Very quick thought: If you were scheming for a way to get President Trump re-elected...

...you would arrange for a bunch of riots to break out by people destroying property and protesting the police. In the middle of a pandemic. In response to a case that the authorities actually seemed to be handling well, with action being taken against the guilty parties.

My country is going crazy--first the anti-lockdown protests, now these new riots. Maybe folks have just been shut up at home for so long that they are looking for something to do.

Not only my country, though. Apparently there were also protests in London and Berlin, in solidarity with the American protestors. As if they don't have enough to worry about in their own countries right now? (It shows, though, that even at our current nadir, America still has an outsized profile in the world. Can you even imagine Americans protesting an instance of police brutality in some mid-sized British or German city?)

Strange times.

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A Warning Against Drink

I have gotten several things read over the last few days, but I keep forgetting to post any of it. Some more Gotthelf, but also a couple of other things. I'll try to break them up in order to get a few more posts out of them! Last Friday I finished another Gotthelf novella, Wie fünf Mädchen im Branntwein jämmerlich umkommen . That title does not translate very well into English, or at least I don't think so. Something like, How Five Young Women Perish Miserably Due to Brandy (or literally "in brandy"). It is an early work of Gotthelf's and a piece of social criticism. When Gotthelf was writing (1838), the canton of Bern had recently liberalized its system for granting licenses to operate a pub. At the same time, new methods of producing cheap brandy from different sources, including even the ubiquitous potato, were developed. As a consequence, inns and pubs sprang up throughout the countryside, creating a new temptation for poor...

"Plague Time" Essay Contest

If you are a major or minor in History, Political Science, Augmented History, Humanities, or German Studies, you are eligible to enter a brand-new essay contest being sponsored by the Department of History and Political Science. Details available here . And if you aren't a major or minor in one of those areas... it is not too late to become one now !

Titian Exhibition at the National Gallery, Live on BBC

London's National Gallery currently has an exhibition of Titian's work -- one that unfortunately cannot be seen right now due to the coronavirus shutdown. But on Saturday, the BBC will air a one-hour documentary about the exhibition -- a chance to "see" it in spite of the plague. According to the webpage, it should be available shortly after its broadcast. Update (4/4): Rats--it looks as though you can only see it in the UK. Very disappointing.

Plague Time

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