Pages
- Photos at Flickr
- About Me
- Emergence Notes
- Last Collection Speech, Swarthmore, 2002
- Permanent Entries
- Power Can Lose
- Research Libraries Group/OCLC Programs Talk, June 2007
- Scholarly Articles
- Syllabi
- History 1L The History of Play and Leisure, Spring 2008
- History 1Y History of the Future Spring 2011
- History 61 The Production of History, Spring 2007
- History 62 The History of Reading, Spring 2007
- History 62, The History of Reading, Spring 2012
- History 80 The Whole Enchilada
- History 83 What Ifs and Might-Have-Beens, Spring 2011
- History 87 Development and Modern Africa, Spring 2007
- History 88 The Social History of Consumption, Spring 2008
- History 89 Environmental History of Africa
- History 8B History of Southern Africa, Spring 2011
- History 8B. Mfecane, Mines and Mandela: Southern Africa from 1600 to 2006, Fall 2006
- History 8C From Leopold to Kabila: The Bad Twentieth Century in Central Africa, Spring 2008
- History of the Future, Spring 2006
- The NOTES ARCHIVE
Archives
- June 2021
- January 2021
- November 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- January 2019
- October 2018
- May 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- May 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
Categories
- Academia
- Africa
- Blogging
- Books
- Cleaning Out the Augean Stables
- Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities
- Defining "Liberal Arts"
- Digital Humanities
- Domestic Life
- Food
- Games and Gaming
- Generalist's Work
- Good Quote, Bad Quote
- Grasping the Nettle
- I'm Annoyed
- Information Technology and Information Literacy
- Intellectual Property
- Miscellany
- Oath for Experts
- Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System
- Pictures from an Institution
- Politics
- Popular Culture
- Production of History
- Sheer Raw Geekery
- Swarthmore
- The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
- Uncategorized
Meta
Category Archives: Miscellany
Putting the Dead to Work
Very busy time the last two weeks, and I’m not out of it yet. I’ve been storing up some thoughts for the weblog, and hope to get them up soon. One thought in passing this morning. Anybody whose first impulse … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
10 Comments
Squirrel in the Hole!
So. I am seeing considerable debate out there about whether or not building catapult traps for squirrels is ethically appropriate. I’m all for them. I used to keep a bird feeder at a previous house and worked hard to try … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
6 Comments
Bathtub Debates
I participated in a very non-serious, amusing debate between the divisions last week at Swarthmore. A couple of people off-campus who have somehow heard about this quirkily local event have asked me for a transcript or recording. You can watch … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Miscellany
4 Comments
Compromise
I joke that when they’re presented with two or more diametrically opposed ways of interpreting knowledge or evidence, Swarthmore students habitually say, “Both are right, to some degree”. But who am I to talk? That’s my schtick too. So in … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
3 Comments
Snakes. I Love Snakes.
So Belle Waring has a story about copperheads and beheadings and camp counselors getting bit. 1. I was absolutely 100% certain until somewhere around my junior year in high school that I was going to be a herpetologist. I kept … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
4 Comments
Only At Swarthmore
A new round of chalkings, in subtle and clever reply to the last two rounds. Seen already this morning: “Free the quarks!” “The marginalia I wrote were not for you, they were Fermat.” “K/S forever!” I guess I could add, … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Miscellany
9 Comments
The Sensation of Standing Still While Moving
Been cleaning out my closet and files this week while getting ready for the semester. Looking at administrative materials, correspondence and so on that I kept from 1992-1995, when I had my first academic jobs at Rutgers, Emory and then … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Miscellany
6 Comments
Getting the Cool Job
Right around September, a lot of last year’s graduates from liberal arts colleges are discovering that they appear to be qualified for approximately none of the jobs that they might actually want to have. There are exceptions: students who have … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Miscellany
15 Comments
Four Short Notes From My Media Morning
1. In daily reading of the Internet, you can forget just how many breathtakingly wonderful various small acts of creative generosity it offers. Most of them are also fragile and ephemeral: you have to be there. I was reading one … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany, Popular Culture
5 Comments
Calling the LazyWeb
I’m looking for a good book or two (or even an article) on a somewhat complicated topic. What I’m curious about is the intellectual history of specifically British contemplations of constitutionalism or common law in the 19th and 20th Century. … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellany
11 Comments