Some crabby self-deprecatory humor...
 

...in First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/article/...horseshoe-crab

Fun dialogue, Michael! And serious as well of course...Congratulations!

I forgot to mention that this issue also has my long review of Emily Thornbury's fine book, Becoming a Poet in Anglo-Saxon England. At the urging of the editors, I included some humorous, but relevant, material about my struggles with Latin that began at the age of 11.

Some of you might be amused...

Oh, I would love to read that book but draw the line at paying one thousand kronor. Maybe it will be available as "a used copy" in a few years.

Perhaps in due time your essay will become available online. Or maybe I will shell out twenty kronor and buy it.

Thanks for the post, Michael. Enjoyed the poem, and ordered the book on interlibrary loan. There is a saying for your crab: "Change? Aren't things bad enough as they are?"

I'm sorry so many of these things are so expensive, but I post them mostly because some Eratoish people can access academic libraries.

This is delightful! And I know how the crab feels.

Very nice, Michael -- congrats! The first time I saw one of those shells (without knowing what it was), I freaked out. But this poem is a fitting tribute.

Nausheen

Fun poem, Mike, and I was amused by the first three paragraphs of your essay. I look forward to reading the rest when I am back at an academic library, though I am traveling at the moment.

Susan

I enjoyed the poem very much. Brought back memories of our family vacations at Cape May . . .:eek:

Congratulations for these. Both the poem and the article lead-in are fun reads. And true to life. Kids really do have a thing for horseshoe crab shells. And ablatives truly were invented for the sake of that rhyme:
Latin is a dead language
As dead as dead can be,
At first it killed the Romans
And now it's killing me!

Fine poem. There is a wonderful drawing of a horseshoe crab by Kipling somewhere. In 'Just-so Stories' perhaps.