The sick man is buried in the cold sand with only his head and his left arm showing. He is dressed in a pressure suit and looks like a man from Mars. He can hear the pounding of surf and the soft swift pulse of his pumps.

I suppose that the story has led me to think about the revelatory power of art—how beauty "speaks" to us in mysterious ways. But it has also caused me to think about the "monsters" in the real world[.]

Some four hundred years ago, the news spread through Europe like wildfire: a strange device had been invented which made distant objects appear miraculously close. Sailors, scholars, soldiers and noblemen all eagerly sought out this high-tech wonder. The gossip reached a middle-aged math professor at the University of Padua, who immediately began trying to reverse-engineer the gadget.

My grandfather fought at Thermopylae. / I say don't expect a second Lycurgus.