Pamela Constable,"Afghanistan, Sharing Its Treasures," Washington Post, 21 December, previews"Afghanistan's Lost Treasures," an exhibit opening in May at the National Gallery of Art in DC. National Geographic has the story on their recovery. For a look at some of the spectacular artifacts, see the slide show.

Matthew Cobb,"Buffon, the Enlightenment sensation," TLS, 19 December, reviews Stéphane Schmitt and Cédric Crémière, eds., Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, Oeuvres and Schmitt and Crémière, eds., Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, Oeuvres Completes, I Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy – Tome I (1749)."The finest pen of his age," says Cobb,"a giant of natural history, geometry and art, Buffon deserves to be restored." Hat tip to Morgan Meis at 3 Quarks Daily and David Mazella at The Long Eighteenth.

Joseph Ellis,"What Would George Do?" Washington Post, 23 December, suggests how his own expertise on George Washington and the Founding Fathers has affected his thinking about the situation in Iraq. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.

Tony Perrottet,"Quick, Jeeves, Cover the Piano Legs," Smart Set, nd, argues that the Brits and the Americans have thought each other quaintly prudish about – oh, uno -- the s_x word. Hat tip.

Edward Rothstein,"A Rabbi of His Time, With a Charisma That Transcends It," NYT, 24 December, is an essay after reading Edward K. Kaplan's Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972. This is the second of Kaplan's two volume Heschel biography. There's a terrific vignette at the beginning of Rothstein's essay about Heschel's experience at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March. He was, undoubtedly, a major figure, but I think Rothstein's claim that"no modern Jewish thinker has had as profound an effect on other faiths as Heschel has" is mistaken. That honor, it seems to me, still goes to Martin Buber.

Finally, thanks to Kevin Levin's Civil War Memory for naming Cliopatria the best blog in its Best of 2007 competition. Stay tuned for the announcement the winners of The Cliopatria Awards, 2007 (for which Cliopatria is ineligible) on or about 5 January.