So... I have just returned from the national conference and my mad interview gauntlet (8 job interviews in two days, running about in a short skirt and perilously high heels in the slushy Cocytus that was Chicago* between Christmas and New Year's Eve, barely emerging from the professional frenzy for long enough to eat), and am now trying to get the last of my grading from the fall semester done. But I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and say that I can't wait till I am back to a more bloggy, book-devouring, film-rampaging state. In the meantime, I am going to (try to) keep an annotated list of books, films and plays I see/hear/read on the blog, so that I am not completely absent (see below for my first entry).

I hope everyone is having and has had a wonderful holiday!

*Actually Chicago looked lovely. On the last day I was there, snow fell in the most picturesque manner, with flakes as big as a fingernail. In fact, it fell so quickly, abundantly, and windily that, for the first time in my life I discovered how shocked an eyeball is when a fingernail-sized piece of fluffy ice falls directly into it. (It was my first winter in New Haven that I made a similar discovery - snow, beautiful as it may be, can hurt like %&$* if it falls hard enough.)