S. Worthen | Weblog

* It's finally really, truly spring. Even the weather now thinks so. The last of the snow is melting off and the flowers - if not killed off by last week's snows - might finally have a chance to bloom.

* Classes are over and, at least this weekend, I've been as productive as I was hoping I would be. I'm finally at the point where it's possible for me to finish off this chapter draft and prove to my advisor that yes, indeed, I have been getting work done.

* Shrimp, feta, and tomato stew. In addition to other potluck delectables and a good first game of Deadwood. I finally broke C.'s persistant winning streak. You'd figure with 5 or 6 people playing games together, more than one of them could manage to win three games in a row, but C. swept them all the other week.

* Clean clothing. Lots of it.

I'm often happier not reading the news. Today, it was going through the aggregator that provided the news I'm sorry to have read, not because I didn't want to know about, but because I didn't want it to have happened: the complete looting of the National Museum of Iraq.

Burning bird, Making Light, the Digital Medievalist, Long Story; short pier, and Kuomori have all posted on it, with thoughtfulness and feeling.

I wandered across this note just now, about the life of Gertrude Bell: "In helping create the National Museum of Iraq, she promoted the idea that excavated antiquities should stay in their country of origin." It was a good idea. I wonder how many of those antiquities will still be there in another week or month.

Update: Cronaca constructively points out that one of the biggest losses from the museum was loss of its records.

I turned in my partial chapter draft today. My advisor now has proof that yes, I really am working on my dissertation. Just as importantly, now I have proof that I can make some inroads on it!

When the National Museum ravaged, I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise that the libraries and archives would follow. If only it had been otherwise...