Bygone Years Research Articles

East Asia’s Enduring Rivalries: Ripe for Abatement?

Despite earlier premonitions that East Asia might be ‘ripe for rivalry’, interstate relations in this region have generally become less tense in recent years. Naturally, this observation does not deny the existence of ongoing tension, such as pertaining to maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas. However, compared to those bygone years when East Asian states were fighting major wars and lined up in opposing camps, today’s regional interactions are much calmer and multifaceted. This essay assesses these changing relations in the context of the literature on enduring rivalries and evolving Sino-American relations. It argues East Asian enduring rivalries, whether sustained, escalated or terminated, are nested in a larger contest for influence involving major powers. Washington’s involvement plays a pivotal role affecting the trajectory and prospects for enduring rivalries in East Asia.

The continuing dilemma of chronic appendicitis.

When a patient presents with chronic right iliac fossa pain, it is not uncommon for the appendix to come under suspicion and sometimes for a diagnosis of chronic appendicitis to be made. Not surprisingly, there is then the temptation to perform an appendicectomy. In this issue of Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology a letter has been published describing a patient with a 6-month history of intermittent right lower quadrant abdominal pain in whom, after removal, the appendix showed chronic inflammation [Kothadia et al. 2015]. Review of the literature reveals a large number of case reports incriminating a variety of chronic disease processes, such as granulomatous disease [AbdullGaffar, 2010], parasitic infection [Ramsaransing et al. 2010], or even endometriosis [Huang et al. 2015], in the pathogenesis of appendicitis. However, there is relatively little information on whether an apparently normal appendix can ever be a source of chronic abdominal pain. In one study involving immunohistochemical examination of surgically removed appendixes, which were not inflamed, a proportion exhibited an excess of neurotransmitters, such as substance P and vasoactive intestinal peptide, leading the authors to suggest the concept of neuroimmune appendicitis [Di Sebastiano et al. 1999], although this has not been confirmed by others [Partecke et al. 2013]. This has led to speculation that removal of the appendix might lead to an improvement of symptoms in these individuals, with a recent report claiming that an appendicectomy can lead to a reduction in right lower quadrant pain in a selected group of patients [van Rossem et al. 2014]. It is therefore possible that such findings could lead to a swing back to the bygone years of performing this operation for a presumed diagnosis of chronic appendicitis. How should we be managing patients with persistent right lower quadrant abdominal pain in the future? The current and previous case reports highlight the need for adequate investigation with a minimum of high-quality imaging, endoscopic examination and ancillary tests such as faecal calprotectin, which when positive can lead to appropriate management. However, the therapeutic dilemma centres on the patient with persistent symptoms in whom all investigations are completely normal, where the most likely diagnosis is a functional gastrointestinal disorder, particularly irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Many patients with the more severe forms of IBS give a history of multiple surgical interventions, including appendicectomy, and seem to be particularly susceptible to postoperative pain syndromes [Longstreth and Yao, 2004; Cole et al. 2005; Lu et al. 2007]. Consequently, it currently seems reasonable to conclude that in patients with investigation-negative right lower quadrant abdominal pain, with additional symptoms suggestive of a functional gastrointestinal disorder, surgical intervention is best avoided. The only way to establish whether such an approach is not optimal would be by a prospective, randomized controlled trial of the value of appendicectomy in such a group of patients, stratified into those with and without functional gastrointestinal symptoms.

Smart Materials Technology-Based Products Applications in the Automotive Industry

The developments of new and innovative materials are contributing significantly to the large scale such as automotive industry. Century by century uncountable inventions and developments were dedicated to synchronized technological advancement. Smart materials are highly efficient materials and their performance comes at high costs associated with the high level of R&D involved. Therefore, invention of these materials conceptualized to produce effective sensors and actuators according to the purpose. Some everyday items are already incorporating such smart materials, and the number of applications for them is growing steadily. Invention of functional and intelligent materials introduced new concept of intelligent infrastructure systems, autonomous systems, smart structures and robotics in the bygone years. Smart materials include the piezoelectric materials (PZT).

Some Verbal Forms in the Testament of Vladimir Monomakh to His Children and the Language of Kiev in the 11th Century

This article deals with the specific features of the Old Kievan verbal system (11th–12th centuries) reflected in the Testament of Vladimir Monomakh to His Children, for example, the Old Russian pluperfect in the resultative meaning and the East Slavic pattern of imperfectivization with the -yva-/-iva- suffix. The Testament of Vladimir Monomakh contains the earliest example of the Old Russian colloquial pluperfect bylъ stvorilъ—this form, as the context shows, has the meaning of the resultative state beginning before the point of reference. The comparison of this usage with other early examples of the pluperfect in the Tale of Bygone Years and Monomakh’s Testament itself permits the supposition that in the 11th century in Kiev, literary and colloquial pluperfect forms were synonymous. In the oldest part of the Testament, the specifically East Slavic suffix of imperfectivization -yva-/-iva- is just as frequent as in the Kievan Chronicle of the 12th century. A similar example is in the Russian-translated passage in the Izbornik of 1076, which scholars believe was known to Monomakh himself. These facts show that the -yva-/-iva- pattern of imperfectivization was already in common use in Kiev at the end of the 11th century.

Review, Current Status, and Prospects of the Bamboo Industry in Taiwan

Bamboo offers local people a variety of products for daily needs, and helps protect habitats in Taiwan. In the 1960~1980s, bamboo-related processing industries in Taiwan reached a maximum output value of US$ 44.7 million and greatly contributed to economic improvements for bamboo farmers, local communities, and governments. But these industries have been in decline for a long time due to surging labor costs and high competition from cheaper imported products from other Asian countries. For Taiwanese agricultural authorities, how to promote the amount of bamboo utilization to maintain the health of indigenous bamboo forest resources, and how to allow the bamboo processing industry and bamboo production to prosper again are important issues in making strategy. This paper first reviews the development history of the bamboo-processing industry in Taiwan, so that one can know the contributions and importance of the numerous ways that bamboo was utilized by local people in bygone years, then describes the current status of this industry and how programs for promoting bamboo utilization have been successfully carried out by the agricultural authorities. Finally, the paper mentions several beneficial coordinated programs in cooperation with other related governmental agencies to upgrade the bamboo industry in Taiwan and the prospects for the potential development of bamboo utilization including high value-added fine bamboo craft products, bamboo pyrolytic oil production, and bamboo pellet manufacture.

The Development of Transport Networks in NSW 1860–1894

This address covers the development of transport and transport networks in NSW in the 19th century. The infl uences on transport and how it occurred during the fl edging years of the colony set the scene for future development and growth in the 20th century, and may well infl uence what happens in the 21st century. In planning and developing expansion of transport networks and systems, it is often very useful to be aware of and appreciate how existing networks and systems developed. Often situations have changed little in some areas, and therefore some valuable lessons can be learnt from decisions, events and development in bygone years. This serves as a useful means of learning from past actions.

Tekstologiia drevnei Rusi , and: Tekstologiia russkikh letopisei XI–nachala XIV vv. , and: Galitsko-Volynskaia letopis′: Tekst. Kommentarii. Issledovanie (review)

Reviewed by: Tekstologiia drevnei Rusi, and: Tekstologiia russkikh letopisei XI–nachala XIV vv., and: Galitsko-Volynskaia letopis′: Tekst. Kommentarii. Issledovanie Donald Ostrowski Sergei Alekseevich Bugoslavskii, Tekstologiia drevnei Rusi [The Textology of Old Rus′]. 2 vols., ed. Iurii A. Artamonov. 1: Povest′ vremennykh let [The Tale of Bygone Years]. 2: Drevnerusskie literaturnye proizvedeniia o Borise and Glebe [Old Rus′ Literary Works on SS. Boris and Gleb]. 312, 656 pp. Moscow: Iazyki slavianskikh kul′tur, 2006–7. ISBN 5955101551. Andrei Leonidovich Nikitin, Tekstologiia russkikh letopisei XI–nachala XIV vv. [A Textology of Rus′ Chronicles from the 11th to the Early 14th Centuries]. 1: Kievo-Pecherskoe letopisanie do 1112 goda [Chronicle-Writing at the Kievan Caves Monastery before 1112]. 400 pp. Moscow: Minuvshee, 2006. ISBN 5902073464. M. F. KotliarV. Iu. FranchukA. G. Plakhonin, eds., Galitsko-Volynskaia letopis′: Tekst. Kommentarii. Issledovanie. [The Galician–Volynian Chronicle: Text, Commentary, Research]. 424 pp. St. Petersburg: Aleteiia, 2005. ISBN 58932975613. Until Aleksei Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (1864–1920) began his scholarly work in the late 19th century, the main goal of chronicle studies was to extract historical information from chronicle texts. Thus if two chronicles had basically the same information, it was thought unnecessary to publish the full text of the second chronicle. Likewise, it was thought unnecessary to provide variant readings from other copies in any systematic way. The editor simply chose one representative copy to edit. Shakhmatov was a major influence in revolutionizing the study of Rus′ chronicles by exploring the language, alternative readings, and relationship of chronicles to one another. Chronicles then became an object of study in their own right. Editing of chronicles began in the 18th century when German scholars at the Academy of Sciences realized their importance and began their systematic study and publication. In the middle of the 19th century, the series Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei (Full Collection of Rus′ Chronicles, hereafter PSRL) was begun with the goal of publishing all Rus′ chronicles. Early editions tended to reflect the pre-Shakhmatovian view of the purpose of chronicle study. As a result, the first six volumes of the series had to be re-edited later. The total [End Page 939] number of published volumes, now at 43, includes some volumes in more than one edition.1 In publishing a chronicle text, the editor has the choice of a number of ways to present it, depending on the goals of the edition and on the circumstances of the manuscript copies themselves. If one copy is clearly the best representative of the archetype or authorial text, then it should be used as the copy text and variants provided from the other copies only to show the history of the development of the text. If no single copy is best and if the manuscript tradition is “open” (i.e., no clear genealogical relationship can be established among the copies), then picking and choosing readings from different copies based on the knowledge, skill, and intuition of the editor is to be preferred. If the manuscript tradition is “closed” (i.e., a clear genealogical relationship can be determined), then a stemma should be used. A stemma is a genealogical representation of the relationship of copies of a text. One creates a stemma by comparing the similarities and differences in readings among the various copies and by grouping the copies accordingly. One can then use the stemma to help figure out the primacy of readings in cases where there is a difference among those readings. In addition, when only one manuscript copy of a chronicle text exists or when a “best representative” copy exists, then the editor has the choice of simulating the morphologic and paleographic features of that copy, including abbreviated forms, superscripts, titlos, accents, punctuation marks, specialized characters, ligatures, and so forth (note that even in this attempt at manuscript verisimilitude, the editor is expected to make choices of word division). When Shakhmatov prepared the Hypatian Codex (which includes the Povest′ vremennykh let [The Tale of Bygone Years, hereafter PVL], the Kievan Chronicle, and the Galician-Volynian Chronicle) in 1908 for the second edition of volume 2 of PSRL, he used the Hypatian manuscript as his copy text (replicating many of its morphologic and paleographic features) and provided...

Ol'ga's Conversion and the Construction of Chronicle Narrative

T A he Povesf vremennykh let, variously known in English as the Primary Chronicle or the Tale of Bygone Years, is the single most important source for the history of Kievan Rus'. Although the origins of the Povesf are obscure, the earliest portions of the text certainly date to after the acceptance of Christianity by St. Vladimir Sviatoslavich of Rus', an event that the Povesf itself dates to AM 6496 (988/989 CE).1 In fact, these portions probably date to a considerably later period, some time after the ecclesiastical literary initiative of Vladimir's son, Iaroslav the Wise, dated by the Povesf to AM 6545 (1037/1038).2 The full text of the Povesf in its currently extant form almost certainly dates no later than the colophon of Hegumen Sylvester, which appears in the Laurentian, Radziwill, and Academy manuscripts of the text and is dated AM 6624 (1116/1117).3 The entry for AM 6463 (955/956) in the Povesf, which describes how Ol'ga of Rus', the grandmother of St. Vladimir, at once received baptism in Byzantium and avoided marriage to a Byzantine emperor, has doubtless entertained generations of readers.4 Yet although this entry holds an important place in a lengthy and heated debate about the time and place of Ol'ga's baptism (probably not 955/956), the passage itself has received rather

Judicial Accountability, Grievances Against Judiciary and Ombudsman: A Source of Law

Ombudsman is the not only an institute which help to address problems of administration, but if it oversees the functioning of the judiciary and its members it would not only help to note the reaction of the people but would also help in the interest of the society. The role and understanding of the law is now completely changed over the years and judging is no longer easy as it was in the bygone years. The criticism and comment on judiciary is now frequent and the judiciary cannot escape the scrutiny of the demand of the people. Aim: The Ombudsman would help in developing the understanding between the judiciary and the people. At the same time it will continue to have its traditional role of parliamentary officer and will facilitate the Parliament by acting as a source of law. Conclusion: In a democratic Government system, it is expected that the people have adequate means for the redress their grievances. When the people start debating on the judiciary and its judgments, the escalation of grievances is common in them. The Ombudsman would address to these reactions and help the people to understand the technicalities of the law which governs them. He would bring transparency in the judicial system and will further strengthen the trust of people in the judiciary. Ombudsman also acts as source of law as it extracts those areas of legislation which otherwise would not come notice of the Parliament. It also helps realization of the new values of the society and interest of the people. Thus, it derives law from the society and acts as source of law.

Current Therapy of Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) affects vascular proliferation and remodeling in small pulmonary arteries and results in right ventricular failure and death due to a progressive increase in pulmonary vascular resistance. Recent advances in understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in PAH suggest that endothelial dysfunction plays a major role. Impaired production of vasoactive mediators, such as prostacyclin and nitric oxide, accompanied with prolonged overexpression of vasoconstrictors such as endothelin-1, affects vascular tone and reinforces vascular remodeling. As the latter substances represent logical pharmacological targets, new drugs affecting these mechanisms have evolved during the past 2 decades and led to umpteen placebo-controlled trials in bygone years. Prognosis and quality of life of patients suffering from PAH seem to improve due to these new treatment strategies resulting in a reduction of mortality and morbidity, but there is still a substantial need for further long-term and head-to-head trials.

The Povest' vremennykh let: An Interlinear Collation and Paradosis

Tale of Bygone Years (Povest Vremennykh let) is an important source for the history of early Rus'. This volume provides the text, including all of the known redactions of the Povest. It consists of an intercollation of the five oldest redactions, three modern redactions, three later interpolations and Donald Ostrowski's own final interpretation. The intercollated texts are nested line by line.

Tale of Bygone Years: the Russian Primary Chronicle as a family chronicle

This paper aims to develop a new approach to the investigation of the oldest Russian historical text, the Tale of Bygone Years or Russian Primary Chronicle. The purpose of this study is to examine methods by which the chronicler constructed the Riurikid princely dynasty from legendary forefathers to the author's own time. How did the contemporary political situation at the beginning of the twelfth century influence the presentation of the Riurikids of the ninth and tenth centuries? What was the place of oral traditions within the work? How did the ideology of princely power interact with the presentation of family and kinship?

Independence Hall in American Memory

Independence Hall in American Memory. By Charlene Mires. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. Pp. xviii, 352. Cloth, $34.95.)During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, elite Philadelphians transformed the appearance and symbolic function of Independence Hall. Stripping away or deemphasizing the accoutrements associated with city council chamber meetings, federal courtroom proceedings, and the centennial celebrations of 1876, they presented a sanitized version of their most famous building. They also replaced nearby offices with arcades and wings reminiscent of eighteenth-century buildings. When Independence Hall reopened on July 4, 1898, it now served the public as a venerable historic site rather than a locus for contentious civic engagement.And yet Independence Hall could not escape cleanly into the comfortable fortress of history. Before renovations were finished, some construction workers apparently deposited inside one of the arcades a single fruit jar holding a firsthand description of laborers' working conditions and the advent of the Spanish-American War. Despite elite planners' efforts to separate past and present, the crafty bricklayers made clear that at Independence Hall would be continually made as well as preserved. Embedded within the very structure of the arcades was unmistakable evidence that historic buildings reflected not only selected tales of bygone years, but the multifaceted concerns of ongoing generations.Vignettes like this one go to the heart of Charlene Mires's provocative new book, Independence Hall in American Memory. In this recent contribution to the wave of studies devoted to popular historical memory, the author convincingly argues that the significance of Independence Hall lies not only in the history of the nation's founding, but in the ways that Americans have remembered that at its place of origin (viii). More specifically, the of Independence Hall reveals a complicated series of struggles over the very definition of American national identity.One of the strengths of Mires's work is the creativity and depth of her research. Because the book covers the entire career of Independence Hall-from its colonial origins as a monument of British imperial power to its current status as a sacred icon of American public memory-a wide net needed to be cast for evidence. Mires ably handles such a net, effectively employing newspapers, state and city legislative journals, court records, novels, promotional pamphlets, town histories, graphic images and maps, Fourth of July proceedings, diaries, architectural blueprints, television and radio transcripts, presidential speeches, and United Nations reports. In fact, it is a testament to the author's extensive research that the aforementioned tale about the bricklayers' fruit jar appears only in a footnote (309). Having done the legwork necessary to get a handle on the complex of Independence Hall, the author is afforded the chance to present her readers a wealth of interesting examples. And interesting examples Mires certainly provides. Readers of this book learn not only about mythical details like Benjamin Franklin's comments regarding the rising sun chair, but about less familiar elements like Jewish-American Frank Etting's post-Civil War attempts to turn Independence Hall into a national museum and novelist Shiba Shiro's appropriation of Independence Hall as an emblem of Japanese might.Another strong point of this work is the treatment of the Liberty Bell, which, curiously enough, is not mentioned in the title. According to Mires, the Liberty Bell first assumed prominence in the middle of the nineteenth century, when abolitionists began linking it to the cause of African-American freedom. However, unlike those who manipulated the symbolic ideals associated with Independence Hall, promulgators of the Liberty Bell felt free to disassociate it from its original Philadelphia environs. …

At History's Knee

My interest in oral history-although I could not have called it by its proper name-dates back almost to my birth. For you see, one of my distinct blessings is to have begun life in a threeand indeed during my ve y earliest years four-generation household. Our big Iowa farmhouse was rife with relatives. Nearly any door or floor could yield up an elder, ready to play checkers or tell stories of by-gone years. In retrospect, the situation could scarcely have been better: my parents had automatic babysitters, my grandparents had an immediate audience, and I had an unassailable connection to the past. My Great-grandmother Gleason, born in 1868, who had always seemingly worn long, black dresses, and sat enthroned in her formidable high-backed wheelchair, told me of a time when the guns of the Civil War had only recently ceased their thunder, and when GAR veterans marched, some with sleeves empty, each Decoration Day to commemorate their role as saviors of the Union. She also told me of her role as surrogate mother to her twelve younger siblings, and how on sultry summer days when the chores could be declared complete, she would take her charges to a nearby copse. There, she and the older children would wrestle a young sapling double, hold it steady, and when a child's grip was firm enough, loose the tree to sway. My paternal grandfather, fatherless since age two, recalled life in the late 1890s. The humiliation of begging for the coins with which he would secure his first pair of new shoes still brought bitterness as he told of relatives who might have helped ease the pathway. He told me of my Great-uncle Harry, his older brother, who had answered the call to serve his nation

Analysing Australian stone artefacts: An agenda for the twenty first century

Over the last twenty five years we have had repeated evaluations of the history of stone artefact analysis in Australia (e.g. Mulvaney 1977; Hiscock 1983, 1998; Fullagar 1994; Holdaway 1995). Each of these reviews brought a different emphasis to the quest for an understanding of the trends, motive factors and constraints in archaeological investigations of bygone years. Although it is pleasing to observe the progress of analytical practice it is equally clear that the major benefit of these historical reviews is their ability to identify those subject areas requiring remedial attention and warranting emphasis in future investigations. With this point in mind it is not our intention to revisit the intellectual history of artefact analysis, but to concentrate on developing a summary of issues that might be the focus of our research efforts over coming decades. Our purpose is to define elements of a research agenda for the study of archaeological stone artefacts, and to this end we do not offer solutions to those problems that remain but seek to identify components of research design deserving attention. We have chosen a number of methodological and substantive issues to explore and that remain problematic in archaeological research within Australia. Because scientific research designs are primarily concerned with investigating problems in our current knowledge base, the key to refining them is to identify those issues that problematise the existing discipline or subdiscipline. Hence our interest here is to list some of the numerous problems that remain to be adequately addressed in artefact analysis in Australia; and we take this project to be central to the improvement of analyses of Australian stone artefacts. Our general approach is to emphasise a need for more explicit discussion about the nature of our questions, the theory underlying our methods, and the connection between the two. The specific questions and methods that we raise in the context of this discussion are intended as a means of initiating a dialogue about research direction in artefact analysis and are not intended to be proscriptive.

Feeding the anorectic client: comfort foods and happy hour.

The anorectic patient presents a dilemma to the health care provider. As the patient refuses oral intake, quality of life diminishes, and health care costs increase. This article describes two approaches that have demonstrated effectiveness: comfort food and happy hour. "Comfort foods" describe foods associated with bygone years, intended to trigger recollections of pleasant childhood experiences and feelings of caring and healing. A second alternative described is the offering of a "happy hour" beverage, presented in a social milieu. These treatments are reproducible in a variety of clinical care settings and stimulate oral intake in the failure-to-thrive patient.

Hagiografie in Woord en Beeld

Hagiography in pictures and text: Boris and Gleb, two Old Russian Saints The icon of the Holy Boris and Gleb († 1015) with scenes from their lives (Tretjakov Gallery, Moscow, no. 28757; see p. 25) is discussed as an art-historical source on the basis of one of the literary sources, the Life of the Saints, as it is found in the medieval historical context of the Russian Primary Chronicle, the Povest’ vremennych let (‘the Tale of Bygone Years’). Unlike men in modern times, men in the Middle Ages were used to ‘reading’ and understanding the iconographical language of pictures. In order to make the meaning of the ‘source in pictures’ more accessible to the observer nowadays, it is treated together with the ‘source in words’. The present article offers a Dutch translation of the Old Russian text alternated with comments on iconography.

The Decline of a Dynast: From Power to Love in Aksakov's Family Chronicle

A A lthough the generic peculiarities of Family Chronicle have been the main focus of its investigators,1 thematics-to use the convenient neologism-has not been entirely neglected. Thus, commentators are likely to remind us that the largerthan-life proportions of old Bagrov enhance the central theme of the patriarch; that his voyage eastward rehearses the pioneering thrust which informs many narratives of exploration; or that the segments dominated by Aleksei and Sof'ia Nikolaevna embody the themes of urbanization and domesticity. Loosely tying up these (and other) strands is the comment of a recent scholar that the central conflict of the work as a whole is the incursion of modernity ... on the old way of life.2 To some these truths may seem like truisms. They lie, as it were, on the surface of the text. But this very stricture helps, I think, to define the nature of the narrative. For, with its clear, unhurried, expansive, and richly detailed evocation of an earlier age, Family Chronicle is an unusually pure example of that mimetic mode which Erich Auerbach, in his classic study, called Homeric. Everything-or almost everything-in these pages is, in Auerbach's words, direct, visible, leisurely, copiously related, and fully externalized-a world, as it were, without shadows.3 And it is precisely this manner of relation (applied to the blind Aksakov reciting the heroic exploits of bygone years, the word Homeric seems oddly apt) that, according to the critic, lacks polyvalence (a multiplicity of meanings) and, as a consequence, defies, or at least discourages, interpretations.4

Les premières années byzantines du Récit des temps passés

The First Byzantine Years of The Russian Primary Chronicle The Russian Primary Chronicle also known as Narratives of bygone years is the first writing which aims at telling chronologically what happened in Russia from the earlier times to the 12th century. For the l0th century the chronicler had no dated documents and borrowed most of his information from byzantine chronicles which used a chronology based on indiction. The Russian chronicler who wanted to give Russia a specific chronology reworked his sources and transfered their datation into years from Creation. This was often a difficult business which obliged the chronicler to interpret and adapt the byzantine data to another system. Explaining how he solved the problems he had to face the paper shows that the work was logically completed and that, undoubtedelly, The Russian Primary Chronicle was compiled by an unique author.

"----Ou Sont les Neiges d'Antan?"

This is a line from a 16th-century poem written by Francois Villon on the occasion of his 30th birthday. Translated, the expression asks: Where are the snows of bygone years? Villon's metaphorical expression refers to friends that he had known in his younger days and had since lost track of. Where are the snows of bygone years? In the literal sense, this is a rhetorical question that can easily be answered by a three-year-old. They are gone. The snows are gone. When I began to think about what I would say to you this morning, the line from Villon's poem came into my mind; a phrase that I had not thought of since my undergraduate days.