Friday Varia and Quick Hits

We’re being told that this weekend might be the last gasp of fall. The leaves are mostly off the trees, the temperatures are comfortably below 40 at night, and the days are getting shorter and shorter. This weekend, though, as a parting gift from 2021, we’ll once again nudge the 60s, if only for one day.

With the end of the World Series, it feels like fall and winter sports start to find their rhythm. The NFL season is nearly half over, every college football game matters, and NBA season is a long way from meaningful, but the early games are always interesting. The group stage of the men’s cricket T20 World Cup is winding down and people are looking ahead to the semifinals (England and Pakistan have advanced to the semi-finals, and the final two spots will go to Afghanistan, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa depending on the outcome of this weekend’s contests). The NASCAR guys have their final race to decide the championship in Phoenix and the Formula 1 party makes its annual stop in Mexico City where the title fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will likely only get closer. Of course, the biggest sporting event this weekend is probably the Canelo Alvarez boxing match against Caleb Plant to unify the the super middle weight titles. 

Despite all these wonderful distractions, I think I’ll probably spend quality time with my books, some light-duty writing, and probably a long walk and an easy jog to soak up the last of 2021s warmth. 

And perhaps with some quick hits and varia:

• PastsImperfect once again hits it out of the park this week. Check out their carefully curated list of links and notes here. 

• An Archaeology of Temperature: Numerical Materials in the Capitalized Landscape.

• Museums

Reimagining Museums for Climate Action.

The Age of Too Much Museum Storage Must End.

• Teaching “CRT” in an Age of White Backlash.

• The Horror, The Horror.

• SQUID. (And more SQUID).

• A Social Explanation for the Disappearance of Roman Thermae.

• Check out pilgrimCHAT!

• Saffron Harvest in Full Swing in Northern Greece.

• Blaundos tombs.

• North Dakotiana:

On Jay Gatsby, the Most Famous North Dakotan.

From North Dakota to Occupy Wall Street.

• Megadorm!

• Grand Seiko VFA 6186-8000-G.

• Provost Rothaus.

• What I’m reading: Shannon Lee Dawdy, American Afterlives: Reinventing Death in the 21st century. Princeton 2021.

• What I’m listening to: Fred Anderson Quartet, Dark Day.