Saturday At the Legion

Although I was greatly fatigued by the festivities the night before, I nonetheless attended the California Classical Association, North (CCA-No.) event at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. The place has a wonderful; the weather wasn’t so wonderful. The current special exhibit is one in honor of James Simon, a Berlin Jewish collector form the days of Kaiser Wilhelm who helped to found the museum on Museum Island in Berlin. Simon, like many collectors of his period, had a range of interests in which his wealth allowed him to indulge. His collection included Egyptian, medieval, Oriental, and modern arts (I.e., Renoir) materials. He also died before the Nazis ruined the Jewish subculture of old Berlin. I was glad to see Miriam Bernstein, now retired, from whom I had taken Egyptology courses along the very attractive Nicole Rau. One of the biggest surprises happened while I was sitting in the auditorium. Suddenly a voice started speaking Latin to me. I turned around , and it was Gertrudis Bataviensis, whom I met at Conventiculum MMCVI (that’s Latin immersion camp to you, whippersnapper!). I learned that Gertrudis was a colleague of my classmate Andrea from San Francisco State!