Word: dionysus
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...Parisian cityscape. Something of a philosopher, Stassart challenges the notion that "a meal is simply something to nourish us, and taste but a sensation in your mouth." He is also given to discoursing on the ancient conflict between Apollo, god of the arts, reason and harmony, and Dionysus, god of wine, ecstasy and disorder. "Philosophically, we are trying to set aside this opposition between the body and soul," he declares. "Pleasure is in the mind, too; it's not only physical." Perhaps. But there's true corporeal delight in the surprise of biting into confectionery topped with numbing Sichuan buttons...
...over for an evening of drugs, dancing and experimental thinking, if not actions. Andrew persuades Ben to drop by to meet his new friend. "It's a little weird," Ben tells Anna on the phone, promising he'll be home in time for dinner. "The place is called Dionysus, and they aren't kidding." Wanting to please both friend and wife, he's torn. In the end, the desire to be as hip as he believed himself to be in college wins out over Anna's celebrated pork chops...
...Blame the debauchery on those hedonistic ancient Greeks and Romans. The arrival of spring, the season of fertility and awakening, was historically celebrated in tandem with the veneration of Dionysus or Bacchus - the Greek and Roman gods of wine. More immediate responsibility, however, lies with a swimming coach at Colgate University, Sam Ingram, who brought his team down to Fort Lauderdale in 1936 to train at the Casino Pool - the first Olympic-size swimming pool in Florida. In 1938, sensing a marketing opportunity, the city hosted the first College Coaches' Swim Forum at the Casino Pool; according to one source...
...left with such wan and infrequent holidays today? The answer, simply put, is that in one historical setting after another, traditional celebrations were deliberately suppressed. The ancient Roman élite slaughtered worshippers of Dionysus with as much zeal as when, in later years, they went after Christians. Reformation Protestants criminalized carnival. Wahhabist Muslims, the ideological antecedents of al-Qaeda, battled ecstatic Sufism...
...book's success lies in its deft melding of high-mindedness and raunch?nothing like knowing that your penchant for outdoor sex is due to your binding zodiacal link to Dionysus, the orgiastic Greek god of wine. As Cox says, "What [readers] didn't expect were the smarty bits; they just expected the unzipped stuff, not the smarty pants themselves. Pop, but also classic, high...