Madly busy

... so just a couple of quick offerings:

Since Alexander the Great keeps popping up, I'll note an interesting website, "Beyond Renault", which looks at fictional representations of him after you-know-who. (Hat-tip to The Little Professor.)

And since I'm in this part of the world, I have to mention a fascinating post on Rhine River about Catalhoyuk, the famous Neolithic settlement in Turkey. It suggests the village/town was not a place you'd want to spend your holidays.

On a feminist note, Picturing Women "explores how women are figured, fashioned, turned into portraits, and told about in words and pictorial narrative". The online version of a gallery show, it has some fearfully vicious images - check out particularly the caricatures. Some can be sent as e-postcards. (Hat-tip to Scribbling Woman.)

Finally, some advice from Mark Twain: "Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years the candidate may look upon his circumstances with the most implicit confidence as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for." (From the Freelance daily newsletter)