User:Tithon

Facts about Tithon

This user lives in Scotland.

This user contributes using a Macintosh computer.

This user is a scientist.

This user is a member of the worldwide family of Scouts.

This user enjoys sailing.

This user is a certified scuba diver.

007This user is a member of WikiProject James Bond.

Introducing myself

Thinking on what to write here, I suppose I am interested in just about everything (except possibly Soccer and Sociology). The table on the right sums up my provenance and main interests; the table below sums up where I have been — and I need to visit one more country to make the whole thing neat and tidy — any ideas?

Why Tithon?

According to Aesop, the ant worked hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper, thinking that he was a fool, laughed and danced and played the summer away. Come winter, the ant was warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper had no food or shelter and died out in the cold.

So which would you rather be — the long-lived and boring ant or the fast-living, fun-loving grasshopper? In any case, some myths have the grasshopper outliving the ant. Eos, the Goddess of Dawn, took Tithon (Tithonus), son of Laomedon to be her lover. She asked Zeus if Tithonus could be made immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youthfulness as well. Tithonus lived forever but grew more ancient and wrinkled, eventually turning into a grasshopper.

The other reason for being Tithon is that the first page to which I ever contributed was on the Tithonian.

Countries visited (in chronological order)

Articles that I have started

Edinburgh Geological Society - to be continued
To a Mountain Daisy - poem by Robert Burns
Remember When the Music - album by Harry Chapin
The Last Protest Singer - album by Harry Chapin
Beinn Ghlas - a Munro in the Lawers Range

Articles where I have made contributions

Tithonian - a stage of the Jurassic system
Bathonian - a stage of the Jurassic system
Charles Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton - added his first school!
Edinburgh Academy - more work to be done here