Remember Steven Hoch, the Russian historian who left the University of Kentucky to become the Provost at Washington State University, had a fight with WSU's vice president for business and finance, and agreed to step down as Provost to a teaching position at $245,000? Now, he has been re-assigned to teach at WSU's branch campus at Richland, Washington. Would you say he's being encouraged to move on? Anyone want to offer him $245 grand a year to teach? Hat tip.

Our colleague, Rachel Loew's"bookporn #36: asian civilizations museum, singapore," a historian's craft, 8 November, features an extraordinary 15th century Ottoman Turkish scroll. In tiny, hair script, within its large script prayer, is the entire Qu'ran.

Zakintosh's"Zore hua kis par?" Windmills of My Mind, 11 November, sees a misreading by emphasis in most recounts of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Joe Stephens,"The FBI's 15-Year Campaign To Ferret Out Norman Mailer," Washington Post, 11 November, looks at the Bureau's file on Norman Mailer. We paid agents to collect these banalities!

Rob MacDougall's remarkable"American for a Day," Old is the New New, 5 November, was widely acknowledged on the net, from Crooked Timber and Daily Kos to HNN and Metafilter. Rob's"I Have Until January 20," Old is the New New, 10 November, has a symposium of comparable responses to the election, including those by Manan Ahmed and Rachel Leow. Contrarily, Marc Comtois's"Obama Already Among the Best," Spinning Clio, 9 November, thinks that Historians for Obama have locked themselves in as court historians. That's only if Obama retains or appoints any Republicans to his cabinet or doesn't insist that Joe Lieberman be barred from the Senate Democratic caucus, of course.