Sunday 30 April 2017

The Homeric Bus

Last night I had a convoluted dream, apparently set in grimy North London circa 1970, but also - such is the way of dreams - in the present day. I've forgotten everything about this dream (cheers of relief all round) except for one detail. In the course of events, two double-decker buses went past, and each of them bore a wraparound poster carrying a quotation from Homer. The word 'Homer' was emblazoned on the front of the bus, above the driver's cab, while the quotation unfolded along the side wall of the upper deck. The graphics were not in the best of taste - rather along the lines of the Biblical quotations displayed outside fundamentalist churches - and I was unable to read either quotation (one from the Iliad, one from the Odyssey). But I was impressed by what I took to be a splendid initiative - Homer on buses! It certainly beats the notorious 'atheist bus' of 2008.
I made a mental note to mention it on the blog. And now I have.

4 comments:

  1. Ah yes, dear Homer. I've been in that dream too Nige, and the 'bus was moving slowly enough for me to catch Homer's quote - 'Guess how many boobs I saw today? Fifteen!'

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  2. At the high school my son attended, seniors got half a page each in the yearbook to fill as each one wanted. My wife looked through the seniors' section of the first yearbook he brought home, and asked, "Who's Homer Simpson?" (Unless it was Bart--I'd have to check.)

    A couple of times I have seen tee shirts bearing the opening lines of the Iliad in Greek. Once was probably 30 years ago in a Motor Vehicle Administration building somewhere in Montgomery County, Maryland, once was at at the gathering of a running group, about that long ago. I agree that a tee shirt doesn't measure up to a bus.

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  3. How about the opening of the Divine Comedy on a bus? Being on a 'journey' is all the rage these days.

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    1. When I first moved to the Washington, DC, area almost forty year ago, the local transit authority was having trouble finding qualified drivers. One of the local papers ran an article about the unfortunate commuters from the Glen Echo neighborhood, who commonly got home late because of this, and once were delivered to the wrong side of the Potomac. The opening of the Divine Comedy would have done very well for that route.

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