Algorithm

Happiness, said Zeno of Kition,

Is a good flow of life. Calm, I carry on,

Surveying the flotsam that comes down

The overbearing stream, stoically,

A citizen-patient of my dream

In an enormous emergency room.

I had an algorithm for equilibrium,

Such as was known of yore in Citium,

Which in this global clinic set me free

With simulated annealing from GPT.

Notes: Citium is the latinized form of the name of Zeno's city on the south coast of Cyprus, Greek Κίτιον (Kition), Phoenician KTY.

Simulated Annealing (SA) is an algorithm that approximates the global optimum of a function by employing randomness in searching, so that output can vary for the same input.

Christmas Eve 2025

Attis: A Christmas Enigma

Statue of the self-emasculated daemon Attis at Hieropolis, ancient cult center in Anatolia of the mother goddess Cybele

“Too late, too late,” she cried, and waved her wooden leg.—Anglo-Saxon incantation

Christmas Eve foreshadows Sol Invictus, the Victorious Sun,*

whose name's forgotten, though his war is won.

The lady vanishes, was not understood.

What was the leg she waved? Why is it wood,

lacking a better prosthesis art thinks good?

Too late for what? A light perhaps brighter?

Mysteries all day the unhinged saints recite.

Those providential tales are neither wrong nor righter.

“But what about my child!” the bald ingénue rehearses.

Deep in the mise-en-scène, deballed Attis** curses.

Why does stuff like this bung up the brain?

Speculation chimes with rhymes; it smirks.

Swiftly your ancient memories unwind,

plane going down—at least that works!

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus

 ** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attis

December 21, 2025

December

A December boar hunt at the Château de Vincennes, in the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (ca. 1416)

December was the tenth month

in the old Roman calendar of

Romulus, which started with March

—hence its name, from Latin decem,

ten. It's also National Fruitcake

Month and National Eggnog Month.

December 22's Global Orgasm Day.

Come in Peace! (Or at least fancy

doing so.) The Holidays, ditto.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

The hours of the ducs de Berry haven't all been rich.

One such lost his head to Louisette in 1793.

The latest would be Louis XX if he succeeded

—an outcome unlikely to be needed.

What can one say? History's a bitch!

Note: The inventor of the fatal device later wrongly attributed to Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was, in fact, Antoine Louis, a contributor to the Encyclopédie. It was originally called the Louison, or Louisette.

Cartoon by Rico in the Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)

December 22, 2025