Friday Varia and Quick Hits

It’s so cold that even the University of North Dakota has closed for the day. Apparently -50 to -60 temperatures are too cold.

Fortunately, there is some fun stuff to entertain me this chilly weekend. There’s the penultimate weekend of NFL games and some entertaining NBA basketball (if the Sixers ever manage to win another game, that is). I have a tradition of tuning into the 24 Hours of Daytona and watching the inaugural festivities of the motor racing calendar. 

Other than that, I have plenty of reading to do, a manuscript to review, some grading, some puttering, and some exercise. I’ll probably socialize a bit too. It seems like the best plan is to just try to stay warm.

Here are quick hits and varia to keep the home fire burning:

• Pasts Imperfect.

• Modern Medieval: The Public Scholar: A Practical Handbook (forthcoming)

• Book I should read: Daniel Reynolds, The Development of Byzantine Archaeology and Historiographical Tradition in Colonial Palestine, 1800-1948 (2025).

• Noodling.

• Two Articles:

Tensions, Engagements, and Activisms along the Pipeline Route: Tracing Resistance to Line 93 in Northern Minnesota.

Towards an ecology of medieval mining towns: linkingsocial and environmental changes.

• Good thinking: Rebrand the Rebrand.

• Louise Erdrich in the North Dakota Quarterly.

• What I’m reading: Tricia Bertram Gallant and David A. Rettinger, The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI. 2025.

• What I’m listening to: Oliver Nelson, Skull Sessions. 1974.