The annual general meeting of the whole Society for Biblical Literature (and for ASOR, ETS, and the Biblical Archaeology Society, not to mention the IBR which is the Institute for Biblical Research) was held last week through this Tuesday with the usual screaming hordes of people attending (usually 5,000 or more).  My time involved giving three lectures, two of which have been published on this website— one for the BAS, one for the IBR, and one for the SBL.  There was in addition the usual schmoozing and wining and dining  (also whining and dining for those who were severely critiqued), and on this occasion Fox News showed up to do so taping as well for a spring show hosted by Lauren Green (formerly of Fox and Friends).  Her passion is God and meaningful dialogue about God and history. Below is a picture of me and Jim Charlesworth and BAR’s Sarah Yeomans with  Lauren and her producer Clay.
 

Stay tuned for more info on that spring show.  There was also the annual fun breakfast with the John Wesley Fellows.  Here are a couple of shots of them, taken by yours truly, which is why I am not in the shot….

In this shot you see Richard Hays in the middle on the right, and on the left from left to right, Joy Moore, Michael Cartwright, Brent Laytham, and Tom Holsinger-Friesen.

You may recognize Warren Smith in the back on the right and Sue Nicholson from Malone at the head of the table.

On the right in this shot you have Duane Watson, Ross Wagner of Princeton, and closest to the camera Joel Lemon of Emory/Candler and on the left Katie Heflefinger and at the end Dan Hawk from Ashland.   There are over 100 John Wesley Fellows at this juncture, the vast majority with PhDs and teaching somewhere.

Atlanta was also a time for some fun, so I decided with the few hours I had off to go find Nemo at the new Atlanta aquarium and visit that icon of all pop culture— the World of Coke. Here are some pics…..

Seeing all that seafood made me hungry, so we went to the classic Atlanta 50s ‘hop’ restaurant,   the Varsity, where they serve no seafood, and no health food either 🙂 I had a chili cheese dog with cole slaw and a a cili burger with onion rings— the best!  
 

Of course all that 50s food also required a visit to the Sambuca club where we had dinner and heard doo wop—- the Platters, the Drifters, the Coasters…. you get the picture.   Here I am with my friends from Turkey and Tutku tours and from BAR—-
 

Oh yeah, I forgot there were a bunch a lectures, and I had a bunch of meetings with publishers about new books.   More in another post.