Third week of classes, first student quarantining with COVID. I planned this course to be quarantine-friendly, with recordings and one Zoom meeting a week, but I was hoping (unreasonably) that it wouldn't be necessary.

Henceforth I will be referring to my university's fall add/drop deadline as "Beheading of John the Baptist." And, uh,giggling.

So if you take the bit about one of Abraham's nephews being named תחש very literally - oh, never mind, this is just hilarious if you ever attend Yom Kippur services.

It's that time of the semester, God, but I will *definitely* get those revisions to you by Hoshanah Rabbah.

Isru chag sameach, Twitter! (Happy Not A Jewish Holiday.) I am celebrating from my campus office by holding lots of Zoom meetings w/students, convincing GrubHub that I am really on campus and can order bubble tea, and attending an in-person lecture at 4pm.

On the one hand, this is adorable and makes me yearn for a thick Jewish culture that my StL grocery stores only achieve in the seasonal Passover aisle. On the other hand, do I need my morning omelet reminding me that I am still 10 dapim behind because holidays? (Yes, probably.)

At last, the first student assignment I have graded that uses the phrase "during the 2010s" to make an historical argument (albeit in the conclusion of the paper). Can I identify as a crone now? I've always wanted to identify as a crone.

I love quilts, but the side of my family that was in the Southern U.S. in 1885 is not the Jewish side, so the existence of amazing Southern Jewish quilts makes me very happy.

So is this an example of the European Enlightenment, "high-level trolling" *of* the European Enlightenment, or both? I am used to the sorts of texts where passages from Toledot Yeshu shows up in the middle of Christian polemics against Jews, but in Latin; this is... different.

I love the idea of a Mishnah-song playlist, even though I can't add much to it. (The Incubus song "If Not Now, When?" may or may not qualify as a "Mishnah song," and I don't think it has any lyrics I'd be upset to hear at a bat mitzvah siyum, but it's not particularly frum.)

An important (and informative) thread for all of us who love sharing wacky manuscript illuminations: