Comments on: How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail?

By: Notorious Ph.D.

Notorious Ph.D. — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:49:24 +0000

thanks for the shout-out! And I’m inviting others to participate — Clio’s Disciple already has her post up.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 13:30:14 +0000

Thanks for the plug, Historiann.

By: Matt L

Matt L — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 12:30:53 +0000

A bad day in the archives is better than a good day of assessment/administrivia.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 02:25:53 +0000

True enough, JJO, but the answer to a bad day at the archive is MORE days at the archive(s). There’s nothing worse than stumbling out of a research tank into the fading light when you’ve been skunked by the sources, but the opposite is also true. When the shots start falling (again), it’s pure bliss.

By: JJO

JJO — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:03:07 +0000

I just assumed that’s what everybody does after lecture on Mondays!

While I think most Americanists, even colonialists, would lose a game of “my documents are worse than yours” pretty badly to those in other fields, those negative photostats are no fun at all. When I showed copies to a grad research seminar, the looks of dismay were almost funny. And having to refocus the microfilm to read different parts of the page just adds to the fun.

By: John S.

John S. — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:52:39 +0000

JJO–How did you know what I was doing after Monday’s lecture, before I send my fellowship application off to Colonial Williamsburg?

By: JJO

JJO — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:44:45 +0000

How about some poorly focused microfilm of negative photostats of semi-literate eighteenth-century Virginian handwriting with lots of bleed through from the other side? Now that’s fun archival research!

By: Comrade PhysioProf

Comrade PhysioProf — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:37:13 +0000

That archive shit is fucking coolio!

By: rootlesscosmo

rootlesscosmo — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:35:57 +0000

The Alice link was a lot of fun–thanks! Isaac Watts, author of the “busy bee” original parodied in “How doth the little crocodile,” is described in The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse as having made “a free adaptation of the Psalms… remarkable chiefly for the substitution of ‘Britain” for ‘Israel,’ which links the poet with those retired Anglo-Indian colonels in Cheltenham of our own day who prove conclusively that we are the Lost Tribes.” (Victoria Sackville-West said that “The Stuffed Owl” “belongs in every home,” and it’s hard to disagree.)