As this #stampoftheday odyssey continues, I've learned that there are different types of days. Yesterday, I wrote about how it's sometimes challenging to find anything to write about. Other times, …
Be well. Stay safe. Fight for justice.
Work for peace.
In April of 2020, not long after the COVID-19 pandemic began, I had an inexplicable urge to dig into my late father’s stamp collection, which had been sitting unexamined on my shelves since about 2012. I created a challenge for myself: each day find a stamp that was somehow connected to that day, write a short blurb about it, and post it on Facebook with a picture of the stamp. I thought I’d do that for a few weeks. But the pandemic continued and what started as short blurbs became a year of daily essays that not only discussed historic events, famous people, and obscure Americana but also recounted personal and family stories and examined how these decades-old stamps shed light on a host contemporary challenges. Thanks to my daughter Rebecca, every one of those 365 essays – from the early succinct ones to the later rambling ones – are collected on this website, where you can view them by date, by broad category, or by whether they were my “personal favorites.” I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Historical Figures & Events
Delving into the people and events that shaped history
Culture & Society
Exploring Americana artifacts and other obscure areas of US history
Contemporary Issues
Discussing the pandemic, 2020 politics, and other recent happenings
Personal & Family Lore
Recounting stories from my childhood, “adulthood,” and family’s history
Featured Essays
Author favorites
Oddly enough, today's #stampoftheday, which features flora from four different parts of the US, captures a thought I had in the shower last night, not long after I posted yesterday's …
Maybe it's something in the water or perhaps it's the famous fog but San Francisco, apparently, has a thing for name changes. One hundred and seventy four years ago today, the …
Somewhat amazingly, today's stamp celebrates one of the most shameful episodes in American history. The 3-cent stamp issued on October 15, 1948 says "Indian Centennial" followed by a list of …
A 5-cent stamp picturing Ulysses S. Grant that was issued on June 11, 1895 "should" be today's #stampoftheday. But since Grant was the subject of the May 28 #stampoftheday I'm …
A bizarre and troubling stamp honoring the group behind many controversial monuments honoring the leaders of the Confederacy is today's #stampoftheday. Issued in 1951, the 3-cent stamp commemorates the final reunion …