Disappearing comments (again)

Hi, Carolbaby,

I left a comment on your latest post, which showed up when I posted it, and since has disappeared. Basically it said “please don’t go,” but paraphrasing Sir John Falstaff (Henry IV, part 1, act II, scene 4: banish Sir John, and banish all the world). Does your spam filter have it in for Falstaff? Admittedly, he’s a rogue, but that’s only Shakespeare’s version; the real man had a much better reputation.

Everybody else: Happy Leap Day, and I hope you’re in a position to treat it as a true “extra day” and do something special! I meant to do that, but then I didn’t finish grading some papers that absolutely have to be back before Monday, so here I am. Maybe I can have a special afternoon if I get down to it right away.

Since I logged in

I just logged in to post a comment, so I feel like I ought not to waste the opportunity to post, especially since I haven’t been around much lately. I can’t think of much . . . so here’s the Very Local News:

*Cats: Glendower’s new favorite place is the bedroom. He wants to get in there right after Cat Breakfast (while Sir John is still in bed) and spend the day there. Since he’s a grazer and the other cats are gobblers, this poses a few problems for getting food down him. It’s okay in the morning, but sometime in the afternoon we have to kick him out of the bedroom, since that’s where Basement Cat spends the afternoons, while Reina has her time Out of my study. (I think I mentioned some time back that we gave up on trying to get Reina and Basement Cat to get along, and just keep them separated, with Out time in shifts.) Then Glendower wants to get back in the bedroom as soon as possible. It was so much simpler when his favorite place was the cushion atop the printer.

*Technology: It is, however, easier to print things under this regime.

*Suburban Living: This weekend I have no grading and no other pressing work deadlines so I may actually be able to tackle some house-related tasks. I hope this will lead to more entries in the series “Diary of an Academic Lady Trying to Sell Her House.”

*Travel Section: I have booked part of a summer vacation with Sir John, in the UK. Still to come: hotels, flights, other transport.

*Weather report: bright sun but very cold, with hope of rising to around freezing this afternoon.

*Sports: My weekly early-morning walk with one of my old neighbors didn’t happen today because she is visiting her family in another state where it is even colder. I didn’t know this till I got to her house and sent a text. It’s fine: I was up and moving very early, I got back some time I can use, and she is having a nice visit with her Aged P’s.

Confidential to Carolbaby

Your commenting problem still isn’t sorted, as far as I can work out: I’ve tried various devices and platforms, and have not been able to leave a comment in the past week. Sorry to hear about the rain and the bruises, found your silver-bracelet class inspiring, and well done not spending the cash on the jumpsuit. Maybe ink a little plane on the back of your hand to remind you what you’re saving for, at least when you’re in the vicinity of tempting shops.

Academic fantasies

1. Journal editors will learn that when they ask me to add historical context and maybe some discussion of (more) manuscripts, they will get that IN SPADES and will just publish what I send them in the first place without quibbling.
2. Journal editors will learn that when they ask me to add historical context and maybe some discussion of (more) manuscripts, they will get that IN SPADES and will start asking me at conferences what I’m working on now and if I’ll just send them a rough 15 pages or so they’ll tell me what to add so I can go in the right direction from an early stage.
3. I will actually figure out by myself how to structure an essay so that it has the right historical context from the beginning instead of making essay-writing a years-long, multiple-draft process with two or three or more submissions before I’m finally done.

At any rate, I have now re-submitted the last chunk of the MMP, which was the first chunk that I started writing, long ago, and I think the second to be accepted (pending revisions). I have an automated e-mail to prove it is in the system. All that slow chipping away finally did the job. I hope. It’s about 40% longer than it was when I last submitted it. When I re-read the new introduction I wondered if my thesis was clear enough, but if the editors ask for clarification I am just going to add the dreaded words “In this paper I shall argue that” and other clumsy signposting because I don’t think I can stand to re-work this piece again.

During my absence from this blog I have also answered the copy-editor’s queries about the Huge Honking Translation (one-week turn-around on a MS of over 350 pages), and graded a set of papers.

I want to take the rest of the day off but I have more grading to do and a lot of work admin and Life Stuff to try to catch up with. I think I will take a break before tackling all that, to get outside (or, depending on the temperature and wind chill, go to the gym) and try to enjoy the feeling of being done with something.

 

Mirabile dictu

I’m down to footnote-grooming: where’s the first reference, have I used short references thereafter, is everything correctly formatted for this journal, that sort of thing. I’m still hoping an ILL will turn up so I can add another note, and since I’m unsure of a page reference I just ILL’d something else to double-check, but this is all-over-bar-the-shouting territory. At last.

Of course I’ll be back to do the shouting when I actually send the sucker off. But this is progress enough to be worth noting. Get ready for a big celebration of the final final no really this time I mean it END of the Macedonian Marginalia Project and all its progeny.