Hurricane Katrina

Posted on August 31st, 2005 in Current Events by Craig

I don’t know about you, but the stories of looting, death, and destruction, coming in the wake of hurricane Katrina leave me speechless. The horror of wild nature—the gulf, the animals—encroaching on an urban area—that too is unfathomable.

What can one do? A donation to the Salvation Army perhaps. Wal-Mart donated a million dollars. Perhaps you prefer some other charity. Here’s a list at Instapundit to get you started.

Almost no one will read this page, but every additional amount of aid is needed, I’m sure.

Tastes Great, Less Filling

Posted on August 30th, 2005 in Weblogs by Craig

How can one not enjoy an intellectual blog that combines Homer Simpson and Christian doctrine? Phil Harland’s post at Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean blog: “Left Below” / Left Behind: “Ha, ha, life goes on” was more than just entertaining.

Impressions of the Middle Ages

Posted on August 29th, 2005 in Weblogs by Craig

I just learned, through the excellent Unlocked Wordhoard of Richard Nokes, of Carl Pyrdum’s weblog, Got Medieval. The stated aim of Got Medieval is to provide a “tonic for the slipshod use of medieval European history in the media and pop culture.” The recent post on the upcoming computer-animated adaptation of Beowulf was certainly entertaining. Comments on The Da Vinci Code are apparently frequent, according to the confession which opens last week’s Dan Brown: “Rosslyn Chapel Must Die”.

Visigoths in English

Posted on August 26th, 2005 in Thesis, Books by Craig

Maybe it’s fate that two Visigothic sources important to my thesis will soon be published in English for the first time.

In March 2006, Cambridge University Press will publish the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, edited and translated by Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof.

A less famous but more important source (to me) is Julian of Toledo’s Historia Wambae. Joaquin Martinez Pizarro’s translation will be published in October 2005 by the Catholic University of America Press. (Here’s the Amazon link.)

Amazon has my orders. I can’t wait to get my hands on these.

Only Fooling

Posted on August 25th, 2005 in The Office, Miscellanea by Craig

Can’t people stop using the word “ask” as a noun? I hear that around the office all the time lately. “Our top five asks are…”, for example. Why not just say “our top five requests are…”? What’s wrong with that?

Although I said I’d only post articles on late antique and medieval topics, I can’t resist making fun of the jargon I hear at the office. (I’m on the 4-year plan for the MA degree mainly because I can’t give up the riches, glory, and fame that comes with a Silicon Valley programming job.)

Blogging Continues

Posted on August 25th, 2005 in Miscellanea by Craig

It’s been almost a year since I shut down the old Logographer site. This new site (hardly worth calling it an improvement) might last a while, but I’m not ready to make a long-term committment.

I intend to limit my posts to topics on late antique and medieval history. I realize that won’t be interesting to very many people. So be it. I’m not here to see how many people link to me, although I obviously want to interact with other people through this web site or I wouldn’t be writing anything here.

You might notice two things about my my list of links (the so-called blogroll). First, the list is pretty short. Second, a couple of those links are not like the others.