Thesaurus Writer

Missed a day yesterday. I wonder if that will become a theme? I spent most of last night reading Donaldson's translation of Beowulf . Studied a good bit of French during the day too. Today was the third of seven writing workshops I am currently giving on behalf of the History of Economics Society. We talked about keeping readers interested in the body of the paper. I played classical guitar for years, but as I've grown older I've come to be bothered more and more by its limitations: low volume, poor sustain, small repertoire, or rather repertoire that's missing many of the greatest composers. So I normally don't get a lot out of listening to recordings of the classical guitar. But I came across one yesterday of pieces by Fernando Sor performed by someone named Philippe Mouratoglou . I think it's brilliant. It makes me want to play again. Speaking of playing again, I recorded two melodies yesterday. Maybe they will turn into songs. I bought an 8-inch ca

Coffee this morning from the usual place--Dunkin' Donuts on Erwin. Chilly last night. Only 43 degrees this morning. But it will warm up to 75. Listened to lots of music today: an album of French orchestral music (Debussy, Ravel, Massenet, et al.--the album titled Escales , on the Chandos label); OK Computer , by Radiohead; a collection of The Jam's greatest "hits." All courtesy of my subscription to iTunes. Another hamburger for lunch, topped with ketchup and AR's pickled carrots. Finished typing my notes from last week's HOPE conference and emailed them to the participants. Spent a good part of the day working on my writing presentation, which will be on Thursday. Notes on what can lose readers: length, the writing itself, excessive quotations, losing the forest for the trees. Spent the later part of the afternoon on AR's deck, working. We had pizza for dinner (sausage and mushroom from Marco's). I ordered the pizza there for takeout. Poor soc

This is getting old. I thought about getting in my car and driving to California. Fuck it. Coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. Pretty day so I took a 20-minute walk this morning and a 40-minute walk this evening. Lunch was a hamburger I made here, with AR's pickled carrots. I spent most of the day reviewing the papers that will be discussed at the P&S board meeting next month and working on my presentation for the writing workshop I'm giving on Thursday. The topic of the workshop is keeping the reader's attention during the body of the paper. I'll have a mix of do-this advice and don't-do-this advice. What can slow a reader down? Length, excessive quotations, the writing itself, unmet expectations. Watch how you begin and end sections: begin by setting an expectation; end by leaning forward to what comes next. Use more and shorter sections. Studied French. Continued memorizing Wyatt's "They Flee from Me." Watched two episodes of Homeland . Talke

Coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, then to Guglhupf for a loaf of white bread. I recited my Herbert poems this morning. Studied French. Lots of rain last night. Still cloudy this morning. Final day of HOPE conference today. Mostly a wrap up and overall impressions. I had not exercised in three days, so as soon as the conference ended, I went for a 2-mile jog. Then a bit later I went for a 20-minute walk. It's a beautiful 74-degree day. I revised my guide to the economics PhD and posted it on my website. I watched some scenes from old episodes of Better Call Saul . Read from Bateson's Guide to English Literature . He always mentions "American" critics with scorn. Bored tonight. Lots of rain, which at least was entertaining. Read several of the poems in the new issue of Poetry and listened to one of their podcasts. Worked on my review of Janek Wasserman's book on the Austrian economists. I've got a full draft now (almost 2,000 words). I still feel that I

Day 3 of the HOPE conference. Papers today by Harro Maas (behavioral governance), Marcel Boumans (pictorial statistics), and Tom Stapleford (data revolution). As on the previous two days, I took notes on questions from the floor. I reread Campbell McGrath's "At the Ruins of Yankee Stadium" and continue to absolutely love the poem. I would like to write a similar poem for EWP, who died in June of last year. I think at the conferences the authors talk too much. I would like to experiment with a different format. The author begins with 5 or so minutes as in the current format. Then the rest of the conference participants, excluding the author, discuss the paper. Then the author can have the floor for the last 5 or so minutes and respond to the most important issues and questions raised. Or do it like chess: have a clock that gives the author only 10 minutes of talking time. He can allocate his 10 minutes any way he likes. But he has only 10 minutes. I studied French

Today was taken up by day 2 of the HOPE conference. I went to a new place for coffee, Early Bird Donuts, just up the street on Erwin. Good donuts too. Spent the evening with AR. We sat on her deck then ate frozen pizza and watched the NFL draft. My copy of Quirk and Wrenn's Old English Grammar arrived today. I continue to study French and believe I'll be able to read it fluently in about a month, if I keep it up.

Coffee from Dunkin' Donuts this morning. Made oatmeal for breakfast. Studied French this morning. Most of the day was spent attending online the first day of the annual HOPE conference. The conference this year is on statistical inference. I took notes on the questions from the floor. The papers presented and discussed today were by Jeff Biddle on crop and livestock forecasts, Amanar Akhabbar on the Harvard Economics Research Project, and Paul Burnett on the Chicago agriculture group. In between taking notes, I put on a pot of black beans and continued to study French. AR came over for dinner tonight. We had the beans and rice and a salad, and yeast rolls that I made. We ate and watched the NFL draft. Dessert was ice cream. Now my tummy hurts. Another volume of the Norton Anthology arrived today: volume 2 of the English literature anthology, fourth edition. Looks like it's in fantastic shape. I forgot I ordered it. I wrote a post for my Professorspeak blog on a Politi

OK--this is boring. I started this blog as an electronic version of my handwritten diary. But the entries are boring. It's of course a lot harder to write by hand than to type--but it is also more satisfying and more virtuous. But here, in the blog, I will no longer stick to my handwritten diary. But I'll still keep a handwritten diary. There's an art to writing a diary or journal, as I've learned reading Pepys's diary and Emerson's journals. I'm still learning it. This week I've focused on studying French. I'm determined to learn to read it fluently. And I can get there--soon. Probably in a month, if I keep at it. One of my favorite books is a book written in the 1960s called The Art of Literary Research , by Robert Altick. I like the world and apparatus of the scholar that the book conjures up, a world of slips and typewriters and printed bibliographies. In his chapter on note-taking, Altick makes a big deal about "slips" versu

Up at 7:30. Skimmed and forwarded two submissions to Politics & Society to the filter partner. Heated some leftover coffee. Studied French. Edited a bit more the paper on climate change. Made oatmeal for breakfast. For lunch, boiled some bucatini and tossed it with olive oil and parmesan cheese. Watched an episode of Better Call Saul . Napped while listening to Seamus Heaney read his translation of Beowulf . I spent most of the day editing the paper and studying French. I also browsed a few back issues of Politics & Society . Went to AR's tonight. We sat on her back deck--it was a gorgeous evening. We ordered Chinese from P. F. Chang; I had noodles and shrimp. We watched an episode of Poirot .

Took a shower and shaved--first shower since Friday. Reviewed and sent an incoming fellow's documents to Duke's Visa Services office. Skimmed and forwarded three new submissions to Politics & Society to our filter partner. Our current review cycle ends today. A rainy morning. Watched training videos on Excel. Breakfast was yogurt, fruit, and sunflower seeds. Took an hour to mail two boxes of books, each weighing 45 pounds, to a former fellow in Germany. Cost was $150 per box. I wore my mask while in the post office. Nearly everyone else had a mask on too. Went to the grocery and bought a pound of catfish fillets, pecans, and bucatini. Cooked the catfish for dinner. Started editing a paper on climate change: how to assign remedial responsibility. Watching an episode of Homeland. Took an hour-long walk through campus and around Duke Pond. Studied French. Talked to my mom. She has a raccoon in the attic. Terminix has set a trap for it. Wrote a blog post on a Jun

Up early--6 am. Reread chapters from Wasserman's book on the Austrians. In fact, paged through the entire book, marking some passages with post-it notes. Rewrote parts of my review of the book. Spent most of the morning doing that. Coffee from DD, then drove to Guglhupf for an almond schnecke. It's a beautiful morning. Watched an episode of Homeland . Lunch was leftover chicken. Napped, then read from Clark Hall's Beowulf . Studied French, especially the past definite. Watched another episode of Homeland . Dinner was salad and bread. Forty-minute walk to the Harris-Teeter and back. Ran into Dhruv and Ashwini, my downstairs neighbors. Talked to AR. Made pancakes. Read about the Cotton manuscript collection, Thorkelin's edition of Beowulf , in Altick's Scholar Adventurers , a PDF of which is online. I let myself go this weekend. Hardly talked to anyone. Didn't shower; didn't even change clothes. Spent the evening reading parts of  The MLA Guide to Re

Up at 7:30. First thing this morning I drove to campus, parked in the Allen lot, and loaded two boxes of books into my car. The books are SK's, a fellow this year. I am to mail them to him in Germany. It's a cloudy, wet, but mild morning. It rained last night. I saw in the big parking lot on Flowers that Duke Health has set up an enormous white tent as a testing site for the coronavirus. Studied French. Coffee and a chocolate-frosted donut from DD. The latest Sewanee Review arrived yesterday. Wrote a blog post on John Robinson's P&S article on housing for the poor in Chicago. Browsed the TOCs of the 2019 issues of Politics & Society . Groupings: special issue on democratizing finance; articles on the Global South; articles on the macroeconomy. Skimmed the papers that will be discussed at next month's board meeting. I shaved and put some Old Spice on my face. It smells like my grandmother's powder. Read reviews in the latest NYRB : books about

Up at eight, showered and shaved, and went to Guglhupf for coffee and a lemon poppyseed danish. Also bought a loaf of sunflower bread. Nancy G. emailed me this morning, wanting to know if I remembered CDG's password. I was happy to hear from her, as I'd been meaning to call her. She's doing fine, working in the garden every day. Spent most of the morning watching Excel training videos: formulas, formatting, charts, worksheets. Lunch was two regular hamburgers from Hardee's, then I spent the afternoon and evening at AR's. Today was gorgeous--sunny and in the high 60s. We sat on her deck and worked--although a good part of the afternoon was taken up with updating software on my laptop. We ordered a pizza from Marco's for dinner, then played Data-Driven Football. She played with the 2019 Browns, and I played with the 2019 Bengals. She was winning 16–10 when we stopped. I don't think I did much today because I didn't do my usual browsing back issues

Stayed up until 2 last night . . . Slept on the futon for a change. Coffee this morning from the usual place. Studied French and made a pan of biscuits. Heard via text from a couple of fellows from last year--one in Lille, the other in Rotterdam. Wrote a post on a forthcoming paper in Politics & Society . The paper is on the dual pension system in China. I emailed the author a draft to see if I got it right. Watched an episode of Homeland then browsed back issues of Politics & Society . Tweeted about a couple of articles. The journal was much different in its first ten years. Lots of explicitly Marxist analyses, for example. There was an article on the Finnish copper miners of Michigan. Went for an hour-long walk through campus and around Duke Pond. Not too many people out but enough were out to annoy me when I had to go out of the way to avoid coming within six feet of them. Two books arrived today. One is a secondhand copy of Bateson's Scholar-Critic . It's i

Up, and coffee and two toasted sesame seed bagels from Dunkin' Donuts, which I brought to AR's, where I spent the day working. I spent most of the day reading a paper for Politics & Society that our copyeditor had copyedited--quality control. The paper was on the dual pension system in China. (We publish a lot of papers on China.) After work we worked on a puzzle together for a few minutes. Lunch was a sandwich from Randy's (delivered). Went for a 40-minute walk around 3:00. Home by 6:00. Read from Heaney's Beowulf and studied French. Have re-committed myself to learning French, and then I want to learn Old English. Notes on Beowulf . One surviving manuscript dating from late tenth century. Originally part of a collection of medieval manuscripts made by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631). Manuscript damaged by fire in 1731; several lines and words were lost. Manuscript now in the British Museum. Poem contains many hapax legomena : words recorded only once i

Up, and coffee from the usual--Dunkin' Donuts. A beautiful morning. Prepped more papers for the May board meeting. Emailed the board with details of the meeting. Interviewed by Skype an incoming HOPE Center fellow to vouch for his English proficiency. He passed, as I knew he would: the interview was a formality. He lives and works in Freiburg. He says that all the borders have been closed in Europe, which is worrisome for a European, given their history. He's Bulgarian, and his parents need to explain themselves every time they want to leave the city limits. He has been working in his office at the university; he's needed special permission to do that. People in Germany were on edge two or three weeks ago, but they seem to have calmed down since then. Posted a HOPE Center working paper by Roy Weintraub on science studies and economics. I read the paper and corrected a few errors. Tweeted about the paper. I skimmed a new batch of submissions and sent them to the filter

Coffee this morning from the drive-through at Dunkin' Donuts: large coffee with five creams. There was a tornado warning early this morning but I slept through it. Listened (through the headphones of course) to a beautiful oboe concerto by Strauss (Richard) while checking email: the Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in a new recording, via Gramophone 's Listening Room in iTunes. It's always a revelation to hear a lesser known work by one of the great composers. I love that I can hear the keys of the oboe being pressed. (Are they keys?) I made pancakes for breakfast--a Martha Stewart recipe, except I used buttermilk and added some baking soda. Two large ones. Prepped several papers for the May board meeting of Politics & Society . Went for a 20-minute walk. It was already warm in my  jeans and long-sleeved shirt. I made a trip to the grocery store and wore the black mask that A.R. gave me. I bought a bag of tangerines, frozen blueberries, frozen cherries, a whole