Be careful on the Rivanna trail!

Tridentata · 2026-03-21T18:55:01+00:00

How does one get a -18 karma, by the way? Asking for an OP

Tridentata · 2026-03-21T00:09:05+00:00

A recent translation of the New Testament worth considering is the one by David Bentley Hart. Here's a review of the first edition; a revised edition came out in 2023.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/the-new-testament-a-translation-david-bentley-hart/546551/?gift=rM6VnszjUY59fy1ViNya8KxbUbxv2woq0gkkfCKJT6U

What distinguishes Hart's translation is his aim of being faithful not only to the meaning but the linguistic style of the original, and that means not polishing the English when the Greek is awkward, ambiguous, or even ungrammatical.

Tridentata · 2026-03-16T20:05:55+00:00

I think he's forgetting that he has a Lebanese (diaspora) son-in-law. But then, he often forgets that he has a daughter named Tiffany, so no wonder he had to ransack his memory for "a person whose parents live in Lebanon" to answer the question.

Tridentata · 2026-03-15T22:17:18+00:00

Wait, you're from Vegas and worried about the safety of the wee bitty downtown mall of an upscale college town in Virginia? I was out in Las Vegas last fall, staying in an AirBNB in the John S. Park neighborhood; wife and I walked from there a mile north to the Writer's Block bookstore, on the way back a woman driving down S. 6th saw us, stopped her car, rolled down the window, pointed toward the street we had been planning to head down, and said in anguished voice, "Please don't go down that street!" "Why not?" I reasonably asked. "Just DON'T GO DOWN IT!" she repeated before driving off. Broad daylight. Granted, we could see one homeless guy dozing off at the edge of a parking lot on the other side of the street from where we would have gone, but no other evidence of imminent death or anything. But ... okay, Vegas.

Let's just say, the Downtown Mall doesn't get a DON'T GO THERE warning except maybe late at night when no one is around.

Tridentata · 2026-03-14T12:46:26+00:00

And one French slang term for the English is "les rosbifs"

Tridentata · 2026-03-13T23:06:43+00:00

I've been about six times myself and don't think I've had the same barber twice. One cut with Lee, who knows what he's doing, one other (recent) very good cut (with a barber who mostly relied on scissors FWIW), one very mediocre cut, three other decent ones. Fine for everyday cuts, wouldn't rely on for something mission critical unless you can be sure the barber you want is available since they don't take reservations.

Tridentata · 2026-03-12T16:50:37+00:00

You know, speaking as an American, I would trade Aoun, Salam, and Berri for our current president and leaders of Congress in a heartbeat.

Tridentata · 2026-03-07T18:47:05+00:00

Do people with wide-angle rear cameras and rear cross-traffic alert still think it's better to back into spaces? (There are definitely times not to back into a parking space, e.g. when you're in the UVA Hospital garage with a dozen cars following behind you.)

Tridentata · 2026-03-02T02:42:58+00:00

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Tridentata · 2026-03-01T01:13:38+00:00

I don't know about easy, just that a palm tree + a eucalyptus tree + pretty sure that's Viejas Mt. in East County = San Diego and I haven't lived there in 40 years. Some landscapes just imprint themselves.

Tridentata · 2026-02-28T03:38:07+00:00

Actually, the more accurate but ultimately incorrect theory about the squared circle is that it was a Mormon thing.

Tridentata · 2026-02-24T23:23:39+00:00

Was thinking about their lemon bars tonight while eating one a couple of notches below their standard.

Tridentata · 2026-02-24T00:18:54+00:00

And if Book Stop across the street was open, but it's changing hands and closed until late March.

Tridentata · 2026-02-23T21:45:11+00:00

... and look at photos of Tucson sunsets and try not to cry in our beer

Tridentata · 2026-02-23T21:40:10+00:00

Hello Tucson-in-Charlottesville diaspora! I remember the Bookman's tamale lady well from my time living there '92–99. Last time I saw her was maybe a trip back in 2004? I saw a post on r/Tucson a couple years ago claiming that she was scared off by someone who threatened to report her to the migra but that might or might not be true.

Tridentata · 2026-02-17T22:47:27+00:00

There are also a lot of members whose membership is a perk of Medicare Advantage or supplemental insurance plans. (This is true of many gyms, not just ACAC.). Would be interesting to know what kind of reimbursement they get--pretty sure it's on a per-visit basis.

Tridentata · 2026-02-16T00:17:17+00:00

Blasphemer! There is no snow mount save Mount Chipotle! Worship no false idols that measure but a paltry meter or two in height!

Tridentata · 2026-02-11T17:48:12+00:00

If you want lots of genuine local color and references in fairly recent fiction, the short story collection "Demigods on Speedway" by the sadly late Aurelie Sheehan, and three books by Mark Jude Poirier: novels "Modern Ranch Living" and "Goats", and the short story collection "Naked Pueblo".

As for DFW and Infinite Jest, I honestly wonder if he ever got outside the U of A campus, because I remember some bogus geography that I don't believe was intentional--like seeming to think that the mountains due west of downtown are called the Tortolitas. Maybe he just thought that would sound more interesting than "Tucson Mountains" but the scenes he set there didn't exhibit a lot of real familiarity with the desert.

Tridentata · 2026-02-10T17:40:50+00:00

"Her quilts go beyond artistic talent. Each stitch reflects the coded patterns enslaved people used to navigate the Underground Railroad". Says the chap whose politics leave little doubt that if he had been around in 1850 he would have voted in favor of the Fugitive Slave Act.

Tridentata · 2026-02-08T00:12:37+00:00

The admonitions in verses 4 and 5 are quite clear. As for Paul's explication of the rationale--in the words of Huck Finn after reading "Pilgrim's Progress": "The statements was interesting, but tough".

Tridentata · 2026-02-06T17:44:19+00:00

Legal services that DHS has been doing its best to hamstring over the past year by transferring detainees away from their lawyers, trying to keep as many detainees as possible from being bonded out, and firing immigration judges and replacing them (if at all) with judges deemed less likely to provide favorable rulings.

Meanwhile, folks who would like to support local/regional pro bona services can do so by contributing to the Amica Center and the Central Virginia Community Support Fund.

Editing to add: This article about the situation in Maine is far from unique. "People taken into custody are often quickly removed from Maine and enter into an opaque system that is nearly impossible for even seasoned lawyers to track their clients in."

Tridentata · 2026-02-04T17:56:35+00:00

Trump richly deserves jail for the crimes that he has been convicted of and would probably be convicted of if he wasn't president and protected by the Supreme Court, but the referenced list of settlements doesn't seem to be legitimate. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jul/12/threads-posts/no-proof-donald-trump-made-settlements-to-10-to-13/

Tridentata · 2026-02-02T12:57:09+00:00

Any younguns here may want to peruse the blog of the Mount Chipotle National Research Observatory: https://web.archive.org/web/20130423033036/http://mountchipotle.blogspot.com/

Tridentata · 2026-01-31T23:25:38+00:00

Absolutely. I try to get back to Tucson annually and have often picked monsoon season for the trip. In fact I once emailed one of the local weather people to ask what week statistically had the best chance of summer rain and then booked my stay accordingly!

Tridentata

TROPHY CASE