"I must also acknowledge a more immediate inspiration. Over the years, many people have pleaded with me to commit to paper my thoughts.... Indeed, the words "Why don't you write a book about it?," uttered in an admittedly wide variety of tones and inflections, have come to possess something of the quality of a mantra..." John Lanchester, _A Debt to Pleasure_
Much the same might be said about my thoughts and blogging. Perhaps, like the narrator of _A Debt to Pleasure_, many of the requests that I start my own blog have been born not of a desire to read the resulting blog, but more the desire to avoid having to wade through my facebook posts, comments on other people's blogs, and the like. If so, so be it.
So, here it is. A blog. I don't expect to post often. I haven't enabled comments. I don't really expect anyone to read this. But if you do, having been directed here by one of my aforementioned facebook posts or comments, I hope you find this blog interesting.
Much of what I intend to write here will *not* be original in any real sense. I'm egotistical enough to think that I occasionally do write things that are, in some vague sense, original. That's not what this is for. Most of what I write here will be reflections on other people's research, and many of those reflections will have been put better -- more crisply, more concisely, with more humor, more accurately, etc. -- in other places before. So be it. See above.
You want to link to something here? Go for it. You want to quote it? Sure. Cite me, if it isn't too much trouble. You want to make use of stuff I've cited? Go for it. If you think, on reflection, that I deserve some credit for compiling the stuff you are citing, by all means, cite me. If you think, on reflection, that anyone with access to Google could have compiled those cites in about 2 minutes, and you just happened upon them here first, I won't be insulted if you bypass me. Indeed, since I don't have comments enabled, and have no intention of following up anything here, I'm gonna be a bit hard to insult in any event.
So, er, welcome!
