Hunter S. Thompson

I have never read anything by Hunter S. Thompson; what little I know of him, I know mostly from "Doonesbury" (plus a bit of homage at the end of the first Wild Cards volume). But I just ran across the following line, attributed to him, and I think maybe I should give him a try:

"Badgers don't fight fair, bubba. That's why God made dachshunds."

(I used to begin my first lecture in History of Math with an excursus on dachshunds and badgers, with the goal of showing my students that things that look odd or confusing are often there for a purpose, which is one of my key themes in that class.)

Dynasty

I just finished reading Tom Holland's Dynasty, a history of the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero). I'd previously read his Persian Fire, about the Greco-Persian wars, and Rubicon, about the last years of the Roman Republic. Like the other two, it was interesting, but I didn't find it quite as riveting. The main problem, for me, was a somewhat sensationalistic tone - e.g., referring to the young Octavian as a terrorist. Still, his discussions of Tiberius (sympathetic, up until his old age, when he became somewhat paranoid), Claudius (viewed as more calculating than other treatments I've read), and Nero (as a consummate politician) were pretty interesting. I will continue to look out for his books.