Saturday 15 June 2013

The Meaning of Macedonia.

Did you know that there are four different definitions of Macedonia? They are:

1) The ancient kingdom that Alexander was king of.

2) The modern geographical region, which is broadly similar.

3) The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which is a state in its own right.

4) The northernmost region of Greece.

And talking of Alexander, don’t you think it’s sublimely ironic that the great conqueror was eventually killed by a tiny insect? How very Shakespearean.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting.
I was almost killed by a tiny insect last year. Well, I felt like I was going to die. I got stung by a scorpion. It was awful.
n.

JJ said...

I doubt that a scorpion is an insect, Nancy. My guess would be mollusc, but I don't know. Anyway, glad you survived.

Not many people know this, but we have scorpions in England, apparently. They're very tiny ones which live among the wharfs and bridge piles of the Thames in London. Or so I'm told.

I see you're home now, hopefully refreshed. Did your daughter return with you, or did you leave her in some New England cemetery equipped with a tent and a flask of hot soup?

Anonymous said...

I thought we were going to have to leave her at one point, we were waiting in the car so long. This interest (obsession) started very early on, at around age seven. I'd pick up Maddie from school and she'd beg me to take her to a cemetery! I almost called a child psychiatrist.

Yes, a scorpion is an arachnid. And if I'm ever in London again I'll avoid the wharfs.

JJ said...

Well, I reckon obsessions are like projects: everybody needs one. I'm so glad you didn't call a child psychiatrist. At such a tender age, he/she might have ground her down to a state bordering on normal, and then she wouldn't have become the delightfully different person she is. And I was only kidding. I quite like cemeteries, too, especially old churchyards.

I think our scorpions are about the size of a thumb nail, so I doubt they prowl the wharves attacking tourists. And I expect they keep a low profile anyway. What used to be the London docks area is now so full of yuppy whizz kids that I doubt any self-respecting scorpion would show its tail in daylight.