I haven’t thought about Jean Shepherd for a long time. But there was a time – I think it was when I was in junior high school – when, like many adolescent boys in metro New York, I couldn’t get enough of him. You may know Shephard are the voiceover of and inspiration for the […]
Jean Shepherd, Who I Loved, Was From Indiana Read More »
“I know all about refugees,” Sesame Street’s Grover tells “Deputy Secretary Tony Blinken from the State Department,” in a marvelous, now-viral video made in 2016. (Google it if you haven’ seen it!) “You do?” asks Blinken, who President-elect Joe Biden will nominate to be the next US Secretary of State. “Of course I do,” Grover
Tony Blinken, Sesame Street, and the Plight of Refugees Read More »
Sometimes a thin stamp contains layers of meaning. Today’s #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp issued on December 9. 1948 that pictures Joel Chandler Harris, is one of those stamps. Before I started writing this post, I didn’t know who Harris was. But it turns out I am indirectly familiar with his work because Harris, who was
What Should We Make of Uncle Remus? Read More »
Like most people of my generation, I learned that Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin (and who is featured on today’s #stampoftheday, was one of America’s “Great Men.” What I didn’t understand or know then is that Whitney’s legacy is, to say the least, mixed. Whitney, who was born on December 8, 1765, was
Eli Whitney’s Star is Dimming Read More »
“Isn’t it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years.” This striking observation comes from “Oh Pioneers,” a 1913 novel
Don’t Ignore Willa Cather Read More »
WWJFDD? That is, what would John Foster Dulles do? That question occurred to me as I thought about today’s #stampoftheday (number 232 if you’re counting) – a 4-cent stamp picturing Dulles that was issued on December 6, 1960. In many ways, Dulles now is a largely forgotten figure. But in the mid-20th century, he was
What Would John Foster Dulles Do Today? Read More »
When you are travelling in Ecuador, there’s no good reason to read Carl Hiaasen’s “Stormy Weather,” a dark and humorous novel that, like all his books partially takes place in the Everglades, which are the subject of today’s #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp issued on December 5, 1947. But that’s what I did in 2011 (back
The Neverending Fight to Preserve the Everglades Read More »
About 15 years ago, while driving on a highway just north of Palm Beach, I asked Ed Glaeser, the noted urban economist, if we were in that mythical place economists call “the featureless plane.” I thought it was funny; I don’t recall if Ed was amused, annoyed, or indifferent. That story came to mind as
Father Jacques Marquette and the Featureless Plain Read More »
Although I hadn’t heard of Ephriam McDowell before today, in turns out that I might owe my life to him. It also turns out that I can learn a lot from him as well. For others who also had never heard of him, McDowell was a surgeon in the late 1700s and early 1800s who
Ephraim McDowell’s Seven Lessons for Surgeons Read More »
I’m a longtime member of the intramural softball team fielded by Tufts University’s Art History Department. But, as anyone who knows me can attest, I do not have a strong sense of design. This is salient because today’s #stampoftheday was the first US stamp to feature an abstract piece of art. A 5-cent stamp honoring
The Power of Design Read More »