Bread and circuses

It's very disconcerting to be totally immersed in a novel dealing with Rome during the time of Pompey and Caesar, and at a part where the text is discussing the grain dole for citizens, to discover that a man stumping for election as a delegate is handing you a brown paper bag with "home-baked" muffins in it. (They actually appear to be homemade, and not the Hostess mini-muffin type.)

All those talking heads who talk about America as a new Rome may be on to something after all. But it was nice to have the muffins.

*Colleen McCullough's Fortune's Favorites, one of the First Men of Rome series, which I've been rereading recently.