Wednesday Notes

Witold Rybzcynski,"Why Do We Live in Houses, Anyway? A Brief History of the Home," Slate, 16 April, is the first of three excerpts from his book, Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville. Here, Rybzcynski moves broadly from the ancient Mediterranean to traditional China and finds Holland breaking with tradition to build row houses. But, in the modern world, he writes, the free-standing, single-family house is the universal home of choice. Rybzcynski,"The Ranch House Anamoly: How America Fell in and out of Love with Them," Slate, 17 April, is part two of the series.

Amanda Ursell,"Appetite for Excess," London Times, 12 April. Eat like Edward VII, then you die. Hat tip.

F. S. Naiden,"Lines in the Sand," Wilson Quarterly, Winter, looks back at what happened when European states drew lines across the middle eastern map and called them nations. Ridar Visser,"Other People's Maps," WQ, Winter, is a companion piece arguing that Iraq has a national integrity and policy aimed at its tripartite division would be a serious mistake. Thanks to Hala Fattah for the tip.

Ali Smith,"So Many Afterlives from One Short Life," Telegraph, 7 April, looks at the life of Katherine Mansfield; and Adam Gopnik,"The Old Devil," New Yorker, 23 April, reviews Zachary Leader's The Life of Kingsley Amis. Hat tip.

Mary Vallis,"Midnight Blogger Exposes a Scandal," National Post, 16 April, features our colleague, KC Johnson. Can you say"A Pulitzer Prize for blogging ...."?

Finally, I taught for two years at Virginia Tech as a Visiting Professor of Religion. Among other things, I offered The Life and Letters of Paul, one of the most exciting courses I've ever taught. There, also, I learned to clog. While dancing, I did a foolish thing and slipped a disk in my back. My engineering students rigged up a sling I could slip into at night and the traction saved me from serious back surgery. I'm one with the Hokie Nation this week.