I think I’m never flying from or through O’Hare again

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I went something like 25 years without having a piece of luggage delayed; the last time was for a wedding in Houston sometime 4 or 5 years after graduating from Rice.

Twice this year I have had rain delays in Chicago that caused baggage to be late. The first time was when I was headed home from Spring Break. This time is more complicated. I ran down to West Tennessee for a family funeral. I flew down on Monday and back Tuesday (I had to skip out of the memorial service to make my flight).

Tomorrow midday I leave with a group of Hobart and William Smith faculty for a study trip to Rome – so I had already planned to spend the night in Syracuse at an airport hotel (especially since my flight was scheduled to arrive at 11:59).

My plan was to get here at midnight, sleep till 9 (to recover from all this), and leave. Now we’ll see if United gets my luggage here in time for me to change clothes before leaving for Rome.

I’m not really the kind of person who can cheerfully replace his wardrobe at short notice. But it might be an interesting learning experience for the other folks!

FURTHER: Hurrah, luggage! Now I can change clothes before leaving for Rome!

May Madness

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Back to Geneva from Kalamazoo – need to call Mother – need to do laundry – need to re-pack for 3 weeks in Europe. There’s a whole lot of “what was I thinking?” going on right now.

further: and that was before I found out this afternoon (see, - need to call Mother - )that my father’s only brother died Saturday. Now add – get to and from West Tennessee before departure for Rome - to the mix.

Kalamazoo Blogger Meetup

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Cheese’n'crackers and wine and blogging. I met a number of folks – Medieval History Geek and the blogging team at Vaulting and Vellum included. I’m pretty sure I’ve met Steven Muhlberger before, but he doesn’t remember me, so I guess not. Another Damn Medievalist and Lisa Carnell hosted (it’s important to know people with Resident Director apartments at their disposal). There were others whose URLS I didn’t catch – apologies! Leave a comment and I’ll link you! My blogroll is in perpetual flux.

Vote against all incumbents. Especially those over 75.

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Lugar, 80, was the first Senate incumbent ousted this year and his defeat showed that the anti-Washington, small government Tea Party movement is alive and well.

What about the anti-ancient people movement? I mean, the man is 80 and this is the primary. He’d be 86 or maybe 87 at the end of his next term.

Oh YEAH I’m ageist. Mourdock is 60. That’s quite old enough to start a senate career.

 

Testing from the iPad

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Just seeing how well this works. I’m about to make a short trip to Italy and perhaps Germany, and I’d like to make the trip with only the iPad!

So – how about keyboard cut and paste? Yes, here’s the link for our Center for Global Education.

Gesture cut and paste? Ok:
The mission of the Center for Global Education is to provide students with academically challenging study abroad experiences that foster an in-depth understanding of another culture, with the aim of encouraging them to embrace the concept of global citizenship. Being a responsible, effective citizen of the world involves assuming an active role in one’s own community and in the larger world; it requires an understanding of the relationship between actions made locally and globally and a commitment to the betterment of people’s lives everywhere. Through our rigorous study abroad programs and innovative on-campus predeparture and reentry programming, the Center for Global Education strives to provide students with a transformative learning experience that inspires them to live lives of consequence.

The thing that annoys me most about trying to WORK with the iPad is the impossibility of sending an attachment from inside the Mail app. I’m sure there’s a better solution than the workarounds I’ve seen out there!

I guess we’re lucky here at these Colleges

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This is our presidential residence. I thought about posting this because I just read a story about housing for the president of Brandeis. Their current president will be the first one ever to live in the same town as the university — they generally have lived in Cambridge or Newton. It must be expensive housing a president in a place like the Boston metro area!

Students are sometimes surprised when I tell them this house wasn’t built for Hobart or Hobart and William Smith – we bought it. The first residence I know of is now Durfee House (currently Colleges Communications). I believe this house came into Hobart’s hands in the 1880s.

By the way, Funny coincidence! I took this picture 5 years ago this week — May 5, 2007.

Fun with Late Antiquity!

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I got an announcement in a listserve yesterday of a new online database – the Last Statues of Antiquity: Here you will find a searchable database of the published evidence for statuary and inscribed statue bases set up after AD 284, that were new, newly dedicated, or newly re-worked.

Searchable all KINDS of ways! I just pulled up female statues (any material) from Gaul and Germany – 10 hits! Then changed to female members of the imperial family, whole empire – 4 hits. I think this may be very instructive!

Here’s a link that describes the real work and the team that did it. Thank you!

Another Paul Rudolph dodges the wrecking ball

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Paul Rudolph buildings come under a lot of pressure from people who want to replace them. Accepting the name “Brutalist” for the substyle of Modernism doesn’t help the cause any.

This country government center in the Hudson Valley (Orange Country) may end up changing its use, but it won’t be destroyed. It certainly expresses a useful point to its users about government, even local government!

Ah, the joys of exam-making

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I’m making the exam for my Gothic class today. I have to try to balance coverage of the whole semester (with a little weighting towards the end, after the last quiz), themes, nations (I don’t want all-France-all-the-time), and degree of difficulty. And I don’t want anyone to fail – probably one of them will skip it, and hence, fail, but that’s not the same thing. It is satisfying to look back at the semester by rounding up all the image sheets in order and perceive that I delivered a reasonable body of knowledge. Let’s just hope lots of them were taking good notes!