Thinking Bloggers

Here I am enduring my four-hour layover in Kansas City, Missouri. I have to say, KCI is a pretty crap airport, but for one thing: free wifi! May other airports follow its wireless example (but not its inane security arrangements). To avoid finishing next semester's syllabi, an activity that constitutes real work, I am catching up on old emails and doing a little blogging.

Awhile back, Professor Grimsley, the War Historian, tagged me with a Thinking Blogger Award.

Here are the rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,


2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,


3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote. (We'll see how this goes; KCI has wifi but it is slower than molasses going uphill in January and I think clicking the "upload image" button might cause the network to suffer an apoplectic breakdown.)

Without further ado, here are my five nominations (a nice mix of academic and non-academic bloggers)

1. Redneck Mother ("Raising Children, Lettuce, and Hell in Texas"). Redneck Mother lives in the town I grew up in, so her remarks on aspects of Texas local politics give me a warm, homey feeling (accompanied by disgust). Redneck Mother also comments upon home-schooling and sustainable living. It's good stuff--check it out!


2. Elle, ABD, now Elle, PhD ("Ruminations and Revelations of One Southern Historian"). I'm known for having complained, frequently, of the difficulties history grad students face--Elle is not only an accomplished Houston-based student but also a single mom. Hats off to Elle, and Congratulations on finishing that dissertation!


3. Little Professor ("Things Victorian and Academic"). I would add to her subtitle: "and things truly hilarious." Check out her version of CSI. I've actually taken to muttering "Foucault you" under my breath when annoyed (most recently at the TSA in Denver--that's another post for another time).


4. Chapati Mystery ("What is the Vertiginous Chapati Saying to Me?"). Manan is a rabid baseball fan and one of my treasured academic drinking buddies. We're on a panel together at the AHA (see below). And, his blog is a window into South Asian history for the initiated and uninitiated alike.


5. And, New Kid on the Hallway. One of my favorite medievalists on the web, her recent academic adventures make great reading. Way to pull through, NK!

This is by no means a comprehensive list; it merely proves to me that I have got to update my links. Maybe sometime in this summer...but oh no! My summer is already all planned up....onward and upward with the Amazing Mr. Book!