What else can go wrong?
* looks up, sees an entire convention of box elder beetles on the cornice of her office*
08.03.2026 00:38
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What else can go wrong?
* looks up, sees an entire convention of box elder beetles on the cornice of her office*
In today's episode of "GoogleScholar citations are weird," they have now decided that Book Two was published in two different years (2013 and 2014) and therefore split up its citation count accordingly. I also have a publication called "NY, USA," so apparently I have developed a new subfield.
Froude’s NEMESIS OF FAITH
Found it—I must have forgot to move it when I reshelved all the scholarly editions a couple of years ago. It was hanging out with Georgiana Fullerton, who I assume was unamused.
Presumably most people do not walk around grumbling "where's my copy of THE NEMESIS OF FAITH when I desperately need it?! It should be between Miles Franklin and John Galt!*"
*--the Scottish John Galt. Not Ayn Rand's John Galt.
I have an opinion about the new WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
thelittleprofessor.pagecord.com/wuthering-he...
*incoherent spluttering ensues*
I am about to watch WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Am attempting to maintain an open mind.
We were batting around a category something like that (right now, this would be awkwardly shoehorned into "service").
"Well, it's not likely that the local movie theater is going to have WUTHERING HEIGHTS on, so I won't have to see it..."
*checks upcoming showtimes*
"Drat."
#AcademicLifeWithVictorianistPopCultureObligations
I've never claimed it as anything at all, even though some of the posts have citations in peer-reviewed scholarship...
A few of my colleagues in other departments have massive academic YouTube/Instagram/Tiktok followings, which is what semi-prompted this committee.
I'm on a committee exploring how to credit public-facing work that now exists in a gap between "service" and "scholarship"--for example, using social media (Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, blogging, etc.) to disseminate scholarship. Does your department/campus have an existing policy, and if so, what?
Most of my Victorian religious novelists are somewhat lacking in humor, but there's one who cracks a joke about a household being arranged for the convenience of the cat, and I did feel a bit Seen.
"I'm pretty sure the frost belongs on the *outside*," I remark, contemplating one of my upstairs windows. #AdventuresOfAVictorianistWithAVictorian
Reviving my old friends Stu Dent and P. R. Ofessor for tomorrow's exercise on sentence structure.
Wait, now I'm doing keyword searches in GoogleBooks preview pages and it's definitely showing me results. Where it goes wonky is keyword searches with a chronological limiter (so "Miriam Elizabeth Burstein" between 2025-2026 will simultaneously give me results and say there are no results).
They do have the search inside function turned back on for public domain works, if my poking around this evening was any indication, but losing the ability to do keyword searches in current scholarship is a definite hassle.
Yeah, my library is there, but nothing else is coming up.
Has GoogleBooks' search function completely failed, or is it just something weird at my end? (As in, I am getting no results for anything.)
"Oh wow, this is going to be a real adventure!" is probably not what you want to hear from the plumber. #AdventuresOfAVictorianistWithAVictorian
I am starting to run out of nicknames for the bats that keeping invading the house (Roy Batty? Batman? Count Dracula? Vlad?). Time to move on to "Orlok," maybe? #AdventuresOfAVictorianistWithAVictorian
OTOH, the requests for revision are making this article a bit too long. OTOH, I can now hold forth about one of my bugbears.
ME: Er, surely I did not discuss anything on this topic in the article you cited? I will check.
[checks own article]
ME: I...had absolutely nothing to say about that topic. It is not in the article. Anywhere. #AcademicLifeWithPeoplePretendingToHaveReadYourWork
The AI attached to my email: Your package is coming tomorrow!
Me: The package is coming FROM AUSTRALIA. It is not coming tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the day after that...
Title page of Berquin’s THE CHILDREN’S FRIEND
The oldest books I’ve purchased this year: three volumes of Meilan’s translation of Berquin’s popular series THE CHILDREN’S FRIEND (1786).
We have now reached the temperatures at which my house's radiators start saying, unimpressed, "I really don't know what you expect me to do about this." #AdventuresOfAVictorianistWithAVictorian
*opens a novel from 1835*
*first words: “What, ho!”
*closes it*
ME, SOLEMNLY: Every time we dispose of documents, we are depriving future historians of valuable information.
ALSO ME, CLEANING OUT STORAGE BOXES: Why on earth do I have bank statements from the 1990s?!
#AcademicLifeWithShredding
[We are watching a touring production of HAMILTON.]
DAD, at intermission, sounding puzzled: Shouldn’t this actually be called BURR?
ME: Everyone would think it was an adaptation of Vidal’s novel!
ME, AT NAVSA: Mom, I did go to an exhibit of certain rectangular objects.
MOM: Oh no...
ME: I only bought two!
MOM: Only two? I'm so proud of you. I was thinking it would be seven or eight.
