Friday Quick Hits and Varia
This week has been the calm before the storm as the start of the semester looms in front of my like an early-fall thunderhead rolling across the Northern Plains. I like to imagine that I’m reading for it to hit, but I also know that I’m probably not. It’s a kind of liberating tension that will eventually lead to paralyzing fits of panic on Monday afternoon. Classes start Tuesday! Good times ahead!
Fortunately, I have plenty to distract me this weekend. Not only do my beloved Phillies face the hated Mets this weekend for a series that will could cast a long shadow over the Phillies efforts to make the the extended playoff setup. It’ll help that Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola are pitching on Friday and Saturday and Scherzer and deGrom are not pitching for the Mets.
The Friday night game is just an appetizer for the main event: the heavy weight championship of the world. Oleksander Usyk faces Anthony Joshua in a rematch of Usyk’s dismantling of Joshua last year. Then, as if that’s not enough, one of my favorite fighters Emanuel Navarrete faces Eduardo Baez in defense of his feather weight title. Navarrete as baffling to watch as Usyk is beautiful.
On Sunday, the Cup guys race at Watkins Glenn which always seems to put on a good show and should be extra entertaining with retired F1 champion and all around baffling individual Kimi Räikkönen running in it.
Somehow with all this sport to enjoy, I will need to keep chipping away at a few longer term-ish projects and find a moment to finish my syllabi before the my traditional Monday morning panic.
As always, my rambling introduction will conclude with an awkward transition to my regular list of quick hits and varia:
Is History History? Identity Politics and Teleologies of the Present.
Feeding a Boom Town: Greek Immigrants in Birmingham, Alabama.
What I am reading: Nope. Getting ready for the semester!
What I am listening to: Booker Little, Out Front. Hat tip to Pitchfork for reviewing this classic album and bringing it back to my playlist.
A bit of a Milo story: this week, Milo developed the “yips” when going up the stairs. Typically he sleeps on the floor next to our bed. So the last few nights, he’s spent on his favorite “Elmo” door mat at the foot of the stairs. It’s clear that he’s not very happy with this situation, so Argie has been helping. He not only races downstairs to check on Milo when he hears Milo offer his good morning whimper and then come back up to wake me up, but is also being fairly attentive to his old buddy.
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