---
title: Damon Runyon and fall of the Republic
date: 2007-09-20 20:18:00.00 -8
tags: posts 
---
I'm poking my way through _[The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century](http://books.google.com/books?id=t_LldHktl9QC&pg=PA204&lpg=PA204&dq=%22damon+runyon%22+%22sense+of+humor%22&source=web&ots=Gq_6r0ny81&sig=FPyoZs-1N79fE099GhpLz9r0688)_; a collection of short stories that looks a bit like an unabridged dictionary. I read [Damon Runyon's](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Runyon) short story _Sense of Humour_ while I was making dinner tonight. The characters made me think of Looney Toons' [Rocky and Mugsy](/files/bugsride.wav), but I guess the inspiration went the other way 'round.

Great stuff, and it looks like thanks to Google books you can read the entire story online.

Over the weekend I finished [Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400078970/ref=yml_dp), which Amazon says I bought on Jan. 1 of 2007. I have a pretty strong romantic fascination with the period covered in the last half of the book, thanks probably to [Rufus J. Fears](http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=349&id=349&pc=By%20Title). Pompey, Cato, Cicero, Brutus, Crassus, Ceasar, Octavian, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra…

I want to move on to Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ but it's not cheap, even used, to get the entire collection. I'll keep looking. [Exciting](http://www.his.com/~z/gibbon.html).