What has happened since the first Comparative Literature hires were made in Arabic over the last few decades?

This post could also be called: Walter Benjamin in the Age of Me Noodling Around with Small Data.

The internet was out on campus today, almost the entire day.  No email, not web surfing.  Many routine tasks could not be accomplished.  It's the next to the last week of a long semester.  In the lunch room the colleagues were in a feisty mood.

Thanks to the curious rhythms of the quarter system, it’s finally now back to school here at the University of California at Santa Cruz. We’ll be marking it -- faculty, staff, and students -- with a walkout on Thursday, September 24 to protest the budget cuts that have so battered this institution and others throughout California.