I named our cat Bethesda after a first century Roman concubine (actually, she was a slave, then she was manumitted and married the man who formerly owned her. don’t get all political on it, its not porn and the books work and I can’t believe I’m defending a book where a manumitted woman marries her former master. yet, here we are.) So, yeah, she’s not a REAL concubine, she’s from a book, a series of them, by Steven Saylor, about a first century Roman detective named Gordianus the Finder, his wife Bethesda, and their various children and slaves (yes, more slaves. but seriously, its not like that. of course how far from “like that” could it be when they’re slaves? here we are again.). And then there’s Caesar and Cleopatra and all the other characters of the time.
So, over the break I thought, y’know, I should let Steven Saylor know about my Bethesda. I sent him off a little email with a couple picts of Bethesda and he wrote back and said I had pretty kitty and thanked me for the compliment of naming my pet after his character.
And then.
And then I looked at his sig file. DO YOU KNOW WHO HE QUOTES IN HIS SIG FILE?
SEVEN OF NINE!
Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One.
(Star Trek Voyager, for those of you are bored by Sci Fi babble but continue to read bravely on.)
He quoted her thusly: “Impossible is a word humans use far too often.” So, the picture above is of Seven and it is totally stolen from Star Trek.com. It links there, too, to kinda make up for the fact that I right-click saved it right from their site.
Woo-hoo! Steven Saylor wrote me back and quoted Seven of Nine! I can’t figure out which part is more exciting. Totally buying him in hardcover from here on out.
Plum Librarian LLC 