From May 15 through May 26, there is a women-only meeting on zeta
functions at the  Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.  Today's
activities:

The Great Bartender

by Peter Viereck (1948)

Being absurd as well as beautiful,
Magic-- like art-- is hoax redeemed by awe.
(Not priest but clown,
     the shuddering sorcerer
Is more astounded than
     his rapt applauders:
"Then all those props and Easters
     of my stage
Came true?  But I was joking all the time!")
Art, being bartender, is never drunk;
And magic that believes itself, must die.
My star was rocket of my unbelief,
Launched heavenward as
     all doubt's longings are;
     It burst when, drunk with self-belief,
I tried to be its priest and shouted upward:
"Answers at last!  If you'll but hint
     the answers
For which earth aches, that famous
     Whence and Whither;
Assuage our howling Why? with final fact."

-- As quoted in The Practical Cogitator,
   or The Thinker's Anthology,
   Selected and Edited by
   Charles P. Curtis, Jr., and
   Ferris Greenslet,
   Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged,
   With a new Introduction by
   John H. Finley, Jr.,
   Houghton Mifflin Company,
   Boston, 1962

The dates of Viereck's birth and death are according to this morning's New York Times.

" 'I know what it is you last saw,' she said; 'for that is also in my mind. Do not be afraid!
But do not think that only by singing amid the trees, nor even by the slender arrows of elvenbows, is this land of
Lothlórien maintained and defended against the Enemy. I say to you, Frodo, that even as I speak to you, I
perceive the Dark Lord and know his mind, or all his mind that concerns the Elves. And he gropes ever to see me and
my thought. But still the door is closed!'

      She lifted up her white arms, and spread out her hands towards the East in
a gesture of rejection and denial. Eärendil, the Evening Star, most beloved of the Elves, shone clear above. So
bright was it that the figure of the Elven-lady cast a dim shadow on the ground. Its ray glanced upon a ring about her
finger; it glittered like polished gold overlaid with silver light, and a white stone in it twinkled as if the Even-star
had come to rest upon her hand. Frodo gazed at the ring with awe; for suddenly it seemed to him that he understood.
      'Yes,' she said, divining his thought, 'it is not permitted to speak of it,
and Elrond could not do so. But it cannot be hidden from the Ring-Bearer, and one who has seen the Eye. Verily it
is in the land of Lórien upon the finger of Galadriel that one
of the Three remains. This is Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, and I am its keeper.' "

-- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Tombstone

From today's New York Times:

Obituary--

"Jiri Frel, a mercurial and eccentric curator who helped build the J.
Paul Getty Museum into a major center for Greek and Roman art but
resigned after revelations about unscrupulous acquisition practices,
died on April 29. He was 82.... a well-regarded expert in Greek tombstones...."

News story--

"ATHENS, May 16 — After four hours of talks here with the Greek culture
minister, the director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles said
Tuesday that he would press for the return of some of the Getty's most
prized ancient artifacts to Greece.... Greece is seeking the repatriation of a... tombstone...."

From a photo accompanying the obituary:

Museum
window

To Aster, from Plato

Asteras eisathreis, Aster emos.
Eithe genoimen ouranos,
'os pollois ommasin eis se blepo.

You gaze at stars, my Star.
Would that I were born the starry sky,
that I with many eyes might gaze at you.

Related material:

Log24 entries of Dec. 31, 2002

Why Me?

Plato's Diamond

The Halmos Tombstone

For the next generation:

Some websites on zeta functions (a classic topic of considerable current interest):

• The course descriptions, lecturers, and schedule of the Institute for Advanced Study women's meeting on zeta functions that begins today and continues through May 26

• John Baez on zeta functions

• Riemann's zeta function and A directory of known zeta functions by Matthew R. Watkins

Today's birthday: George Lucas,
creator of the mother of all battle epics.

STAR WARS continued:

	March 29 eclipse
	Star of Venus (See March 26-29)

ART WARS continued...

Braque

"The senses deform, the mind forms.  Work to perfect the mind.  There is no certitude but in what the mind conceives."

-- Georges Braque, Reflections on Painting, 1917

Those who wish to follow Braque's advice may try the following exercise from a book first published in 1937:

Hint: See the above picture of
Braque and the construction of
a tesseract.