Every time I find myself staring at a blank page I picture a faceless person asking why I don't just use ChatGPT and then I picture myself replying "fuck you, I can find my own damn words" and I start to type.

Papers delivered! Now one more day to hang out in Lyon before heading off to Cyprus

Congratulations! We are excited to see the results of your work!

-- Agatha Christie Mallowan in her memoir "Come, Tell Me How You Live," on packing for excavation with her husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan.

“Any room in your suitcases?’’ Long experience should have warned me to answer firmly “No,” but I hesitate, and immediately doom falls upon me. “If you could just get in one or two things-” “Not books?” Max looks faintly surprised and says: “Of course books— what else?”

Max is getting into the rhythms of the household