"Everyone," Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously s said, "is entitled to his own opinion." "But, he added, "they are not entitled to their own facts." Moynihan's words are particularly appropriate in the current …
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
As I write this #stampoftheday, I'm sitting on a screened-in porch watching it rain on a lake in Maine and I'm remembering a long-ago trip that I believe was my …
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 …
Believe it or not, chicken is the focus of today's #stampoftheday, which is a posting I've been looking forward to since I first saw this stamp in my late father's …
While today's #stampoftheday honors a decision made in 1898, it also connects directly the inflammatory tweets about fair housing made by Donald Trump earlier this week. The stamp itself, is a …
Seminal political debates featuring two of the country's most skilled orators delivered provocative, reasoned and (occasionally) morally elevated arguments on issues that were tearing the country apart are the focus …