So tonight I was the presenter at the Colloquium for this year's graduating M.A. class -- I was there presenting my own thesis in a nutshell and taking questions about the content and the methodological approach and all of that good stuff.

One of the students asked me -- at the end, when everything was all done -- whether I played an instrument. Ok, that's an odd question, but yes. Do I play bass guitar?

...

Why, yes, I do -- now how in the hell did you guess that?

From the way I gesture, apparently.

Now who would ever have known that?

Two quick updates:

First, Nikolaustag (Saint Nick's Day) was yesterday, and jolly ol' Saint Nick dropped me off my very own copy of Meatloaf: Bat Out of Hell III. So far, I'm really enjoying it -- you can tell that this isn't (completely) a Steinman record, but most of the songs seem to hold up so far, Meat is giving it all he's got, and the over-the-top, melodramatic pomposity for which we all love Meatloaf is all, all over the place.

Second, how bitter do Giants fans have to be that Jason Schmidt went to the Dodgers? Marvelous!