The Night Of Time Far Surpasseth The Day

Sometimes, when you've got a few spare minutes, and you want to relax, well, you just want to do nothing. I don't mean have a nap. I mean remain conscious but veg out, not taxing mind or body, doing stuff which will not enrich you or the earth, something meaningless,  even useless. You understand, don't you? It happened to me at 2.25 pm yesterday, I suddenly had 35 minutes spare. Pay bills? No. Book the window cleaners? No. Tweet? No, no, no. I wanted to bludge.
So I took my birthday 16/02 and changed it to letters with each number corresponding to a letter of the alphabet in sequence and 0 becoming, er, O. I made a new word AFOB. I googled AFOB. True dinks, I kid you not. Amazingly, the first item that came up was the Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin from the Archaeological Institute of America. Wow. My favourite non-biological science discipline. Archaeology.
My eyes glazed as I immediately thought of Time Team, the most rivetting hour that you can spend in front of TV, and a favourite of mine. I mean the UK version, where this group of unkempt, grungy archaeologists wade through the British mud for three days to prove that Bronze Age man had a rubbish tip under this carpark. I'm sure their clothes were retrieved from an earlier dig. Tony Robinson, the host, runs around like a hobbit on heat exhorting the experts to explain what this different-coloured mud actually means. My favourite team member is Phil Harding, whose dialect is almost as abstruse as his persona. He greets a major find, such as a 3 mm piece of flint, with guffaws that would wake some of the skeletons he digs up.
There is a US version of Time Team. I've seen it. Not as good. It's sanitised, clean clothes, modern equipment, gleaming vehicles. No, the UK version is for me.
I checked the Archaeological Institute of America site thoroughly. Under the History tag, we learn that the first President was Charles Eliot Norton, elected in 1879. At the time he was Professor of History of Art at Harvard, and a true Renaissance Man - author, journalist, and, can you believe, in the early 20th Century he spoke out in favour of euthanasia. And, AND, he translated Dante's Divine Comedy. I only had time in my 35 minutes to read Volume 3 (Paradise), his translation is truly beautiful, you can catch it at Project Gutenberg.
When he was elected President of the Institute, Norton said in his speech: 'The night of time far surpasseth the day, and it is the task of archaeology to light up some of this long night with its torch, which burns ever with a clearer flame with each advancing step into the darkness'. He would be proud of Tony and Phil and the Team.
At home that evening, I recounted this adventure to my wife. I got the distinct impression she was less than impressed, it was something about her frown and the single raised eyebrow. But nevertheless I encourage you all, when you've got that spare few minutes, change your birthday into a word and google it, it's great fun, but don't tell them at home...