Day: January 10, 2006

Award-winning history blogs

The Cliopatria Awards for history blogs as reported by History News Network:

Here, then, are the winners, short identifications of them, and brief explanations of the judge’s rationale for their decisions:

Best Individual Blog: Mark Grimsley’s Blog Them Out of the Stone Age

“Blog Them Out of the Stone Age is the finest example of the application of a historian’s passion and tradecraft in the new medium of blogging. It combines research, analysis and pedagogy issues with a keen desire to engage with the broader public.”

Mark Grimsley is Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University

Best Group Blog: K. M. Lawson, Jonathan Dresner, and others, at Frog in a Well

“After much thought, the judges chose the Frog in a Well project as a whole, rather than singling out any one of its constituent parts: not only do they feature overlapping personnel and a considerable degree of shared identity and purpose, all have been characterized by diverse contributors, strong historical content and consistently high quality writing. Both individually and as a whole, they represent a great achievement and a model to inspire and challenge in the
future.”

K. M. Lawson is a graduate student in history at Harvard; Jonathan Dresner is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Hawaii, Hilo. They are joined in Frog in a Well/Japan, Frog in a Well/Korea, and Frog in a Well/China by a number of other professors and students of east Asian studies.

Best New Blog: “PK”‘s BibliOdyssey

“BibliOdyssey has only been on-line since September of last year, but has already amassed a significant following for the dramatic and thought-provoking historical images and books featured there. This unusually visual blog by “PK” brings together a wide variety of on-line materials and original scans, and will provide teachers and researchers and hobbyists alike with rich graphic and bibliographic sources.”

“PK” blogs pseudonymously.
…

Best Writer: Timothy Burke at Easily Distracted

“Timothy Burke writes strong, clear prose that advances interesting ideas and moves debates in new directions. His energetic and considered writing stands out even in such a competitive category as this one, and reaches out to historians, other academics and non-academics alike with great skill.”

Timothy Burke is Associate Professor of History at Swarthmore.

Not included in NewMexiKen’s excerpt are the awards for best post and best series of posts.

Link found at Political Animal.

One advantage

… of living so close to the mountains is that I can see all the Albuquerque radio/TV transmission towers from my living room. This past weekend, with just an old 99¢ indoor bow-tie antenna, I was able to program my HDTV to get all the network stations. And in Albuquerque Comcast doesn’t even have HD feeds for CBS, WB or UPN.

I’m now thinking all I really need are the networks (for the NFL playoffs) and the several PBS feeds (for when I want to veg but still feel good about my intellectual interests). I can cut the cord (and the cable bill) — even if I will have to pay more for Internet.

Until, that is, The Sopranos return to HBO on March 12.

Oh crap, I can never keep up

I just learned that Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe were a couple a few weeks ago and now today I learn they’re splitting up after eight years of marriage.

That’s why I don’t read personality magazines. The arrangements have more fluidity than Republican ethics.

Letter to Apple Support

From: jason@kottke.org
Subject: Powerbook support
Date: January 10, 2006 4:55:31 PM ET
To: Apple Tech Support

Hello,

I purchased a new Powerbook three weeks ago. It was working fine until a few hours ago when you announced the new Intel-powered MacBook Pro at MacWorld and I started to cry. “Four to fives times faster,” I sobbed, “a built-in iSight, and a brighter, wider screen.”

My display, while not as bright or large as the new MacBook Pro display, illuminated my wet cheeks and red, swollen eyes as my tears rained down on the backlit keyboard. An acrid smell rose up from inside the smooth metal machine as my salty tears joined with the electronics, joyfully releasing the electrons from their assigned silicon pathways to freely arc into forbidden areas of the computer and elsewhere, including, somewhat painfully, my hands.

Is this covered under my warranty and if so, can you send me a new MacBook Pro as a replacement, please? Thank you for your time,

–jason

Happened to NewMexiKen with my iPod.

Big bucks for Cowboys

NewMexiKen is happy for Oklahoma State, but talk about misplaced priorities:

Billionaire alumnus Boone Pickens announced Tuesday he will donate $165 million to help Oklahoma State toward its goal of creating an athletic village north of the football stadium that already bears his name.

ESPN.com

Five books in five days (6)

NewMexiKen finished Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest this morning. That’s five books in just less than five full days.

I chose Red Harvest because I had previously decided it would be worthwhile to try and read as many of Time’s 100 best English-language novels as possible. (The list was mentioned on NewMexiKen in October.) At first I thought I would tackle the 100 in roughly chronological order — it provided structure to the project and seemed an interesting way to watch the progression of styles and genres. Something in me began to balk, however, at the prospect of getting through 10 novels from the 1920s, 14 from the 1930s, and so on. Reading one from each decade, then cycling back somehow seemed like a better plan.

Among the ten 1920s novels on the Time list were nine I’ve never read. Hammett’s Red Harvest seemed a good beginning.

Where did we first hear the voice of the world-weary American tough guy in its purest distillation? In Dashiell Hammett, a former Pinkerton detective, and in this book, his first novel. Though less famous than The Maltese Falcon or The Thin Man, which both have the advantage of their pitch-perfect movie adaptations, this tale of omnidirectional treachery is the man at his deadly best. … Here the Op finds himself in a corrupt western town where there’s a power struggle among contending factions. Virtually all of them, the hoods, the lawmen, the lowlifes, the local grandees, are lying and corrupt. Short, overweight, often a little drunk, the Op is no movie star. He’s a hero all the same, a man on his own, maneuvering among the crocodiles, frequently with fists and firepower, always with a brutal and amusing efficiency.

“He wasn’t the sort of man whose pocket you’d try to pick unless you had a lot of confidence in your fingers.”

“‘You’re making a fine pair of clowns of us. Be still while I get up or I’ll make an opening in your head for brains to leak in.'”

“She watched him with a face hard as a silver dollar.”

“The Agency wits said he could spit icicles in July.”

Great reading.

It’s the birthday

… of Willie McCovey. “Stretch,” a baseball hall-of-famer, is 68.

TOP LEFT-HANDED HOME RUN HITTER IN N.L.
HISTORY WITH 521. SECOND ONLY TO LOU GEHRIG
WITH 18 CAREER GRAND SLAMS. LED N.L. IN HOMERS
THREE TIMES AND RBI’S TWICE. N.L. ROOKIE OF
YEAR IN 1959, MVP IN 1969 AND COMEBACK PLAYER
OF THE YEAR IN ’77. TEAMED WITH WILLIE MAYS
FOR AWESOME 1-2 PUNCH IN GIANTS’ LINEUP.

… of Rod Stewart. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 61.

Rod Stewart can be regarded as the rock generation’s heir to Sam Cooke. Like Cooke, Stewart delivers both romantic ballads and uptempo material with conviction and panache, and he sings in a warm, soulful rasp. A singer’s singer, Stewart seemed made to inhabit the spotlight. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of William Sanderson. The character actor (E.B. Farnum in “Deadwood,” Larry on “Newhart”) is 58.

… of George Foreman. The boxing hall-of-famer and cook is 57. Foreman has five daughters and five sons and has named all of the sons George: George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI.

… of Patricia Mae Andrzejewski. Pat Benatar is 53. She won four consecutive Grammy awards in the 1980s for “Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.”

… of Shawn Colvin. The singer is 50.

Shawn Colvin is one of the bright spots of the so-called “new folk movement” that began in the late ’80s. And though she grew out of the somewhat limited “woman with a guitar” school, she has managed to keep the form fresh with a diverse approach, avoiding the clichéd sentiments and all-too-often formulaic arrangements that have plagued the genre. In less than a decade of recording, Colvin has emerged as a songcraftsman with plenty of pop smarts, which has earned her a broad and loyal following. (All Music Guide)