I gave my final exam on Friday (though I can’t grade them until tomorrow, because a couple students took it in the Testing Center and I didn’t get their papers back yet), which pretty much puts a wrap on the Winter 2024 academic term. This accounts for the slight uptick in posting rate recently, which ha also built up enough material now to be worth a recap post.
Me on Substack:
— All Part of Science’s Rich Tapestry: A review of sorts of Richard Rhodes’s The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which is the 800-page book about the Manhattan Project to read if you’re only reading one.
— Timescale Is Everything: A lot of things that seem weird or problematic about contemporary life are just happening either faster or slower than we want them to, and that makes people crazy.
— A Weekend Full of Friendly Friends: A brief review of the couple of days The Pip and I spent in Philadelphia.
— March Meeting in Minneapolis: In which I visit the home turf of The Hold Steady for a very un-Hold Steady-ish reason.
— 2 Dune 2 Messiah: Thoughts on both the new movie and the second Frank Herbert book.
— You’re Goddamn Right I’m Better Off Than Four Years Ago: A cathartic rant on an unhappy anniversary.
— The Life of the Mind Has Always Been a Lie: Undergrads today are not, in fact, less academically oriented than the average back in the day, it’s just that they’re being judged by huge nerds.
Me Elsewhere:
— What Time Was the First Clock Set To? on BBC Crowd Science: In which I am interviewed about the history of timekeeping. This taped quite a while ago, but aired in February.
— Some People Love Leap Day. Others Want It Gone. by Steven Kurutz: In which I am quoted in the Paper of Record.
— Daylight Saving Time: Clock Moves Forward on Fox LiveNOW: In which I am interviewed on a streaming news program.
Links Dump:
— 1 unforgettable round, and breaking tradition on a world-famous course by Michael Berube: A lovely piece of writing.
— The Loss of Things I Took for Granted by Adam Kotsko: A better-than-the-median Kids These Days piece.
— Burning CDs and Printing Lyric Sheets for Bob Dylan by Ray Padgett and Matt Haasch: Some entertaining stories about working for an all-time great.
— Almost Killed Me Turns 20 by Tom Breihan: Not my favorite Hold Steady record, but a good appreciation of it.
— On Færie-Stories—like Frank Herbert's "Dune"—Derived from Agrarian-Age Roots by Brad DeLong: In which Brad says nice things about the Dune piece linked above.
Pseudo-Random Photo of the Month:
This is The Pip running up the Rocky stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He refused to jump around with his fists in the air at the top, so this is the best I’ve got. Also, it’s a travesty that the Rocky statue is at the bottom of the stairs now…
Pseudo-Random Song of the Month:
This has been turning up in shuffle plays for months, but the album finally dropped. It’s far and away the most upbeat tune on the record, but the whole thing is pretty solid. And I’m a sucker for a song built around a sax riff.
And that’s a bunch of stuff. If you liked any of it and want more, here’s a button:
And if you feel moved to respond to any of it, the comments will be open: