England Expects That Every Man Will do His Duty

Two hundred years ago today, Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon's fleet at Cape Trafalgar, off the south coast of Spain. In doing so, he lost his own life (rather unnecessarily, some might say). If you want to know all about it, try the BBC's excellent site. The important point is, by dying in the line of duty during a pivotal engagement in the Napoleonic Wars, Nelson became nothing short of a demigod in the eyes of the British. The core of Central London became Trafalgar Square, decorated by an excessively large column with a statue of the admiral on top. Even today, Nelson is eclipsed only by Winston Churchill in the British pantheon. As such, I'd expected today to be a bit more momentous than it was. I had hoped to be able to report back about all the pomp and ceremony surrounding the Trafalgar bicentennial, thinking that surely as important a port as Bristol would have some sort of commemoration. London certainly did, as did the naval yards at Portsmouth, but you hardly would have known today was such a major anniversary from looking at Bristol. Ah, well. Perhaps the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot next month will be more exciting.
I faced my own challenges today. They were perhaps not as daunting as the French and Spanish fleets, but I am glad to report I emerged a great deal more unscathed than the late admiral. Actually, the delivery of my ichnology essay and my fossil bird presentation went off without a major hitch, as far as I can tell. I will get the grades back sometime next week, I'm led to believe, so I'll know more then. For now, I'm happy with the results. Of course, it was really just an instance of out of the frying pan, into the fire, because I now have a new presentation to work on. It's for "Global Change" and focuses on that most contentious of extinctions, the Ice Age disappearance of large mammals (and, to be fair, some large birds). It's not for four weeks yet, but I better start reading soon, as it's a subject I'm not nearly as well versed on as I should be. I finally got some time to kick back and have a drink this evening at the departmental "Happy Hour." It was a nice way to end what has been an unexpectedly hectic week and to prepare for what should be an excellent weekend talking about dinosaurs in a science museum.