Somehow, in the midst of all the current craziness, I missed the fact that today – December 21, 2020 – is the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts. As someone who grew up hearing lots about the Pilgrims – and of course being someone who lives in greater Boston – that seems […]
What We Get Wrong About the Pilgrims Read More »
If, like me, you played too much Monopoly when you were young, you already know the man pictured on today’s #stampoftheday because Andrew W. Mellon supposedly was the model for the white-mustached man in a black top hat and tails who is an integral part of the game’s logo. A banker, industrialists, art collector, and
Playing Monopoly with Andrew W. Mellon Read More »
“Electricity! Yeah, you can all thank me,” Ben Franklin would have sung in “Hamilton” if his song hadn’t been cut. As a result, we don’t associate Franklin with a song whose lyrics included, “Do you know who the f-k I am? I am “I am Poor-Richard’s-Almanack-writing Benjamin “f-king” Franklin.” Instead, we still think of him
I Am “Benjamin F—king Franklin” Read More »
What do I “want” to say about New Jersey? And what “should” I say about the “Garden State.” I ask, in part, because on December 18, 1787 New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, which I mark with today’s #stampoftheday, a 5-cent stamp, issued in Jun 1964 to commemorate the 300th
What Is New Jersey’s State Song? Read More »
We’ve all been there. Asked to say meaningful and appropriate remarks at some important occasion, we blow it. Maybe we went on too long. Maybe we said something we shouldn’t have. Maybe we were expressing some unresolved anger. Or maybe we were deliberately expressing our hostility. If it’s any solace, Mark Twain has been there
Mark Twain Lays an Egg Read More »
From badly needed toilet paper to much desired outdoor heaters, many households have been relying on a variety of services to deliver the items they need, or think they need, during this year of the pandemic. The services are so ubiquitous that it’s easy to overlook the fact that the U.S. Post Office Department only
Don’t Overlook the Parcel Post Read More »
For obvious reasons, the 5-cent stamp honoring “Amateur Radio” that is today’s #stampoftheday made me think of the “Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map,” an amazing website curated by David Goren, my talented brother-in-law. An award-winning radio engineer, Goren has been tracking these stations since the mid-1990s. In July 2018, he launched the sound map, which
The Pirate Radio Stations of Brooklyn Read More »
Consider the following, which appeared in the December 14, 1952 edition of the Sunday New York Times: “Philatelists, an impatient species in the hobby world, are prone to consider attention to their demands as one of their own special human rights.” So wrote Kent Stiles, who from 1937 until his death in 1961 wrote a
The UN Learns that Philatelists Are Impatient Read More »
“What does labor want,” asked Samuel Gomers, who is pictured on today’s #stampoftheday. “We want more school houses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more constant work and less crime; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate
Samuel Gompers Asked “What Does Labor Want?” Read More »
Poor John Jay. He’s an important founding father. But he’s often overlooked or forgotten. And today he’s displaced by poinsettias, the Christmas season’s ubiquitous potted plants. You see, today’s #stampoftheday was going to be a 15-cent stamp, issued on December 12, 1958 that pictured Jay, who was born on December 12, 1745. I would have
Poinsettias Displace John Jay Read More »