The Kiss

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  “Ryabovitch pulled the bed-clothes over his head, curled himself up in bed, and tried to gather together the floating images in his mind and to combine them into one whole. But nothing came of it. He soon fell asleep, and his last thought was that someone had caressed him and made him happy—that something extraordinary, foolish, but joyful and delightful, had come into his life. The thought did not leave him even in his sleep. When he woke up the sensations of oil on his neck and the chill of peppermint about his lips had gone, but joy flooded his heart just as the day before.” The Kiss By Anton Chekhov (1860–1904)

This Was Fun!

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Research can be much like navigating fun-house maze: there's a surprise around every corner. This was a fun discovery (annotated):

Ainslie, Scott. 2001. "Emperor Marcus Aurelius and The History of Opiate Addiction." Proceedings of the 10th Annual History of Medicine Days. WA Whitelaw: 21-25. http://www.magicgatebg.com/Books/History%20of%20Medicine%20Days.pdf#page=33

The presenter of this case, inspired by the 1961 article “The Opium Addiction of Marcus Aurelius” by T.W. Africa, suggests that the personal writings of Marcus Aurelius are nothing more than the rantings of a drug addict. Ainslie writes, “In an attempt to determine the likelihood and the severity of opium dependency, it is convenient for us to compare statements within ‘Meditations’ to pieces written by more recent addicts.” (23) The writer admits to making an “attempt to gather circumstantial evidence surrounding the proposed vice” (21) with the view to uncouple “Meditations” from Stoic philosophy and suggest that the Emperor merely produced a volume of “opium-inspired concepts” (24).

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