The meeting with the Social Sciences Division chair bore fruit quickly, at least, though not of the desired quality: today I received a request for about $2000 worth of history and geography videos. Unfortunately the degree of academic vigor here barely surpasses that of high school, and so many instructors like to pad out their classes with audiovisuals, for which we foot the bill.

Started E. R. Eddison, Mistress of Mistresses, last night. Does anyone else like to read out loud?

I leave you with this quote from a review of The Future of the Southern Plains in the American Historical Review:

Perhaps the clearest indication of the state of the Southern Plains today lies in its image among Americans. Earlier writers, artists, and travelers—John James Audubon, Georgia O'Keeffe, Willa Cather, and others—left remarkable descriptions of its scenery, wildlife, and open spaces. Today, though, the region evokes no such admiration. As Deborah Popper observed: "There is nothing here. It is un-country." Flores explains that modern attitudes reflect the transformation of the Great Plains in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when "we dismantled a ten-thousand-year-old ecology, very likely one of the most exciting natural spectacles in the world" (p. 223). The combination of a "war on Plains wildlife" and the plowing up of the grasslands helped produce the landscape we see today.

"Un-country"--perfect!