Gap Week, November 28, 2025 (Thanksgiving)

Hey folks! This week is Thanksgiving in the United States and I’ve opted to take advantage of the break in teaching to focus down on getting some chapter revisions done, so we’ll be back to hoplites next week.

In the meantime, if you are looking for things to read or watch, I have a few suggestions.

First, as always, there is a new Pasts Imperfect (with mummies!) which always features a great classics roundup.

There’s also another video with Roel Konijnendijk reviewing depictions of ancient Greek warfare in popular culture, in this case taking a crack at some scenes in AC: Odyssey. And I’m glad he is doing that because I assume it is delaying the 57-post long bluesky thread he is inevitably going to write about everything I am getting wrong about hoplites.

Finally, if instead you want a bit of inside higher education grumbling, I ran across this older Angela Collier video on adjuncts and the nature of adjuncting which – while depressing – is accurate and worth watching. We ought to demand that our public higher education be better than this: students deserve teachers who have the time and resources to properly prepare classes and instructors deserve salaries they can live on and finally the public deserves real scholar-researcher-teachers for their money, not overworked, underpaid adjuncts (so the money can go to upper-level administrators or football coaches instead).

In any case, I hope everyone who celebrates had a Happy Thanksgiving and we’ll be back next week with more hoplites!