Leophilos

We all know the saying “words can never hurt me”. New Jersey Governor John Corzine being severely injured in a car crash en route to attending the Rutgers Lady Basketball/Shock Jock Contrition Summit shows while words themselves may not hurt, they can, indirectly, lead to a man almost being killed. Surely an apology from Imus to Corzine is imminent.

It's unclear what Corzine’s specific motivation was for attending the Summit was. While ‘facilitating the healing process’ can never be discounted, politicians as a breed will seize any opportunity to insert themselves into the news. It’s always been so. As the 7th century BC Greek poet and mercenary Archilochos observed:
Now that Leophilos is the governor,
Leophilos meddles in everybody’s business,
And everybody falls down before Leophilos,
And all you hear is Leophilos, Leophilos.*
All too true, though as far as I know Leophilos never crashed his chariot rushing to the scene of some media contrived pseudo-scandal.

*Translation by Guy Davenport

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

More Brief Reviews of Movies I haven’t Seen