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Digenes Akrites
Digenes Akrites
Byzantine epic, c. eleventh century. Also known as Digenes Akritis.
Byzantium's sole surviving epic poem, Digenes Akrites recounts the adventures of a half-Arabic, half-Roman warrior in the Byzantine frontier near the Euphrates during the ninth and tenth centuries. Digenes Akrites is a great hero who learns the art of war as a child and defends Byzantium for the remainder of his life. The text of the epic was compiled from disparate sources including folk songs and legends by an unknown redactor, or redactors, and is written in a style emulating the Greek used in ancient classics. Digenes Akrites was unknown in modern times until a manuscript was published in 1875, followed by independent discoveries of several other manuscripts in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The romantic epic, consisting of between three and four thousand lines, is now known through six different Greek manuscripts, one of which is prose, as well as one Russian version; the Grottaferrata version receives the most critical attention. Ever since its rediscovery, Digenes Akrites has held the attention of scholars working in a variety of disciplines who find it an important source for the study of ancient myths and a key to understanding the development of Greek oral poetry.
Plot and Major Characters
Digenes Akrites begins by telling the story of Digenes's parents. His father, Mousour, is a great Emir who has conquered Syria. He kidnaps the beautiful Roman girl Eirene, falls in love with her, and agrees to convert to Christianity and join her in Roman territory. They marry, Mousour is baptized, and they have a son, Digenes Akrites. He learns to read and write, to use the spear and sword, and becomes a great runner and wrestler. At age twelve, on his first hunt, he slays two bears, catches a deer on foot, and kills a lion with one stroke of his sword. As a young man he confronts a group of bandits and singlehandedly disarms the entire brigade. He meets a girl named Evdokia, who is jealously guarded from suitors by her father, a general. Digenes woos Evdokia and they ride off together under pursuit. Digenes defeats his pursuers, makes peace with the general, and takes Evdokia back to her home for their wedding and three months of celebration. Evdokia often joins Digenes as he defends the borders of the Roman territories. Digenes's military accomplishments are rewarded by the Emperor. Most of the remainder of Digenes Akrites consists of tales told by its hero in the first person. It concludes with a description of the palace Digenes has built for himself on the banks of the Euphrates and a brief recounting of his death.
Major Themes
Digenes Akrites is a romantic adventure tale that presents an account of the exploits of its hero, Digenes. It stresses his preternatural skill in hunting, his bravery in combat, and his honorableness in defending the borders of his country against all attackers. The episode of his wooing and winning his wife has proved interesting to cultural historians for what it suggests about abduction of women, sexual consent, and marriage customs in medieval Byzantium. The poem ends with the traditional description of the rewards the hero reaps for having excelled in performing his duty.
Critical Reception
Michael J. Jeffreys explains the interest of scholars in Digenes Akrites by noting that "It provides material for literary historians at different levels of Greek, for students of traditional literature, for specialists in Arabic, Armenian and Russian studies, for codicologists and art-historians as well as for the general student of byzantine history, culture and society." Although its historical importance is acknowledged by critics, they have not focued on its literary qualities. Some critics agree with Jeffreys that the work is disorganized and unsophisticated, yet other scholars counter that nothing else could be expected from a narrative pieced together from diverse, mostly oral sources. John Mavrogordato, editor of the standard modern edition of the work, surveyed the many manuscripts of Digenes Akrites and their textual histories. He emphasizes that the work is a folktale that incorporates legendary elements and contends that its political and religious aspects have been overemphasized. Numerous other scholars, among them Roderick Beaton, have also focused attention on the oral roots of Digenes Akrites. Andrew R. Dyck argues that Book 5 of the Grottaferrata version does not fit in well with the rest of the text and was probably originally an isolated song that was later incorporated into the narrative. Hugh F. Graham contributes to the comparative studies of different manuscripts by concentrating on the major differences of the Russian version, known as the Devgenievo Dejanie. Digenes Akrites is an invaluable tool for social historians and Angeliki E. Laiou uses it as a means to examine Byzantine sexual mores and marriage practices of the time. Beaton traces these influences of Digenes Akrites on Greek poetry, and notes that its impact is evident even on certain works of modern times.
Principal Works
Digenes Akrites (translated by J. Mavrogordato) 1956
Digenis Akritis: The Grottaferrata and Escorial Versions (translated by Elizabeth Jeffreys) 1998
John Mavrogordato (essay date 1956)
SOURCE: Mavrogordato, John. Introduction to Digenes Akrites, edited by John Mavrogordato, pp. xi-lxxxiv. London: Oxford University Press, 1956.
[In the following excerpt, Mavrogordato examines the discovery of Digenes Akrites, compares the poem's many versions, and surveys assorted critical analyses.]
In the middle of last century nothing was known of the Byzantine epic of Digenes Akrites; but the atmosphere had been prepared by the publication of several ballads of what is now called the Akritic Cycle (a name first used by Legrand in 1874). The discussion of these—(in particular a paper by Büdinger who had used the headline 'A Greek Mediaeval Popular Epic', although the Song in question, The Sons of Andronikos, was only seventy lines in length)—had opened the way for further revelations of an heroic age of mediaeval Greece.
(i) The discovery was made at Trebizond. Manuscripts could not be photographed at Trebizond, and after considerable correspondence the precious work was sent to Paris by post; and in 1875 Sathas and Legrand published Les Exploits de Digénis Akritas—épopée byzantine du dixième siècle … d'après le manuscrit unique de Trébizonde. The manuscript is said to be not earlier than the sixteenth century. There are several gaps in it. The poem is divided into ten books of which the first and the last are missing altogether; there remain 3,182 lines of it.
This manuscript was afterwards returned to the hands of Savvas Ioannides, the Trebizond schoolmaster, author of a statistical history of Trebizond, who in May 1868 had received it from a monk at the monastery of Soumelá. (For the present state of the monastery of Soumelá see D. Talbot Rice in Byzantion, v. 72 ff.) He published another edition of it at Constantinople in 1887,1 and then deposited it in the library of the Filologikos Syllogos. All the archives of this institution are said to have been removed to Angora by the Turkish Government and the fate of the Digenes manuscript is unknown; but in the opinion of Kyriakides (conveyed in a private letter 7 April 1936) it must, for the present at least, be regarded as lost.
(ii) Before the learned world had had time to digest this, several other manuscripts were discovered; beginning with the version found in Andros in 1878 and published by Mêliarakes in 1881, a manuscript of the sixteenth century practically complete in 4,778 lines, conveniently filling the gaps in the Trebizond manuscript which it closely follows. The Mêliarakes edition was reprinted in 1920. This Andros manuscript is now in the National Library at Athens, and is referred to by Kalonaros as the Athens version (which he prints first in his collection).
The Mêliarakes introduction refers to a Greek newspaper of 23 November 1880, reporting that Legrand had discovered in Constantinople, and proposed to publish, another version, the oldest known, written in iambics and containing the name of the poet. At that time (towards the end of 1880), Legrand must have known of the existence of the Grottaferrata and Oxford manuscripts besides the Andros manuscript, which was still in the press; he may also have heard about the description of other versions in an unpublished Athos manuscript of the monk Dapontes just then discovered (see below). Legrand, discussing his hopes of one or all of these in a conversation with reference to his own edition of the Trebizond manuscript, may have originated this newspaper paragraph of which nothing more seems to be known.
Another short version, in prose, said to have been discovered in Constantinople by Dr. Mordtmann, is mentioned in Legrand's preface to Grottaferrata (pp. xi, xxii—'signalée par le Dr. Mordtmann à Sabbas Ioannidis'); and is also referred to hopefully by Polites (Peri tou Ethnikou Epous, p. 5); by Hesseling in his introduction to ESC (Laografia, iii. 551); and by Ioannides himself in the introduction to his Constantinople edition of 1887.
(iii) Next came a manuscript of the fourteenth century discovered at the Greek monastery of Grottaferrata near Frascati in 1879, which was published by Legrand in 1892 (reprinted 1902).
(iv) The incomplete 'Madrid' version of only 1,867 lines was discovered by Krumbacher in the Escorial library in 1904 and was published by Hesseling in 1912.
(v) A rhymed version was published by Lampros in 1880 from a manuscript at Lincoln College, Oxford, which had the advantage of being signed by the writer, a monk of Chios, by name Ignatios Petritzes, who finished his task on 25 November 1670.
(vi) A prose version, written by Meletios Vlastos of Chios in 1632, discovered by Mr. D. Paschales in Andros in 1898, was not published till 1928; it is now in the library of the department of Folk-lore at the University of Salonica.
(vii) Finally there is a very incomplete Russian version—fragments of a (linguistically) thirteenth-century version assembled from two different eighteenth-century manuscripts and from the quotations of the historian Karamzin (the third manuscript, from which he took his quotations, was burned in Moscow in 1812). This version was published by Speransky in 1922 and reproduced in a French translation by M. Pascal in 1935; and in a Greek translation in the edition of Kalonaros in 1941. A third and fuller eighteenth-century manuscript of this version was recently discovered in Russia and was published in 1953.
We thus have now manuscripts of five metrical versions of the Digenes Epic:
|MS. sec. xvi, 3,182 lines,
|10 books
|MS. sec. xvi, 4,778 lines,
|10 books
|MS. sec. xiv, 3,749 lines,
|8 books
|MS. sec. xvi, 1,867 lines
|MS. 1670, 3,094 lines,
|8 books
One prose version:
|10 books
And one Russian version:
|MSS. sec. xviii
I usually cite these versions by the first three letters of these titles (TRE, AND, GRO, ESC, OXF, PAS, SPE), giving the number of the line and of the book where necessary for the metrical versions, and for the prose versions the number of the page of the volumes of Laografia and Byzantion in which the Greek prose version and the French translation of the Russian version were first published.
The Ballads of the Akritic Cycle are more difficult to deal with because no approximately complete collection has yet been published and they must be hunted out in various journals and anthologies. Polites once said that his own private collection contained more than 1,300 ballads; but after eliminating versions which differ in only a few words or only by combination or contamination with fragments of other versions, it might be permissible to guess that the number of ballads deserving consideration as 'Akritic' must be less than a hundred; of which not more than fifty have any great significance.
Each version includes some details or names which must have been added by the author or transcriber of the version in which they occur, and could not have formed part of the supposed archetype, the original Digeneid, which is generally believed to have been put together from a great variety of sources in the tenth century.
The Digenes Akrites is a romantic epic of between 3,000 and 4,000 lines, narrating and celebrating the parentage, education, exploits, and death of its eponymous hero—whose name implies the burden of the story, for it may be translated as Twyborn the Borderer. His father was a notable Arabian emir who in a raid over the Byzantine frontier carried off the daughter of a Greek general; after embracing Christianity he was permitted by the family to marry her; and settled down as a law-abiding subject of the 'Roman' Empire. The son of this union of two races and two religious soon showed in the chase signs of exceptional heroic ability—hunting and athletics having been in the Greek Empire the pride and privilege of a ruling class. He imitated his father by carrying off—but single-handed—the daughter of a Greek general. After his marriage he left the parental castle, and with his bride and a few personal attendants lived a nomadic life among the lonely places of the border; making it his special business to exterminate the bands of robbers and cattle-drivers who haunted it (all of whom seem to have been Greeks, and one of whom was a woman). He built himself a palace on the Euphrates (although the earlier books seem to imply an imperial frontier in Kappadokia, where his parents had their castle till they came, before their death, to live with him). There he soon fell ill and died surrounded by the honours of the whole empire in Asia.
The epic can hardly have been officially inspired for it seems to embody no definite propaganda. If the imperial authorities had wanted to promote a new ideal of peace they would have displayed it in a less indefinite and more popular form, and would have employed a more accomplished and a more metropolitan poet. The bare outline just given suggests an attempt to arrange a bunch of local adventure stories into the likeness of an epic embodying ideals of tolerance and peace. It is not a romance in spite of many borrowings from Hellenistic romances; and it is untouched by Western influences in spite of many reflections, through such Hellenistic writers, from the Mediterranean world which was later to inspire any number of Italian and French storytellers. J. B. Bury (Romances of Chivalry, pp. 18, 19) praises the epic comprehensiveness of Digenes, 'which justifies us in naming it along with Homer and the Nibelungenlied'.
It is a heroic poem of provincial origin intended for private reading or for recitation not in the market-place but in banqueting hall or refectory.
The Grottaferrata version is probably the earliest we possess. The narrative is clear, simple, and concise. Irrelevancies are omitted and effective detail often added. It omits altogether the rather silly story about Ankylas. It begins with the Emir instead of with the once-upon-a-time King and Queen who had a beautiful daughter. It omits the earlier visit of Digenes to Philopappos. In the episode of the Emperor's visit it names the Emperor Basil (instead of Romanos as in TRE and AND) and it adds the detail that Digenes catches a wild horse and kills a lion by way of display for the Emperor's entertainment; it also names the Emperor Basil (instead of Romanos) in the passage in Book IV which refers to the banishment of Eirene's father, and in the same passage, by a sort of attraction or association set up by the name Basil, gives the Emperor himself the surname of Akrites, calling him 'Basil the blessed, the great Borderer' (cf. GRO iv. 55 with TRE 835 ff.). It omits the later references to honours conferred on Digenes by the Emperor Nikeforos which appear in the penultimate books of AND and TRE. From the same part of the narrative it also omits many redundant details of his wealth and daily life, and it omits the excessive lamentations on the death of his mother. It mentions that his final illness was the result of a chill after bathing; and it specifies that his tomb was built on a hill near Trôsis. It develops at greater length than the other versions the incidents of his courtship and marriage.
There is more Moslem colour in GRO than in other versions (e.g. a knowledge of Moslem miracles (GRO iii. 139) and of the Moslem shrine at Palermo (GRO i. 101)); but there is also a greater sincerity, one might almost say a greater savagery, of Christian morality.
The language is fairly correct literary Greek of, probably, the eleventh century, with a noticeably large number of words from the Septuagint. Such, however, is the unity of the Greek language, and so insufficient is our present knowledge, that, if allowance be made for ecclesiastical and literary influences (for familiarity with the Septuagint and with historical sources) on the one hand, and for the revisionary habits of later copyists on the other, it would be difficult, judging by language alone, to say much more than that the Grottaferrata version was written between the tenth and fourteenth centuries.
TRE and AND are a pair and follow the same story in all its details so that AND is useful for filling up the numerous gaps in TRE (especially the whole of the beginning down to the pursuing brothers' search for their sister's body in the Emir's camp, and the whole of the end from the speech of Digenes to Eudokia on his deathbed).
The language of TRE is also inclined to be literary but is distinctly less correct than that of GRO; the syntax is often in a state of dissolution so that the semi-classical manner seems less natural.
AND tells exactly the same story as TRE and has many identical passages. But it has been written up in a later and more romantic manner; many passages suggest that it was copied and rewritten as late as the fifteenth or sixteenth century. (The writing of the manuscript is said to be of the sixteenth.) The end of Book I from line 247 onwards actually breaks into rhyme and produces a lyrical peroration in roughly rhymed octosyllables. Although the extant parts of TRE are, as has been said, identical in incident with AND, it is permissible to suspect that the beginning of TRE, if we had it, might differ considerably; for the first book of AND ('once upon a time a King and Queen'), while consistent with the romantic manner of the AND narrative and language, would have seemed incongruous in the distinctly more epic manner of TRE. A romantic monk of the fifteenth century seems to have been rewriting a more learned text which was almost that of TRE, and often took over its lines as they stood. (For the introduction of rhyme see Krumbacher, p. 700.)
Perhaps this romantic monk was Eustathios, who is said in the opening lines to be writing the story for a dear young friend called Manuel. It has been surprisingly believed that these lines do in fact give us the name of the original author of Digenes. A Greek scholar, A. Hatzês, has tried without much success to prove by linguistic arguments that the Digenes was written by Eustathios (or Eumathios) Makrembolites, author of the Byzantine prose romance Hysmine and Hysminias. (See Byz. Neugr. Jahrb. ix (1931), pp. 256 ff.; and for Grégoire's criticism and list of Hatzês's works, Byzantion, vi. 482.) It ought to have been impossible for anybody to suppose that the heading of AND implies that Eustathios was the original author. Petritzes, the writer of OXF, uses even more definite language—esyntaxa kai 'synthesa to, he says—yet we know that he was only the versifier. Eustathios may have been the redactor who added the rhymes and other romantic embroideries. As for the author of Hysmine and Hysminias, he lives in quite a different world of literary preciosity.
The ESC version is extremely incomplete, beginning at about the same point as TRE and omitting altogether many incidents and innumerable details, while many of the episodes and lines are in the wrong order. It is written in an extremely but not uniformly popular style, with a Cretan flavour, which combines with many repetitions and confusions to give it a striking if superficial resemblance to some of the Akritic ballads. It has become a commonplace, started by N. G. Polites, to say that the Ballads are more 'poetical' than the Epic, because they are full of magic and confusion. Consequently Kyriakides and others declare that the 'breath of life' blows through the muddle of the ESC because it resembles the Ballads. It has even been argued that, assuming the Epic to have been assembled from scattered Ballads or Lays, the fact that ESC most resembles the extant Ballads shows that it is nearer to the source and consequently earlier than all the other versions. A similar argument was at one time (October 1941) produced by Grégoire in support of the Russian version. This argument ignores the considerations that the qualities of an Epic are not the same as those of a Ballad; and that we cannot conclude that an epic text is closer in time to its component lays because it resembles what other lays or ballads have become after a thousand years of oral transmission. So much a priori. But Grégoire has now shown (Byzantion, v. 339) that the details of Arab raids borrowed by GRO from the chronicles of Genesios are not absent from ESC; and ESC even exceeds other versions in bookishness by borrowing the tomb of Digenes from Arrian's description of the tomb of Cyrus (Anabasis, vi. 29. 4-8) and the parrots in the garden from Achilles Tatius.
Actually the disorder of the ESC version, the innumerable omissions, the innumerable additions of irrelevant tags out of ballads, the repetitions of the same line, the duplications, the phonetic confusions (e.g. 719, amêras, 'the emir', for Omêros, Homer), the way the words continually overflow the metre, and the metre breaks off into half-lines or into the rhythms of a chanted speech—all these lead to the conviction that this was taken down, not before the end of the fifteenth century, the date of the manuscript, from the dictation of a wandering Cretan ballad-monger who was trying to recite from memory in the musical recitative which still survives in Crete a version which contained a few original details (e.g. that Digenes made a bridge over the Euphrates). (The same overflowing of the metre is noted by Kyriakides (p. 119) as a sign of dictation in the Ballad of Armoures.) Whenever his memory fails he repeats as a catchword one of the characteristic or operative lines of the episode he is trying to recall, or he improvises, or marks time with a tag or two out of his repertory; and his version certainly contains vestiges of a literary original. Anyone who doubts the possibility of memorizing even imperfectly the whole of the Digenes may be reminded that only a few years ago villagers could be found in Crete who professed to know by heart the whole of the Erotokritos which is nearly three times as long as this (9,956 lines).
Kyriakides (op. cit., p. 75) compares three extracts—ESC 806-23, TRE 1207-37, GRO iv. 380-95—with a view to showing that ESC, allowing for a lacuna, follows the fullest tradition. He argues that there must be a lacuna because the mother of Digenes prays to the Virgin twice; and that therefore something to account for her second prayer—actually, as we see from TRE, the fact that Digenes couldn't eat his supper—must have been lost. But the whole passage shows that ESC doubles nearly everything; he repeats things because he is trying to remember what comes next; e.g. 831, Digenes plays his tampouri as well as his labouto; 918, 919, he calls out to Doukas to arouse him, but Doukas is aroused by hearing the gallop of the horse; there is another repetition in 836, 845, and another muddle in 844, again defended by Kyriakides in a long note (p. 79) on the kailyard principle that whatever is laïkôteron must be poiêtikôteron. It is true that this version has beauties and originalities of sound and surface that have been produced by oral transmission; but they are the qualities of a seventeenth-century ballad, not of an eleventh-century heroic poem.
The ESC manuscript which contains this version also contains a version of the Lybistros and Rodamne romance written in the same hand and disfigured to a smaller extent by faults of the same kind. The latest editor of Lybistros and Rodamne (Mme J. A. Lambert, Amsterdam, 1935) dismisses the hypothesis of dictation in the case of the Lybistros, in spite of the phonetic evidence, on grounds which seem insufficient.
There is no such problem when we come to the OXF version. We know that it was composed in 1670 by the monk Ignatios Petritzes of Chios, who puts into rhyme a version which substantially resembles that of AND; but as it is in eight books instead of ten he may have been working from one of the versions seen on Mount Athos by Dapontes (see below, p. xxi). In so doing he humanizes and to some extent rationalizes the story. His tale is well-proportioned and not savage or sanctimonious; it is set in a world which is more 'civilized', or at least less mediaeval. He brings in priests and bishops to celebrate weddings and funerals. The Arabs become Turks; the emir Haplorrabdes becomes Abdullah; and Petritzes is the only redactor who bothers to give Abdullah's wife and daughter Moslem names, Aissé and Fatouma—names easily found, for these were the favourite wife and youngest daughter of Mohammed. In the same episode he explicitly denies that Digenes, after rescuing the deserted bride, helped himself to his own reward, as the earlier versions allege, or did anything to be ashamed of. When he comes to Maximo the Amazon, whom he calls Maximilla, he remarks that a woman's place is in the home; and now he allows Digenes to yield to temptation, thus distinguishing Fatouma from Maximilla, who had, literally, asked for it. The name Maximilla may have been familiar to him as that of a prophetess who was head of the Montanist heresy at the end of the second century.
The fact that the earlier versions seem to see no difference between the treatment of the unwilling Fatouma and that of the willing Maximo, may be connected with the oriental seclusion of Evdokia (who was never seen by any of the servants; only a little boy waited on them at table) to show that the author of Digenes was exceedingly provincial in his outlook; there was nothing like this at Constantinople (or in Hysmine and Hysminias); but the author of Digenes was Asiatic; he seems never to have heard of Europe; and only mentions one place in Europe—the Moslem shrine of Palermo (except for AND 2419, sta merê Ahaias).
Ignatios Petritzes was not only six hundred years later; he was writing in Chios. The whole is written in good popular Greek of the seventeenth century without pretentiousness or affectation.2 We are surprised only by quotations from Aristophanes (Plutus), Theocritus, The Song of Songs, Bion, and Euripides (Hecuba). (OXF 237-42 = Aristoph. Plut. 3-7; OXF 1563-6 = Theoc. iii. 15, 16; OXF 1576-80 = Bion, 1. 7-20; OXF 1052 ff. = Song of Solomon vi. 8; OXF 1593-6 = Eur. Hec. 600, 601.) The chief interest of this version is in the personality of the author Ignatios Petritzes. (There are four other manuscripts copied by him in the library of the Greek patriarchate at Jerusalem. See GRO, introd. p. xii.) His humble lines of dedication at the end of his work, and his hopes that it may some day be printed, are modest and attractive.
D. Paschales who discovered the prose version in Andros in 1898 waited thirty years before he published the manuscript. When at last it appeared in 1928 it was a sad disappointment. It had been hoped that a prose version might throw some light on problems of date and origin; or at least that it might correspond to one of the versions which the eighteenth-century monk and polygrapher Caesar Dapontes (1714-84) describes as then existing in the library of the monastery of Xêropotamou on Mount Athos. (This reference was first discovered by M. Gedeon in the manuscript of a Byzantine chronicle in verse called Biblos Basileiôn. See Lampros, Romans grecs en vers, introd. p. xcix. For a notice of Dapontes see R. M. Dawkins, The Monks of Athos (1936).)
Dapontes gives in twenty lines a summary of the story which he unfortunately breaks off at the point where the hero's parents have been introduced; up to this point, that is to say up to about the end of the first book, he appears to follow closely the story as given in AND—except that the father of Digenes is said to have been an 'emir of Egypt' or 'Sultan of Misir' (Cairo): this difference is probably without significance: the Emir is actually called Soultanos in AND 307—and a Syrias may have been confused with Misiriou. Then interrupting his summary he adds:
'The story is very long but interesting and sweet as sugar. It is a book of eight or ten quires and contains all his exploits. I have seen it in two forms with illustrations and without pictures. It is divided into eight books and it is very rare and difficult to find. At the beginning of each book it has five lines of verse containing the argument of each book: and it is always in manuscript. I have not seen a printed copy and it seems never to have been printed. They have printed Erotokritos, Sôsanna, Erofile and others: what a pity they have never printed Basil. If it is given me to live I mean to put this story into verse and send it straight to Venice. Happy the printer who prints it for it will bring him both profit and honour.'
Two points should be noticed in this quotation. First of all his intention of putting it into verse before having it printed, which implies that both the manuscripts he saw were prose versions. (It cannot be assumed that he saw two different versions. He may have seen two copies of the same version, one of them illustrated.) It has been suggested, quite untenably I believe, that he only meant to put it into rhyme, to add rhyme to blank verses. But his mention of the five lines of verse (and if they were five lines they were almost certainly unrhymed lines) prefixed to each book implies that the rest of the work was in prose. It is curious, however, that the library should have had two copies in prose and none apparently in verse. If Dapontes had succeeded in producing his own versified edition, we may be sure it would have resembled closely the Oxford version written a hundred years earlier by that other monk from Chios, Ignatios Petritzes, whose character, gentle, literary, and unheroic, must have been very much like that of Dapontes.
It was the curious habit of those who enjoyed and transmitted to us the works of middle Greek literature to rewrite, apparently each to his own taste, any work which they thought worthy of preservation. The Cretan play Erôfile even after it was printed is said to have been rewritten for the second edition by a patriotic Cretan. Of the Cypriot Chronicle of Mahairas the two sixteenth-century manuscripts (Venice and Oxford) differ so much, and yet are so much alike, that Professor Dawkins felt himself obliged to conclude—rather unsatisfactorily—that they were written by two independent authors working from identical materials.
This rewriting habit must have begun early. The text of Chaireas and Calliroe, a romance of the second-century novelist Chariton of Aphrodisias, depended on a single Florentine manuscript until the recent recovery from Egypt of three small fragments. Of these fragments two papyri of the second or third century generally confirm the Florentine text. But a seventh-century parchment palimpsest discovered near Thebes in 1898 differs so widely that in the words of the latest editor (W. E. Blake, Oxford, 1938) 'rationem inter Thebanum et Florentinum haud aliter definire se posse crediderit vir doctus quam si duas memorias omnino inter se diversas poneret, quarum utraque suo modo ex ampliore exemplari contracta esset'. Before the discovery of these fragments the romance was usually attributed to the fourth century.3
Be that as it may, when D. Paschales at last published the prose version associated with his name, it turned out to be another seventeenth-century version which had little interest either as a prose romance of Digenes or as a specimen of the seventeenth-century language, because it was obvious that the writer had taken the trouble to turn into flat and literary prose a version very closely resembling that of AND, leaving embedded in his periods many undigested fragments of the original verses.4 The editor claims (Laografia, ix. 312) that it represents an independent tradition, and it is true that in numerous unimportant details he seems to follow TRE rather than AND and in a few details to have been following a version which differed from both. (See, for example, Laografia, ix. 350, compared with TRE 1128, 1133, lines which are different in AND; p. 358, where the name of the Saracen Soudales is omitted but details are inserted which are not in AND or TRE (lacuna), or GRO (where the Saracen is omitted altogether), but which are in ESC 930, 931; p. 359, where the detail of the girl's father and her two brothers pursuing does not agree with TRE 1267 or AND 2075 or OXF 1957 (where the three pursuers are her three brothers), or with ESC 969 (five brothers) but with GRO iv. 610, iv. 657; PAS p. 361, the twelve eunuchs, who are to be found in GRO iv. 925 but in no other version; p. 366, a detail which is in no other version about the confusion in the house of Haplorrabdes when his wife fell ill; p. 406, the doctors feel his pulse; and a few other details and misunderstandings.)
The writer gives his name as Meletios Vlastos and the date 1632. The editor on insufficient linguistic grounds says that he was a native of Chios. A Cretan monk of this name is said to have been one of the teachers of Cyril Loukares. Why did Meletios want to turn the story of Digenes, of which he had in his hands a perfectly good redaction in verse, into indifferent prose? His motive was not the same as that of the gentlemen who translate the New Testament into 'modern English'. Verse is the natural speech of the peasant culture (cf. the story of Mrs. Flecker's cook in J.H.S. liii (1933), 1); verse aids the memory in recitation, and is no longer necessary when recitation gives place to reading.5 There are many French prose romances (e.g. Balin and Balan) made from earlier verse romances; and various prose versions of the Roman de Troie of Benoît de Ste-Maure from the twelfth century onwards. To Meletios there was something vulgar and uneducated about a story in verse; he wanted to have a good story in a form fit for a gentleman to read.
The Russian version (SPE) is composed of three fragments of a (linguistically) thirteenth-century prose romance, two from manuscripts of the eighteenth century, and a third quoted by the historian Karamzin from a manuscript probably of the thirteenth century which was burned in Moscow in 1812. These fragments were assembled and published by Speransky in 1922, and were edited in a French translation by Pascal in 1935 (in Byzantion), and in a Greek translation by Kalonaros in 1941.
Here, combined with many folk-tale elements—a book of fate, a magic horse, a spring of water with a light burning in it,6 and other fairytale wonders which suggest oral transmission—we can recognize the chief incidents of the Greek story.
Maximo the Amazon becomes Maximiana the daughter of Philipap, and Devgeny after pole-jumping over the river7 easily defeats them both and sends them home to his parents. He refuses to marry Maximiana because the Dream Book says that if he marries her he will live sixteen years but if he marries Strategovna (the daughter of the General) he will live thirty-six years. So he carried off and, after several bachelor parties, married the General's daughter, and settled down to a life of fame and hunting, until he was attacked by a certain Caesar called Basil; and then he jumps over the river again, defeats him, enters into the town (not named), and ascends the throne.
Grégoire accepts this rebellion as the first nucleus of the poem, and argues that we must see in it a revolutionary manifesto issued by the Paulician heretics of the Armenian border and their Arab allies against their arch enemy the Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (867-86)—from whom the hero was given his first name—and that all the Greek versions are descended from a loyalist revision of this seditious original officially prepared and circulated at the beginning of the tenth century. Grégoire's arguments, too numerous to be examined in detail, would be convincing only in an unreal society. (He has not noticed by the way that Philipap's army—SPE 318—are said to be 'brave as Macedonians'.)
These arguments were strongly contested by Wartenberg (in Byzantion, xi (1936), pp. 320 ff.); it must be added, however, that they seem to have been largely accepted with other Gregorian hypotheses by Professor Arnold Toynbee (A Study of History, v. 252 ff.). The evidence leads us rather to believe that the Russian is descended by oral transmission from a sophisticated Greek version already combining the later Euphrates frontier—quite inconsistent with the reign of Basil I—with the earlier Kappadokian frontier; the Russian includes even the eulogy of the month of May which seems to derive from the eulogy of the Rose in the second book of Achilles Tatius. It is reasonable to suppose that the Hero of the Borders becoming Emperor in the City is a fairy-tale ending tacked on in the course of transmission—a common form of contamination in popular literature of any period. This conclusion seems to have been finally confirmed by the discovery of a third Russian manuscript dated 1761. It closely follows the earlier of Speransky's two eighteenth-century fragments, but is much fuller and preserves traces of an earlier text and vocabulary.8 It begins with the Emir and completes the story of the abduction of the daughter of Strategos, but omits altogether the final episode of the overthrow of the Emperor Basil. If, as seems probable from the superior text and archaic vocabulary, this new version in fact preserves the oldest Russian tradition, it follows that the Emperor's defeat must be the addition of a later copyist, and does not preserve any early Greek original put about by rebellious Paulicians. It was already impossible to understand, on Grégoire's hypothesis, why no version, Russian or Greek, shows any trace of feeling either for or against the Paulicians.
Before leaving this review of the various versions of the Digeneid and passing on to consider the story they present, something must be said about the Ballads, the Akritic Cycle of Folk-songs or tragoudia.
These ballads have been found to some extent in all parts of the Greek world (as have also 'Castles' or 'Tombs of Digenes'), and it was clear that they belonged to the Byzantine period and to Asia Minor, on the fringes of which, and especially in Pontus and in Cyprus, the best of them have been collected. Their nature is well indicated in the well-known scholion, on a passage in Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana, written by Arethas (850-932), Bishop of Cappadocian Caesarea,9 which speaks of 'wandering beggars, like the cursed Paphlagonians who now make up songs about the adventures of famous men and sing them for pennies from door to door' (see Kougéas, in Laografia, iv. 236). This brings us at once to the place and also to the time of the Akritic ballads: the period which, as Grégoire has shown, is peculiarly the Heroic Age of Mediaeval Greece: the ninth and tenth centuries which produced the adventurers of the Amorian and Macedonian dynasties, the Andrónikoi and Constantines of the Doukas family, the Nikefóroi of the Fokâs family, and many others whom he has convincingly identified in the fragments of the existing ballads.
Many of the early investigators thought that the poem of Digenes had been made by a 'rhapsode' who stitched together short lays or ballads of this sort which celebrated the glories of individual heroes, a method of composition once supposed to have produced the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the French Roland (as Lönnrott in fact produced the Finnish Kalevala in modern times (1835-49) from traditional lays collected by Topelius in 1822).
Here, then, we say as we approach the Greek songs of the Akritic Cycle, here is a wonderful chance to study in their raw state the materials of an epic poem. In these ballads we might expect to find, distorted perhaps by oral tradition but still easily recognizable, many of the episodes of Digenes. We are surprised to discover an entirely different world: a world of supernatural feats, magic weapons, and talking birds; in which Digenes is only one of a number of heroes we have never heard of before—Andronikos, Porfyrios, Armouropoulos, Konstantas, Theophylaktos, Xantinos—and is not by any means the most popular. Digenes indeed hardly appears at all except in the series of ballads describing his death,10 foretold by talking birds, his iron death-bed, and his wrestling with Death who comes to fetch him. This connected series and one or two which seem to refer to his carrying off, in entirely different circumstances, of Evdokia, are the only ones that can be fitted into the story of our Digenes at all; and a great number are commonly called 'Akritic' only because of their obvious antiquity. Some of the other heroes have been plausibly identified by Grégoire as historical figures, emperors or generals or pretenders; or as the eponymous heroes of imperial themes or regiments. But he has had less success in rationalizing the incidents.
A son of Andronikos born in captivity, his mother having been carried off before his birth, escapes from the Saracens and goes in search of his father and brothers. (In this episode it is worth noting that the hero is digenes, twy-born, in another sense, as being the son of a Christian father Andronikos as well as the putative son of the Emir at whose court he is born and brought up (see Passow 482, Kyriakides, Dig. Akr., pp. 35 ff., and Legrand, Chansons pop. grecques (1874), no. 87, esp. lines 7, 8).) A gargantuan Porfyres falls in love with the king's daughter and no chains are strong enough to hold him. The equally monstrous Xantinos liberates his son who has been yoked to the plough with a buffalo. Most of the songs which are not in the Pontic or Cypriot dialect have almost lost their narrative character and have been so contaminated with later ballads that they are only recognized as Akritic by the names of the heroes and by their obvious antiquity. It is sometimes suggested that Digenes was only one among a number of ballad-heroes and that the author of the epic took up the Digenes cycle and left the other heroes to the wandering ballad singers. But why should adventures which were good enough to attract the epic-maker in search of material have completely disappeared from ballad circulation? It must be understood that the relation between ballads and epic is not one between successive stages of composition, or between different treatments of the same materials, adapted in one form for street singing and in another for ceremonial recitation or private reading. It is rather a relation between different levels of interest in the same community. The study of one does not necessarily throw any light on the other; although a knowledge of both is necessary for an understanding of the society in which both were produced and developed.
What nearly all editors call the poetical vigour of the ballads as distinguished from the epic is really a radical difference of theme and treatment. A fourth-rate ballad, especially if it is recorded in the surprising dialect of Pontus, may be superficially more attractive than a second-rate epic. The songs as we have them today, after 900 years of oral transmission, cannot be regarded as the sources of the epic, and cannot be used as standards by which to judge the relative ages of the various versions or the various episodes of the epic. We do not know what these ballads were like when they were first sung. If they were recognizably the same as they are now, then they obviously have nothing to do with our Digenes; even the death-bed series are disqualified for comparison by their association with miraculous incident; and if they were entirely different—still less can we be allowed to draw any critical information from their present derivatives.
Only one of the ballads, the Son of Armoures (first published by Destouny in Russia in 1877 with a facsimile and reprinted by Kyriakides, p. 119), exists or used to exist in a manuscript said to have been of the fifteenth or sixteenth century. All others have been collected in modern times, although the sources are not always known. (See, for example, the obscure history of the Sons of Andronikos ballad, first published by Zampelios (1859) who says the manuscript was given him by Brunet de Presle,11 who had it from the unpublished part of the collection of Fauriel, who had copied it from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale; this is flatly denied by Legrand who says that Brunet de Presle when a student took it down from the dictation of Professor Hase (Zampelios, Pothen hê Koinê Lexis Tragoudô? (1859), p. 37; Legrand, Chansons pop. grecques, p. 183). Büdinger, who reprinted the text given by Zampelios, refers to his vain efforts to trace the supposed manuscript in Paris (Ein mittelgriechisches Volksepos (Leipzig, 1866), p. 3); see also Wagner who again reprinted it (Medieval Greek Texts (1870), pp. x, xiii n. 34, xxii). Legrand implies that his own text was taken from the same manuscript of Brunet de Presle as that which Zampelios had copied and 'improved'.)
Not one of the Akritic ballads or fragments can be regarded as belonging to the category of Folk-chronicles or Historical Ballads, a class represented by the Cretan historical ballads of the eighteenth century like the well-known Daskalogiannes; and it is from the historical rather than from the romantic ballad that we should expect the maker of the Digenes epic to have drawn some of his materials.12 The strange absence from the extant Akritic ballads of any recognizable incident of the epic is paralleled to some extent in English ballad literature. The Gest of Robyn Hode is a small epic of 1,824 lines divided into eight 'fyttes', first published in the middle of the sixteenth century, and said to have been composed 'by a poet of a thoroughly congenial spirit' from ballads which had begun to circulate about a hundred years earlier. Not one of the ballads from which it was made up is extant in a separate shape, and 'some portions of the story may have been of the compiler's own invention' (Child's Popular Ballads, ed. Sargent and Kittredge, p. 225). …
An attempt must be made to summarize the interpretations and estimates of the Poem of Digenes put forward by a succession of scholars from the first editors Sathas and Legrand down to M. Henri Grégoire, who, in a series of articles beginning in 1930 (assisted on questions of the relations of Byzantium and the Arabs by the researches of E. Honigmann, A. A. Vasiliev, and Marius...
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Hugh F. Graham (essay date 1974)
SOURCE: Graham, Hugh F. "Digenis Akritas and the Devgenievo Dejanie—A Reappraisal." Studies in Medieval Culture 4, no. 3 (autumn 1974): 483-95.
[In the following essay, Graham analyzes the Russian version of Digenes Akritas, the Devgenievo Dejanie.]
The fascinating comparative study of the manuscripts of Digenis Akritas and the Devgenievo Dejanie has continued to attract international scholarly attention, although it suffered a great loss with the recent death of M. Henri Grégoire, who numbered it prominently among his scholarly interests and who developed many provocative hypotheses concerning it. At present our Soviet colleagues are...
(The entire section is 7810 words.)
Roderick Beaton (essay date 1981)
SOURCE: Beaton, Roderick. "Was Digenis Akritas an Oral Poem?" Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 7 (1981): 16-27.
[In the following excerpt, Beaton analyzes the influence of the oral tradition on Digenes Akrites.]
The first question to be asked, as we come to consider the composition of Digenes, is: Which version is the most authentic? The opinion is now generally held that G represents the oldest version of the poem as well as the oldest text, although the claims of Kyriakidis and Grégoire for the superior authenticity of the E version have recently been restated by Stylianos Alexiou. Alexiou has brought forward new evidence that elements in...
(The entire section is 4714 words.)
Andrew R. Dyck (essay date 1983)
SOURCE: Dyck, Andrew R. "On Digenis Akritas Grottaferrata Version Book 5." Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 24, no. 2 (summer 1983): 185-92.
[In the following essay, Dyck analyzes the bride-theft motif in Digenes Akrites.]
Only two versions of the epic Digenis Akritas narrate the hero's encounter with the daughter of the Syrian emir Haplorrhabdes: Book 5 of the Grottaferrata version (G) and Book 6 of the version Z which the latest editor, E. Trapp, reconstructs from the Trebizond manuscript and the Andros manuscript now in Athens.1 For this material, however, as Trapp notes,2 Z is likely to represent a contamination of its...
(The entire section is 2941 words.)
Michael J. Jeffreys (essay date 1983)
SOURCE: Jeffreys, Michael J. "Digenis Akritas and Kommagene." In Popular Literature in Late Byzantium, edited by E. M. and M. J. Jeffreys, pp. 5-28. London: Variorum Reprints, 1983.
[In the following essay, Jeffreys discusses the origins of Digenes Akritas and examines some of the variations between its various existing manuscripts.]
Few byzantine texts offer more interest to a wider variety of scholars than Digenis Akritas. It provides material for literary historians at different levels of Greek, for students of traditional literature, for specialists in Arabic, Armenian and Russian studies, for codicologists and art-historians as well as for the...
(The entire section is 7721 words.)
Angeliki E. Laiou (essay date 1993)
SOURCE: Laiou, Angeliki E. "Sex, Consent, and Coercion in Byzantium." In Consent and Coercion to Sex and Marriage in Ancient and Medieval Societies, edited by Angeliki E. Laiou, pp. 198-221. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1993.
[In the following excerpt, Laiou examines Digenes Akrites for what it reveals about twelfth century laws regarding abduction and social attitudes concerning sexual consent.]
What can literature contribute to an inquiry such as ours? If handled carefully, it can instruct us as to contemporary concerns and underlying attitudes. It can also be vastly misleading, for literature is not necessarily a...
(The entire section is 10157 words.)
Further Reading
Beaton, Roderick. "'Digenes Akrites' and Modern Greek Folk Song: A Reassessment." Byzantion 51 (1981): 22-43.
Searches for the roots of Digenes Akrites in the oral tradition and discusses the poem's impact on certain Greek ballads of modern times.
Dyck, Andrew R. "On Digenes Akrites, Grottaferrata Version, Book 6." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 28, no. 3 (autumn 1987): 349-69.
Contends that problems in Book 6 are likely the result of the careless joining of a source epic and folk song material.
———. "The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of Digenes...
(The entire section is 277 words.)


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Thanks for the info, I think my oven only goes up to 550.
I use my grill and a rack and stone to cook, haven't purchased a good thermometer to measure all the oven and stone temps, but the internal guage with the stone is at 750+I purchased some 00 the other day and made my first batch -- cooked it 3-4 minutes which was probably too long because it had dark black spotting instead of a desired light/dark grey spotting. It was still really good, but slightly chewy and crunchy instead of light and crispy with a hint of chewy. Well that's my description from the great pizzas I ate in NaplesThe 00 I have is Antico Molino Caputo, Farina, di grano tenero, Tipo "00"Is 100% Caputo okay, or should I modify with a 90/10 ratio of Caputo and a bread or all purpose flour, respectivelyAttached are pics of my pie with 100% Caputo 00
Hi, Im new here and to pizza making. Ive been using bread flour but now want to buy a tipo "00" flour. I dont have a high temp oven, mine is just about 500. I can buy either caputo tipo 00 or bel aria farina tipo 00. What will be the best for me and should I mix the tipo 00 flour that I buy with bread or all purpose flour, and at what ratio for the mix. Thanks

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi-Lo BBQ
— By Serg |
So Eater posted about Hi-Lo's new menu, that new bbq spot that is suppose to open whenever the fuck on 19th. Now I haven't had this food yet so I don't want to shit on them but fuck it, I'm shitting on them. You can peep the menu below. Look I'm about my bbq for reals and I'm not really sweating them for $18/lbs brisket. Franklin's is 16/lb and that's in Austin, so for SF the meat price isn't that bad. My issue is all the other bullshit on this menu. Dog I don't care about smoked almonds, duck wings, mussles, ten dollar fucking potato salads, fucking beets by dre, goddamn warm kale, fucking baby carrots and parsnips?!?! WTF kind of bbq is this dog? I mean I get it, you're trying to fancy it the fuck up for some hee hawing ass cubicle warrior, but come on fool you're doing counter service. I'm not trying to fuck with some Zynga-ass cafeteria lunch special of the fucking month. There are two things worth calling bbq on this list and that's brisket and the ribs. I don't even want to holler at the loin if you aren't fucking with some pulled pork. All this shit is just a big red flag telling me that if you're doing all that shit chances are you're gonna fuck up the main meats.
I'm still probably gonna try this spot but goddamn can't someone just stop giving us bullshit ass bbq in this town. Stop fucking around and smoke some meat proper like already.
Smoked Marcona Almonds $4.5
Assorted Seasonal Pickle Jar $6
Pull Apart Potato Rolls $1
Duck Wings $11 Bourbon-Sriracha Glaze, Crisp Apple, Fennel Slaw
Penn Cove Mussels $12 Bone Marrow Broth, Fresno Chilies, Diced Apple
Cedar Plank Grilled Arctic Char $13
Smoked Fish Plate $15 Steelhead Trout Brandade, Smoked Sturgeon, Scallops, Oysters, Pickles, Sea Beans, Grilled Levain
Coal Roasted Baby Beets $10 Rocket, Blood Orange, Blue Cheese
Warm Dino Kale and Sweet Potato Salad $10 Ricotta Salata, Chili Spiced Pecans, Citrus amd Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Meatloaf Sandwich $10 Texas Toast, Butter Lettuce, Green Tomato Chow Chow
Grilled Eggplant Wrapped Oyster Mushroom Medallions $13 Anson Mills Grit Cakes, Ginger Tamari Sauce, Charred Scallion Oil
St. Louis Cut Spare Ribs $13/half $23/whole
Smoked and Sake-Braised Pork Belly $15/lb.
Hard Cider Brined Pork Loin $18/lb.
Grilled Flanken Cut Beef Short Ribs $20/lb.
Beef Brisket $18/lb. Iocopi Farms BBQ Baked Beans and Burnt Ends $6
24 hr. Confit Sunchokes $6 Goat Cheese and Toasted Hazelnuts
Roasted Baby Carrots and Parsnips $6 Salsa Verde
Shaved Brussels Sprout $6 Bacon Vinaigrette Crispy Shallots
Seasonal Pie and Cobbler $7


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Q&A with 2013 Leadville champs Ian Sharman and Ashley Arnold - Page 2
Q&A with Ian Sharman
Sharman running into Twin Lakes inbound, mile 60. Photo by jojoreluand on Instagram.
How did you find adjusting to the altitude, coming from much lower elevation?
I live at 100 feet in Walnut Creek, California, so I had two weeks at home then two weeks staying with Sean Meissner in Durango, Colorado, at 6600ft. I was able to get up on the Hardrock 100 course and fit in plenty of hiking up to 14,000 feet, as well as helping out at the Telluride Mountain Run ultra. The altitude didn't feel too bad although it certainly made it harder to breathe and running was much tougher high up, especially moving uphill. Instead I mainly focused on hiking to help with recovery after Vermont as well as to not overstress my body while it tried to adapt to the altitude.
Did you go into Leadville with hopes/expectations of winning, or has your focus been more on your overall times for the Grand Slam?
The Grand Slam is the focus for this summer but I've been hoping I could win one of the four races and was disappointed that Vermont went badly and felt horrible the whole way since it looked like the course that best suited me. Given that I'd not run the Leadville course before, time goals were a little meaningless because a course profile and a few race reports don't give a full picture. However, I know Nick Clark ran a little over 17 hours last year on a course that was 2.5 miles longer so I guessed 16 hours, 30 minutes would be about the best-case scenario.
After my legs felt so bad at Vermont, plus the fact this race was at altitude, the worst-case scenario was finishing just under the cut-offs and I'm not joking. The Slam takes a big mental commitment so I had to be prepared to slog it out no matter how bad it felt as long as I wasn't damaging myself severely, but I hoped that even with a fairly bad day, I'd be under 19 hours.
This was your first time racing Leadville, right? What was your racing strategy going into it, and did you stick with it?
Yes, before attempting the Slam I'd only been to Rocky Raccoon and Western States 100s, albeit a few times for each so this was my first Leadville. My racing strategy is generally the same in a 100—keep it easy and comfortable for as long as possible so the bad part is pushed off as near to the end as possible. Typically that means feeling pretty good for 12-13 hours then really digging in and being fairly miserable for a while but aiming to keep up a good pace. I like to practice what I preach with coaching runners—don't getting into a racing mentality in an ultra until about the last third and just look after yourself until then.
It was difficult to remain disciplined and not try to chase Ryan Sandes or Mike Aish in the first 50 miles but there's a lot of time to catch people and there's no prize for being ahead of anyone at any point other than the finish line. So when I moved into second around mile 44, I was happy to run my own race and saw no urgency in trying to catch Mike. When I was about five minutes behind him, I thought to myself that I only had to go 10 seconds a mile faster for 30 miles the end and I'd catch him.
What was the hardest aspect of the race for you?
On the descent from Powerline to May Queen around mile 85 I was bonking, dizzy and stumbling over rocks. My feet hurt and my energy levels were low but I tried to keep eating and that didn't feel good or have much impact. Negative thoughts creep in and I knew that I couldn't afford to slow down for long or Nick Clark would catch me—the man is tough as hardrock! So I faked it through May Queen aid station to try to look strong for anyone that might report back to Nick and ate more while there. Luckily it turned around in the next mile, but it didn't feel much better, I could just keep up a faster pace.
How about the most enjoyable part?
Hope Pass at 12,600 feet was my favorite part in both directions (miles 45 and 55). The weather was great, the views were stunning and I felt no pressure to run uphill because the air was too thin so I was able to settle into a tough but comfortable hike the whole way. Then the run down after the second ascent was so fun with all the runners coming the other way and seeing lots of friends. I love my downhills and that section isn't too steep so I kind of felt I was playing rather than racing and had to stop myself from hammering down since my legs still needed to feel good for another 40+ miles.
How did Leadville compare to Western States and Vermont?
Each of the Grand Slam races has a very distinct feel to it and I like that variety. Western States has plenty of pomp and circumstance with such a deep field and storied course. I love it and am so glad I've been able to run it several times already, but the overwhelming factors to deal with in training are the heat and the amount of downhilling. I live about two hours from the finish line so it feels more local and I get to catch up with so many friends from all over the world when I go there.
Vermont is much lower key and the humidity is something the other three races don't really have. It reminds me of races back in the UK with rolling hills and similar views, but it's deceptively tough with continuous ups or downs that really add up. The fact there's a horse race at the same time also gives it a different vibe, although that doesn't really affect the faster runners much as the horses don't catch the first few men.
Leadville feels a lot more corporate and more similar to a city marathon with less of a focus on a race for runners by runners, although it was still incredibly enjoyable and I'll be back to run it again. There are so many more people there, with something like 900 starters compared to under 400 at WS and VT. Even though it's all at high altitude, it doesn't quite feel like a pure mountain race—WS feels more like that. You see mountains the whole time but I was amazed at how flat long sections are, punctuated by climbs.
What do you do to recover in just a few weeks between 100s … any particular tricks or advice to share?
Given the short time frame between each Grand Slam race (three to four weeks) I basically trained hard for the first race, then in-between just try to hike and do occasional gentle runs with maybe two to three miles hard within the whole period between races. So I feel like I'm slacking off while also knowing that there's no benefit in training hard when active recovery will be much more beneficial. I'll be using an ElliptiGO before Wasatch to get exercise similar to running but without the impact.
Anything else you want to share about your race this past weekend?
Leadville was a fantastic experience for me and I loved the chance to see friends and new places in Colorado. I think the way to approach Leadville is to treat it as a two to three week commitment so you can acclimatize in the mountains, but also to enjoy being up in beautiful places. So many races are all about one day and that's it, while Leadville makes more sense as a vacation for a little longer.
Also, I always advocate training for hiking for coaching clients who run mountain and trail races but at elevation that becomes even more important. I'd estimate I hiked 10-15 miles of Leadville in total so it was important to train for that and it allowed me to enjoy the views a little more too.
Read on for a Q&A with women's champion Ashley Arnold …


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Spice and Wolf
Wolf and the End of Shallow Thinking
Episode 17 | TV-14
Lawrence takes action to keep Amarty from accomplishing his goal. After planting seeds of doubt in Amati's heart regarding Holo's willingness to become his wife, the merchant sets out to buy a large quantity of pyrite.
Dub Expires: 03-21-2015
Sub Expires: 08-23-2013
Official Site: www.funimation.com/shows/spice-and-wolfHide Details


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Returning to Ultras After Pregnancy - Page 2
The first three laps (60 miles) felt great. I was well on track to finish sub-24 hours. At one point, I tripped on some roots and pulled my groin. The fall hurt and I cursed like a sailor. But I got up, thinking of Amelia's smile, which kept me pressing forward.
I kept up a strong pace until mile 92, but nutrient depletion eventually reared its ugly head. I got dizzy coming into DamNation aid station, then blacked out for a bit. I had to wait until my blood sugar rebounded.
An hour-and-a-half later, I finally headed back out of the aid station, and it felt like rigor mortis had set in. Everything in my body had stiffened. I cried. I had run so well for so long, had pumped five times and pushed through a pulled groin, lost unexpected time at the aid station and now this!
But I had not come 92 miles to not finish the race. I put my sights on the smile I would see on Amelia's face at the finish line. I could sit down with her and just revel in the accomplishment. This inspiration kept me moving. Of course, so did others on trail. That is the beauty of ultrarunning; even in the darkest moments of despair, you are never alone.
After the race was over, the race director, Joe, presented me with a Rocky Raccoon 2013 award for "Most Miles Breastfeeding"—which now sits on my mantle at home. I had placed first in the "breastfeeding division!"
I still want to run Hardrock, of course. Hopefully the lottery will be good to me in years to come and I will get my chance to run that rugged course in the San Juans that I love so much. However, my finish at Rocky means more to me now than a Hardrock buckle. Amelia and I finished this race together.
Now, all you new mothers—go run and fear not; the mind will take you places you never imagined and the body will follow suit.


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St. Louis Cardinals remove cross from pitcher's mound
ST. LOUIS (RNS) The Cardinals' general manager, John Mozeliak, said he learned of the images from media reports and immediately asked the grounds crew to halt the practice. "I didn't ask for the reason behind it. I just asked for it to stop."


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Weinstein and Reservoir back ex-Deutsche trader's new fund
Boaz Weinstein, the high-profile former Deutsche Bank prop trader, and Dan Stern's $6bn alternatives firm Reservoir Capital, are backing a new credit hedge fund firm led by a one-time protégé of Weinstein.
Weinstein and Reservoir are providing capital to Camares Capital, according to two people familiar with the situation. Camares has been set up by Antoine Cornut, who led flow credit trading in the Americas and Europe at Deutsche Bank until he left last year. Weinstein hired Cornut to Deutsche Bank in 2007.
It is not yet known how much each backer is committing.
Cornut declined to comment. A spokesman for Weinstein declined to comment. Reservoir did not respond to a request for comment.
Weinstein was in the news last year when it emerged he was among the investors to have profited from having taken the other side of JP Morgan's now infamous London Whale trades http://nyti.ms/11uq1Li.
Camares is preparing to launch a European credit hedge fund in March, pending approval from the UK's Financial Services Authority, according to a person familiar with the situation. There are eight people on the team including Cornut's former Deutsche Bank colleagues Julien Marie and Askin Aziz. It has recently hired Aravind Chandrasekaran from JP Morgan to the investment team.
Weinstein, a chess master, was a proprietary trader at Deutsche Bank and became one of its youngest managing directors at the age of 27. His credit trading group at Deutsche Bank made billions of dollars for the bank, according to a person familiar with the group. But in 2008 the group he ran erased more than two years of trading gains from being on the wrong side of so-called negative basis trades, which saddled the bank with $1.8bn in losses, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Weinstein left Deutsche Bank and set up Saba Capital Management in February 2009. The firm now runs $5.3bn. Its main fund was up 3.9% in January, according to an investor.
Reservoir is a prominent seed investor, which means it normally invests in a manager in exchange for a stake in the business. Typically it invests $100m-$150m in each manager, according to a person familiar with the situation. The terms of the Weinstein and Reservoir investment in Camares remain unclear.
--write to email@example.com
• This story now contains updated details of Weinstein's credit trading group at Deutsche Bank following additional information from a source familiar with the group


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The scene: At first glance, Cutty's looks like any mom-and-pop neighborhood deli on a busy suburban street. In fact it is a local mom-and-pop deli, except that the mom and pop owners are both graduates of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and both worked at the critically acclaimed Cook's Illustrated magazine – based just up the block in the heart of Brookline, a near suburb of Boston. Cutty's has become a regular favorite of the staff, all the way up to the editor, of what may well be America's most discerning food publication. Then again, it has become the choice of lots of people in Brookline, and increasingly beyond, evolving into a destination and culinary attraction for the entire Boston region. It is only open for breakfast and lunch, and at prime lunch hours there is often a line snaking down the block.
Cutty's occupies a simple space, a glass storefront where you enter and are almost immediately at the counter. The floors are bare wood, and there are just six small tables – most regulars get their sandwiches to go, and you can call ahead. The furthest they go towards "décor" is a huge blackboard listing all the specialty vendors they employ for ingredient sourcing, from Vermont's legendary King Arthur Flour to Bazzini Nuts in the Bronx to a Gouda manufacturer in the Netherlands. The mortadella comes from Verona, Italy, the ham and roast beef from ultra-natural Niman Ranch. Rather than a purely local focus, the goal is the best-in-class for every ingredient. Cutty's won Boston Magazine's Best of Boston 2012 award as Best Sandwich Shop.
GREAT AMERICAN BITES: Mini-dogs rule in N.Y. Capital Region
GREAT AMERICAN BITES: Iowa's iconic 'loose meat' sandwich
Reason to visit: Any sandwich, but especially the Saturday Pork Rabe special, Ham Dijon, Roast Beef 1000, Spuckie and Eggplant Spuckie (old Bostonian for subs) – and the homemade potato chips.
The food: "We wanted to start our own business and both had a lot of experience in the culinary world and restaurant business," said the pop half of the operation, Chuck Kelsey. "We've lived in Boston for a while and there are not many places to get a good sandwich. Then we thought, 'If we can't make a decent sandwich, we probably shouldn't go much further.'"
Rest easy, Chuck: you certainly make a decent sandwich.
The formula at Cutty's is very simple but one few eateries pull off: Source all the finest ingredients, make everything you can from scratch, and put it all together in the best possible way. Take the Ham Dijon sandwich for instance, which sounds deceptively simple with just ham, mustard, butter and pickles on bread. Nothing to it, right? Except that the ham is the intense and natural top of the line, dry-cured "Royale" from Niman Ranch; the mustard is true French Dijon; the pickles are excellent gherkins sliced thin to add their wonderful presence without overpowering. But the real key is the butter: the Kelseys taste-tested myriad versions before settling on the European-style Cabot 83 from Vermont's most famous dairy. The combination of these four simple ingredients is far more than the sum of its parts, it's joy in every bite. And the bread is a baguette baked by a top Boston bakery, which Cutty's gets delivered twice daily because they feel it needs to be served within a few hours for maximum taste.
MORE: Des Moines' 'most famous sandwich'
It's the little touches like the butter that make the sandwiches sing. The bestseller is the Roast Beef 1000, with in-house, slow-roasted roast beef, crispy-fried shallots, sharp cheddar and Thousand Island dressing; but it is the black-pepper brioche roll that elevates it to stardom. Nearly every specialty sandwich is served on a different bread -- from ciabatta to sesame rolls, each carefully chosen to complement particular ingredients. With the exception of the bagels, baguettes and one or two other specialty rolls, all the baked goods, including breads and desserts, are made from scratch in house.
There are just eight specialty sandwiches, plus a small slate of basic choices including grilled cheese, turkey, ham and roast beef built to your specifications. Of the specialties, two are only available on Saturdays, both made with Italian-style pork that is salted for two full days, then roasted, cooled and thinly sliced. The Pork Rabe with broccoli rabe and provolone is Kelsey's homage to Philadelphia's famous Italian pork sandwich, previously covered in this column. But he uses the inspiration as a launching pad for a different take -- skipping the copious wet gravy and serving it on a round roll for a more structured take on its Philly counterpart. This Saturday special sells out every weekend, and many travel here because of it.
GREAT AMERICAN BITES: Vt. deli serves up world-class potato chips
GREAT AMERICAN BITES: Italian beef, Chicago-style
Breakfast is just slightly simpler but no less tasty, with a "basic" egg sandwich served on a fresh brioche with optional truffled ketchup or red-eye mayo, plus a few other choices like house-made granola. The deliciously addictive homemade kettle chips – Kelsey tried many different oils before hitting on his secret choice – are surprisingly popular at breakfast and a must-have side at lunch. The other sides are far more sophisticated, unique twists on salads such as wheat berry and beet or peanuts and fennel. The final crowning touch is the simply elegant fresh-baked desserts from sugar cookies to brownies – ultra-rich thanks to first-rate Mexican chocolate – of course.
Cutty's does not have an earth-moving contribution to the sandwich canon, the equivalent of Central Grocery's New Orleans muffuletta, but it is easily one of the nation's best delis and reliably excellent. The owners' culinary expertise is evident in the ingredients, flavor combinations and consistency. If you love a sandwich here, and many do, you will love it just as much the next time you visit.
PHOTOS: Central Grocery's legendary muffuletta sandwich
What regulars say: "It's around the corner from my office – I ate lunch there yesterday," said Elizabeth DeLucia, who works for the non-profit Dana Farber Cancer Institute. "I like the breakfast sandwich on brioche and for lunch the eggplant spuckie. I love the homemade limeade – don't miss it."
Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes – among the best deli sandwiches in New England.
Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)
Price: $-$$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)
Details: 284 Washington Street, Brookline, Mass.; 617-505-1844; cuttyfoods.com/
MORE: Read latest columns
MORE: Read previous columns
Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a BBQ contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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" While it may be tempting to use broad generalizations about the way business aircraft are most often used in America today, let's not neglect the importance of business aviation as a crucial competitive asset to companies, an economic driver and lifeline to communities large and small. "
The changing face of aircraft lending
Having emerged battered and bruised from the 2008 recession, aircraft lenders face fresh challenges. While worldwide economic woes linger like a bad cold that won't go away, these lenders can expect accounting and regulatory changes that may have a significant impact on their business.
The industry is already subject to substantial regulation, much of which requires banks to keep adequate reserves, "know" their customers, better understand international transactions and follow sources and uses of funds. As the business aircraft market becomes increasingly international, such regulations can hinder legitimate transactions. A Forbes 400 client purchasing an airplane from a European bank recently faced the kind of scrutiny normally reserved for convicted felons. But existing regulation is only part of the story. Worries about credit and collateral these days cause lenders to closely scrutinize the recipients of their loans, the models those customers are buying and how much exposure the lender already has to them in other credit facilities.
Regulators share these concerns. In an effort to prevent credit bubbles and resulting financial meltdowns like the one that occurred in 2008, international regulators are working on the so-called Basel III accords, which will likely have a big impact on aircraft loans and the world economy in general. These accords will be the third incarnation of reforms sponsored by the Committee on Banking Supervision of the Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.
Two aspects of Basel III seem particularly significant for business aviation.
First, banks will need more capital–lots more. Over the rest of this decade, they will be required to stockpile reserves (primarily equity) equal to two and one half times the current requirement. For "systemically important" banks like Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, the capital requirements will be even greater, in an effort to ensure that institutions that are "too big to fail" in fact don't.
Second, banks will have to keep more of their capital liquid, to ensure that they can quickly discharge their obligations in an emergency and stay afloat. One of these requirements treats an aircraft loan as a completely illiquid investment, which in turn requires the bank to keep more capital on hand than in the case of other investments such as home mortgage or retail loans, which are more easily sold.
The net impact on business aircraft finance is difficult to gauge, but the situation doesn't look promising. "Aircraft lending will continue to be available," said Ford von Weise, who heads up global aircraft finance efforts at Citi Private Bank, "but Basel III will change the risk/return/reward relationships of aircraft finance for banks." There will be an even greater focus on credit quality, with investment-grade credits benefiting from lower interest-rate spreads and especially favorable terms. Lesser credits, on the other hand, will experience higher interest-rate spreads simply because banks will need higher returns to compensate for the greater capital reserves required as the creditworthiness of the customer declines.
Banks will also greatly prefer financing aircraft for existing clients, since Basel III regards that as less risky than making loans to borrowers who have no relationship to the bank. "This is an advantage for private banks," said von Weise, "since their mission is to develop relationships with clients and offer them a full range of financing options." Moreover, longer-term aircraft loans will be more expensive because capital requirements increase as the life of a credit facility extends. After the first two years, risk exposure rises rapidly under Basel III, making financing with terms extending beyond three to five years much less advantageous for the bank due to the greater capital reserves required. Aircraft buyers looking for longer financing terms will have to pay for the privilege.
These factors have already led some European banks to view Basel III as a reason to abandon aircraft finance altogether. On the other hand, financial institutions like Guggenheim Partners and Prudential Capital Group that aren't banks and aren't subject to Basel III may actually benefit by having the bank competition tied up in regulatory knots. An opportunity exists here for non-Basel III financiers to grab a greater share of the aircraft finance market. Basel III may also cause smaller, regional banks to be more active in financing aircraft, especially older less-expensive models that are not attractive collateral for major lenders.
The U.S. implementation of Basel III has not been finalized, but von Weise said that few significant changes to the international strictures are likely, though the U.S. rules may vary in comparison with those in other jurisdictions. North America, the EU and major nations in Asia are expected to begin implementation of Basel III this year.
Aircraft Lease Challenges
Basel III is not the only change in store for aircraft finance. The "lease convergence project"–a joint effort by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and its international counterpart to create uniform standards for lease accounting–will cause aircraft leases to be booked as "right-to-use" assets, with a corresponding liability to make lease payments. These changes could make leases less attractive to companies that have traditionally employed them to keep business jets off the balance sheet. In addition, to the extent that aircraft are treated as assets where the lessee consumes "more than an insignificant portion of the asset," the new rules may require more of the interest component of the lease payment to be recognized in earlier years–another blow to leases, from an accounting standpoint.
That's too bad, because otherwise this is a good time to lease a business jet. With the imminent demise of bonus depreciation, the tax benefits of purchasing a factory-new aircraft are less appealing than they have been in years. But financial institutions that offer aircraft leases still have an appetite for depreciation–and for acquiring new aircraft in like-kind exchanges to shield depreciation benefits received in prior years. The result can be a relatively good deal for the lessee, especially for one that can't use the tax depreciation benefits itself. And in a world where banks are looking for 10 to 20 percent down payments on loan financing, a lease is by definition 100 percent financing (subject to security deposits and the like). No wonder some banks report that aircraft leases represent a growing portion of their aircraft finance portfolio.
Basel III and the changes to lease accounting lie in the future–albeit a not-too-distant one. Meanwhile, aircraft lenders are still struggling with the problem that has haunted them for several years: cash. There's a surfeit of capital out there looking for a home. An aircraft buyer recently said to me, "Why would I borrow money to buy an aircraft? I have more cash on hand than I know what to do with."
International Aircraft Finance
The tepid aircraft finance climate in the U.S. has encouraged aircraft financiers in this country to seek out new customers overseas. Many American institutions have been financing aircraft in Europe for years. In fact, some U.S. lenders–CIT and Guggenheim come to mind–specialize in such transactions.
But other international markets–places like China, Russia, Brazil and the Middle East–pose greater challenges for aviation lenders. Jet buyers in these locations frequently have trouble understanding the requirements faced by U.S. banks in making aircraft loans and leases. Dealing with collateral–obtaining, perfecting and enforcing security interests in aircraft–is a major issue, for example. Even if the buyer is a reputable zillionaire, if he resides in a country where foreign investment is risky, it will likely have an impact on his ability to obtain financing from U.S. sources.
One prominent financier in the international market is the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Its mission is to provide financing (often in the form of guarantees of loans made by other institutions) to non-U.S. borrowers for the purchase of goods (including airplanes) manufactured in America. The vast majority of aircraft financings by the Export-Import Bank are commercial jets, but the Bank is nevertheless active in helping international buyers acquire U.S.-manufactured business jets. Last spring, Congress extended the lease on life of the Bank (a government agency backed by the U.S. government) for an additional three years, also phasing in an opportunity for it to significantly increase its loan exposure limit.
Fractional Shares
Financing the acquisition of fractional business jet shares is an aviation finance backwater. One reason is that lenders find it difficult to obtain meaningful collateral in the case of fractional shares. By definition, a fractional-share participant owns only an undivided partial interest in the aircraft. If the owner defaults, the bank can't just foreclose on the share (let alone the whole aircraft) and sell it, since there's no real secondary market for shares. The logical buyer is the fractional program itself, which is in the business of selling more shares, not buying them back and reselling shares already sold.
The original and still the largest fractional program, NetJets, had a relationship for years with a financial institution that provided loans to share purchasers. But in 2010, NetJets announced with much fanfare that it would provide its own financing for share purchasers through its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway. Some form of financing is still available from NetJets, but better deals may be available elsewhere. Flexjet, a NetJets competitor, does not offer financing but will make suggestions about appropriate third-party financial institutions.
Share purchasers who don't want to write a check for a share should consider leasing instead. If you run the numbers, the lease may be a better deal–keeping in mind that if you purchase a share, you bear the risk that before the program repurchases it, the aircraft will decline in value. That is nearly always the case–and often dramatically so.
Even with stiffer requirements on down payments, amortization, term and aircraft age, business jet finance remains a good deal for good credits. With spreads of between 135 and 250 basis points over 30-day Libor, floating rates are currently below 3 percent and often below 2 percent for investment-grade credits. Fixed rates, though slightly higher, remain popular with buyers who plan to own an aircraft for at least five to seven years. This is still a good time to obtain debt or lease financing.
Aircraft Financial Institutions
Private and Commercial Banks and Affiliates
Banc of America Leasing, Global Corporate Aircraft Finance, 15301 Dallas Parkway, Suite 830, Addison, TX 75001, Michael T. Amalfitano, (972) 455-5855
CBI Leasing, Inc., Aircraft Finance, Commerce Bank N.A., Lake Forest, IL 60045, Sean K. Patrick, (847) 295-4601
Chase Equipment Finance, Inc., 100 N. Tampa St., Suite 3300, Tampa, FL 33602, Chad E. Colby, (813) 483-8246
CIT Bank, CIT Aerospace Business Aircraft, 1000 South Pine Island Road, Suite 5000, Plantation, FL 33324, Michael J. Kahmann, (954)-359-4646
Citi Private Bank, Global Aircraft Finance, 153 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10021, Ford von Weise, (212) 559-1444
City National Bank, Aircraft Finance Group, 9 Executive Circle, Suite 105, Irvine, CA 92614, David W. Maurer, (213) 673-8929
Deutsche Bank, Private Wealth Management, Private Aviation Finance, 222 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 25 SE, Chicago, IL 60606, David W. Rodin, (312) 537-1510
Fifth Third Bank Leasing, 225 Franklin St., 26th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, Matt McNamara, (617) 573-5191
First Republic Bank, Aviation/Marine Finance, 111 Pine St., Ninth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111, James F. Simpson, (415) 296-5783
First Source Bank, Laird Professional Building, 110 Hopewell Road, Suite 2E, Downingtown, PA 19335, Jeffrey Lindstadt, (610) 269-1683
Key Equipment Finance, Corporate Aviation Finance, 225 Franklin St., 18th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, Patti Ann Sullivan, (978) 261-5201
PNC Aviation Finance, 4355 Emerald St., Suite 100, Boise, ID 83706, Wayne Starling, (888) 339-2834
RBS Aviation Finance, 875 Elm St., Third Floor, Manchester, NH 03101, Donald A. Synborski, (603) 634-7522
SunTrust Equipment Finance & Leasing Corp., Corporate Aircraft Finance, 300 E. Joppa Road, Seventh Floor, Towson, MD 21286, John J. Amato, (303) 775-6631
U.S. Bank Equipment Finance, Capital Equipment Group–Corporate Aircraft, 9050 17th St., Seventh Floor, Denver, CO 80202, Pete J. Georgelas, (303) 585-4036
Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc., Corporate Aircraft Division, 1800 Century Park East, 13th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90067, Robert C. Lebano, (310) 789-5036
Other Financial Institutions
Cessna Finance Corp., 100 N. Broadway, Suite 600, Wichita, KS 67202, Perry Bridges, (316) 660-1392
Export-Import Bank of the United States, Transportation Division, 811 Vermont Ave., Washington, DC 20571, Robert F. X. Roy, Jr., (202) 565-3557
GE Capital Corp., Corporate Aircraft Finance, 10 Riverview Drive, Danbury, CT 06810, Brent P. Godfred, (203) 749-6657
Guggenheim Partners, Business Aviation Investments, 330 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017, Chris Miller, (212) 293-2818
Prudential Capital Group, 3350 Riverwood Parkway S.E., Suite 1500, Atlanta, GA 30339, Robert Penfold, (770) 701-2410
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Toner Cartridges For Samsung CLX-6220FX
The Samsung CLX-6220FX laser toner from LD Products is a professionally remanufactured laser toner cartridge that is guaranteed to meet or exceed the print quality of the OEM toner cartridge. Purchasing our Samsung CLX-6220FX laser toner is an excellent way to save money without sacrificing quality. Our Samsung CLX-6220FX laser toner cartridge has a 'Two Year 100% Quality Satisfaction Guarantee'. The use of our remanufactured laser toner for the Samsung CLX-6220FX does not void your printer's warranty. OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) laser toner cartridges are also available for your Samsung CLX-6220FX printer. More


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Number of Required Coins
: 21
Current Finest Possible Set Rating
: 69.167
View Set Composition
( Shop )
From 1909-1912, Germany issued a 25 Pfennig denomination. Essentially a quarter of a Mark, the 25 Pfennig was an odd fit between the Nickel 20 Pfennig and the silver 1/2 Mark, both of which were established denominations. As a result, the 25 Pfennig was short-lived and was discontinued after 1912. In general, Proofs are quite scarce. They come in a variety of finishes, ranging from uniformly satiny to wonderful black-and-white cameos. Often, only the field are brilliant while the design elements and outer borders are frosted. The key date in this series is the 1909-J, which is rare as a business strike and very rare as a Proof.
Notes: This set has bonuses. Please see the Set Composition for a listing.


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Duo Scorpio: Scorpion TalesPosted by Jay Batzner in CD Review, tags: Andrès, CD Review, chamber music, Currier, harp, Jay Batzner, Kathryn Andrews, Kristi Shade, Lizaotte, Paterson, Taylor
Scorpion Tales
music by Andrès, Paterson, Lizotte, Currier, and Taylor
American Modern Recordings
- Le Jardin des Paons – Bernard Andrès
- Scorpion Tales – Robert Paterson
- Raga – Caroline Lizotte
- Crossfade – Sebastian Currier
- Unfurl – Stephen Taylor
- Parvis – Bernard Andrès
I must confess that harp duos aren't something I've thought a lot about in the past. Duo Scorpio's first release, Scorpion Tales, has me thinking a lot more about this ensemble and this particular duo. On the whole, Duo Scorpio's album simultaneously affirms and denies any stereotypes you might have about music for two harps. Kathryn Andrews and Kristi Shade deliver stellar performances throughout the disc regardless of how conventional or unconventional the compositions might be.
The disc is bookended by works of Bernard Andrès. Le Jardin des Paons reflects the impressionistic tendencies of the harp but also highlights many nuanced coloristic possibilities which might not be as readily explored in other ensemble writing. Parvis contains more drive and darkness, ramping up the timbral possibilities by quite a few notches. Parvis is quite an exciting barn-burner to close the disc, too. Both compositions are thickly scored at times, showcasing the duo's ability to create huge clouds of sound across their entire range. Andrès treats the duo as if it was a quartet and that treatment pays off.
The title composition for the disc, Robert Paterson's Scorpion Tales, is a three movement work which treats the duo more as one hyper-instrument. Gestures and textures stay unified throughout the duo, blurring the lines between Andrews and Shade and presenting singularly focused musical shapes. Similarly, Crossfade by Sebastian Currier takes a more "single instrument" approach to the harp duo by shifting ideas in and out of the ensemble gradually. Counterpoint between the two instruments is kept on the micro-level until the loudest and most active sections.
Two works on this disc use more unconventional approaches in exploring the sonic potential of this duo. Unfurl by Stephen Taylor, unwinds itself in sparkling arpeggios through Pythagorean tunings. The retuned instruments are a quite refreshing sound and add much to the harmonic resonance of the composition. Additionally, some of Taylor's low range writing is rather impressive and enjoyable. Caroline Lizotte's Raga is a real gem. Beginning with a haunting sound (a snare stick rubbed on the string) I am still not convinced that the piece doesn't involve either of the performers singing. The gentle build in activity from these spacious and gorgeous tones flows naturally until Duo Scorpio hits their apex of chamber music writing outside of the Andrès pieces. With a little augmented percussion, Raga shows yet another rabbit hole for coloristic possibilities. Lizotte explores these colors incredibly well and Duo Scorpio makes it all seem completely natural and idiomatic.


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Being a single father is tough, whether you've got custody of your kids or not. In addition to legally-enforced child support obligations, you've got to work with the visitation schedule the court ordered to spend time with your kids, and your expenses are at least as high as they are for fathers who live full-time with their kids. It isn't the carefree life of a childless bachelor by any means. This may leave a single father wondering how he could find the time to get the education he needs to get ahead in his career. In fact, a lot of single fathers may write off the idea entirely; the idea of going back to school seems like more of a pipe dream than reality.
However, there are options that can make it feasible while still allowing single fathers to keep their jobs and continue to see their kids on a regular basis. The most effective and realistic option is to pursue a degree online, allowing flexibility and eliminating the need to commute. It's a great way to save time and trouble while gaining valuable knowledge and career opportunities.
Read Our Featured Article: 10 Best Online Degrees for Single Fathers


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Secretary Clinton travels to Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain November 30 - December 3. In Kazakhstan, she will attend the Summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as head of the U.S. delegation. Prior to the Summit, she will host an event for local and international non-governmental organizations, underscoring the importance of a vibrant civil society. She will also meet with Kazakhstan's President Nazarbayev and Foreign Minister Saudabayev to discuss various aspects of the U.S.-Kazakhstan strategic partnership.
In the Kyrgyz Republic, Secretary Clinton will meet with President Otunbayeva and other government officials. She will review political developments in the wake of Kyrgyzstan's historic election, and discuss a range of issues of mutual concern.
In Uzbekistan, Secretary Clinton will meet with President Karimov to discuss a wide range of matters in our bilateral relationship and in regional affairs.
In Bahrain, Secretary Clinton will deliver the keynote address on the role of the United States in regional security at The Manama Dialogue 2010, an annual forum hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in cooperation with the Kingdom of Bahrain.
José in Brazil writes:
Sentimentality is insufficient without understanding its causes. The earth does not support the current population who installed worldwide. AIDS is a "natural law" for the protection of ecosystems, establish rules and boundaries of Man on E...arth.
How much more underdeveloped is society, more "she" produces problems and trauma to the Governments.
Portuguese of Brazil:
Sentimentalismo é insuficiente sem compreender suas causas. A terra não oferece suporte a população atual que instalou em todo o mundo. A AIDS é uma "lei natural" para a proteção dos ecossistemas, estabelecer regras e limites do Homem na Terra.
Quanto mais subdesenvolvida é a sociedade, mais "ela" produz problemas e trauma para governos


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Apricot and Chicken Bruschetta
- 1/2 loaf ciabatta bread
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup apricot preserves
- 5 ounces fontina cheese, thinly sliced
- 6 ounces roasted chicken breast, cooled and thinly sliced
- 3 ounces (about 5 slices) prosciutto, thinly sliced
- Extra-virgin olive oil, to drizzle
DirectionsWatch how to make this recipe.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Slice the bread into 10 slices, each about 1/2-inch thick. Brush the bread slices with the olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until crisp and golden. Cool to room temperature.
Spread each slice of the toasted bread with the apricot preserves then place a slice of the cheese on top. Arrange the sliced chicken on top of the cheese. Cut each piece of prosciutto in half and place on top of the chicken. Transfer the bruschetta to a serving platter. Drizzle with the extra-virgin olive oil and serve.
Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis, 2008
CATEGORIES:View All
Cooking Tips
More Recipes and Ideas
Dipped Apricots
Recipe courtesy of Food Network Kitchen
Apricot and Pineapple Crisps
Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis


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Reviewed By Greg P (Cosby, MO) Reviewed for a 2007 Ford Expedition —7/23/2011 10:46 AM
I put this on my 07 expedition and have two chenkengine codes and issues with my TPS (tire pressure monitor system). Have called bully dog and they rewrote the program for my vehicle and I re-uploaded it to vehicle and CEL is still there and have to clear it every time I start it. I am going to call Bully Dog again.


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Question for the hockey guys-
The Avalanche drafted a kid in the 2nd round by the name of Ryan O'Reilly who plays up here in Erie for the OHL team. My wife had him in class this year (OHL players at least attend high school) and by all accounts he's a hell of a kid- best player on the team, intelligent, polite and respectful in class and a natural leader.
So what are the odds that he plays in Cleveland next year? Not sure how the NHL works, do they develop like MLB or do they put their top prospects on the parent club? He just graduated so I'm guessing he's 18. In the OHL, you can keep a few over-age kis on each team, but I'm not sure how old is too old. Any ideas or educated guesses on where he plays next year would be great. Thanks