It’s the second quarter already.
This is something of a shock to me, since normally the winter here in New England drags…and drags...and drags…until suddenly the daffodils and crocuses are up, the forsythia turns a delicate yellow-green, and pussy willows are everywhere. Before you know it, the magnolias are in bloom, the trees are in leaf, and the locals are trotting about in shorts and t-shirts even if it’s barely cracking 50 degrees.
Sunshine! Bird song! Flowers! The smell of manure on the fields of Hadley, right where people shopping at the local malls can get a snootful! Mud on everything! Spring peepers screaming for mates as soon as it’s dark, and sometimes earlier! Pollen turning my blue car green! The town DPW vacuuming up sand from the gutters!
The fact we may get a snowstorm this weekend doesn’t matter, or shouldn’t (UPDATE: we got two inches of slush, most of which is already gone). Spring is here, and isn’t it glorious? Don’t you want to jump and skip and yodel for joy? Or at least join Tom Lehrer, the Incomparable Master of Parody, in this pleasant seasonal pastime?
And if you get the distinct impression that I’m too drunk on the glories of fresh air and sunshine, and too sleep-deprived from all the tiny little frogs screaming for mates right outside my bedroom window, to write much of a diary this week? Well, you’re absolutely right!
So! Here's the second quarter lineup. Note that once again, we’ll have several weeks of rewinds because I have a paper to present at the Kalamazoo Medieval Studies Congress...but, to compensate, you’ll also get the story of how I did on Jeopardy when I went to California in early March for taping. So if you’re ever wanted to know what it’s like to be on the Brainiest of Game Shows, watch this space!
4/8 — Cinematic Scientology
4/15 — Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley
4/22 — Regency Threesomes and Redeemed Nazis, Part I (rewind)
4/29 — Regency Threesomes and Redeemed Nazis, Part II (rewind)
5/6 — Defenders of the Bell Curve (rewind)
5/13 — Crazy Cosmology and Non-Standard Scholarship (rewind)
5/20 — All Hail Boaty McBoatface!
5/27 — Christian “Science”
6/3 — Of Bad Neighbors, Bad Fans, and C_____ C_____’s Laptop
6/10 — Infancies of Famous Americans
6/17 — California, There I Went!
6/24 — I Lost on Jeopardy — Or Did I?
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This is my spring — what about you? What are you looking forward to? What delights does the change of seasons bring to your area? How do you celebrate the coming of the light, the blossoming of the flowers, and the shrieking of the frogs? Do you even have spring peepers where you live? Come, share, and rejoice!
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