At home, for yet another frosty post. Cold whiteness is my way of testing the patience of this blog's readers. It is also a very simple way for me to expose my shallowness. How would any sane or, better, any intelligent person, spend so much time writing about an altered form of water? Sanity and intelligence aside the city of Vancouver is in a kind of suspended animation. Its educational institutions are shut and classes are cancelled at the two Universities. At SFU because we are too high up to be accessible by bus and at UBC beacause they have no power. It makes you admire Michigan with their "never closed, whatever the circumstances" policy.


At Home I am writing on the Franks and Rome and on the claims of the Franks on Rome's heritage. Nothing too deep, just an attempt to connect a number of threads from my lectures that had been left loose and then reach a proper point of conclusion. As Western Europe is "born" so is the orientalized Eastern part slowly challenged in its claim of Romanitas and by extension its claim to be part of Europe per se. I guess writing on a blog helps you clarify what you want to say. This is my excus for not actually writing right now.