I AM HOUSE-SITTING FOR FRIENDS. THEY LEFT THEIR NEST CAM ON. DO I HAVE A RIGHT TO COVER THE LENS?

摘要

A: I pictured this Nest Cam looming over you-pictured its one dark eye, unblinking-and I immediately thought of that nasty old Cyclops who terrorizes Odysseus and his men in The Odyssey. What was his name? What was the story, exactly? I figured I better reread that bit. In a nutshell, Odysseus and his men are returning from a long, atrocious war. Landing for a stopover on the island of the Cyclopes, Odysseus confesses he's at a loss to understand this mountaintop-dwelling race of one-eyed savages: They don't fear the gods! They have no laws! They arejust too alien to be intelligible; Odysseus sees them only as "brutes," beneath his regard. So he leads his men into a cave-the home of one particular Cyclops who isn't home-and ransacks it. They build a fire and help themselves to all his many cheeses. Well, the Cyclops-his name is Polyphemus-is pretty ticked off when he returns (the original "Who moved my cheese?"). And Odysseus suddenly turns diffident and cloying: "We're at your knees in hopes of a warm welcome," he tells the Cyclops. But does he apologize for what essentially amounts to home invasion? No, he does not. Instead, he demands a gift! That's right, Odysseus asks the giant for a "guest-gift," the giving of which, he explains, is a mandatory and sacred custom between guests and their hosts, as dictated by his Greek gods.