Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere) > Recent Status Updates

Canto XIX, 2
If hearts were as easy to read as faces, we
would know of those in court who like to oppress
their underlings, and likewise we could see
the wisdom of those who wear humility's dress -
and the lord would exchange their lots so they could be
in their proper places. But pardon, I digress.

Canto XVIII, 162
Maybe it was the Creator who had some pity
for his creations, for blood flowed on the field
in rivulets into pools and not very pretty
lakes in which the contents were half congealed.
There were eighty thousand corpses - a sizeable city
of dead men. In the skies the vultures wheeled;
the peasants came out to rob the bodies; and when
they left, wolves came to feed upon the men.

Canto XVIII, 113
"...With a swing of her sword she cuts off a head. (These details
are gory but some people like them best.)
Another head she smashes and then she performs
transradial amputations on several arms."
---
For those of you who like to read of female warriors - Marfisa is all about the bloodshed.

Canto XVIII, 109
I don't believe that I have to rehearse here
the story of what happened, for you have read
Orlando Innamorato, which makes it clear
what took place and no more need be said.
---
Why of course you've read the previous book in our series, right? (And I thought only modern authors did this.)

Canto XVIII, 99
This is the maid Marfisa, a woman of great
valor who has often brought to the brow
of Orlando of Brava furrows and even sweat
and to Rinaldo as well. We should mention how
she never takes off her armor, early or late,
day or night, having taken an oath. But now
is not the time for that. She wanders here
and there, looking for knights - and for trouble, I fear.

Canto XVIII, 91
"...Grifon
is much embarrassed at having caused such bother
and having been so wrong and wronged (but if on
matters of love, we were wiser and picked rather
likelier mates, then what would romancers riff on?)."

It seems slightly unfair that in the background the angel Michael has teamed up with Discord, Pride, Jealousy, etc. to attack the enemy and help out Charlemagne and company. But since Rodomonte apparently mowed down a chunk of Parisians and the military they need the help.

Canto XVIII, 9
"...Ah but I see no
reason not to get to the point and try
to show how in that scaly suit there could be no
way for the blows of lances hurled at him by
all these men together to penetrate
or hurt him, for its magic was so great."
--That's Rodomonte again, wearing what was called a lizard suit earlier. Apparently enchanted dragon (I think) armor.

Canto XVII, 130 - Spoiler!
A talented liar, he thinks up some excuse
for not lingering longer. The king regrets,
but gives him gifts and documents, the use
of which we will see later on. And then he lets
him go. But I promise you that there will be news
of him again. Do not take any bets
that he'll get away scot-free. Such evil must
be punished if the world - or poem - is just.

Canto XVII, 75
"You call yourselves Most Christian and claim to be
Catholics, but what does that mean if you go on killing
your brothers in Christ?
...We should all be spilling
the blood of filthy Arabs and Turks who
occupy it and Constantinople too."
---
The Take Back Jerusalem bit plus some anti arab sentiment. The poem's not all love and bloodshed.

Canto XVII, 49
"...Remembering this
my hair horripilates and I tremble."
---
Had to look that up, great word - horripilation: The bristling of the body hair, as from fear or cold; goose bumps.
(Another example of why this translation rocks.)

Story of the monster Orco, which is just like the Cyclops episode in the Odyssey. But still fun in this telling. (wikipedia)

It ends in Ushuaia:
"Like his brother, Sam also wanted to be a civil engineer, to blast mountains and fling huge bridges across mighty chasms. But all this was now being done. Sam had a more original idea for a bridge.
"how far is it," he shouted to his father through the wind, "to Antarctica?"
--No word on how they get home.

At this point the author only has two pages to get us to the end of the road at the tip of South America, and then theoretically home.

Randy wants to help build the highways of the future but he knows:
"What was needed were long hours in the university classrooms and laboratories with slide rule and books."
--And randomly the Morrows eat dinner and spend the night at this American engineer's house in Argentina. Because people do that all the time with total strangers who want to talk all night about engineering.

"But there's one thing we're almost certain to have in the near future - purely as a defense against the increasing number of traffic accidents." - Road guidance systems - the self driving car idea. Of course in 1959 they didn't foresee what a vast difference seat belt laws and other car safety measures could make. And how much easier that was to do rather than redesign/rebuild all the roads.

American engineer has a working model highway of the future in his basement. Spoiler: we'll all be driving hovercraft. Er "air-cars." And there will be "nuclear-powered truck-trains." Though the engineer does say that "most guesses about the future turn out to be wrong."

Oh I forgot to mention - there's dynamite in this construction too. Unfortunately the family isn't trapped in the tunnel and so no one has to stuff a sock in Mr. Morrow's mouth to keep him using up the breathable air with one of his helpful lectures. (Now I'm almost sad that didn't happen.)

The illustration this time shows the family in a tunnel, wearing hard hats like all the men doing construction around them. Way back when the boys got to see the dynamiting of rock? All the workmen wore hard hats in the illustration - but the family didn't. (Yeah, I notice stuff like that. I've also read posted fire code info. Which is why it's odd that this book is boring me silly.)

Boy it sure is interesting that suddenly in Peru, near the Andes, you can just stumble on an American company building a tunnel for the Pan American Highway. And the American engineer in charge is happy to have the family come in and then to show them all around the tunnel construction. Nothing about that sounds at all unsafe! Or odd!

"The long narrow belt of Chile ran for 2700 miles from Peru to Cape Horn. Day after day, they bumped and rattled over those miles until their bodies were sore and El Carreton squeaked in every joint."
--Again, family vacation. In the end Mr. Morrow may get a magazine article out of it, but this (again) does not sound like fun.

Every now and then the author tries very hard to explain something scenic/pretty/nothing to do with engineering:
"Watching from his bunk that night, Randy could make shapes out of the rolling fog in the distance. If he looked hard enough, he could see the ghosts of the ancient Incas, floating up from the ocean, dimming the countless lights of modern Lima."

So the Morrows have picked up another engineer hitch hiker, and like the dude in Alaska this guy has them stop on the side of the road, this time to check out Inca retaining walls built without mortar.

"Hagame el favor de-" the man started, and saw that the Morrows were North Americans. "Please," he started again in an easy English that so many Latin Americans seem to have learned, "would you give me a ride to Lima? I have the week end off but my automobile is broken."
"We'd be glad to give you a ride, senor."
--And of course he's "a Peruvian civil engineer." And he introduces himself - because he has manners.

From the illustration I think this is probably a really important area of bridges, but again no names. This time probably because the building was still in progress. Anyway it's near the town of Catachocha (south of Quito? book is unclear) - one bridge leads south to Peru, and one to the west and Colombia/Brazil. (It's sort of amazing how vague the geography is in this book.)

About this point Mr. Morrow acted the way he always has, but it was just so overtly rude, along with the usual descriptions of native folk, so I had to add a bit of a rant to the main review. Sometimes you need a hellova lot more characters for that sort of thing than fits in an update.

In the mountains of Ecuador their truck's engine stalls and dies. A great time for Mr. Morrow to discuss altitude, cold weather, and why the water in the radiator is boiling. They go to a nearby farm house for help and find helpful, "barrel-chested Indians" - explanation: the demands of the altitude makes your chest look that way. (Again, the author is terrible at description.)

"The flying jeep swooped down over a smooth stretch of beach, frightening some Panamanian Indians who scurried into a group of thatched huts. They were flying so low that Randy felt he could almost touch the Indians red headdresses as they ran."
--And again I'm wondering wth this author is thinking with that description.

If I hadn't found proof that this exists online I would NOT have believed this bit:
"But instead of boarding an airplane, they climbed into a long, low donut-like craft that had its seating and control surfaces in the back.
..."This is the Army's new flying jeep."
(Or "Airgeep")

So we last left our people making the trek through Darien in Panama, and it was an area where the Pan American Highway hadn't been built - in 1958. Guess what? The road still hasn't been built in 2013. The wikipedia page says the province has "no roads."