Last week’s post lamented the August heat (call it an inferno) many parts of the country are enduring, while looking ahead wistfully to the promised land (call it a paradise) of a new season for The Office. In the midst of this entertainment limbo, I took the suggestion of a fellow blogger and sought inspirational humor from the show’s website. With apologies to Dante — Alighieri, not Bichette — I’ve come up with a medieval puzzle, of sorts.
The references below are taken from the second cantica of the epic Commedia poem, and each relates to one or more online images from our favorite sitcom. After making your guesses, click on the embedded links to see the photographic solutions. Okay, I admit that these are pretty obscure, but here goes:
“Veiling the Fishes that were in her [or his] escort”
“To the right hand I turned . . . and saw four stars”
“I saw beside me an old man alone”
“Then did my Leader lay his grasp upon me”
“See how he scorneth human arguments”
“So that fresh company did I behold”
“He seemed to me within himself remorseful”
“Blond was he, beautiful, and of noble aspect”
“Thou shalt behold thyself like a sick woman”
“Therefore ’tis well to think of some fair sojourn”
“Behold the monarch of the simple life”
“Blood-stained he issues from the dismal forest”
“And in a temple many persons saw”
“There rose up in my vision a young maiden”
“And meditation into dream transmuted”
“I on my knees had fallen, and wished to speak”
“How many with shorn hair shall rise again”
“Greeks who of old their brows with laurel decked”
“One folk is going, and the other coming”
And now, faithful readers, I too must be going. No matter how you did on the puzzle, I think we can all agree that the new season can’t start soon enough!
