APA in Seattle

From December 27 through January 7, Ron and I visited Daniel in Austin and then went on to Seattle for the annual American Philological Association meeting. We had a fine time in Austin--saw Daniel's new digs and met his third cat (actually a neighborhood cat who hangs around with Daniel's two--Daniel calls him Third Wheel), saw more movies than we usually see in any three months together, and had a very nice dinner at the home of Daniel's friend and co-worker Steve, who has an astounding art collection. Austin has many terrific restaurants, and it seems like we're always going to new ones. New Year's Eve was quiet, dinner with Daniel and then an hour watching HBO in our own hotel room. Daniel introduced us to a number of television series, Network, which I rather liked, and Breaking Bad. Brief review of the latter: the cinematography of the pilot was impressive, but neither of us cared that much about the main character to watch the rest of the series. (Since then, I've gotten into Homeland, also a show with "flawed protagonists," to use the technical term, but much more appealing ones.) On to the APA. Right off the plane we ran into Mike and Laura Lippman, a sign that I was going to see a lot of U of A people, chiefly archaeologists. Also had excellent get-togethers with Chris van den Berg, Susanna Braund, and Daniel Kiss. I had expected that Ron would drive down to Centralia to stay with his cousin Jim and wife Myrna while I attended the meeting by myself, but it turned out that they were not in town. The weather was chilly and wet, so Ron spent most of the time in the hotel--one brief excursion outside triggered his rheumatism. Luckily, the Sheraton in Seattle has one of the city's best restaurants, the Daily Grill. We had more than one dinner there and enjoyed them greatly. The Vergilian Society Board of Trustees meeting was upbeat, reflecting the organization's newfound prosperity and hopes for the future. The Friday sessions began with a highly enjoyable WCC breakfast and open meeting. The Vergilian Society general meeting and reception were also warm and welcoming. There were a number of very exciting panels, including the WCC panel on "Sexual Labor in the Ancient World". I was so impressed by Sarah Levin-Richardson's "Archaeology of Social Relationships in Pompeii's Brothel" that I immediately afterward nominated it for the Barbara McManus Award. Fittingly, the very last panel I attended, on Sunday afternoon, was one on "Catullan Identities," where I heard a paper by Leah Kronenberg, one of the students in my Catullus course at U Texas in 1991 and now a tenured associate professor at Rutgers. Little did I foresee that a quarter-century later I would be looking back on her work with such pleasure. For the CAMP Staged Reading, Mary Kay Gamel again produced her "Alcestis," with changes that reflected the input she received at F&C VI (Admetus and Phares were not reconciled at the end). I always go to APA meetings dreading what might happen--not recognizing someone I should know, embarrassing all around, or feeling completely isolated for three days straight--and yet I usually leave thinking that I've had a great time. APA meetings are not as intense any more as they were when all my friends were newly minted assistant professors scrabbling for jobs and tenure, but their good moments are highly satisfactory ones.