Friday! A fine day for maritime disasters, casual clothes—and some quick weekend links.

Steven Hart calls Aleksandr Solzhenetsyn “unanswerably correct about one huge subject…and buffoonishly wrong about almost everything else.” I’m struck by how many great writers he could be describing.

JLJ at Per Omnia Saecula collaborates with her sister to bake medieval cookies.

The Economist notes the destruction of Beijing’s medieval streets and explains “why it still pays to study medieval English landholding and Sahelian nomadism.”

Planning a Roman holiday? Studenda Mira recommends the new Julius Caesar bio. (I do, too, by the way.)

If you didn’t get to take a summer vacation, let Wil Cone show you Provence and Switzerland.

Ephemeral in New York discovers the Jeanne d’Arc Home for “friendless French girls.”

Jake Seliger suggests that media pundits would benefit from reading The Best Software Writing.

How ’bout a Roger Miller video? Here’s Leroy Powell, giving “River in the Rain” the heartfelt cover it deserves.

Basking in the sun? Reading? Wrangling children? Whatever your weekend plans, here are some spiffy links if you find yourself indoors.

Heather Domin continues her tour of the Roman garden with cumin and dill. (Click the “in hortum” tag for her entire series.)

Geoffrey Chaucer re-brands his blog.

Brandon ponders The Historian’s Craft.

Open Letters Monthly mourns Lyall Watson and revisits The Last Unicorn.

Got Medieval finds a medieval law book with not-safe-for-work drawings that put the “stare” in “stare decisis.”

Linda finds the humble remains of a monastery founded by Charlemagne’s dad—and proof that the French drink boxed wine.

The Hogwarts Professor contemplates the medievalism of Harry Potter.

Time magazine describes the lives of recent poets laureate. (Link via Books, Inq.)

Scott Nokes invites you to learn Old English this fall.

Ephemeral New York finds mythical sea creatures on Manhattan buildings and farm animals in Central Park.

Finally, here’s Jose Iturbi conducting an abridged version of Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, with Larry Adler on harmonica. (Come on, who else is gonna link to that?)

The weekend approacheth. Here’s some neat new stuff from around the Web.

I recently posted photos from my visit to the New Orleans shrine and cemetery dedicated to a medieval saint. Last weekend, the Times-Picayune ran a piece about how the St. Roch neighborhood is doing.

Eternally Cool points out the impending return of chariot racing to Rome. (Put me in a gigantic Asterix helmet and I am so there.)

Steven Hart wants to see more Tamil pulp fiction.

Frank Wilson reviews a new Longfellow biography.

Some authors and bloggers are being sued. Contribute to their legal defense fund here.

D.C. now has a free litmag featuring excerpts from new books. The dissatisfied lawyer who founded Bit o’ Lit was recently profiled in the Washington Post. 

Ephemeral in New York digs up a curious phenomenon of yesteryear: Manhattan baby exhibitions.

“Clovis, Poitiers, Charles-the-Great, / Vikings, Verdun, papal state…” Apparently keen on producing a pre-modern version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Carl at Got Medieval wants you to summarize the Middle Ages in seven words or less.

Action figures of Pope Innocent III are on sale: two for $4.99. (“I’m telling you, son, he was the Optimus Prime of the early 13th century. Now stop crying and blow out the candles.”)

Finally, I enjoyed this letter in the June 28th-July 4th issue of The Economist, which hints at the cultural connections between the East and the medieval West:

SIR – I am a musician by profession and it was profoundly gratifying to see that, of all the possible images you could have chosen for your cover on progress in Iraq, you went for a photo of an Iraqi luthier fixing an oud, the Arabic ancestor of all Western lutes (June 14th). I exhort each and every one of your readers to take up the oud, or at least buy one from an Iraqi luthier. All political disagreements notwithstanding, the one thing the people of Iraq will need most critically in the years to come is a clientele, and not only in the oil trade.

Victor Kioulaphides
New York

Kioulaphides has composed a piece solely for instruments in the mandolin family; his solo compositions include “El Malecón” and “Variations on a Basque Melody.” His home page is here.

Whether you’re spending the weekend oud-shopping, sunbathing, or lost in a book: enjoy!

Need some random, mid-week links? Of course you do.

Linda meets Sir Salman. Jake reviews The Enchantress of Florence. Sam Sacks reviews the reviewers.

Steven Hart has some thoughts on avoiding scam literary agents and waxes nostalgic on the 30th anniversary of Animal House.

Heather Domin takes you on a tour of Roman gardens.

Adam at ALOTT5MA memorializes Madam Marie of Asbury Park, who featured in a well-known Springsteen lyric.

Scott Nokes points out his favorite part of Egil’s Saga. (Keep this in mind if you’re ever a guest in his home.)

What hath WALL-E to do with E.M. Forster? (Link via Books, Inq.)

Ephemeral New York introduces you to Brooklyn’s Civil War drummer boy and a facade of masks in the West Village.

Did you know the King Arthur Flour Company has its own blog? They also sell lots of neat Arthurian cookware. (Discovered thanks to the Naked Philologist.)

At Contemporary Nomad, crime authors contemplate the agony of publicity.

If you love to mix the sacred with the profane, why not buy this chavtaculoso Vatican hoodie?

I started this site one year ago, not knowing quite where it would lead. But you came, you saw, you read—and to my great surprise and delight, you kept on coming back. Visitor numbers increase every month, and I’m heartened to know you’ve found something worth reading, whether over your coffee and toast every morning or as part of your efforts to kill time at work.

Since the bulk of my blogging is not about me, a few friendly readers have told me I’m “cryptic.” In response, I’ve whipped up an “about” page, which you can read by clicking my name at the top of the sidebar. (Be warned: It’s not exactly Krishna revealing himself to Arjuna.)

To everyone who visits, links, leaves comments, and browses this site via feed readers: thank you! Keep reading, and I’ll gladly continue to ply you with strained historical analogies, silly videos, makeshift medievalism, and the eloquence of other people.

A few spiffy links for your Thursday:

At the pop-culture blog “A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago,” my friend Heather is watching the National Spelling Bee. Heather, one smart cookie, did the Bee 25 years ago; her first post is here.

Who was that girl on the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”? Steven Hart is reading her memoir.

Ephemeral New York wants you to meet the 19th-Century Hipster Queen.

Books, Inq., points out an outdoor Latin language club for Oxford suburbanites.

Unlocked Wordhoard notes the death of Robert Asprin, whose fantasy novels were omnipresent in the days when bookstores (and bookstores’ genre sections) were much, much smaller.

Withywindle ponders the lyricism of Roger Miller.

Speaking of Roger Miller, I’ve declared him the official country singer of “Quid Plura?” Here’s a good video for a languid day: Miller doing a live version of “Whistle Stop.”

In recent weeks, certain cable stations have run marathon airings of a certain movie trilogy about a certain adventurous archaeologist. As a result, I’ve gotten hundreds of hits from people searching for a certain spurious quotation attributed to a certain medieval emperor by the father of said fictional archaeologist.

Ah, but Sitemeter is a cup of wonders: here are other queries that recently drew readers to this site. Because I see my role as essentially that of a public servant, I’ve taken the liberty of answering them.

grendel is the victim of society and its standards
I dream of an America where eating people will be praised as an alternate lifestyle.

keeping long beards looking neat
Come on! Don’t be a victim of society and its standards!

how do you blow a bosun’s whistle
First, make sure your beard is looking neat.

i hear non existing voices
They want you to buy Becoming Charlemagne in paperback.

charlemagne book free download
The voices said buy.

charlemagne god tells him do stuff
To the Carolingian mind, the Almighty was a surly, sub-literate teenager.

dungeons and dragons by t.s. elliott book cover
Like many grad students of my generation, I wrote a kick-ass thesis on “The Love Song of E. Gary Gygax.” In the room the gamers come and go / Talking of the saving throw…

how do you make monster blood
I’m no biologist, but I believe you begin with a monster.

recipe for spaghettios
Heat 1 cup monster blood; add 3/4 oz. unicorn spittle and 1 tsp. baby shrieks (thinly sliced); simmer 20 min. Serves two.

what is the best thing to take to make you run faster
The best thing is monster blood. The second best thing is a bowl of Cookie Crisp.

thoughts that make you run faster
“There’s a bowl of Cookie Crisp at the end of all this.”

For obvious reasons, I enjoy seeing what graduate students do with their educations when they decide not to pursue academic careers. Meet Christina Ball, a Yale Ph.D and founder of Ecco Italy. Here’s how Ball describes her project to the folks at the terrific Roma-centric blog Eternally Cool:

I always knew I was too creative, too enthusiastic for academia. Still, it wasn’t until 2004, 6 years after earning my doctorate in Italian Literature from Yale, that all of the pieces fell into place for Ecco Italy in Charlottesville, Virginia. I had always dreamed of running my own school, a place without grades, a classroom that opened out onto the marketplace and the world, a place where conversation would be more important than written tests, where students of all ages would be encouraged to pursue their dream of “becoming Italian” in a supportive and beautiful environment.

With its language instruction, food and wine courses, travel training, and other cultural programs, Ecco Italy is the sort of place that doesn’t just happen; it must be a product of one person’s passion. Ball clearly adores her home-away-from-home:

Wandering the streets and river banks of Rome’s Trastevere and Ghetto neighborhoods in the late summer is an experience I constantly crave when I’m home in Virginia. It’s both blissfully peaceful and energizingly urban at the same time. Everything radiates warmth and beauty. Only in Rome have the otherwise conflicting powers of chaos and mystery declared an eternal truce.

Burned-out grad students should pause and take heart. There’s much you can do with your passion and knowledge—if you’re up for some entrepreneurial fun.

My interest in Tolkien is passing at best, but lately I just can’t escape him. Here are a few clever Tolkienesque tidbits that popped up last week on the Web.

Steven Hart is willing to give Guillermo del Toro a shot at directing The Hobbit.

At The One Ring, they think del Toro faces a “dragon problem.”

Elberry ponders hatred in The Lord of the Rings. (Link via Books, Inq.)

At The Cimmerian, Steve Tompkins revisits The Silmarillion. (Link via Wormtalk.)

Heading to Birmingham? Why not visit “Tolkien tower”?

This weekend, why not wander out of the Middle Ages and into Ephemeral New York? This new blog, set up by a great friend of mine, exists to chronicle “an ever-changing city through faded and forgotten artifacts,” including 19th-century bicycle ads, ghostly painted advertisements, and long-gone elevated trains.

I’ve had the pleasure of bumming around the boroughs with the blogger in question. She loves New York, she has a sharp eye for historical curiosities, and her observations promise to be “sometimes wry and often wistful” rather than predictably snarky. Bookmark her blog or add her to your feed reader; her scans and snapshots are a welcome respite from the endless stream of words, words, words.