Friday Varia and Quick Hits
A few varia on a snowy Friday morning in North Dakotaland. The snow must have come just a few hours ago because the roads were not clear and neither was campus. This is pretty unusual.
A fun little journey into the formation of urban (err, rural?) legends. This list of fun facts about the situation in the western North Dakota Bakken counties has been circulating on the interwebs (and we got a copy on it during a meeting on our work out west), Aaron Barth and Tom Isern have taken the list apart. One point Tom and Aaron have missed is that the list says Minot has hired 115 Philippian nurses to work at the hospital. They quite logically assumed this to be a misspelling of the word Filipino (i.e. someone from the Philippines), but Philippians are people from Philippi in Greece (e.g. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians). And out-migration from Greece has been the subject of another body of growing myth. So perhaps this is where global and local mythologies intersect. (I’m mostly kidding…)
The Redford Conference in Archaeology for 2012 is about Taking Archaeology Digital.
Yesterday, my blog got a hit from <http://www.ajaonline.org/students/blogs> which I am not authorized to access. This could be an interesting development.
The Clarmont in Columbus, Ohio closed this past week. As a graduate student, it was among our favorite haunts when we felt like acting like grown ups (and it was the only place in town that felt appropriate before going to the opera). It was the type of place where you could just as easily sit next to a city councilor as a prostitute. And it felt made of scuffed carpets, frayed table cloths, and worn brass.
So, my wife became a great aunt last night (and a bloody cute great aunt, at that!). And I discovered the same day, that John Tyler (the 10th President, not the brother of the guy from Aerosmith) still has living grandchildren. I am not sure what blew my mind more.
I have a colleague that I really want to send this YouTube link to (h/t to Chuck Jones), but he (oddly enough) doesn’t really have the internets.
Another h/t to Chuck Jones: iPhone Fayum portraits. (These can’t be authentic. They must have been made using Fayumshop… hahahaha…get it?)
England v. Pakistan (and since India has given up on Harbhajan Singh, England’s Monty Panesar has become my favorite Sikh cricket player) has been better than Australia v. India (Kerry O’Keefe when Rahul Dravid came to the crease: “The stumps have asked for pads“. Ouch.). Oh and if you haven’t had enough cricket fun, this is a great story of Garry Sobers getting a test hundred with a “hangover” (actually, he was probably still drunk).
What I’m reading: E. Foner and L. McGirr, American History Now. Temple 2011.
What I’m listening to: Foster the People, Torches (total mind sugar) and Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory.
“The Russel” of the Great Northern Railroad working her way to Sarles, ND January 1907. SHSND# 0714-003
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