Summer Intensives Begin

Today I begin teaching my "Patriarchal Convention and Conviction in Greek and Roman Antiquity" course at Berkeley. Tomorrow "What Is Compelling: Argumentation, Reconciliation, Obligation" begins. These are summer intensives, packing a semester's worth of material in a six week span. Teaching one is a bit bonkers, but two simultaneously is terrorizing. I've been doing these for two decades now, and I have taught many versions of each of these specific courses as well (this is my fourth summer in a row teaching the Greek/Roman course, the eighth time I've taught the argument and violence course). Today's lecture is short and introductory, but still packs a wallop, and by tomorrow we will already be diving deep into the Iliad and Gorgias' "Encomium," so summer intensive is apt as can be. As usual new class jitters gave me a fitful night's sleep last night, and so I begin feeling a bit tired -- an exhaustion that will almost certainly dog me till I hand in final grades over the July fourth holiday. Don't quite know yet how this will affect blogging this year. Sometimes I shut down, sometimes teaching is a spur. We'll see.