The Columbus Day edition of Bob Edward’s show featured one of my favorite historians, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. I know him only from his magisterial “Civilisations”, one of the most entertaining, provocative and, to me, convincing works of history I’ve read in a very long time.

His talk with the Bob was ridiculously entertaining, confirming everything I’d suspected about the man from reading his book. When I described it to Herself she suggested he might have a blog, something I instinctively disbelieved, and sure enough there is no evidence of such a thing. After some googling though I found that he’d been here in Georgia just this year and had been arrested for jaywalking, roughed up by Atlanta’s finest and tossed in the tank for his sins.

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/34426.html

I wish I’d known this, I would have ridden to the rescue with relish. It is possible that he got more entertainment out of his cellmates than he would have from having a history nerd bail him out so perhaps its all for the best. How typical of This Modern World (TM) that such a thinker would be treated this way.