Because if I did, my rating would be much more along the lines of Stewgad over at Pretty Hard, Dammit. As it is, I'm only PG-13 for kill (5x), bitch (2x), hell (3x), and slut (1x-- I blame Sally for that one!). Crap (2x). I'll have to try harder.

Many moons ago, when the US Mint began coining the State Quarters collection, I decided (who knows why) to start a coin collection of the fifty state quarters. At the time, I decided to collect eight of each state. Why eight? I have no idea. Later I changed my mind and kept seven of each quarter (I actually do know why I made that decision-- I needed quarters for laundry). I got all the way through Mississippi, in order of release date, with seven quarters per state, and beyond that I had more than a dozen states with five or six quarters (just shy of my goal). This collection weighed approximately five pounds. FIVE POUNDS. While we were in DC recently, I acquired several new quarters for my collection, but only one of each (one Montana, one Idaho, etc.). Upon returning home, I was faced with the sheer stupidity of the whole thing. WHY seven quarters per state, totalling 350 quarters at completion? If it's going to be a collection, why can't it be a collection of fifty? I asked Wise John, who confessed that he never knew why I had my heart set on collecting seven per state, and suggested that I keep only one or two per state. Now, after culling my collection, I've got a ziplock bag of excess quarters, totalling $34.75.

People, I should be studied!

I wrote this post a week ago today, on my first day of research at the LOC. I'm posting it now because, well, internet access at our B&B? Not so good.

I'm at the Library of Congress this week, doing research for my dissertation. Right now I'm in the Jefferson building's Main Reading Room and it's both gorgeous and intimidating. I put in a request for a book over an hour ago and haven't seen it yet. So, I've developed a new strategy: rather than requesting books in drips and drabs, I've turned in an assload of requests all at once, and hopefully they'll be waiting for me when I get back from lunch. Luckily, the Main Reading Room is open until 9:30 at night, so I can stay late if need be. One unrelated observation: there's a gallery that looks down from above the huge Main Reading Room, and LOC docents bring tourists up to the gallery in small groups throughout the day. I'm sure it's fascinating to be a tourist looking down from that vantage point, but to be a researcher on the main floor, it feel sort of like you're being studied.

A terrible thing has happened to one of my close friends and colleagues. I have never been so disappointed in my department.

The worried look I got from Luke after I smashed a June bug to bits on our carpet:

So I'm teaching my own course this coming fall and last week I wrote my syllabus. It was a lot harder than I imagined it would be, if for no other reason than my inability to decide what monographs the students should read. The class is the second half of the US History survey, which I never took as an undergrad (so I didn't have any personal, student experiences of what worked and what didn't). I wound up choosing Murdering McKinley (which I've read and liked) and Lillian Smith's classic Killers of the Dream (which I've read and loved). Those books, coupled with the textbook, the primary source reader, and two films (Inherit the Wind and Mississippi Burning) will give them four types of sources to work off of. I think it's pretty well-rounded. What did you read/watch in your history classes?