Recently, we here at “Quid Plura?” headquarters have had too little time for medievalism. As Charlemagne wrote to Alcuin after Elipandus of Toledo dabbled in heresy, “these are the days when you wish your bed was already made.” So here to offset the manic start of your week are decidedly non-medieval links.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports on the endurance of the city’s foremost vendors (and ertstwhile employer of Ignatius Reilly), Lucky Dogs. “The Lucky Dogs crew has between them a half-dozen Ph.D.’s,” the article claims, “and about as many felony charges.”

University Diaries describes what it’s like to live in the house where Ferdinand the Bull was born.

At Work in Progress, guest blogger Sara Dobie discusses how publishing a book isn’t the end of the author’s work, but just the beginning.

My friend at Ephemeral in New York shows you old-timey drinking fountains, Bay Ridge a century ago, and one massive christening gown.

Eternally Cool finds the residents of Pompeii demanding McDonald’s.

Quizzing readers on a new citizenship test, Der Spiegel asks, “Are you smart enough to be German?”

Richard Wright was best known for his books about race relations, but did you know that during the last 18 months of his life, he composed more than 4,000 haiku?