It used to be fair to say that because of the A.D. 79 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, which coated everything in its wake in a deadly blanket of volcanic material, especially ash (not lava: see comments), Pompeii had frozen a slice of Roman life in time. But for a while now, there have been warnings about Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Now that Pompey's remains are in the air and subject to a constant trampling by visitors, the archaeological site has been undergoing rapid decay. On Friday, July 2, 2008, Italy's cabinet issued a state of emergency for Pompeii to last a year.

Source: Italy Declares State Of Emergency At Pompeii RuinsWatch and listen to a report on BBC News.

Also see:

• What You Need to Know About Mt. Vesuvius
• Review of Pompeii, by Robert Harris a retelling of the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius from the perspective of an ancient aqueduct engineer.
• Photographs of Baths at Pompeii
• Little House in Pompeii, by Judith Geary

Photo © Judith Geary

The mythologically-themed word of the day is

Chimerical [ki-mer-i-kuhl] a mythological hybrid monster, especially one having the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. Now, very unrealistic, fantastic.

Example: To get elected, politicians make chimerical promises to fix the [fill in the blank].

Also see

• Flower Name Meanings
• Etymology of Geometry Terms
• English Words With Latin Prefixes
• More Words From Latin in English
• Words and Ideas
• Roots of English Words: Confusing Greek and Latin Pairs