salamis. Twelve years later, his studies complete, he was ready to compete in the City Dionysia--a festival held every year at the Theatre of Dionysus in which new plays were presented. In his first competition, Sophocles took first prize--defeating none other than Aeschylus himself. More than 120 plays were to follow. He would go on to win eighteen first prizes, and he would never fail to take at least second. An accomplished actor, Sophocles performed in many of his own plays. In the Nausicaa or The Women Washing Clothes , he performed a juggling act that so fascin

                                 Buddha's Teachings Lord Buddha preached: "We will have to find out the cause of sorrow and the way to escape from it. The desire for sensual enjoyment and clinging to earthly life is the cause of sorrow. If we can eradicate desire, all sorrows and pains will come to an end. We will enjoy Nirvana or eternal peace. Those who follow the Noble Eightfold Path strictly, viz., right opinion, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right employment, right exertion, right thought and right self-concentration will be free from sorrow. This indeed, O mendicants, is that middle course which the Tathagata has thoroughly comprehended, which produces insight, which produces knowledge, which leads to calmness or serenity, to supernatural knowledge, to perfect Buddhahood, to Nirvana. "This again, indeed, O mendicants, is the noble truth of suffering. Birth is painful, old age is painful, sickness is painful, assoc

A topless Mona Lisa  Mona Lisa is back in the news. Are they ever going to leave the woman alone? Not that Leonardo could leave her alone, either. He started painting the lady in Florence and didn’t finish her for 16 years, taking her with him wherever he went. He even schlepped it to France when he worked for King Francis I. And he had it with him when he died. Clearly, he felt there was something to her, but I’m not seeing it. The background scenery holds more mystery. Now they’re saying there’s a nude Mona by Leonardo called “Monna Vanna.” It sure looks like her: same half-smile, same pose. She was found behind paneling of a wall in the private library of Cardinal Joseph Fesche, Napoleon’s ambassador to the Vatican. Hiding a picture of a naked woman behind your wall, Cardinal? Tsk, tsk. Wait, there’s more. Something new has been found in Mona Lisa’s eyes. Silvano Vinceti, president of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage has annou

MY FATHER'S DEATH AND MY DOUBLE SHAME The time of which I am now speaking is my sixteenth year. My father, as we have seen, was bed-ridden, suffering from a fistula. My mother, an old servant of the house, and I were his principal attendants. I had the duties of a nurse, which mainly consisted in dressing the wound. giving my father his medicine, and compounding drugs whenever they had to be made up at home, Every night I massaged his legs and retired only when he asked me to do so or after he had fallen asleep. I loved to do this service. I do not remember ever having neglected it. All the time at my disposal, after the performance of the daily duties, was divided between school and attending on my father. I would only go out for an evening walk either when he permitted me or when he was feeling well. This was also the time when my wife was expecting a baby,- a circumstance which, as I can see today, meant a double shame for me. For one thing I did not restrain myself, as I s

                                          Grigori Efimovich Rasputin Gregory Rasputin was a "holy man" from Siberia. He gained a reputation for being a healer and a prophet of sorts at an early age. Later on in his life, he spent time in Nicholas II's court, advising the tsar and the tsaritsa about major decisions for Russia, as well as saving Alexei's life on many occasions. Alexei was a hemophiliac, and Rasputin stopped Alexei's continual bleeding when it started. Rasputin developed a very negative reputation in the years between his death and today. He is widely-regarded as a very insane man with tremendous charisma and charm (some suggest this charisma stems from his manic disturbances). It is known that he had tremendous influence over tsar Nicholas II and the tsaritsa, Alexandra. Rasputin came to be known to the royal family through the Russian Orthodox Church. Earlier in his childhood, he had gained a reputation as