Glühbier, Jólöl, and Ale Brewing Viking Women

Christmas is here! As I type this I am thinking of all the things I should be doing to get ready for the holiday. But ehh procrastination is a particularly well-honed skill of mine, cultivated during the many years of my PhD, and I like to fancy myself somewhat of an expert in, as Shit Academics Say, ‘preloading guilt contingent motivation’. So I was feeling particularly ambitious this year and decided to try my hand at making Glühbier, or mulled beer. It’s meant to be delicious, it’s a new project, and better yet, it is absolutely zero help in doing any of the things I should be doing. It was, in a word, perfect.

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Witchcraft, Alewives, and Economics

I was finishing up a two week holiday in Bergen, Norway, when I decided to spend my last day checking out some of the historical sites in the city. The first on my list was Rosenkrantz tower, an imposing, largely Early Modern, but originally medieval, structure and one of a series of buildings on Bergenhus Fortress premises. The tours themselves were self-guided and this made me slightly nervous as I know that these older structures can be very confusing and its easy to get turned around. Especially with my exceedingly impressive penchant for getting lost in the simplest of locations. I had managed, just a week or so previous, to completely lose myself in the London Tube (Bank Station is now my sworn enemy).

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