Greek Temple Architecture: They were houses--houses for cult statues, storehouses of treasures given to the gods--they were not churches. Worship consisted, by and large, of sacrificial ritual--animal sacrifice: killing animals and eating them, for the most part--and, hence, it was done out of doors. The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook's Accounts of Hellenic Religious Beliefs and Accounts of Personal Religion give additional flavor and context. Greek religious architecture evolved from wooden structures and was tradition bound--they built in stone as they had in wood according to variations on a traditional canon called the orders, first and foremost, the Doric Order , the Ionic Order and the Corinthian Order. Here are some restorations. I love restorations, on paper or models rather than at the actual sites. The first in a series.
posted on Jun 19, 2003 - View this thread

Tuesday Morning Quarterback moves to ESPN.com's Page 2. Err...moved. In April. (Other weblogs missed the move, too; apparently the only clue was a Best of Slate post.) I've always loved reading TMQ and I hope it's just as good at ESPN.com. Alternative viewpoint: TMQ Sucks. [Cross-pollinated from SportsFilter]
posted on Aug 29, 2002 - View this thread

Doubling The Annoyance Factor: The Instantly Recyclable Column. Spot the differences between Taki's High Life column in this week's Spectator and his Le Maitre column in this week's New York Press. Obviously, all columnists recycle their stuff, specially when they've been on the job for more than 25 years like this guy, but there's generally a time-lag and a modest attempt at hiding the self-plagiarism. No such bloody luck with Taki.[ To my mind, the most objectionable, reactionary, trumpet-blowing, futile, deeply annoying (but, alas, not unreadable...)columnist in the English-speaking world.]
posted on Jun 30, 2002 - View this thread

Michael Musto's column this week features snippets from the upcoming Friar's Club roast of Hugh Hefner. Of course, for the Friar's, no topic is too sacred and the WTC topic was broached with aplomb (as opposed to aplane). Sorry, but if you thought that was tasteless, follow the link...
posted on Oct 8, 2001 - View this thread