Read book reviews all day. I think I'll get Guelzo's Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, as it got mostly good reviews, won the Lincoln Prize 2001, and its focus on the president's religious beliefs seems appropriate for our library.

We got quite a zinger of a letter of recommendation yesterday. The letter simply read: "Since X. has worked for you before, I need only say that I feel about him exactly the same way you do." This was the fellow who had conflicts with a couple of his professors here, and who at one of his full-time jobs pissed off the ladies in technical services with his arrogance. Apparently he antagonized this person as well. Actually my boss says she never had any problems with him, but the point of the letter was nonetheless taken and his file has been removed from consideration. It makes me nervous, though, since I might be asking for letters to be written pretty soon.

The leading candidate is an Episcopalian. It would be nice to have a coreligionist among my colleagues, although, as Flannery O'Connor said, "Scratch an Episcopalian and you never know what you'll find underneath." Granted, since this guy has done missionary work with a conservative evangelical outfit, he probably isn't one of those avant-garde modern-day Arian sort of Episcopalians, but he might be a lot more low-church than I.

I'm picking up Pablo in Amarillo tomorrow for an Independence Day campout in Palo Duro canyon. Those narrow, airless ravines will trap the summer heat nicely. Pablo is bringing gin, though, which will hit the spot after a sweaty sunburnt afternoon of hiking.