Odoacer was technically king of a Germanic group so insignificant I had to look it up—apparently the sources conflict, but the only one I had heard of are the Heruli. The Ostrogoths led by Theodoric later displaced Odoacer's kingdom, the Visgoths were most famously led by Alaric.

Absolutely, but I think that is sort of a cop out. The way I like to frame it is that there was wrenching change, and in the midst of that certain people and institutions struggled to maintain continuity, to greater or lesser success.

Pretty much what she said—one could nitpick it, but that isn't really fair and it is a great introduction.

"I am a professionally trained historian (BA History 93')"

Yep, and that is true for Empires in general, really. With the Ottomans, for example, Suleiman's right hand man was a Greek, after all, and probably the most important line of viziers (the Koprullu) were Albanian.

Well, "Dark Ages" is just such a terribly gauche term…but I study the economy and archaeology, so I tend to see more discontinuity than continuity. Brown focuses more on literature and culture, which mostly pushes towards the opposite.

Well, Britain was an unusual case, possibly because it sort of fell apart on its own before the Saxons came, possibly because the Saxons weren't "Romanized" in the same way the Goths, Vandals etc were. So the Roman administration and lifestyle was really wiped out there in a way it wasn't elsewhere. If you look at…

I haven't listened to it, but another grad student in my department listened to it with her boyfriend on a long car ride. She said it wasn't perfect, but no major complaints, and for the first time she was able to talk with him about Rome stuff.

Framing was his big, academic book, so it is about twice as long as Legacy and only covers 100 years. Brilliant and revolutionary but my goodness is it dense. I've only read a few parts so far.

And it didn't even last 100 years! It lasted 116!

You had to be there.

Funnily enough, I actually study ancient history academically. From my perspective on each section:

The reason, unfortunately, has more to do with ethnic cleansing than broad mindedness. An empire, to an extent, runs on the concept of subject peoples, but that still implies the appropriateness of their existence, just a few rungs down the social totem pole. A modern nation state, on the other hand, demands…

Oh, that makes sense. Still, it can match with my comment. In Star Trek the base relationship (Kirk goes to planet, gets with green skinned babe) is written to appeal to a heterosexual male viewer. Spock/Kirk is a way to use the characters in a way that appeals to a heterosexual female viewer.

So given that this is a thoroughly silly topic I thought I might give a serious response:

No matter how much of a dick he is, or how good the jokes are, this is still going to be a bunch of adults making fun of a teenager. Nobody is winning here.

Kurt Cobain didn't suffer nearly enough to satisfy my needs, I only listen to Burmese punk and Ethiopian rap because I too judge music based on whether it satisfies a childish game of sap story one-upmanship.

I too am deeply disappointed that this song appears in the AV Club feature "Obscure Songs You Haven't Heard". This sort of song belongs in, say, a theme week in which writers select break up songs they like to write about.

No? I mean, "Love Story", "You Belong with Me", "Our Song", "22"…I would go so far as to say a solid majority of her biggest songs are not about exes.

Now that is a vintage reference. Ages well.