Friday Varia and Quick Hits

Yesterday was the first day of the year that I actually felt HOT here in North Dakotaland and I suppose that means summer is upon us. Today, there’s a chance we’ll see triple digits and I’ve lugged the window-unit air conditioner (or, as we call them, egg-nishnah) to the second floor window.

Fortunately, there will be plenty of opportunities to keep cool this weekend as the NBA playoff roll on (apparently without Joel Embiid), the Phils face the Nationals, the F1 guys head to Baku, and the NASCARlers go to wine country. Plus, my summer research and writing schedule is coming into focus; so, there’ll be plenty of reasons for me to stay inside and chill out.

I hope your summertime is likewise rounding into shape and that you enjoy this modest gaggle of quick hits and varia:

• Hesperia 90.2 has dropped.

• After Constantine issue 1.

• The Archaeology of Anatolian Landscapes.

• Armenian churches.

• Antivaxxers and Jewish Suffering.

• Poet Laureates. 

• Where does the rain go?

• Backstories on Prairie Public Radio’s Mainstreet.

• How to talk about Native Nations.

• Everything is paywalled.

• Race and Swimming.

• Rootbeer.

• What I’m reading: Walter Scheidel, Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity. Princeton 2019.

• What I’m listening to: Alice Coltrane, Ptah, the El Daoud (1970); Journey in Satchidananda (1970); and Universal Consciousness (1971).