Ashurbanipal's Wallpaper

[Itching to get outside - it's soooo nice here right now. Instead, I stand in a vest patterned after a particularly vile wallpaper pattern. Check-in, check-out, "thank you for calling the Cute Victorian Hotel Around The Corner, how may I direct your call?" I really shouldn't call the place Victorian, since like most buildings in San Francisco, it was built after '06. But "Hardingian" just doesn't have the same ring, does it?]

[The above title is because I was reminiscing about the trip to London, specifically the British Museum. John and I had the best tour guide for the introductory hour and a half overview. Hillary was surely 70, as sharp and as precious as Miss Marple, and as informed about Ur, Sumeria, Assyria, Babylonia, and all that as I could ever have asked for. We had her to ourselves, too. So good to get the British Museum's perspective on the Elgin Marbles before I am inundated with the give-'em-back-to-Greece perspective of the Hellenic-American professor who's leading the trip to Hydra this summer. While I'm not taking sides yet, I disagree with the first website's assertion "that the streams of horsemen in the British Museum are not excellently displayed, analysed and presented to visitors," at least those of us lucky enough to have had Hillary as a guide.]

[Have I mentioned I'm going to Greece in June? Just about every summer, last year's Torts prof (the Greek) holds an almost two-week, two-unit seminar/field trip to the island of Hydra, and each year has a different theme. (Theme: a Greek word. See, I'm learning so much already!) This year it's Socrates's trial. Mornings are spent in class, afternoons are leisure, and evenings (after siesta) are spent in smoky tavernas wondering (in my and Terry's case) how to track down the island's gay nightlife. Opa!]

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