Friday, October 07, 2005
Geeky interludes
First, an antiquarian geeky interlude. Yesterday, I received through inter-library loan an 1886 biography of Richard Allen, one of the characters in my dissertation. Allen was an obscure Dublin Quaker and textile merchant who was active in movements for temperance, peace, and the abolition of slavery. Allen and his circle of other radical Dublin abolitionists were dubbed in the Irish press as "anti-everythingarians." Those "anti-everythingarians" were close friends with the coterie of American abolitionists who were followers of William Lloyd Garrison, which is why Allen's in my dissertation.
Now the geeky antiquarian part. (What, you thought that was it?) While reading the biography I discovered for the first time that during Allen's 1883 tour of the United States, which took him to Chicago, Memphis, and a performance by the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University, he also visited Baltimore, where I currently reside, and toured the campus of The Johns Hopkins University, where I currently study. The antiquarian in me thinks it's cool that years ago, one of the most obscure characters in my dissertation just so happened to traverse the same space that I know occupy all the time. What are the odds?
Now for some general geekiness: Today's the day.
I shall now resume my posture of scholarly detachment and seriousness.
Now the geeky antiquarian part. (What, you thought that was it?) While reading the biography I discovered for the first time that during Allen's 1883 tour of the United States, which took him to Chicago, Memphis, and a performance by the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University, he also visited Baltimore, where I currently reside, and toured the campus of The Johns Hopkins University, where I currently study. The antiquarian in me thinks it's cool that years ago, one of the most obscure characters in my dissertation just so happened to traverse the same space that I know occupy all the time. What are the odds?
Now for some general geekiness: Today's the day.
I shall now resume my posture of scholarly detachment and seriousness.
Improvised @ 8:40 AM 
Collective Improvisation:
Caleb:
As one geek to another, I understand. Since coming, I have been reminded twice that Erasmus was one of the first Lady Margaret Professors of Divinity here.
And as for the more general geekiness: I totally get it. What I don't get is that I can get on a train and be at W&G's home in under two hours, but I can't see the actual film until the 14th (the UK release date). What's up with that?
Now back to the usual mix of specialized geekiness...
As one geek to another, I understand. Since coming, I have been reminded twice that Erasmus was one of the first Lady Margaret Professors of Divinity here.
And as for the more general geekiness: I totally get it. What I don't get is that I can get on a train and be at W&G's home in under two hours, but I can't see the actual film until the 14th (the UK release date). What's up with that?
Now back to the usual mix of specialized geekiness...
That does seem odd that you would have to wait another week. I'm tempted to quote, in my best Wallace voice, one of my favorite lines from "A Close Shave": "Ohhh, Gromit!"
What's especially ironic about your having to wait is that the humor in Wallace and Gromit films is so perfectly British. To me Wallace has always seemed like Bertie Wooster to Gromit's Jeeves.
What's especially ironic about your having to wait is that the humor in Wallace and Gromit films is so perfectly British. To me Wallace has always seemed like Bertie Wooster to Gromit's Jeeves.
Posted by 
Caleb McDaniel on 10/07/2005 03:18:00 PM : Permalink
