Starship Asterisk*

Andy Wade wrote:
OK, so Apple is in court over the use of the word 'Pod':

Apple, Startup Go to Trial Over Pod Trademark

Now I don't know about all of you out there, but I've always pronounced the acronym APOD as 'A-pod'...
Should Robert and Jerry be a-quaking in their boots? Could it all end in tears?

Ann wrote:
Can you imagine the captions that would go with the APODs after they have become A-iPods?

• ____ King Henry VI, part III > Act I, scene IV
  
  YORK: 'Tis government that makes them seem divine;
  ____ The want thereof makes thee abominable:
  ____ Thou Art as opposite to every good
  ____ As the Antipodes are unto us,
  ..........................................................
  ____ Much Ado About Nothing > Act II, scene I
  
  BENEDICK:I will go on the slightest errand now
  ____ to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on;

Andy Wade wrote:
As a family, we're trying to embrace technology.
I bought an IPod for my daughter, an IPad for my son and an IPhone for myself.
The trouble started when I bought an IRon for my wife.

Do Americans think that IRony is a new product made by Apple?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphigenia wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<IPhigenia (Greek Ἰφιγένεια) is a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology. Her name means "strong-born", "born to strength", or "she who causes the birth of strong offspring."

Artemis punished Agamemnon after he killed a deer in a sacred grove and boasted he was the better hunter. On his way to Troy to participate in the Trojan War, Agamemnon's ships were suddenly motionless, as Artemis stopped the wind in Aulis. In Euripides’ IPhigenia at Aulis, Agamemnon is told by Calchus that in order for the winds to allow him to sail to Troy, Agamemnon must sacrifice IPhigenia to Artemis. Agamemnon fools Clytemnestra into bringing IPhigenia to Aulis by sending a letter to Clytemnestra telling her that IPhigenia will be married to Achilles. There is one moment in the play where Agamemnon regrets his decision and tries to send another letter telling them not to come, however Menelaus intercepts the letter. After Agamemnon and Menelaus have an argument, Clytemnestra arrives at Aulis with IPhigenia and Orestes. Agamemnon tries to convince Clytemnestra to go back to Argos while he marries IPhigenia to Achilles. Clytemnestra refuses to leave and plans on marrying off her daughter the proper way. When Clytemnestra sees Achilles she brings up the marriage, however Achilles doesn’t know what she is talking about and slowly the truth comes out about Agamemnon’s true plan. Achilles vows to help prevent the murder of IPhigenia even after the Greeks throw stones at him. After IPhigenia and Clytemnestra mourn together, IPhigenia makes the noble decision to die in honor and by her own will and asks Achilles not to stop the men. When IPhigenia is brought to the altar to be slain she willingly allows herself to be sacrificed. As IPhigenia is about to be slain a deer is put in her place.

In Euripides’ IPhigenia in Tauris, the play takes place after the sacrifice and after Orestes has killed Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In order for Orestes to escape the persecutions of the Erinyes for killing his mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Orestes has been ordered by Apollo to go to Tauris. While in Tauris Orestes is to carry off the xoanon (carved wooden cult image) of Artemis which had fallen from heaven, and bring it to Athens. When Orestes arrives at Tauris with Pylades the pair are at once captured by the Tauri, among whom the custom is to sacrifice all Greek strangers to Artemis. The priestess of Artemis is IPhigenia, and it is her duty to perform the sacrifice. IPhigenia and Orestes don’t recognize each other. IPhigenia finds out from Orestes, who is still concealing his identity, that Orestes is alive. IPhigenia then offers to release Orestes if he will carry home a letter from her to Greece. Orestes refuses to go, but bids Pylades to take the letter while Orestes will stay to be slain. After a conflict of mutual affection, Pylades at last yields, but the letter brings about recognition between brother and sister, and all three escape together, carrying with them the image of Artemis. After their return to Greece, Orestes takes possession of his father's kingdom of Mycenae and Argos. IPhigenia leaves the image in the temple of Artemis in Brauron, Attica, where she remains as priestess of Artemis Brauronia. According to the Spartans, however, the image of Artemis was transported by them to Laconia, where the goddess was worshipped as Artemis Orthia.>>

Ann wrote:
Gaaahhh. The story about Iphigenia, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and Orestes is one of the most horribly sexist stories I know. Clytemnestra, Iphigenia's mother and Agamemnon's wife, is understandably miffed that her husband has killed her daughter, so when Agamemnon comes home from Troy she has him killed. But then Orestes, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's son, considers it his duty to kill his mother, so that it what he does. Now the Furies haunt Orestes and demand that he must be killed for committing matricide. But then the goddess Athena proclaims that Orestes did the right thing: he had to avenge the murder of his father, because, said Athena, the father is the child's one true parent.

Gaaahhh

Ann wrote: Gaaahhh