At No Loss for Words, Danny Loss writes of"The Failure of Metaphor in Explaining History." Sharon Howard and Caleb McDaniel join the conversation.

If you read Orlando Patterson and Jason Kaufman,"Bowling for Democracy," NY Times, 1 May, you can follow the discussion with Harry Brighouse at Crooked Timber, Evan Roberts at coffee grounds, Sepoy at Chapati Mystery, and Rob MacDougall at Roblog. I wonder how or if Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu,"For Love of the Game: Baseball in Early U.S.-Japan Encounters and the Rise of a Transnational Sporting Fraternity," Diplomatic History (Fall 2004) would complicate the story. I see that Guthrie-Shimizu is presenting on the subject at the Newberry Library on Friday the 13th. If you stop by, Sepoy, remember that vow to restrain the ol' Chicago snark.

Apparently, Henry Adams's big, new biography of the Philadelphia artist, Thomas Eakins, Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist"accuses the painter of incest, bestiality, flagrant exhibitionism, sadism, molestation and sexual opportunism, contributing to the suicide of his disturbed niece." Whew! I thought my deans were pretty bad characters! The biographer, a descendent of John, John Quincy, and Henry Adams, claims to be sympathetic to Eakins. He was"a complicated,""a severely troubled" man, says Adams, who had to overcome"a catalog of psychoses, including a castration complex, sexual inadequacy and trauma, and a propensity to drink more milk than perhaps is healthy." Milk?!!! Thanks to Moby Lives for the tip, I think.

As the academic year draws toward a close, David Noon at Axis of Evel Knievel is inspired by his student,"Sheila Agonistes."

Finally, congratulations to two of Cliopatria's best friends: Andrew Ackerman of Outside Report and Charles Tryon of The Chutry Experiment. They'll both be moving to Washington, D. C., to begin new jobs. Andrew will become a reporter for a financial journal; and Chuck will become a visiting assistant professor of media studies at Catholic University.