Friday Varia and Quick Hits

I woke up early this morning to watch a bit of the finalEngland-India Test before taking the dogs to their club only to find that the match had been abandoned due to COVID concerns. Such is life in the new normal.

Fortunately this looks like it will be one of those lovely fall weekends with temperatures today reminding us of what summer felt like before cooling across Saturday and Sunday with some clouds. Fall in North Dakota really is the best.

This weekend is also packed with sport. My Ohio State Buckeyes have a huge game against Oregon tomorrow. The NFL season is kicking off (although the Eagles won’t be on TV in my area, I was able to enjoy a bit of the Cowboys’ loss last night). Tonight, Oscar Valdez fights Robson Conceicao on a substantial TopRankboxingcard (and for heavy weight fans, Tony Yoka fights this afternoon in Paris; he’s an interesting guy who is starting to move up the rankings). The F1 party heads to the Monza for some low downforce fun and the NASCAR circus races on Saturday night at Richmond. The Phillies will also continue to work hard to give Atlanta some space atop the NLeast standings. What more can you want?

I suppose you could eagerly request a little list of quick hits and varia and who am I to deny you?

Here you go:

• If you want to the good stuff, go over and subscribe to Past Imperfects which is really one of the best lists of varia and quick hits on the internets.

• Two new FREE books.

A survey of the archaeological finds associated with the construction of the Trans-Adriatic pipeline in Greece. Check out the Early Christian basilica on the cover. ZEXY!!! (HT to Fotini Kondyli for bringing this to my attention).

“Those Infidel Greeks”: The Greek War of Independence through Ottoman Archival Documents.

• Forged Antiquities.

• Saints, Sacred Trees, and Snakes.

• Urban Space and Collective Action in Late Antique Arsinoe.

• Developing Petra: UNESCO, the World Bank, and America in the desert.

• Midwest Mediterranean.

• The Meaning of Stonehenge. 

• The Silenced Garbage.

• Amazon and the Evolution of Work (part 1 and part 2).

• Atlantis, Expertise, and Utopia.

• Dynamite!

• Paintings from Across the Sky.

• Jaskaran Malhotra!!

• Dan Henry 1963 Chronograph.

• Mola Mola Kula.

• What I’m reading: Susan A. Phillips, The City Beneath the City: A Century of Los Angeles Graffiti. Yale 2019. 

• What I’m listening to: William Parker Quartets, Meditation/Resurrection. (But do check out this relatively recent track from Parker’s Migration Out of Silence: Into and Out of a Tonal World titled “Baldwin”. I snuck another track from that massive album into the list above!).

Clueless Milo (if you zoom into the background you’ll see why)