Lesser Feasts

One of my better covers Blessed John Duns Scotus, OFM, died (according to tradition) on 8 November 1308, so today is his feast day, for anyone inclined to celebrate. I actually started writing about Scotus entirely because someone else suggested the idea to me. That's not a particularly respectable reason to start working on a historical figure (my reason for working on Anselm is even less respectable; I'll get to that at some point), but the interest quickly became quite sincere, and Scotus has taken over my life and then relinquished it in waves ever since. I currently owe OUP the definitive (ha!) book on Scotus's ethics. Yeah, well, I owe lots of people lots of things. ***** I spent last weekend at home in Tampa. It was not a successful visit, since I spent the whole time suffering, and then recovering, from a stomach bug. I did lose 3.5 pounds over the weekend, but not, I suspect, in the way my trainer was encouraging. Our dog, Tess, is not particularly cuddly. She like...

The view from my balcony at the Hôtel D'Orsay  Normally I prepare for travel abroad. In the whirlwind of new faculty orientation and settling into my apartment and my new office, I just didn't this time around. I even managed to schedule an "onboarding" (I hate that word) call for my website redesign for Saturday morning, when I should have been getting properly ready. My packing consists of shoving back into my suitcase whatever I had taken out of it over the previous three days. (Conveniently, settling into my apartment did not include unpacking.) As soon as the call is over, I head for the airport. At some point I get a message from the place I'm supposed to be staying. If my French serves me correctly, they are telling me that for health reasons, they are no longer supplying bath towels. Google Translate informs me that my French is indeed serving me correctly. I'm not quite sure how you can advertise a place as "tout équipé" and then take away t...

  Orientation begins on Wednesday at 8 am, so I have no excuse not to be at Morning Prayer at 7:30. The rector officiates. He is Scottish. I worry that when we have lunch in a couple of weeks, I will alarm him by my enthusiasm for all things Scottish. For now, though, I'm just delighted to have been invited to celebrate at the occasional midweek Eucharist and participate in their very robust adult formation program. ***** The first speaker at orientation is the Vice President for Mission and Ministry, a Jesuit. He talks about Jesuit values, about Ignatian spirituality, and it's all very lovely. It will become clear to me over these two days that the university really does take its Jesuit identity seriously. ***** That's my first we're-not-in-Kansas-anymore moment. My second is when the provost speaks to us. My former provost was noteworthy for his ability to speak at indefinite length while conveying no information of any kind. My new provost is the opposite: clear, str...

Tess It's been three months since I last posted. The blog rather slipped my mind, actually. Things have been busy, and today I felt the need to get some things "on paper" before getting back to my spring break tasks, which consist largely of getting caught up to where I should have been last week. Or last month, more like it. Anyway, the big news is that in January we welcomed a dog into our home. The shelter had given her the name Sweet Caroline. Her foster dad felt that that wasn't her name and tried Care Bear instead. We settled pretty quickly on Tess (we're a very Victorian-novel sort of household), and she recognized it as her name within a day or two. We were told she's an American Staffordshire Terrier and Australian Cattle Dog mix--we're awaiting DNA testing to confirm that--and about three years old. She's sweet, relaxed, nonreactive, and affectionate, and I am utterly smitten with her. In the meantime, I had work to do on two search committee...