A short trip to Maine

We are in Maine! We left this morning at about 10:30 and arrived at 5:30. That's because we stopped at Bob's Clam Hut for lunch and at a bookstore in Damariscotta. We are staying with Jim and Mary. We just had a lovely supper of Shepherd's Pie that Ellen brought, brussel sprouts fresh from the garden, and Mary's rhubarb pie. Today was a gorgeous day and the foliage was still colorful this late in the year. I read a couple of Eudora Welty short stories aloud in the car. I didn't sleep very well last night so I probably dozed a bit too. We'll be home Wednesday night.

The bookstore in Damariscotta - Ellen loved it.

Across the street from the bookstore - handsome buildings!

An Unidentified Print

I have not quite completed my survey of prints and posters that I took to Experienced Goods a few weeks ago (see my blog for September 14th). One of them was the following print:

A print from the Museum in Regensburg, Germany; unknown subject and unknown artist. I have not been able to find this print anywhere on-line. However, my guess is that it is a portrait of St. John the Apostle on the Island of Patmos. The Book of Revelation in the New Testament is attributed to John the Apostle, and it was ostensibly written while he was exiled on the island by the Roman government. (Revelations 9.1). Visions which he had there led to his writing Revelations. In the painting, the subject has a book on his lap, he is having a vision of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus, and there is an ocean behind him, suggesting an island venue. There is a lamb resting its head on the subject's knee - the Lamb of God is a prominent theme in the Book of Revelations (and the Gospel of John). Also supporting this guess are some known portraits of the Apostle John on Patmos which are similar in some respects - here are three (1) by Hieronymous Bosch; (2) by an unknown artist; (3) by Baldung Grien.

John on Patmos, Hieronymous Bosch

John on Patmos, unknown artist

John on Patmos, Baldung Grien************************************* These other paintings of John on Patmos all have a vision of the Virgin, a book on the lap, and an ocean. What makes my hypothesis a bit uncertain in my mind, however, is that in my painting, the subject has no pen (in all three of the other paintings, John is holding a pen); and there is something going on with some ships just beyond his fingers which doesn't seem to have a connection to the Book of Revelations. Indeed - he seems to be paying attention to the ships, not to the vision of Mary. Also, the subject is more roughly dressed than in any of the other three paintings. So, I'm not sure. If anyone out there knows the provenance of this painting, please make a comment. *********************************************** Yesterday, we went to Northampton in the afternoon and spent some time with Tamar and Ben. I actually had a chance to talk wth Ben at some length while Ellen and Tamar took Theo for a walk. We talked, among other things, about science, and particularly about what scientists are saying today about the line between human and non-human, and whether some animals (e.g., whales, dolphins, chimps) are thought to possibly use language. I thought possibly yes; Ben wasn't sure. Today (Saturday) John came over for a couple of hours and we had a good visit. Cynthia was up in Windsor, VT with her nephew's family, so he had some time to go out, do some errands, and spend some time with us. I raised the human/non-human issue, and John said that so far as he knows, scientists are very resistant to claiming that any animals have language. They communicate with each other, yes; they can learn sign language (chimps) or can be taught how to use a symbol board to communicate with humans. (dolphins). But this is not language. Hal Whitehead has suggested that whales and dolphins have "culture" but anthropologists object vociferously to using the term "culture" in reference to animal behavior. (Cf. Whitehead and Rendell, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins (Univ. of Chicago, 2015). This is a very interesting issue and I'm going to try to learn more about it. I found this article on-line: Kevin N. Laland and William Hoppitt, Do Animals Have Culture? It is published in the periodical Evolutionary Anthropology (Vol. 12, 2003). The authors are at the U. St. Andrews and U. Cambridge, UK, respectively. I'll give it a read!

"Tire"d

Yesterday, I sort of wore myself out working on a flat tire. It wasn't a tire on our car; it was a flat tire on Jerome Holland's old Volkswagon.. He actually had a flat on the right rear, and a slow leak on the left rear tire. I arrived at his place on Ledgewood Heights in Brattleboro with an old can of "Puncture Repair" (which I had had sitting around for decades and didn't have much faith in) and my old air pump which runs off the cigarette lighter. It looks broken but actually works ok. I thought we could jack up the wheel, try the puncture repair and then see if it would hold any air. The jack that came with the VW was unlike any jack I had ever seen. I couldn't even figure out which way was up! So I used my Subaru jack, which is a common jack. It worked fine, but the effort required to operate it involved bending over and stooping a lot, and that was hard on my knees. Jerome could help a bit but he can expend very little effort before he has trouble breathing, so I did most of it. I got the tire up off the ground and tried the puncture repair can. I shook it vigorously, and there was some liquid in it, but when I stuck it on the tire valve, nothing happened. Either it was so old there was no propellant left in it, or I wasn't able to get it on to the tire valve far enough to trigger the valve inside the neck of the can. In any case, it was useless. So I suggested we try the pump anyway. We couldn't find a cigarette lighter anywhere in the VW, so I drove my car close enough to the VW to be able to reach the lighter port in my car. The pump worked fine, but after running several minutes, it hadn't pumped any air into the tire. The dial on the pump that shows the air pressure in the tire had not moved at all off zero. So we moved to plan B - take the tire off the car and take it to a tire repair place to be fixed. That involved getting the lug nuts off the wheel. I was able to do that by using my foot to push on the lug wrench. Once again, some bending and stooping and dealing with knee pain, but I managed to get the lug nuts off. But then ... the wheel would not budge. It was high enough to be off the ground: that was not the problem. The problem was the way the wheel fits on to the axle. Normally, when you get the lugs off, the wheel is loose and practically falls off on its own. Not this wheel! That baby was locked on the hub. We both tried using our hands and our feet to loosen it, but no luck. If we had had a rubber mallet, we could have banged it from behind the wheel - that might have done the trick. But we didn't have a mallet. Given the state of my shoulders, I have very little arm strength anymore, and Jerome wasn't much better. We needed a strong teen-ager! Not one in sight. Jerome's daughter, Margaret, has a boy-friend, Forrest, but he was in school and wouldn't be out for another couple of hours or so. So - Plan C - I decided to call a tire place I use a lot - Pete's Tire Barn just across the river in Chesterfield, NH. Could they send someone out to help us get the tire off and take it back to the shop? Nope .... their guy who might do that sort of thing was out for the rest of the day. So, what to do? What was Plan D? I have AAA - I actually have Platinum AAA. But I didn't think I could use it with someone else's car. "But," I thought, "why not call them, and if I have to, I'll just pay them." So I called. I had to given them our location and describe the vehicle. I did not know the year or model of the car (Jerome had gone back into his house at that point, so I couldn't ask him). It was just a VW with silver paint. They didn't ask, "Is this your car, sir?" They said someone would be there in about forty minutes. Actually it was more like 30 minutes. It was Al's Towing, from Vernon, VT. Not too far away. He looked the situation over, drove the VW up onto the ramp of the tow-truck, tied it down, never even asked to see my AAA card and was off for Pete's Tire Barn in a jiffy. So that was that! We followed in my car to Pete's, and explained the situation. They'll call me when the work is done and I can give them my credit card #, and either I or Forrest can take Jerome (or Margaret) there to pick it up. So that took care of that problem! I took Jerome home and went by the computer store to check on my laptop. They had successfully fixed the MacBookPro that had crashed, but my second laptop, the MacBookAir, needs a larger hard drive, so I had left it there Tuesday. But my calendar is on it, and I needed to check the calendar, so I asked if I could see my laptop for a minute. They ended up letting me take it home until the new drive comes in. They said they don't usually do that, but they would make an exception. By the time I got home, I was pretty tired, but I felt I had accomplished something,

Al's Towing and Pete's Tire Barn**************************** I rested up a bit and did some reading in preparation for the Swarthmore Short Stories course. Stories by Armistead Maupin and Carmen Maria Machado. The Husband Stitch by Machado and three chapters from Tales of the City by Maupin. Very provocative, especially the Machado story. It aroused both strong likes and dislikes from the class. I can't say much about them because they are fairly explicit sexually, but the discussion of the stories did lead to a special addendum after the course was "officially" over in which Peter Schwartz talked about what Swarthmore students are thinking and talking about in terms of sexual mores - with the caveat that an older, white, male teacher might not fully know about that, but he clearly knew more than we do! So that was interesting.

Armistead Maupin

Carmen Maria Machado

Our last Zohar class

Tonight was the last class that we have been having with Rabbi Lee Moore on the Zohar. I can't remember if I have talked about the Zohar in my blog. This class took the place of Torah study when Rabbi Ahuvah left and Rabbi Lee Moore came as an interim. She had studied the Zohar with a scholar in Jewish mysticism, and she wanted to share what she had learned with us. The Zohar is a 13th century Spanish work, multi-volumed, written in Aramaic, and recently translated into English by Daniel Matt. We started in Vol. 9, and although Rabbi Lee had photocopied handouts, I bought Vol. 9 so I could read ahead. Here it is:

The Zohar, Vol. 9********************************************* It is not easy reading, but it is fascinating. This Volume is heavily annotated, which is helpful, because there is a lot going on that is pretty obscure. But once you begin to get the hang of it, it is very interesting and it is surprising how often these obscure interpretations of Hebrew scripture resonate with contemporary issues and realities. Tonight for example, there was a lot of discussion of gender, what it means to be a man and a woman, who is superior, who should walk in front of the other, etc. You would expect this medieval Jewish work to be typically patriarchal, but it isn't. There's a lot of gender confusion, ambiguity, displacement, with the notion of the man going behind the woman (the woman in this case being Shekinah, the female presence of God) being a more desirable position. I'm sorry that this study is ending, and I am hoping that somehow I can learn more about the Zohar. I may have to do it on my own, using the footnotes.

Rabbi Lee Moore

Dr. Appt.

i'm at the Dr.'s office - Dr. Greene, neurologist. It is a check-up on my Patkinson's, and I'm doing well. He runs a little test and I did better on it than I did when I first came in a few months ago. So that's good. And when I checked out, the woman who scheduled my new appointment said that her son was my neighbor and I said, "Didn't my late wife Shirley marry you and your husband?" And she said "yes!" So a nice little connection there! Small world! Her son, Phil, and his wife, Ashley, had a little boy in July - Elliot. We bought some clothes for him in Maine that we haven't had a chance to give him yet. Better get on that! Robin Davis brought me today because Ellen is in Keene with Karin Thalin - she volunteered to take her to a therapy session. So I'm waiting for Robin.

Waiting rooms all look alike!

Church and Poetry

Today we sang in the choir at the Guilford Church - our first time for an indoor service - and then we went to Kathy and Tom's place for a poetry group session - the first time for us in over two years! So our life is feeling more like "normal" in some ways. It was great to be with these folks again and doing things we enjoy.

Our little poetry group. We take turns reading a poem out loud and talking about it. It was a beautiful fall afternoon

Kathy and Tom's place is so lovely!

The choir singing during the service this morning

We went by Shirley and Betsey's graves -- looking nice in this late fall. We have not yet had a frost either here at the cemetery or at our house.

Durham, NY trip

Yesterday, we made a day-trip to Durham, NY, where Michael and Amy (Michael is the nephew of Rob Shay) have just this year bought a cabin, a get-away spot in the northern Catskills. They wanted us to see it, so we drove over - a 2 1/2 hour drive, give or take a few minutes, going over via Bennington, Troy and Albany, and then SW from Albany about a half-hour's drive. It seemed pretty easy going over - coming back in the dark was a bit more stressful for Ellen around Albany, esp. on I-787. We had never been in this part of the state of NY before, and it was very interesting. It is mountainous, and quite scenic, but it is also culturally interesting. Durham has several little hamlets within its boundaries, four of which are Durham, East Durham, Oak Hill and Cornwallville. Of these, we spent some time mainly in East Durham and Oak Hill. East Durham is "Irishville," - at some point in the early 20th century it was heavily settled by Irish immigrants, and some echoes of that persist to this day, e.g., in Irish shops. Oak Hill is funky but fascinating. Michael and Amy had not explored it before, and were happy to get to know it a bit. I had found a photo on-line which looked interesting and when we tracked it down, it was in Oak Hill: it was the L. Tripp Store and House complex. The store was a chock-full old General Store cum Antique Store. The brick house next door was classic from the outside but not open to the public. Across the street was an odd mausoleum. We also attended an event - A Halloween City Craft Fair and Flea Market which was unlike anything I had seen before: hundreds of booths with vendors dressed for Halloween selling an odd assortment of stuff and people wandering about in costume - people that clearly were different from me and I would have loved to have had a conversation with some of them, but it was not set up to facilitate that. But it was fun to look around. Amy and Michael's cabin is quite nice and they feel they got a good deal on it considering today's crazy real estate market. It has a nice entry room, a large kitchen, very roomy living-room/dining area, a downstairs bedroom and bath, an upstairs loft bedroom, and a little back sun room/laundryroom. Michael fixed us a nice lunch of omelettes, sausage and toast with peach jam made from their own peach trees. We also met Amy's father, Alfredo, who was visiting this weekend. They took us for a drive into neighboring Windham, a very lively, touristy village, and we got some great views of mountains and valleys. All-in-all, a very interesting, fun day! The time flew by. We got home at about 9:30p.m.

Michael and Amy's cabin in Durham, NY

The living-room/dining-room area of the cabin - Amy's dad is in the doorway

Michael preparing lunch in the kitchen

The view just a little up the road from their cabin

A couple of places in "Irishville." I thought the separate benches for Democrats and Republicans was sort of cute

Several scenes from "Halloween City" Craft Fair

The L. Tripp Store and House

Inside the store

Michael and Amy looking over old books

It's yours for $75

A display as you enter the store

The "funky" mausoleum - I don't think anyone is actually buried here, but it looks that way

An improvement

Well, I have access to the Internet using my computer at the house! I am not using a satellite dish. I have cancelled that. What happened is that I have figured out how to connect my computer to the iPhone, and the iPhone is now a personal hotspot, which makes it possible to access the Internet with my computer through it. So, for example, I just downloaded music from Peter Amidon for church Sunday. I can download mail onto the computer. Up until now, both of those things would have required a trip to the Dummerston Church. At present, I do not have a lot of gigabytes that I can use for the computer on the phone - it's 10 GB a month. But, if I use my time efficiently for basic necessary things like email and downloading things that I need to print out, I think I can do it. More extended periods of research on the Internet, I'll probably still go to the church. We'll have to see how much data watching a movie or a video will use - quite a bit, I'm sure. We can increase it of course, it will just cost a bit more. We have unlimited data on the phone; there is just this limitation on the use of the computer hooked into the phone. I chose that plan because it was the least expensive option and I just wanted to see how it works. So far it is saved me several trips to the church. I talked with Katie this afternoon. She has resigned her position at Flow Hub. As she put it, the place had become toxic for her. E.g., her Supervisor, Stephanie, whom she liked very much, has quit. Lots of people have quit. The man who took S's place is terrible. Katie feels good about resigning and she's going to do some temp-work until she finds something more permanent. Katie, we are sending lots of positive energy your way! Tomorrow, we visit Michael and Amy in Durham, NY, SW of Albany.

Downtown Durham, NY

And another “return.”

Yesterday evening, we did something else that we haven't done since before the pandemic. We went to the Bergh's, had supper with them, and watched a sporting event on TV. We would do that fairly often before the pandemic - usually with men's basketball, watching the Tar Heels. This time it was the NLCS game number five between the Red Sox and the Astros. I am beginning to think that maybe our watching the game jinxes the Red Sox because they lost again. The last time we watched, game number one, they also lost. So the series is now 3-2 in favor of the Astros. It will now move back to Houston, and the Sox will have to win two away games to win the series- an unlikey outcome. Oh well..... Going to the Bergh's for a 5 o'clock game meant missing two Zoom sessions - Contemplative Prayer and Zohar study. Sort of a frivolous thing to do, I guess, but not really because being with the Bergh family again was the main thing; the game was secondary. That included Cliff, their daughter, Sarah, the two girls, Phoebe and Maggie, and their son Will. Ellen prepared the meal, which was also part of the tradition. I had a good chance to talk with Cliff about his work with Will Hunter, in Wethersfield. Will has an unusual vocation of owning rental properties which he rents at very reasonable rates to men who have just been released from prison, who typically have a hard time finding places to live. i know Will Hunter through the Wethersfield Church where I used to preach once a year on a pretty regular basis. So....a good evening. Next week will be the last Zohar session.

Phoebe and Maggie riding on hobby horses outside the house. You can see an old satellite dish no longer in operation. i'll ask Cliff what their experience with it was like.

Back with River Singers

Tuesday was a special day. For the first time since March 10, 2020, We had a regular session of River Singers. It was a smaller group than usual - about 36-40 people - so that we could be evenly spaced in our rehearsal venue at the Westminster-West church. We all wore masks. It was a shorter session then we usually had before the pandemic. There were four air filters working to purify the air and there were open windows. So we felt pretty safe. It was really great singing with others in person. I felt that I sang pretty well. I did not have a huge problem with phlegm. So hallelujah! A little step toward what I guess we could call normalcy. Sam Green, a fellow-bass, took a nice photo of the church with sunset behind it:

A new decision

This morning we had an unusual visitor. His name was Paul Whitman and he works for Hughes.net, a satellite dish company. He was here to find out if the satellite can be accessed from our house. I have assumed for many years that because we are on the north side of a mountain, we could not see the satellite from our house, because it is in the southern sky. But I decided that maybe I should let an expert tell me that. So I called Hughes net. Paul checked out the situation and he told me that if I could bring down one large birch tree behind the house, we could access the satellite! That came as a surprise. I have always assumed that the satellite was behind the mountain. But it is higher than that. If he is right and if I can get the tree brought down for not too much expense, we could have Wi-Fi here at the house!! There would be no installation fee and it would cost $69 a month. That would be far less expensive than having cable brought in. There are some issues concerning the placement of the dish. It would have to be either on a pole in front of the house, or on the roof. Paul seemed to think either would work. If it were on a pole, it would sort of spoil our view, and we would also have to have a small trench dug to run the cable from the dish to the house underground. Having it on the roof would eliminate the need for a trench and we wouldn't have to stare at it, but if there was snow and ice buildup during the winter that could affect reception, it would be harder to clean out on the roof. So, each option has pros and cons. We have to decide whether to proceed. I guess I'll look into what it would entail to have the tree brought down. If it could just be dropped, that would be simple enough. But it is close enough to the house so that it would have to be dropped in just the right way. Here is a picture – the tall birch tree between the two fir trees is what would have to come down. The satellite is behind that tree. We should probably also talk to people who have satellite dishes and find out how big a problem snow and ice can be.

A special service

The service at St. Michael's Episcopal Church was very special - John and Mary came forward, Mary was presented with an engraved silver tray for her decades of service on the Altar Guild, The Rector enumerated both Mary and John's many contributions to the church and said a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing. The sermon was given by the assistant and was outstanding. The choir sang beautifully. All good!

St.Michael's Episcopal church - just after the service ended

Susan Carnahan Vodrey, John and Mary Carnahan, outside after the service

Me with John and Mary

The reception tent outside the church******************************************* Susan has been helping with packing and clearing out for the past week and a half! John and Mary will actually leave tomorrow (Tuesday) to go up to Randolph. They will be moving into Morgan Orchards just outside the village of Randolph. It is conveniently located right off I-91 - less than an hour and a half drive for us. We promised we would visit soon and try to come once a month. If we do, we'll actually see more of them in-person than we have here!

Morgan Orchards, from their website************************************** Monday evening, Phil McKean arrived, coming from the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Hampshire College. Hampshire announced its closing about a year ago because their liquid assets had fallen below the line required by the NEASC accrediting body as necessary for a viable college (essentially, the amount needed to assure that an entering class could graduate). The announcement inspired a rush of alumni and donor support, a new interim President was hired; the documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, an alumnus, signed on as co-chair of an endowment fund-raising effort, $60 million was set as a goal- the amount required - and they are well on their way. So the 50th Anniversary, which could have been a wake, was more celebratory than could have been imagined a year ago. Phil saw many former students, and colleagues.

Hampshire College. We had a lovely supper prepared by Ellen with Pbil's food preferences in mind, and a good conversation Sunday evening and Monday morning. Much of it centered on the very wrenching issues surrounding Deborah, Phil's wife, who is a resident at Quarry Hill, an Alzheimer's facility in Camden, Maine. She is receiving very good care there, and it allows Phil to see her daily but also make little trips like this one, knowing that she will be ok. But one day not too long ago, he went in and she seemed to be in a coma - unresponsive. He said his tearful goodbye's, sitting with her for over an hour, and when he left he wasn't sure he would see her again. But the next day she had revived and was sitting up, eating breakfast! Hooray! But he knows it could happen any time. And what then? So we talked about that, and it was good to share that with him. We hope to visit him in Maine next month,and I hope I might get to see Deborah at least one more time.

Quarry Hill Community in Camden, Maine

Catching up on sleep

Katie and Savanna came home in time for supper last night, and Savanna encouraged us to stay and watch the first ALCS baseball game between the Red Sox and the Astros, which we did. But it was a long game (which the Red Sox lost, 5-4).

Tonight in Game 2, Martinez and Devers both hit grand slam homers, and the Red Sox beat the Astros 9-5.******************************************* It was after midnight before we left Shutesbury last night, which means it was almost 2 a.m. when we got home and getting on toward 3 a.m. before I got to sleep. So we slept in this morning - it was 10:30a.m. before Elllen got up and closer to 11:30 a.m. when I actually got out of bed. I made myself breakfast and read for a while and pretty much took it easy. Now Ellen is at Hannaford's and I am at the Dummerston Church using WiFi. It is raining. Tomorrow, we learned that John and Mary Carnahan will be honored at St. Michael's Episcopal Church during the morning service, so we plan to go there. It is their last Sunday before moving to Randolph, VT - after a 50-year-long connection with that cburch! We can do that because we decided not to try and go with Jerry and Tamar to Ray Feinland's 92nd birthday party in Stamford, CT tomorrow because of COVID concerns, inside at a restaurant. Tomorrow evening, Phil McKean, who has been at a Hampshire College reunion event, plans to come by for supper and stay overnight before going back to Maine.

Horst R. Moehring

I owe a great deal to Horst Moehring. A great deal. It would be no exaggeration to say that if I had not met Horst, I would not be where I am today. At the very least, I would, in all liklihood, not have gotten a PhD. Who knows what direction my life would have taken? I met Horst in Chicago, in 1956. I decided, in my last year of seminary, to study Greek, and Horst was my teacher. As a result, he and his wife, Constance, became friends of Shirley and myself. The day I graduated from seminary, we had supper with Horst and Constance at a German restaurant in downtown Chicago (the Heidelberger Fass), and then drove together to Vermont. Horst joined the faculty of Brown University. During the time we lived in Dummerston, they visited us, driving up from Providence more than once in their very unusual but also very cute DKW automobile, which had a 3-cylinder engine and ran on a gas/oil mix!

1957 DKW ********************************************* Both Horst and Constance were amateur photographers, and they gave us two “castoff” cameras: a Rolleicord and a Topcon. (My granddaughter, Katie, eventually got the Rolleicord).

Rolleicord camera******************************************** It was Horst who wrote in 1959 or early 1960 to inform me that the Department of Religious Studies at Brown had several NDEA fellowships available, and would I be interested in applying for one? This created a very real motivation to leave the parish ministry and get a PhD. I thought a lot about it, prayed about it, and eventually applied, got the fellowship, and entered Brown in the fall of 1960. Once we came to Providence, Horst was one of my professors - mainly in reading Hellenistic Greek, and also in textual criticism. We also often got together with Horst and Constance socially. We enjoyed them, but there were also strains in the relationship. The most important of these was that both of them were agnostics, and not only that, Horst carried on a running diatribe against the more fundamentalist manifestations of Christianity. It was almost an obsession with him. I had my own problems with fundamentalist Christianity, but at times his attitude made me uncomfortable. Horst also had very narrow academic interests. His primary interests were textual and linguistic. He was devoting his career primarily to preparing a concordance to the writings of the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus. This was incredibly detailed and tedious work, and it was not what I wanted to give my life to. There was another professsor in Biblical Studies in the Department: William Schoedel. Bill Schoedel had broader interests—he was a scholar of the New Testament and Early Christianity, and his curiosity and interests were wide-ranging. I felt I could learn a great deal from him. Shirley and I also became friends with him and his wife Grace, and we developed a “tradition” of getting together every Friday evening to have pizza and play hearts. The Schoedels also had three children, two of whom were close in age to ours. And spiritually I felt a deeper kinship with Bill. He was a “preachers kid” like me, his father was a Lutheran pastor and Bill was an active member of the Lutheran church. Like me, he had both an underlying ground of faith and also a very open and questioning mind. For all these reasons, and perhaps others I am unaware of, I cast my lot with Bill as a thesis advisor. It was a good choice and I have never regretted it. But I think it was a disappointment to Horst, and it put a distance between him and me that never really healed. Since graduating from Brown, I kept in touch with Bill and Grace (to this day), but not with Horst and Constance. Horst died in 1986. He was only 58 years old. I don't know whether Constance is still alive or not. I've searched for her but cannot find contemporary information. Having the luxary of WiFi here at K&S's house, I "Googled" Horst's name, and found two articles: one written by him in which he excoriates a fundamentalist author (who is excoriating the translators of the RSV), and another written by Daniel Schwartz, an historian at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in which Schwartz excoriates Horst Moehring! Reading these articles from the vantage of age 88, I'll have to say that I am grateful not to have spent my life excoriating other scholars. I know it's all part of the game, but it's one I opted out of back in 1970 when I essentially gave up the role of professional bible scholar and became the Dean of Men at Lawrence University and in effect, became an amateur scholar, one who studies the Bible and loves the study, but no longer publishes critiques of other people's scholarship. I did publish one article before then in which I did critique another scholar's work, but I did so respectfully (I hope). Horst's article has to do with a fine point in Greek grammer, i.e., with the verb AKOUEIN "to hear." In classical Greek, the verb AKOUEIN with the object in the genitive case, means "to hear a sound," but with the object in the accusative case, means "to understand a voice." In Acts there are two versions of the coversion experience of the apostle Paul: Acts 9:7: "The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one." Acts 22:9: "Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me." RSV This appears to create a contradiction: did the men with Paul hear the voice or didn't they? For a fundamentalist who believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, this is a problem. BUT, Luke uses the genitive case with akouein in Acts 22.9 and the accusative case in Acts 9:7. Thus Acts 9:7 could read "hearing the sound" and Acts 22.9 "they did not understand the voice," which would amount to the same thing. Horst quotes the fundamentalist W. C. Taylor, who wrote a diatribe against the RSV translation: "It is a commonplace in Greek grammar that the verb "to hear" with one construction may mean to hear the sound without understanding it, but with another construction may mean to hear and understand. The translators well knew this but refused to let the harmony appear that is in Luke's narrative, choosing rather to promote Disharmony. So they translate, in Acts ix 7, "hearing the voice and in xxii 9, "did not hear the voice." That is lack of good will or even respect for the Word of God. .... It falsifies the witness, in hatred of Harmony, in love of Disharmony in the Bible. It is an insult to the memory of the great historian Luke, a disservice of truth and manifest haughty attitude of contempt for the Bible." Horst's article takes the position that, pace W. C. Tylor, in Luke's time, the distinction between the genitive and the accusative in this instance had disappeared, and he does a thorough analysis of other Grrek authors, including Epictetus (a contemporary of Paul) and the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) to make his point. Schwarz's article about Horst is more complicated. It is titled, "On Abraham Schalit, Herod, Josephus, the Holocaust, Horst R. Moehring, and the Study of Ancient Jewish History," and has to do with Schalit's change in attitude toward Josephus's relation to the Roman government. I'll try to see if I can grasp the gist of the argument! ************************************************************* I have a photo of Horst on the other computer, but I am suddenly unable to boot up that computer. I get a flashing question-mark instead of the Apple Icon. I guess I'll have to go to the computer shop. ************************************************************* Katie and Savanna have returned, we just had supper, we are going to watch the Red Sox in their first game against the Astros, and then go home. Phil McKean just called and will probably visit us on Sunday evening - Monday morning. Another busy weekend! I did go to the computer shop and there was a broken cable inside the computer connecting the hard drive with the computer. So that had to be replaced and fortunately all my data was preserved. I did have a back up drive also. So I found the photograph of Horst Moehring, and here it is.

Horst R. Moehring (1927-1986)