A Special Saturday Edition of Quick Hits and Varia. There was too much excitement in my life this past week to include all the important stuff. So I'll share some odds and ends here:
- Brandon Olson, an accomplished blogger, UND M.A., and PKAP veteran, continues to work on inscribed sling pellets from the site of Vigla and from across the Mediterranean more broadly. His work on these enigmatic objects will contribute to his dissertation which is a larger study of military liturgy. He presented a nice poster at Penn State's Graduate Exhibition where he is pursuing his Ph.D.
- A buddy sent me a copy of a story in the March Happer's Magazine entitled "Mississippi Drift: River Vagrants in the age of Wal-Mart". The story talks about a planned trip by a group of modern "hobos" down the Mississippi on a homemade raft. A bit of incidental detail might interest readers of this blog. At one point the author mentions the sugar beet harvest in Grand Forks "which has become something of an annual pilgrimage for the punk traveler community. From three weeks of driving forklifts or sorting beets on a conveyor belt, enough money could be earned to fund months of travel" (p. 56). The NoDak angle reminded me of the body excavated from near the President's house at UND in the fall. Former UND President Tom Clifford referred to an area adjacent to campus and the railroad tracks as a kind of "hobo jungle" during the 1930s. It would appear that lure of seasonal labor continues to draw modern day "hobos" (albeit of the "punk traveler" variety) to Grand Forks.
- The University of North Dakota hosted the third annual Red River History Conference this past weekend. This is a graduate /undergraduate history conference started three years ago by members of the Phi Alpha Theta and the History M.A. Program. Congratulations on keeping it going. This year there were papers from UND, NDSU, Minnesota State University - Moorhead, Minot State, and Penn State and featured a keynote address by Claire Strom of NDSU at the North Dakota Museum of Art. Check out the program here.
- It's rare that Grand Forks has as much excitement as it has had this past week. First, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were both in Grand Forks last night stumping at the State Democratic-NPL Convention. Next, the World Curling Championship is being held at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. UND's hockey team is in the Frozen Four. It may be too much for my little town to handle...
- Scott Moore offers a nice reminiscence of the "Early Days" of PKAP: PKAP Odds and Ends.
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