Friday Odds & Sods Endures - In Enduring, Grows Strong

A thousand thousand greetings once again,  amici mei. Although it hardly seems possible, this Friday finds us with the year two-thirds complete, and judging by the weather at least, thoroughly well done. I hope that 2015 has been a happy and productive time for all of you thus far, or if not, at least reasonably tolerable. Let us close our another chapter of the rolling year with a look at this week's Odds and Sods! 

• If university Comp Lit departments got a dollar for every article published on the theme of "whither the humanities" then they would be, if not completely solvent, at least able to open a few new hiring lines. Still, one supposes it keeps adjuncts busy and out of trouble, and noteworthy examples of the genre should be recognized. On that hand, one article that has both good and bad in it, and one that is just ugly. 
• I have tried to avoid direct comment on the increasingly turgid soap opera that is our democracy, but the fact that Donald Trump has a more than zero chance of being our next president forces my hand. In that spirit, a writer reviews the collected writings of the Donald and the psychosexual ugliness of the Republican primary 
• As a palette cleanser after this distasteful business, a well-written review of of a Victorian writer who deserves more attention