Friday Varia and Quick Hits

This just might be the final varia and quick hits of 2021 since next week is Christmas Eve and the week after that, inconveniently, is New Ears Eve (which marks the annual renewal of our ears). If you’re looking for a bit of holiday joy, go and check out North Dakota Quarterly’s blog post this week.

After a few days over 30° this week, the weekend is going to be seasonably cold and I’m going to use that as an excuse to stay near the fire and check out the stretch run of the NFL season, watch my beloved Philadelphia 76ers turn in the 2021 Phillies, and maybe catch one or two of the big fights this weekend. I’m most intrigued by Artur Beterbiev fight tonight in Montreal. He is one of a very small handful of fighters who I consider a crazy punching robot. Most of the ongoing day/night test match in Adelaide takes place well after my bedtime, but I’d be remiss not to congratulate Australia on an impressive first innings. 

I have just a few more papers to grade, a little stack of mostly interesting things to read, and a couple of slightly hibernating dogs who will need walks. And I’ll also be diligently collecting posts for the first varia and quick hits of the new year.

• Pasts Imperfect this week features PKAP alumnus Andrew Henry who talks about the challenges scholars face as “content creators.

• More Obbink.

• New Approaches to Ancient Material Culture in the Greek & Roman World.

• Two new articles on the archaeology of music:

Sonic Heritage, Identity and Music-making in Sheffield, “Steel City”.

Records as records: excavating the DJ’s sonic archive.

• When Biblically Inspired Pseudoscience and Clickbait Cause Looting.

• Codex Nicholsonianus.

• Robots.

• Windmills.

• The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe.

• American Bacchanal.

• How Do Tenure-Track Professors Really Spend Their Work Time?

• Farmgirl Scientist.

• Windy Athens Airport.

• Sneak Peek of Marlon James’ Moon Witch, Spider King.

• What I’m reading: Mark Mazower, The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe. 2021.

• What I’m listening to: David Wertnan and the Sun Ensemble, Earthly Delights.