Writing and Writing 2

Wow, it’s been a month.  I can’t believe it has been that long.  The school year has started and I’ve been trying to finish up a chapter.  I can’t believe how painful it has been.  I spend all day and write maybe two pages and I hate it all the next day.  At least I [...]

Back in Santa Barbara

Well, I made it back to Santa Barbara last night.  It was a very enjoyable vacation, for the most part, in the northwest.  To correct something I said earlier, you can in fact get a number of real ales up there.  Cask conditioning is very “in,” it would appear.  The beer was delicious, and I [...]

Goodbye

This is something more of a personal post.  It’s probably not the right forum, but it will have to do.  I found out last night that one of my roommates from college died two years ago.  He was 29 (he would be 31 now).  You always kind of figure that someone would tell you these [...]

Greetings from Corvallis, OR

I’ve been in Corvallis for about half a week now.  My girlfriend and I are house/catsitting for our shared advisor.  It seemed like a way to get out of town without having to pay for a hotel, and the cats are friendly (ignoring the bite marks on my hand).
I have to say that Corvallis has [...]

Cheaters

I don’t have anything to report on Mabbott right now.  I just wanted to mention that I have graded 15 papers so far, and 3 of them were plagiarized.  Rather, two students plagiarized, and one bought an essay off of lotsofessays.com.  I can’t handle any more right now.
Anybody want to commiserate over a glass of [...]

Carnivalesque 52

I apologize for the lateness of the post.  I had imagined getting this done early enough that many of you might be able to spend a lazy Sunday looking over these posts, but instead it is only still Sunday if you live west of the Rocky Mountains.  Nonetheless, the Carnival is here:
The Proceedings of the [...]

Carnivalesque

I will be hosting the next Carnivalesque in one week (July 19) !  Please make your submissions for your favorite or otherwise interesting blog entries.

Write to your congressman . . .

I find myself once again apologizing for my long absence.  I ended up getting a TAship for the first half of summer quarter at the last minute, and between that, ballad work, and dissertating, I haven’t had much time to spare.  I did, however, make it up to my parents’ place for the fourth of [...]

“The Down-right Dick of the West”

I’ve been working on the UCSB English Broadside Ballad Archive on and off for two years now and I have to say that is my favorite ballad title yet.  The ballad itself is about a man from the west, Dick, who goes to London, gets into a bit of an argument with some gallant, and [...]

The death of a Lord Treasurer

I was perusing the newsletters written by George Garrard to the earl of Strafford when I came across an account of the death of the Lord Treasurer Richard Weston, earl of Portland (d. 1635).  It sounds like it was terribly painful:
Friday Morning about three of the Clock the Lord Treasurer died; and he said over [...]