My Absence

Goodness -- has it really been more than two weeks since I last posted? Things have been crazy, topped off with a trip to Austin early this week to try to help UTPB's public profile at the legislature, not to mention two local showings of Freedom Riders. But fear not! I'll be back in the saddle soon so that tens of you can enjoy my wit and wisdom.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I'm back from the epic New England trip, which included much merriment with friends in Boston, some time seeing my dad and other friends in New Hampshire, and a fruitful and productive AHA meeting. The new semester starts tomorrow and with it, I hope, regular posting.

One Man's Reasons Are Another Man's Excuses

It's been a bit hectic here at dcat Central. I am teaching a Maymester course, which is incredibly intense and occupies giant amounts of time. The good part is that it's only a three-week term, and the course (US History Since 1945 Through Film) has gone exceedingly well. Tomorrow is the last day of the class, and I should have grades submitted by Friday. At that point I will be preparing for my South Africa trip, but I also have a chapter for an edited collection to finish, a conference paper to write, and progress to make on my book projects. Nonetheless, posting should accelerate.

In the meantime you should check out the FPA Africa Blog, where writing has also been light, but at least there is some content. I'll be writing daily about the World Cup starting sometime around June 9, when I head to South Africa via Ethiopia, where I'll spend a night in Addis Ababa.

Still Alive

Sorry for the silence. I'm sure you're devastated. I spent the weekend trekking between Odessa, San Antonio, and Austin for the UT game (loads of fun), we brought back our nephew/godson, who has kept us entertained but busy this week, and I am flying out to New Hampshire tomorrow for a wedding, a couple of days in the old home town, and a day and overnight in Boston. Next week it looks like I might be flying to LA for the sort of pathetic grasp at pseudo-fame that only a professional historian would pursue unashamedly. I'll post as I can.

Meta (A Post on Possible Future Posts)

I'll have something to say this weekend, I hope, about both baseball's trade deadline and the recent news about Manny and Big Papi's positive steroids tests in 2003. But for now, how is this for being in some disturbing ways prescient?

Slice is a Babydaddy!

Our boy Homz is now a proud big papi. Congrats, big guy. I'm so happy for you all.

Southern Africa Bound

Tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am I begin a three-week trip to southern Africa. The main foci of the trip will be two conferences. One is on South African sports history at the University of Stellenbosch, where I'll be presenting a paper on rugby, race and nationalism in South Africa since the 1995 Eorld Cup, and the Historical Association of South Africa biennial meeting, which I usually try to attand, where I'll give a paper about white supremacy and black resistance in the US and South Africa in the 1940s. The latter conference is at my old home, Rhodes University, and the paper is basically a sectiopn from the introduction from my next book. I also will be conducting research and doing some leisure travel where I can squeeze it in.

But my other goal, and we'll have to see if it is even feasible, is to go to Zimbabwe for a few days to see firsthand the situation there. I have been writing extensively about Zimbabwe lately, and have another op-ed coming out in the Cape Argus tomorrow (in which I manage to invoke the Freedom Rides in a historical analogy. Synergy!) which hopefully won't register with the good folks north of the Limpopo. Zim isn't especially friendly to those practicing journalism without a license, and while I am not a professional journalist, something tells me that such an argument might represent a distinction without a difference in the minds of ZANU-PF thugs. Nonetheless, I want to see what is going on in Zim, and I assume that I am both small beer and that the border control folks do not routinely access Google or read the Cape Argus and remember its contents. Besides, how bad can a Zimbabwean jail be?

The main point is that I'll be away, posting here may be light, most of my on-site reportage will go on the FPA blogs, and I hope to publish some longer pieces either while I'm there or after I get back. Nonetheless I'll update as I can.

Spam For You, Spam For Me

Although this is a cumbersome and inefficient way to deal with a techie problem, if any of you have received emails from me that seemed really peculiar the reason is most likely because some sort of worm invaded my computer and has been sending emails to everyone in my address book. I have received more than a hundred emails showing that many of the deliveries failed, but I also know that many are getting through. I have no idea how to stop this or what the ramifications might be, so bear with me if you are one of the lucky ones whose spam firewall is not up to snuff. The irony is that the hijacker is a Chinese company (or says that it is) called "HonestestSeller." Honest(est)ly.

A Publick Service Announcement: New Blog Edition

I just received the following announcement from H-Pol:

Common-place is pleased to announce "Publick Occurrences 2.0," a new blog of historical and political punditry by the inimitable Common-place columnist and former History News Network blogger Jeffrey L. Pasley. Jeff is a political historian ("broadly defined," he says) based at the University of Missouri and the author of The Tyranny of Printers": Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (Virginia, 2001) along with numerous book chapters, articles, reviews, and miscellaneous items that pop up all over the Internet. Jeff's new blog will be, we hope, one of several that will be part of Common-place and provide our readers with fresh content between our regular issues. We have no intention of giving up our standard, acclaimed format of carefully edited articles and columns to the new-fangled vagaries of the blogosphere. Common-place will remain a quarterly magazine of American history. But now, with Jeff's blog and others to come, it will also, we hope, be a place for on-going, active, and vibrant discussion about things historical and issues that matter to our readers and our contributors.

You can access Publick occurrences 2.0 here.

When You're a Hot Poet, You're Hot

A while back I wrote about an old friend who had his first poetry chapbook published. Well for Mr. Matt Guenette it seems that when you're hot, you're hot. Recently he discovered that he won The American Poetry Journal's book prize. In addition to $1000 and eternal fame, the prize carries with it the manuscript's publication (in poetry, besically your work has to win the prize before it sees publication; nasty business, that). Sudden Anthem will appear from Dream Horse Press (which carries an announcement of Matt's successes at the top of the page) at the end of this year or beginning of next. Congrats to Matt (whose blog you may want to check out as well.)

Pondhopping

News you do not want to read hours before taking off for England: The pound has hit a 26-year high against the dollar. As of right now it is trading at $2.01 to the pound. Oh -- and there are concerns about inflation.

I will be leaving in about an hour and will be gone for just under a week. I am heading to the British Association of American Studies meeting in Leicester where I will be on a panel on the Freedom Rides with Ray Arsenault and possibly one of the Freedom Riders.

I'll write as I can, but posting may be light, intermittent, or nonexistent. In the meantime, you might want to check out some of my recent work over at the Foreign Policy Association's South Africa Blog.

Derek Does Dallas

I posted a lot yesterday because I am leaving for a workshop in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex today. I'm not certain when I'll be back because plans are a bit up in the air. I also do not know if I will have computer access while I am gone.

In any case, if I am not back, enjoy Opening Day. Sox open up in Kansas City.

That Left Turn At Albuquerque

I'm about to leave town again for a conference in Albuquerque where I am giving a paper and serving as discussant on a panel. I'll likely be out of internet range during that time, but I'll be back by Sunday. Have a great weekend transfixing on the basketball games. In the meantime, I've posted a few things over at the Foreign Policy Association South Africa blog.

San Antonio to Albuquerque

It's spring break here in the Permian Basin, and I'm hitting the road. I'll be in San Antonio for a few days and then Albuquerque for a conference. I'll blog as I can, but it might be thin for a while.