Axerules

Hello Keith! I hope all is well. Glad to see you active on the forum.

BTW, wasn't it Shahazar Cormac raided? Shahrazar, I think, was in the Kirby O' Donnell stories. Though I like better the sound of the latter.

Good memory! You're right on both counts, Constantine.

Nearly half a century ago the adventurer Cormac FitzGeoffrey raided Shahazar among the mountains and bore away untold plunder.

In "The Sowers of Thunder"

Two Kirby O'Donnell stories take place in the forbidden city of Shahrazar, "The Treasure of Tartary" and "Swords of Shahrazar."


Miguel

Money rules.
I've read that Pentathlon could have been dropped. Instead they chose Wrestling. Pentathlon has been part of the Olympics for a long time too: the ancient version dates back to 708 BC and the modern sport has been created by Pierre de Coubertin for the 1912 games.

Salt Lake obtained the Winter Games thanks to bribes a few years ago. Instituting Taekwondo as an olympic sport instead of the more widely-practiced Wushu or Karate was ridiculous. And now the Olympic Commitee promotes audience-friendly sports over historical ones.

The 21th Century "TV-oriented" Olympics prefer such kind of "sports" to wrestling:
Warning, might be NSFW.




Le Baron Pierre de Coubertin must be turning in his grave...

I've started a topic for you guys to discuss underrated movies, and as to not derail this thread, I moved amster's and svent's latest posts there to kick it off.

Here's a link: http://www.conan.com...174#entry220340

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

-Jack London, Tales of Adventure.

It seems to me that REH greatly feared the ravages of time, the loss of youthful vigor and power. I don't have the references in front of me, but I seem to recall several statements to that effect, and it may have been a factor in the depression that led to his suicide.

to Harold Preece, November 1930:
“I am haunted by the realization that my best days, mental and physical, lie behind me.”

to August Derleth, May 1936:
“Death to the old is inevitable, and yet somehow I often feel that it is a greater tragedy than death to the young. When a man dies young he misses much suffering, but the old have only life as a possession and somehow to me the tearing of a pitiful remnant from weak fingers is more tragic than the looting of a life in its full rich prime. I don’t want to live to be old. I want to die when my time comes, quickly and suddenly, in the full tide of my strength and health.”