Where have I been? I've been asking myself the same question. Too many projects, taxes, and a very long fellowship application. Not a spare second to breathe.

I believe that no blogger should go on hiatus without an announcement to that effect. I have committed this gravest of sins, and I resolve to sin no more, so I am announcing that entries will be spotty at best until the last week in March.

There are scads of books to talk about, too. The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Deadly Plague of All Time by John Kelly is on my must-read list. I would buy it, but Jonathan Yardley's review says that it's a popular, rather than a scholarly history, a distinction that makes me nervous. (To get to Yardley's review, google "Great Mortality" and search for the washingtonpost URL. That way you won't have to complete a form.) How dumbed down is it? He gave it a good review, so maybe there's hope. I adore reading anything that connects history with epidemiology.