Friday Varia and Quick Hits

Just when I thought we were on our way to winter, we ge a weekend of weather in the mid-60s. This will provide a nice couple of days for some yard work and perhaps a longer run than I’d be inclined to take if the weather was in the more seasonable 40s. I’m not sure either of those qualify as a good thing, but it is what it is.

This week has been pretty exciting and I hope you’ve had to chance to celebrate New Book Day with your fellow readers here, at North Dakota Quarterly, and at the The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota. If you haven’t checked out the release of Jurij Koch’s The Cherry Tree (translated by John K. Cox), you really should. It’s a special book. Go here for more on this release and for a free download of the book. 

This weekend is an exciting one for sports fans. The T20 Cricket World Cup get underway in earnest with Australia taking on New Zealand. The Phils continue their tussle with the Padres in the NLCS tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. Formula 1 is in Austin for the annual party there and it’ll be on TV opposite the Cup guys in Miami. I’ll probably tune into the former.

Of course, I have a growing stack of books and articles to read, at least one book to bring over the finish line, and some writing odds and ends to wrap up before later fall deadlines (as well as a course to prep!). It’s not the most fun time of year work wise, but it is what it is.

And that’s also probably the best way to describe this week’s quick hits and varia:

• Past Imperfect. 

• St. Nick in Turkey.

• Death at the Field Museum.

• Big Datasets in Archaeology.

• Two Things on Trash

Refuse and the Roman City: Determining the Formation Processes of Refuse Assemblages Using Statistical Measures of Heterogeneity

When Absence Means Things Are Going Well: Waste Disposal in Roman Towns and its Impact on the Record as Observed in Aquileia.

• Booker Prize: Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

• The Peripheral.

• NAD C 3050 LE Stereophonic Amplifier.

• What I’m reading: William Stolzman, The Pipe and Christ. 1986.

• What I’m listening to: Plains, I Walked With You a Ways.

I would prefer not to.