Squeezing The Empire

PROGRESS REPORT FOR 2/7 AND 2/9/12

New Words: 3900 (2400 / 1500) on Chapter 2 ("The Entrada") of Arizona. Coronado returns to Mexico City in failure; eventually the King of Spain abdicates and Spain declares bankruptcy; Fray Augusto is not welcome back at the pueblos; but Vasco at last gets himself a small farm with an unforeseen fringe benefit.

Chapter 3 will cover the mid-17th to early 18th centuries.

Total Words: 89400, including -400 after chopping out some from what I wrote on the 6th.

Reason(s) For Stopping: Getting ready for work / Finished the chapter.

Book Years: Primarily 1542-49, though at the very end I reference events all the way up to 1588.

Mammalian Assistance: Vegas was atop his boxes; Hayes and Nugget scoped the room out briefly. / None.

Exercise: Tucker walks; walking down to campus.

Stimulants: Dr. Pepper, which tasted a bit off since it followed eating some Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies / None.

Today's Opening Passage(s):

Tuesday: Vasco returned to the city often, though only when business could not be avoided. It was not that he despised the city as so many of his comrades on Captain General Coronado’s failed expedition had come to, but it was a reminder, although not in the same way as for them. For them it was almost a mockery, the memory of a golden promise held out and then snatched away, taking hopes and fortunes with it. For Vasco, it was simply unfamiliar now, a place where he had once been stupidly young, ungrateful, and unaware of the real treasures he possessed.

Today: Vasco had, eventually, gotten an encomienda—though not from his service to the expedition. No one found any kind of reward for that.

Darling Du Jour: Nothing really jumps out at me. Tuesday's section was almost like a play, recounting Vasco's testimony in the Coronado investigation, while today's was mostly wrap-up.

Submissions Sent Out In January: 1.

Total Submissions Sent Out Right Now: 3, not including anything that's been out for a year or more.

Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: dancinghorse.

New Author Discovery: Scottish historical novelist Nigel Tranter. Up until three days ago I'd managed somehow to not hear of him; two days ago an almost complete collection of his novels went up on the library's free shelf, books donated by an alumnus but which we couldn't add to the collection. I've snagged about a dozen of them already, the ones set in the Middle Ages.

Laurie And I Have An Art Heretic Moment

Today in the campus cafeteria there were two British performing artists whose heads were covered in bread--slices stuck together somehow--and who were struggling slowly to find each other. Before finding out what was going on there were various reactions to this:

What I Wanted To Do

Photograph one of them and post the picture online with the caption "I'm wearing bread on my head. Your argument is invalid."

What Laurie Wanted To Do:

Take them down to the campus pond and watch the hungry ducks chase them.

What A Nearby Student Actually Did:

Yell "Marco! Polo!"

(Actually I did enjoy watching it once I knew what was going on, and the instant karma for my wicked thought was that I had to get to work before seeing how it ended.)