“I need a phone call, I need a raincoat…”

Stuck inside? Bummed out by a rainy weekend? Here are some links to get you through a damp and dreary Sunday.

Steven Hart appreciates Ian McKellen’s Richard III.

Bibliographing ponders “the reader in exile” and the supposed end of the literary niche.

Eternally Cool finds seafood wearing medieval armor.

Ducks and Drakes picks apart the latest op-ed defending the humanities and celebrates 100 posts with a “best of” compilation.

Jake Seliger interviews T.C. Boyle. Part one is here; part two is here.

Lingwë has more on the new Tolkien translation.

Michael Drout connects Beowulf, Walter Skeat, and ornithology.

Scott Nokes posts the video of his lecture “Beowulf vs. the Nazis.”

Ephemeral New York has photos of the time the Nazis paraded in Manhattan.

Steve Muhlberger ponders the eternal question: should you go to graduate school?

Open Letters reviews the new bio of Philip of Macedonia.

Finally, here’s Leroy Powell singing Roger Miller’s “River in the Rain.”