Happy New Year, everyone. Now back to work!

Playtime is over, kids. Or maybe it’s just beginning. The roster of authors this year will bring us a lot of great articles. I thought I’d give a sneak preview of some highlights. My apologies to anyone I’ve missed; there’s a lot on the way.

Richard Bronk is a rare combination of classicist and economist. In the midst of an economic meltdown, The Romantic Economist shows how our narrow systems can be expanded to better deal with uncertainty.

Pearl Buck biographer Peter Conn will bring insight into the The American 1930s with his new literary history.

Kevin Dettmar has assembled a stellar team of music writers, rock and roll historians, and literary critics in his Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan. Some of these folks will contribute their insights here.

Look for archaeologist Pita Kelekna’s sweeping history of humans and horses, titled, oddly enough, The Horse in Human History.

…and the more I look at the catalogue, I see that there are many books on the horizon that will prove fascinating, and I don’t have time to mention them right now. I’ll do my best to announce them as the time comes.

Our own Teri Yoshiuchi stood behind chef Mario Batali this morning to ring the NASDAQ opening bell. Teri organized our office food drive, and joined other Food Bank for New York City volunteers for this morning’s opening ceremonies.

There he is! No, back there. Wait, keep looking...

Batali’s Crocs were also present, so he’s probably back in the kitchen by now. Those Crocs did a remarkable job of matching the countdown clock and the orange scarf on the left.

Many thanks to all of NYC’s, Food Bank volunteers!

August 19, 2008

No, the other one.

Everyone is busy counting the US-China contest for medals. Rightly so; it’s close.

Here in the New York office, we’re watching a different set of numbers:

Now, I’m all for rooting for the home office, but that would be unfair; we have branches around the world! After this is all over, it would be fun to give a full worldwide break-down.

Yes, I know, if you remove Phelps from the mix and we lead by only 2 gold medals, but why would we do a thing like that?

Until then, nice work, team USA.

Yes, I have a background in religious studies, so this excites me more than many international crises, but still.

Cambridge had their booth going strong near the Lambeth conference, and someone snapped this photo of him checking out our Journal of Anglican Studies.

He had paparazzi following him around, which is a shame. From what I’ve read about him in a recent biography, he’s pretty mellow and just wants to do his work without all the hubbub. One could almost liken him to Barack Obama, except that Obama needs the attention to win an election. Robinson has already been elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire — he could probably get along without it.

There are few things more sociologically interesting than a big scandal. I’m not talking about the scandals themselves; the behavior in question is never actually shocking. In fact, considering the Britney craze, and now John Edwards, they’re another thing entirely.

This is a conflict between Edwards and his wife, amplified by all the other folks who disapprove of his behavior. So he does something you don’t like. Politicians constantly do stuff I don’t like. In this case, at least it wasn’t any of my tax dollars misspent.

Ari Adut studies scandals. He’s a sociologist at the University of Texas, Austin.

On Scandal cracks these trends open wider than my musings can.

For a really good cross-section of popular attitudes, though, check out the comments section of Maureen Dowd’s column about John Edwards. Hundreds chime in, and opinions are all over the map.

To sum up many of them, here’s a representative example:

Maureen:

Absolutely agree with everything you wrote. There is a pathetic insincerity to Edward’s “preening apology” that makes me want to gag. And what does it really matter that he did it when his wife’s cancer was in remission? As if that is somehow supposed to makes it (and the public) more accepting. Get real!!

Blahblahblah.

Another important dimension is reflected in Elizabeth Edwards’ own blog post about the whole ordeal. Not surprisingly, she just wants everyone to shut up and leave her alone.