7 Quick Takes Vol. 28

I'm linking up with Jen Fulweiler for 7 Quick Takes once again this week.

1. I've spent the past two weeks getting over strep throat, so there has been much laziness on the couch in sweatpants. The Southern Baron proved once again that Louisianans make excellent husbands by cooking me gumbo and gallantly fetching me all the seltzer my feverish heart desired.
   
2. The one upside to being sick is that it gave me lots of time to catch up on online television like Ken Burn's new documentary The Roosevelts. It has a mellow vibe but is also fascinating, with lots of Aaron Copeland piano in the background. I learned all kinds of new facts, like how Teddy lost both his mother and his first wife on the same day, and how FDR wrote Hitler in the 1930s saying "Hey, here's a list of countries I'd really rather you didn't invade." Hitler's response was "Can you believe this idiot?"
   Thanks to cable TV, there are a lot of mediocre history shows out there that just recycle the same re-enactment footage and try to hook you at commercial breaks with salacious teasers. I was most impressed with how much detail and effort went into Burns' work. He features hundreds of archival photos, historic video clips, and shots of different Roosevelt homes. There's a reason he's the king of documentaries. If you missed the broadcasts, there's still time to marathon all 14 hours of it this weekend before PBS takes the videos down!
   
3. To make things even nerdier, my household has gotten addicted to all the brain training game apps out there. The free versions all give you access to only a selection of games, but they mix up the roster daily so you never get bored. Lumosity is the elder statesman of the bunch, with a web counterpart. I really like Peak, which has basically the same puzzle games as Lumosity, plus a few more. It also gives you four games a day rather than just two. and they seem to be more difficult. And then there's Elevate, which favors practical skills over brain teasers. It pairs story-like animation with challenges of skills like listening, reading comprehension, and discount calculation. Basically if you wish you could do SAT problems on your phone while making a cartoon ship sail across the ocean, this is the app for you.
   
4. This time last year we were new kids in our town and didn't know a soul. Now we have suddenly found ourselves deep into volunteering at our parish down the street. He's on the pastoral council, I lector and lead the fledgling Young Adult group. Oh, and we also agreed to take over the Advent Giving Tree. I have to admit, after years of parish-hopping and being commitment-phobic, it's nice to feel useful.
   
5. At the parish picnic last weekend, we got caught up chatting with a Polish seminarian and were the last people to leave. Then we found ourselves at the priests' afterparty on the rectory deck, listening to some man's stories about being in the air force in the 70s. I guess we're in now! As Time Hawkins would say, "Start stackin' chairs."
   
   
   
   
6. This recent Slate article about the insanity and uncertainty of the academic hiring process is some real talk that needed to be shared with the world. Please, for the love of Thomas Aquinas, do not EVER suggest that a grad student should send their resume to an ivy league school or ask where they are going to raise their future kids. They already know they made a terrible life choice by buying into a broken pyramid scheme.
   
7. On a happier note, this week kicks off our month of Three Weddings and Conference. First stop: a mini reunion with my housemates from my Vincentian volunteer year. Niagara Falls, here we come!

Fun Museum Finds

Summer's winding down, but I can't bear to think about long sleeves yet. It's been too much fun hanging out in the sunshine and taking road trips to new museums. Before we pack away the sundresses and sandals for good, here are some fun images of outdoor festivity that I've seen recently. 

To start off, here are two paintings from the series Apollo and the Muses at the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

Erato, the muse of Lyric Poetry on the left, is basically Taylor Swift's spirit animal. She's all billows and curls, sitting in a romantic grove with Cupid while she literally writes with one of his arrows. I imagine this is how Swift's Wall Street Journal article was also composed. "[People] are buying only the [albums] that hit them like an arrow through the heart ... and I'd also want a nice garden."

Meanwhile check out the epic side eye Clio, the muse of History is giving her. "Are you serious girl? I'm over here writing about wars and plagues and fallen empires, and you're sitting under a billowing canopy? I hope the Persians get you with a spear." The two paintings really are displayed like this, with Apollo between them.

I'm not exactly sure what the artist Charles Meynier meant here. Clio's expression is pretty hilarious - but hey wait, is he saying female scholars are all ice cold? Does he think history is just dust and monuments? I do like the suggestion that maxi dresses and serious business can go together, though. 

Speaking of summer fashions, lest you think flower crowns are a new trend, check out this etching from the print collection of Washington's Headquarters in Morristown, NJ. George Washington is entering Trenton victorious after  crossing the Delaware River to defeat the British. The city's daughters have turned out for the parade in their best music festival apparel. 

George Washington also spent some time in Brooklyn, although he wasn't as successful there. NYC wasn't quite as built up back in the 1770s, as you can see in this 18th century map from Morristown. I love the little soldiers marching along the palisades.

See Charles Meynier, even military history isn't completely humorless.