Friday Quick Hits and Varia

Sometime over the last week, winter arrived in North Dakotaland. The temperatures are dropping to single digits over night and we have a dusting of snow on the ground. This made it perfect weather for smoking a turkey out back and hunkering down indoors with a good book and plenty of football.

Turkey and football were an amuse-bouche for the main event this weekend: The Game. My friends who are Michigan fans are so cocky that they’re telling me that the might not even have time to watch the game this year. Frankly, I can’t blame them. If OSU wins, that’s just what we should do. If we lose, well, that’s just how this rivalry goes these days. The Eagles, who are downright annoying, play the Bears this afternoon. I plan to peddling my stationary bike for the first half (mostly to manage my rage). The Sixers play a winnable game against the Nets this evening. The F1 circus is in Qatar for what is turning out to be a close title chase. We’re a Lando Norris family and we’re pulling for him! Ben Whittaker, the charismatic and mildly annoying British light heavyweight, fights someone called Benjamin Gavazi on Saturday. 

Despite all the holiday tomfoolery, there is some serious work going on. I have grading, reading, and some writing as well as a small and “carefully curated” (i.e. random things in my feed) gaggle of quick hits and varia:

• Small-Scale Copper Production in Late Roman Pyrga, Cyprus: Ecclesiastical Influence on technology

• Susanna Elm, The Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Rule in Late Antiquity (2025).

• Coins and the End of Antiquity.

• Handwriting Recognition.

• From the blogs:

AI Applicants to Graduate Programs.

Weekly Varia.

• Petroculture at Tatnall School.

• New Australian literary journals.

• Kyle Cassidy.

• Jazzwise Critics Poll.

• RIP Jimmy Cliff.

• What I’m reading and listening to: check out yesterday’s post!