The View From Kalamazoo

w00t!!!

The Warburg Institute Digital Collections: Bibliotheca Astrologica Latina Numerica

(This is a list of the digitized editions, from this link)

FAH 820 , Astrology Abû Ma’shar Flores, Venice, Johannes Baptista Sessa, 1488

FAH 765 , Astrology Zael De electionibus, Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, 1509

FAH 750 , Astrology Umar Ibn al-Farrukhân al-Tabarî De nativitatibus secundum Omar, Basel, Iohannes Hervagius, 1533

FAH 750 , Astrology Massahallah Messahallach de ratione circuli et stellarum, et qualiter operantur in hoc seculo, Basel, Iohannes Hervagius, 1533

FAH 750 , Astrology Unknown Almansoris astrologi propositiones, ad Saracenorum regem, Basel, Iohannes Hervagius, 1533

FAH 750 , Astrology Bethem Centiloquium, Basel, Iohannes Hervagius, 1533

FAH 750 , Astrology Bethem De Horis planetarum, Basel, Iohannes Hervagius, 1533

FAH 1980 , Astrology Natura et effetti della luna nelle cose humane passando per I XII. Segni del Cielo, Venice, Publisher unknown, 1540 c.

A test. I didn’t remember 9, only got about 2/3 of 7. Otherwise did well – how did you do?

[It’s always a fine day when I can find Teaberry gum, although I admit..I do prefer Beeman’s.]

I must announce that today my son, 22 months of age, sat on the potty. Our caregiver documented the occasion with her digital camera, but I will refrain from posting it. Colin is very pleased with himself. I have a soft insert that goes on the toilet, so we’re ready to rock and roll.

In a strange coincidence one of the parents’ magazine e-newsletters I occasionally get arrived today with a special mention of potty-training. This video was recommended.

“Who could resist a bear who bellows, ‘You look so suave and debonair in your pair of underwear!'”

Who, indeed.

And this is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time!

On schmoozing.

I’m OK at schmoozing. I’m no slick, polished, salesman-style pro at the shake-and-smile routine, but I can be pleasant and social when need be. If around people I don’t know well I tend toward silent observation unless I work at it. Congress is easy (if tiring), since most interactions are brief questions/needs/complaints and I can be lovely and witty and charming for 30-second intervals just fine – it’s the longer periods I struggle with. My friends know me as chatty and enthusiastic (or sarcastic, depending on the situation), but those are people I’m comfortable with. My usual style is the offhand deadpan as I’m leaving the room – this does not translate well into schmoozability.

Moot point, since I’m certainly light years away from the tenure review committee scenario. At least I hope no faculty I’ve ever met with at a school was left with a ‘What a stand-offish sourpuss!’ after meeting with me…I don’t think so, at least. Probably something even more embarrassing, I’d imagine, since I get a bad case of brain shut-down when my nerves are up and jangling. (This is why I appreciate that conference papers are written down and not off-the-cuff. I don’t have to be functional until questions so long as I can read English off of the page.)

[Should I be encouraged that emeritus faculty here, who requested and has read The Thesis From Hell (my partner in library tango – we often recalled the same books from each other, not knowing who had it. Heh), made a point to ask how my plans were shaping up and where I’d be this fall? And, after I had made the brief, unhappy story known suggested I should keep on with it? It must be some sort of curse that people at a variety of institutions who have no control over what committees do with my file love me, but committees apparently don’t.]

Hmm. Yeah, but could I do with an M.A. – not a Ph.D.?
I miss teaching. A lot. I have friends who suggest I look at the local community colleges. How about this route? More on that here. Since This Place is my LaBrea Tar Pit, it seems … would a Ph.D. from here not offend them as much as more-than-one-degree-from-the-same-school immediately turns-off the academy?

Ah, yes. The sort of questions one asks a mentor. If I had one here. The boss is a Good Guy, but a lit person (I’m not) and in the UK for another month, anyway. It’s weird asking ‘what now?’ questions with someone who doesn’t particularly want to see me leave the job he counts on me to do – oh I’m certain he’d be straight with me, but it’s damn uncomfortable. Solid, saintly committee member now in NM is far too busy with his faculty and administrative positions there so I hesitate to bother the man even through he’d never tell me to shove off and go bother someone else. Two others left? I fear I get a lot of what they think I want to hear. I am (inconveniently after the fact) uncertain as to their interest in me or in answering my concerns, and some strange comments-veiled-as-questions leave me leaning toward not having them write for me again (the last thing I need is a wild card, much less two), should I set myself up for failure run the gauntlet apply anew. (I can’t rest on my hope that KY will be able to find funds..there needs to be a plan B. plans B-K would be even better) I have an outside reader who has offered to write. That would still make three – and I should be able to get another outside reader/recommender as well. Opinions on this strategy? Anyone?

“It wasn’t him, Charley, it was you. … You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me. … I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it. It was you, Charley.”

Kazakhstan’s largest medieval fortress found in Mangyshlak

Resource:
Institute for the Study of the Book at the University of Erlangen: Database with bibliographic descriptions and illustrations
“The database’s coverage is focused with respect to time and region by the project’s topic: it contains bibliographic data for the seven earliest printing towns in the German language area (Mainz, Bamberg, Strasbourg, Cologne,
Basle, Augsburg, Nuremberg), with a primary focus on early title pages (until ca. 1490). … The database’s explanatory pages are presently in German but will shortly be available in English and Spanish also.”

erg:
Taking medieval reinactment to a whole new level

Geek alert:

A reminder – for those interested and capable, the address for RSS feed is: http://elisabeth.carnell.com/index2/rss

That’s all.

So appalling I just had to share. Thank me later.

Nursing mom asked to leave: restaurant’s owner sponsored a wet T-shirt contest, but says breast-feeding offends

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
When the manager takes his lunch in the shitter, call me.

The most important medieval illuminated manuscript found in Britain in living memory is at the centre of a battle between leading museums.

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge lost out to the John P Getty Museum of Los Angeles when the manuscript, now known as the Macclesfield Psalter, sold for £1.5m at auction this summer.