Congratulations ...

Emory University announces its choice of a new provost, historian Earl Lewis of the University of Michigan. Lewis is currently vice provost of academic affairs and dean of the graduate school at Michigan. (Trading personnel between Emory and Michigan has become so common that rumors hold an underground railroad runs between Atlanta and Ann Arbor.) Without a regular senior academic officer for three years, Emory has high hopes for strong leadership from Lewis. He joins fellow historians Alan Brinkley at Columbia and Jon Butler at Yale in recent appointments to senior administrative positions at their universities. I started to say something about"old historians never die, they just fade away into administration", but that's not quite right.

The National Book Circle Critics Awards were handed out in New York on Thursday evening. They went to two of my favorite candidates. Edward P. Jones's The Known World took the prize in fiction; and Paul Hendrickson's Sons of Mississippi won for non-fiction.

Liberty & Power's David Beito hasn't sent me a cigar yet, but he's a new grandfather. One of his former students, Reid McKee, did some guestblogging over at L & P. Now, McKee has launched his own new group blog, Moteworthy. Check it out.

Finally, this personal note: I've been out of the classroom for a couple of years and had almost forgotten how draining it is. Two hour-long workshops yesterday with CoreKnowledge K-12 teachers and I was thoroughly wiped out. So, here's a tip of the hat to the multi-tasking Cliopatriarchs (and other academic bloggers, too) who advise, blog, committee-serve, publish, teach, and hold administrators at bay all at once.