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Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

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Editor of the h2g2 Post at h2g2.com. My fiction has been labeled 'poignant and humorous'. https://www.lulu.com/search?contributor=Dmitri+Gheorgheni&page=1&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=

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Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #health

They say - you know how they talk - that Milo of Croton was an ancient model for health and fitness. He had an interesting regimen. One day, he picked up a calf and walked around with it. He picked up the same calf every day. By the time it was a grown, he was setting weightlifting records by toting beef around.

Milo won all the wrestling contests. If he were around today he'd be a WWE superstar.

The story goes that when he got older, he refused to slow down. One day he tried to split an oak tree with his fist. If you like tv wrestling, you probably don't know what an oak tree looks like. They're pretty hefty. Milo got his fist caught in the tree and couldn't get it out.

The local wolves must have been hungry. Or else they had it in for Greek wrestlers. Anyway, they ate him.

Lucian of Samosata wasn't a health-and-beauty icon. He was a writer. In one of his books he pretends to interview Charon, the boatman of the Styx, who is not impressed with Milo at all. Sic transit, and all that.

There's probably a moral in all this, but it's a holiday weekend and I'm too full of turkey to bother finding it.

Image: Project Gutenberg

November 28, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #learning

the main challenge for most human societies
is learning the difference
between information
and knowledge

the desert sands of history are littered
with the skeletons of civilizations
that failed to understand
in time

this is a test
imposed
by nature
for its own
preservation

Image: Project Gutenberg

November 27, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #reflection

My thoughts are not the world
my thoughts mirror the world
I call my thoughts about the world
reflection

as the water gives back an image
of the world around it when
the light and the vantage point are
just right

my mind creates its own world
an approximate copy of
what it sees
I cannot quite know
how accurate it is but I hope
that when viewed
from the Creator's perspective
it shows Him something
He hadn't noticed before

well anyway that's why
I write

Image: Summer landscape reflected in a still pond. DG.

November 26, 2025 at 4:18 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #timed

the first coming
was timed
to coincide
with a state of
human affairs
that could spread
a message
in spite of
the human tendency
to kill the messenger
plagiarize the insight
bowdlerize the contents
&
generally try to interfere

the second coming
will be
the kind of
complete surprise
where people say
afterward
you know
I should have seen
that one
coming

Image: Earth from orbit, NASA

November 25, 2025 at 3:32 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #relevant

High school in the Sixties was fun. Sure, the school's more traditionally-minded middle-aged lady teachers went around telling us that these were 'the best years of our lives' and trying to enthuse us over 'the prom' and such. We ignored them. Politely.

We also turned deaf ears to the middle-aged male coaches who tried to convince us that 'life was like a football game'. We irritated the heck out of them by cheering ironically at pep rallies.

'Gimme an H! Gimme a U! Gimme an S! Gimme a K! Gimme an I! Gimme an E! Gimme another S! What does it spell?'

'Chihuahua!'

The young teachers fresh out of school were mad to be 'relevant'. Our curriculum was made 'relevant' by the guest assembly of college players who performed Beckett's play 'Play', standing in trash cans on our stage. The performance was met with stunned incomprehension in the seats and raised questions at the school board meeting.

The old teachers, though: the old teachers were gold. Mrs McFarland, who loved Dickens and whose husband once found an 18th-century shilling coin in the old corduroy road when the township repaved. Mr Kappan, who spent his Saturdays researching Roman history by watching Cinecitta movies with the kids at the Etna Bijou. Mrs Girty, whose husband descended from a notorious figure. She defended his memory: nobody learned math.

Forget relevance. Give me memory.

Image: Warren K Leffler, 1964. Library of Congress

November 24, 2025 at 4:23 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #achievable

Leiden, 1617. Meeting of the Brownists in search of an achievable paradise.

'Some of us are tired of living in Holland. Our kids keep speaking Dutch, which is the last straw. Can't we get the king to let us have our own churches?'

'I'm afraid not. The C of E has got a chokehold on the religious franchise and they won't give up the revenue.'

'That does it. Let's move to America. I can't stand one more stanza of the Wilhelmus.'

'You realise this means a couple of months in a leaky wooden boat, getting seasick and being bored out of our gourds?'

'We don't care. We'll sing hymns.'

'We might get blown off course. The locals might be hostile. You might have to eat weird food and dodge strange animals.'

'We don't care! We'll land on a rock and call ourselves ancestors-in-waiting.'

'Well, if you're sure. . . '

And that, children, is how Thanksgiving got started.

Image: The Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers from Delfshaven on their Way to America. 1620. Wikipedia

November 23, 2025 at 1:25 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

Water birds. Mysterious mummies. A car show. Skies may be grey but there's still lots to see and learn about. Plus stories and humour.
h2g2.com/entry/A88078...

This week's title isi Grey Skies Are Gonna Clear Up. Clockwise from upper left: Rocks and water at the Giant's Causeway, turnstones in flight along a shore, a church steeple against a threatening grey sky, Willem's drawing of an imaginary deerlike animal with a ladder-shaped set of antlers, a reclining Egyptian sarcophagus in the Cairon Museum, a feather outlined by light, an adult and a juvenile herring gulld in conversation, temporary white domes in front of an old cloister now converted to a hotel in Eindhoven, the Netherland, on a cloudy day, and a bright red 1936 Auburn Speedster at a UK car show.

November 22, 2025 at 11:53 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #measurable

In 1300, 'measurable' meant 'moderate, modest, discreet'. This sense is 'now obsolete'. It's easy to see why.

When was the last time you admired someone for being moderate? Check your social media posts.

Has anyone in your life ever recommended modesty? How do you think that would look on your resume?

Do you know anyone who is discreet? They're certainly not on the bestseller list, now, are they?

I hate to raise the issue, but it is just barely possible that the vaunted wokeness of the 21st century compares unfavourably to the virtues admired by the 14th. A century which saw a pandemic, widespread famine, wars everywhere. A century when things were so bad the Pope moved to France.

In other words, about like now. Only they admired people for being measurable. Maybe we should try that.

Image: Medieval couple walking on cobblestones. The lady is wearing patens - wooden platform shoes to keep her feet and clothes clean. The dogs are watching. Her husband is glaring at the imaginary camera. Project Gutenberg, believe it or not. You can find anything in Project Gutenberg. This book is called 'Chaucer for Children'. The Miller's Tale is conspicuously lacking.

November 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #specific

I'm generally grumpy at the shank end of the year
As I look back on the time misspent - in hope, and then in fear,
For humanity's great failures, for the suffering that's been caused
When the people put in charge insist on breaking all the laws.

I could get specific: I don't need to, do I, though?
If you only look around you, you don't need someone to show
Where this or that atrocity committed by what state
Is due to greed and selfishness and power-lust and hate.

So I turn my back on governments, and almost on humankind
As I think about the future and I ponder in my mind:
Should I look upon the days to come with hope or merely fear
That humankind's preparing to repeat this self-same year?

Image: The Thinker by Thomas Eakins, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

November 21, 2025 at 4:46 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #action

Faust, the scientist, frustrated
by quantum claims exaggerated
turns to mumbo jumbo, finds
brain and unconscious of two minds.
(It's always wise, when conjuring spirits for a task,
to reflect ahead of time on what to ask.)

In desperation, picks up Bible,
which in hotel rooms has no rival,
reads, as he has often heard,
'in the beginning was the word.'

Always argumentative,
this Richard Dawkins fugitive
decides to counter faith with fact:
'in the beginning was the act.'

Where did that get you, Binky? Standing blind
in the middle of a marsh, only to find
yourself, deluded, rescued anyway.
Man plans, God laughs, each fool must have his day,
we guess, but imagine your reaction
when you realize the futility of your action.

Image: Faust and Mephistopheles. Projekt Gutenberg

November 20, 2025 at 4:10 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #option

Only humans would
Push their neighbors around
Trying for brief selfish advantages
Ignoring the fact that their choices
Only serve to isolate them in their hour of
Need. Finally they run out of choices and that's
Sad.

Artwork by William Blake. Thanks, Bill.

November 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #reality

The concept that reality is generated by consensus doesn't mean what most people think it means.

After all, as somebody said, reality is what remains when you stop believing in it. It's the difference between fairy gold and that stone you stubbed your toe on.

Crowds may praise the emperor in his new clothes. The reality will be that bucking the crowd makes life more difficult. But no matter what the crowd yells, the guy in the parade is still naked - and no amount of group consensus is going to wish away the consequences of following a conceited fool around. The damage is likely to make the new reality very unpleasant.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Image: Naked emperor under canopy, holding his orb in just the right place. Project Gutenberg

November 18, 2025 at 4:14 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #goal

memory
Sunday afternoon in Athens
buzzing of flies under the ceiling fan
the street empty but for
the occasional pair
of squabbling cats
go back to sleep kitties
humans are napping
it was a long week

suddenly
from a half mile away
a roar like the sea
Poseidon attacking Athena again?
it's not election season
and we're nowhere near
Syntagma Square
what are they yelling?
oh, it's just a match
and they're yelling γκολ
the universal goal
get the ball in the net guys
I'm going back to sleep
with the cats of Athens

Image: Ancient Greeks playing football

November 17, 2025 at 4:13 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #issue
Don't ask editors about issues. h2g2.com/entry/thepost

In this week's issue of the h2g2 Post:

Paigetheoracle admires Inverness steeplejacks. On a real steeple.
Bluebottle finds out that Dutch teachers let the kids climb on the tank at Arnhem. That's a way to make a history lesson memorable.
Galaxy Babe show us many stained-glass windows.
Ducks swim.
A cat naps.
A crow looks at us sideways.
Mushrooms just sit there, like every week.
You can laugh at jokes - or not, it's up to you - and try to read all the Egyptian hieroglyphics Angel found.
You might want to see the film in Awix's cinema column, or then again, maybe not.

Lots of choices. A lot of world. A there's never a paywall. We've been doing this for free for 25 years. That's eons in internet time.

This Week's Title: One More River to Cross. Clockwise from upper left: a bridge, steeplejacks on a church, a stained-glass window, an autumn forest, a cafe sketch, kids on a tank, mergansers in a river, a hooded crow on grass, and an Egyptian statue.

November 16, 2025 at 1:36 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

From the bridge at Arnhem to a steeple in Inverness, our photographers have new points of view to offer you. Climb a tank. Wave at water birds. Watch the sunlight through the windows of Downpatrick. Plus art, cinema, humour, and the inevitable cats and mushrooms. h2g2.com/entry/A88074...

This week's title is One More River to Cross. Clockwise from upper left: the bridge at Arnhem on a grey day, steeplejacks at work on a church in Inverness at the end of a bridge on a very sunny day, a stained-glass window in Downpatrick Cathedral, orange-and-gold leaves in the Austrian woods, a montaged illustration showing a radio on a table in an Austrian cafe, schoolkids posing on a tank at Arnhem, three mergansers swimming by a bridge, a hooded crow in grass, and an Egyptian statue next to scaffolding against a very blue sky.

November 15, 2025 at 11:49 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #transport I KNOW 'transport' means trains and buses in the UK - I'm the h2g2 Post editor. But it also used to mean 'ecstasy'. If you want to know more about Fanny Crosby and the phrenologist, go here: h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/bru...

She wrote: 'But purer and higher and greater will be our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.' But she almost didn't write it. Or any of the other 8,000 hymn texts that fill the songbooks in the pew racks.

Fanny Crosby was a student at the New York Institute for the Blind. The director wanted her to become a teacher - and stop composing poetry. Mathematics was much more practical, he thought.

Fortunately the school was visited by George Combe. Combe was a famous phrenologist. He felt the bumps on Fanny's head and solemnly pronounced her a born poet.

That did it. Science had spoken. They hired Fanny a poetry tutor. And we got hymnbooks.

(mumbles) Something something pseudoscience angels with a sense of humour...oh, make up your own punchline.

Image: A phrenologically divided head. From George Combe's book about Robert Burns's head. Courtesy of Project Gutenberg. Be thankful.

November 15, 2025 at 4:38 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #science

Most people don't seem to know the difference between science and technology. 'I love science,' they say. 'I like cars and air conditioning and computers.' That's technology you love, friend.

Science is a way of learning things. Our wishes and fears and imaginings can easily confuse our sense of reality - not to mention peer pressure from our dumber but more influential friends. The scientific approach - test the hypothesis, control the variables, analyze the data - is a way to guard against our perfectly natural human tendency to make things up.

Scientific observation is why Aristotle knew the earth was round. He should have done some more observing before stating in a book that men have more teeth than women. My theory: women saw Aristotle coming and yelled, 'You want to count my what? Get out of my kitchen, μαλάκα!'

Friedrich Dürrenmatt got it right when he said in The Physicists that engineers treat science 'as a pimp treats a whore. They simply exploit it. So any fool nowadays can switch on a light or touch off the atomic bomb.' Good thinking, that.

Learn science. Its principles will be valid long after that draw full of user manuals is well past its sell-by date.

Image: Leftheris invents the yo-yo, 442 BCE. Project Gutenberg.

November 14, 2025 at 4:03 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #number

prove it to me he said
prove it now
that politician I don't like
is the beast
the number is 666
prove it now he said

can you translate into greek I asked
no why should I
it only works in Greek I said
I can't even read English that well he said
I thought so I said

how about you forget the cabala
and next time
vote for the person
who isn't allergic to work and
doesn't have a hand in the till?

Background gemetria chart by Project Gutenberg.

November 13, 2025 at 3:42 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

I love y'all, but...

A frog decided to climb a tree.
All the other frogs yelled, 'No! You can't do that!'
He yelled back, 'What's wrong with you guys? Of course
I can! I've got suction cups on my feet, same as you!
Look up "van der Wallas forces".'
They looked it up.
'Oh,' they said.
And he climbed the tree.
After all, he was a tree frog.

The moral is: don't learn biology from a motivational speaker.

Image: Frog by DG.

November 12, 2025 at 10:41 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

#vss365 #myth

myths
are the way
immortal spirits
speak to us
because frankly
they're tired of shouting
across the divide
between eternity
and our neverending
self-involvement

unfortunately
we tend to make
all the stories
about ourselves
and then try to
mass-market
them for fame
and profit

the universe
is trying
to point the way
to peace
while we
like children at bedtime
beg it to tell us
that story about the
princess and the frog
one
more
time
with sound effects please

Image: Little girl crying and talking to a smiling frog against a backdrop of labelled constellations, all images from Gutenberg Project.

November 12, 2025 at 4:08 PM

Dmitri Gheorgheni

@dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social

While searching for a photo for today's #prompt word, I stumbled across this appropriate poem from 1945. It appeared in Yank, the Army Weekly, on Sept 28.