About Whoville’s dulcet yuletide chorus, Dr. Seuss’s garlic-souled Grinch exclaimed, “Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!” What if he had cried, with jeers or joy, “Oh, the lines! Lines!...
Imagine: Your father is Tiberius, Rome’s moody second emperor (r. 14-37 AD); he, with your colorful cousin Caligula, regularly retreats to Capri to watch tortures and executions. Your adoptive grandfather,...