Grew up in Boston and came out here for graduate school.

I'm essentially a bear in a suit. Who's terribly clumsy. Think Marcus Brody from Indiana Jones.

I'm currently writing a lot--a dissertation, various articles, a textbook. It seems that to get ahead in my field I need to say new and interesting things about ancient texts, while finding new and interesting ways to say that other people who also work on those texts are stupid.

To prevent myself from going crazy and getting too caught up in books, I've found someone willing to publish my rantings about Boston sports on the side.

I also teach, which can be an enterprise alternately exhilarating and soul-crushing. I would like to get a nice job at a small liberal arts college or something. More likely I'll be teaching high school in 5 years.

Then again, since I find myself increasing my outspoken ranting about political BS on twitter and facebook, I'll probably get fired soon.

Cooking and baking--more the former.

Research--at least they're still paying me to do it

I also tend to retain really mundane trivia very easily. Unfortunately this tends to edge out other things. So I can, for example, tell you everyone who was on the 2004 Boston Red Sox. On the other hand I can no longer read ancient Greek.

I'm a bigger, sometimes rather clumsy guy (I get a little more grace each year). I have what I would like to think is a certain sartorial flair. And when I start talking you can certainly tell where I'm from.

It seems more and more that I have to read scholarship. But in my freer moments I enjoy crime fiction, especially the mysteries of Robert Parker, Dennis Lehane and Ed McBain. I also enjoy Dante, Chaucer, various Greek and Latin authors, Shakespeare, Nabokov, Tolkien, Martin.

Music: U2 and Bruce Springsteen are tops. Then there's Zeppelin, Phoenix, the Stones, Arcade Fire, Bowie, the National, random opera and classical, BRMC, MGMT, Twilight Singers, and too many more to name. And Neil Diamond.

Movies: Wes Anderson, Chris Nolan, Scorsese, Pixar, In the Loop, David Fincher, Gladiator

TV: Battlestar, Fringe, the Wire, Rome, The Thick of It, Law and Order, Law and Order: UK, 30 Rock, The Soup, Archer, The Sopranos, The Shield, Justified, Rescue Me, Lost

Music (Ipod or whatever. I need my soundtrack!)
Books
Friends
Family
Good Beer
Good food

Language and how it affects our perceptions and relationships, often without notice.

Politics, even though it frustrates me and often depresses me.

Wishing I knew more philosophy than just a few dialogues of Plato. Also wishing I was more than just a humanist-manque.

Out with friends at a bar or studying.

Is not for a dating profile