I thought poor Tom Reeves and I were under attack. Then, I read Hugo Schwyzer's incoming e-mail, which begins:"Whether you are an evil man or merely a wretched brainwashed void I do not know." It goes on from there ...

While Derek Catsam was over here at Cliopatria yesterday, dressing the lowest sort of demagogueryas if it were the Queen of Sheba, Naomi Chana announced her engagement at Baraita. Thus ends all hope of happiness for him in Odessa, Texas. Sad, sad. Nothing like a good Texas bar fight to help recover from unrequited love. But, seriously folks, Cliopatria wishes all the best to Naomi Chana and some very lucky man.

In the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards, Chana's Baraita is nominated for Best Religious Blog (Group A) and Chana's post"In Which I Am Intense" is nominated for Best Post (Group B). Jonathan Edelstein's Head Heeb is nominated for Best Political Blog; and the Velveteen Rabbi is nominated for Best Religious Group Blog, Group B.

Several of my colleagues and many graduate and post-doctoral students across the country are in the midst of their job searches. Caleb McDaniel at Mode for Caleb and Jason Kuznicki at Positive Liberty reflect on that in light of articles in the current issue of the AHA's Perspectives. The news is not good. Beyond Academe comes recommended; and, clearly, if graduate programs in history are to serve their students well, they need to gear up job placement vehicles for the non-academic, as well as the academic worlds.

My colleague, Manan Ahmed, says he thinks the idea of a Cliopatria Tournament of Books would be"gleefully awesome." Perhaps so, if one of my colleagues agrees to arrange it here. Sharon Howard has me down to host the Second History Carnival in the next ten days. That's right, slap some lipstick on that pig of a post, you history geeks, and send me your best. We'll see if Manan wouldn't like to put the Cliopatria Tournament of Books together.

We all owe Jonathan Dresner a big round of applause for imposing some order on Cliopatria's History Blogroll. It was something like trying to cut watermelon with a pizza, I think he said. If you've not yet seen it, do have a look. You could practically move in over there. It grows as we continue to"discover" new history blogs. Ohio State's Mark Grimsley gently chides me for using that expression, as if I'm some European explorer and he's a native American being"discovered." After all, he's been on the net as long as Cliopatria has. So, point taken. Still, there is that awesome moment of mutual discovery. I'll never forget finding Tim Burke's Easily Distracted and trying to figure out what he was about, or Sharon Howard's Early Modern Notes, or Sepoy's Chapati Mystery, or Hugo Schwyzer's Hugo Schwyzer. I remember Sepoy asking"How did you find me?" And the truth was that I couldn't recall, but boy am I glad we did. You can go on your own voyage of discovery at Cliopatria's History Blogroll. And, if you know of some history blogger out there on the net that we aren't yet connected with, please make a note of it in comments at the bottom of the page.