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- PEOPLE, Page 72Out, Spots! In, Despot!
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- By Howard G. Chua-Eoan. Reported by David E. Thigpen
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- A man should be upright, not be kept upright," the Roman
- Emperor and Stoic philosopher MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS wrote
- in his Meditations in the 2nd century. Still, 1,800 years is a
- long time to sit on a horse. In January 1981 conservators
- worried about pollution removed the Emperor's equestrian statue
- from its ancient plinth in front of the Campidoglio on Rome's
- Capitoline Hill. With the help of X rays and ultrasound tests,
- they slowly cleaned up its grime, but in the meantime Rome's
- pollution worsened. Now there is dissension about re-exposing
- the bronze, the only surviving horse-and-rider from imperial
- times, and the statue rests in storage. This month Rome's new
- republican rulers will issue a decision on Marcus Aurelius'
- future. But whether his home is inside some museum or back on
- his outdoor perch, the old Stoic isn't likely to complain.
- "Whatever befalls you," he said, "it was preordained for you
- from everlasting." That probably includes pigeons.
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- Spliced Genes By Howard G. Chua-Eoan. Reported by David E.
- Thigpen
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- And Sean Connery begat Dustin Hoffman and Dustin Hoffman
- begat Matthew Broderick. The descent is genetically unlikely,
- and the accents clash. But, thanks to cinematic magic, all three
- actors are one big, if sullen, clan in Family Business, a Sidney
- Lumet drama that finished shooting last week in New York City.
- The tale revolves around an argumentative grandfather, father
- and son who execute a heist to promote peace in the clan. Says
- Broderick: "My granddad was Irish. Sean is Welsh. Dustin plays
- an Italian. It's not so confusing." Not if you're a genealogist.
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