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17 Cheshvan/4 November, 2009
Nov. 4th, 2009 11:20 pmI worked more on the conference paper all morning. Conference papers are such strange beasts because they need to be spoken and they can’t go into too great a detail and they need to keep people’s attention. I’ll work more on it tomorrow but I sent the draft in to the commentator and he didn’t think it sucked, which was good. Still I want it better and will rework it per Amy’s commentary. Can’t change it too much at this point, just will have to go with it. The panel is early Saturday, I hope major medievalists would sleep in or something.
I’m leaving tomorrow for the conference and I’m strangely not nervous about flying, as I usually am. Maybe because the flight is only two hours and I need to grade a bunch of papers so I have plenty to do. Also I got “Miracle on the Hudson” book in the library yesterday, which recounts the January 15th landing on the Hudson river after birds took out both engines. The book is based on the passenger interviews and it is really a fascinating look at how different people react to a really scary situation. The book is detailed and I have hard time putting it down. The book is actually making me feel better about flying, which is a bit weird.
Jon Stewart’s mockery of panels that speculate on election results was very very funny.
Deuteronomy WTF moment of the day: chapters 11 to 15 have more laws, some are repetitive of Leviticus like laws about clean and unclean foods and only worshiping one God. Again there is reinforcement for following the commandments – God will bless us if we do and curse us if we don’t. This whole book, the people are on the border ready to cross the Jordan and God has to emphasize the laws needed in that land stalling the main event. All forty years of wanderings was actually training to see if they deserve the land. Again, there is an emphasis on not eating or drinking the blood. Whole medieval blood accusations have always been so ironic since Jews are so specifically prohibited over and over from eating or drinking blood in any way. Chapter 13 is a warning against worshiping other gods. One must be ready to kill even closest family members if they suggest that you worship other gods. That seems a very rigid a position. If a town goes astray and worships other gods that town must be burned completely too. At least God is giving a warning about this. I guess God doesn’t believe in religious freedom. Also the whole kosher rule of separating meat and dairy is from the verse “do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” How does that apply to chickens? Why can’t we have chicken with milk?
I’m leaving tomorrow for the conference and I’m strangely not nervous about flying, as I usually am. Maybe because the flight is only two hours and I need to grade a bunch of papers so I have plenty to do. Also I got “Miracle on the Hudson” book in the library yesterday, which recounts the January 15th landing on the Hudson river after birds took out both engines. The book is based on the passenger interviews and it is really a fascinating look at how different people react to a really scary situation. The book is detailed and I have hard time putting it down. The book is actually making me feel better about flying, which is a bit weird.
Jon Stewart’s mockery of panels that speculate on election results was very very funny.
Deuteronomy WTF moment of the day: chapters 11 to 15 have more laws, some are repetitive of Leviticus like laws about clean and unclean foods and only worshiping one God. Again there is reinforcement for following the commandments – God will bless us if we do and curse us if we don’t. This whole book, the people are on the border ready to cross the Jordan and God has to emphasize the laws needed in that land stalling the main event. All forty years of wanderings was actually training to see if they deserve the land. Again, there is an emphasis on not eating or drinking the blood. Whole medieval blood accusations have always been so ironic since Jews are so specifically prohibited over and over from eating or drinking blood in any way. Chapter 13 is a warning against worshiping other gods. One must be ready to kill even closest family members if they suggest that you worship other gods. That seems a very rigid a position. If a town goes astray and worships other gods that town must be burned completely too. At least God is giving a warning about this. I guess God doesn’t believe in religious freedom. Also the whole kosher rule of separating meat and dairy is from the verse “do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” How does that apply to chickens? Why can’t we have chicken with milk?
