a bit of planning, a bundle of self-promotion

[bronze_ribbons]

Oh, golly. I am definitely going to preach on Joseph Priestley next month, in part because his birthday falls on March 13 (the day after my pulpit date) and in main because there isn't a single book in my public library about him. And it's a good library. That's not right.

On the other side of the coin, Interlibrary Library Loan just landed a book on African Americans in Iowa I'd wanted to get my mitts on. (I'm writing an article on Gertrude Rush -- the first black woman to practice law in Iowa -- and there's precious little in mainstream print about her. Any of you legal scholars have suggestions...? Side notes: first woman to practice law in the US was Arabella Mansfield, admitted to the Iowa bar in 1869. First female African American attorney was Charlotte E. Ray (admitted April 23, 1872, DC). Rush passed her bar exam in 1918.)

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Reasons for you to consider participating in the Strange Horizons Readers' Choice Awards:

(1) If you vote, you'll be entered in a drawing for an Amazon or Booksense gift certificate.


(2) My poem Some Houseguests Can't Be Helped is on the ballot. Bruce Boston disliked it, joannemerriam (to whom it is dedicated) loved it...

(3) My favorite of Joanne's poems is "Settler's Song" -- which differs from her own assessment of the lot, but what fun would this be if we agreed? ;-)

(4) Lots of other talented people on the list, including fairmer, douglain, jlundberg, matociquala, and, and, and... You have until March 17 to peruse their work.

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BlueGreen Planet will featuring some of my work on e-cards in the near future, and marrael's looking for various kinds of volunteer help as well as submissions of short poetry and prose. Check it out...

Comments

[xanthophyllippa.livejournal.com]

Yup, history of science. Of course, now everyone on the web will know Who I Am...or, well...probably not. :^)

Sounds like a really cool idea re: homily. It's especially interesting because the "other side" of Priestley isn't as well told in undergrad classes, I don't think. They do the the oxygen thing as a priority dispute with Lavoisier and then sort of vaguely mention that Priestley was run out of England for supposedly fomenting anti-trinitarian rebellion and just move on. My first encounter with him was in a class taught by a UU prof ("The only thing that characterizes Unitarians is that nothing characterizes Unitarians," quoth she) who found that side of the story just as interesting, if not more so.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

I really ought to know more about these things and people than I do, given how nifty they are. FWIW, I spent way too much time yesterday trying to remember Thomas Kuhn's name: a dorm-mate who majored in HiPSS at Chicago had to read Structures of Scientific Revolutions so often that another friend bestowed upon him a fresh copy of it at Christmas as a gag gift.

[xanthophyllippa.livejournal.com]

I kind of feel the same way about Leviathan and the Air-Pump. What, I have to read this AGAIN?!