Friday Varia and Quick Hits

It’s a cold Friday morning at the end of a long cold week here in North Dakotaland and the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine yesterday did little to make it warmer or easier. Let’s hope that this is the beginning of the end for Putin and his cronies in Russia, but my capacity for optimism is severely strained at this point.

It seems almost irreverent to note that Jame Harden will hopefully make his first start with the Sixers tonight or to point out that the Indy Car season starts in St. Petersburg (Florida!) this weekend while the Cup guys race in California. Josh Taylor fights Jack Catterall tomorrow with Taylor’s four belts on the line. If I was a novelist and had a character who was a boxer, his name might well be Jack Catterall. 

I suppose finding some distractions isn’t entirely inappropriate, but it doesn’t feel very good. The following lackluster list of quick hits and varia reflect my mid-semester malaise and the continuous realization that the world in which we live is a pretty horrible place:

• Pasts Imperfect as always.

• Today: Afro-Eurasian Antiquities beyond the Euro-American Gaze.

• Professional–Collector Collaboration: Moving beyond Debate to Best Practice.

• CFP: An Archaeology of Inequality.

• History on Horseback: An Equestrian Perspective of the Ancient World

• Blue Marble Notes: Changing Oceans.

• What I’m reading: Kaniqua L. Robinson, “The Performance of Memorialization: Politics of Memory and Memory-Making at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.” PhD Dissertation, University of South Florida, 2018. 

• What I’m listening to: Catalyst, The Funkiest Band You’ve Never Heard.