This is a very helpful guide to the American grading system which I am linking here for future reference. (When is the next Hebrew quiz?)

Warning: this link is only for teaching staff. Students (particularly those of a nervous or gullible disposition) should not click. You have been warned.

HT: Digital Brandon!

Why is it that the BBC website (and thus its radio player) is down today? Just when I need it most in the background, keeping me going.

I seem to have lost any ability I ever had to construct coherent sentences. Right now I feel like I know everything there is to be known about Philo's interpretive principles and methods, but can I write an essay about it? Apparently not. Can I write a series of incoherent ramblings with notes? Oh yes. Do I have examples to illustrate my points? Of course. Can I be bothered to transfer those examples into the essay? Not right now. Footnotes? Who wants footnotes? Or page numbers?

Who was it who said that writing was easy? All you have to do is sit in front of a typewriter and open a vein. Can't remember, can't be bothered to check.

And once this one's done (hollow laugh) just two more, and all those reading books still staring at me every time I go to my desk. And in two months time, it'll all have to be done somehow.

ETA Posh new BBC Radio website and radio player - that's what all the problems have been about. Seems to be working now though. Hooray.

At least it was sunny today. And warm. Almost like summer.

Today is (if you're American) 3/14.

Some clever chap has therefore decreed that today is Pi-day. No eating involved in this celebration sadly, though I think it would be appropriate to bake and eat circular pies of all kinds.

Here's what the official website says:

Pi, Greek letter, is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is approximately 22/7 and is usually calculated to 3 digits, 3.14. With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. The symbol for pi, , was first used in 1737 by William Jones, but was popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.

If you don't want to learn all(!) the digits, you can also celebrate 'Approximation to Pi day' on July 22nd. You work it out.