Skip to main content

Cf. True Names: Vergil and the Alexandrian Tradition of Etymological Wordplay (Ann Arbor 1996, expanded edition 2017) p. 6, n. 7 (cf. index s.v. Yastrzemski): “In lectures … I have dramatized the problem of coincidence [in evaluating claims about etymologizing] by showing audiences two photographs: one of the Augustus of Prima Porta, with the right arm raised in the air, the left arm holding a (modern) black staff against his body, the noticeable ponderation of the hips and legs, and the Cupid figure visible beyond the right leg; the other of Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame left fielder Carl Yastrzemski saluting the crowd in his final game [in 1983, eheu fugaces], with his right arm raised in the air, the left arm holding a black bat against his body, the noticeable ponderation of the hips and legs, and the on-deck batter, made smaller by the photograph’s perspective, visible just beyond the right leg.”

2013 update: The Boston Red Sox have honored Carl Yastrzemski with a statue outside of Fenway Park.  The statue is based on the photograph from 1983!  It’s a statue based on a photograph that looks like a statue.  This can hardly be due to chance.