Brief Overview Of the Past Two Days

[rfmcdonald]

• I was really, really unhappy that the Livejournal server was attacked.


• Wednesday was a decent day, I suppose, though not much happened. Went to the gym, and read Easterbrook's comparative economic history of North America (posthumously published in 1985) and Paul Wyczynski's French-language biography of Nelligan. Comparative histories are good. As for Nelligan, it's astonishing how much he acheived in three short years, between 16 and 19; he wrote afterwards in the asylums, but not nearly as much. If only I could achieve a tenth of his grandeur.
  


• The Political Science dinner/auction Thursday evening was good. I ordered chicken crepes with caesar salad; I didn't have dressing, but I had (not too ungenerous) seconds. Still, it was good--I bought six two-hour passes for pool from Dooly's. (Anyone interested?)


• While I was there, I sat and ate with Dr. Srebrnik. Apparently he had heard about my offer from Wilfrid Laurier and congratulated me. We talked about a paper I'd written for globalization seminar last year--on Poland, and its dominant relationship with its eastern neighbours--and he seemed interested, not least because he was apparently born in Poland and holds citizenship in that country, along with Canada and the United States. We also talked about the tenuous nature of the Canadian national identity; yes, Teridian, you were not underestimating his sentiment that Canada is going downhill. I saw other people there, including a couple from Creative Writing--all fun.


• Nothing much happened today, apart from a good workout and two excellent books I read while on the bike: Gail Bowen's The Glass Coffin, and Jostein Gaarden's That Same Flower Reviews later.