Noted Here and There ...

Sharon Howard recommends the V & A Exhibit,"Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe, 1500-1800." As Sepoy notes, you'll not want to miss Tippoo's Tiger. He roars; he plays his organ.

Tom Bruscino smells a winner. He's"Smelling History" over at Rebunk.

Doug Kern at Tech Central Station sees Martin Luther, sitting there in his pj's, with a mug of coffee and a little stack of chocolate chip cookies, and saying:"Here I Blog; I Can Do No Other." Well, actually, the pj's, coffee, and chocolate chip cookies are my fantasy, not his. But David Nishimura at Cronaca sees a couple of flaws in Kern's provocative analogy.

Two of my favorite books about John Adams, Joseph Ellis, Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams (1993); and Zoltan Haraszti's much older book, John Adams and the Prophets of Progress (1952), make extensive use of the marginalia in the books in Adams's library. Some people apparently write notes in the margins of library books. Brandon Watson at Siris has a post that leaves you wondering why anyone would leave behind such evidence of non-comprehension. At Mode for Caleb, Caleb McDaniel looks, not at marginalia, but at the debris left to mark pages in a library book. It usually leaves no damage and may be a sort of winsome greeting to the next reader. In my first teaching position, one of my colleagues actually sent me on a scavenger hunt through books in the college library. He meant well. The message was: the odds against your getting tenure here are overwhelming; get your work done and be prepared to move on.

In my opinion, one of Martin Luther King's most effective sermons was"Paul's Letter to American Christians." Now, Adam Kotsko has found a second Pauline epistle to the Americans. Paul's message won't be reduced to Sunday school pablum if King and Kotsko have anything to do with it. Hat tip to Brandon Watson at Siris.