On April 18, 2020, I wrote a short, paragraph-long Facebook post that started: “though I’ve had them for years, it’s only in the last year that I started to look at my late father’s stamp collection.” I explained I was posting two images of first-day covers. One from April 18, 1958 with a stamp picturing […]

Over the past year, I’ve added stamps portraying Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Karl Marx to the many, many knickknacks on three small shelves in my basement office. The stamps – which collectively are today’s penultimate #stampoftheday offering—have joined a diverse array of objects that include (in no particular order) a wooden birdhouse my

About a year and a half ago, when I first started going through my late father’s stamp collection, I was delighted to find a 3-cent stamp, issued in 1957, honoring the 100th anniversary of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). I originally planned to make it the #stampoftheday on February 23, the anniversary of the

My father never said this specifically, but I’m sure he’d agree that, in general, when faced with a choice between live chickens and deceased white men, it’s best to go with the poultry. That was the “choice” I had when deciding what to write about today. One option was to write about a stamp, issued

It is fitting that the American Chemical Society (ACS) comes to the fore as my #stampoftheday “project” (obsession?) is coming to a close. For chemistry, in general, and the ACS, specifically, were incredibly important parts of my father’s life. It’s odd then, that his sometimes meticulous stamp albums doesn’t include today’s #stampoftheday. A 3-cent stamp

“The Goldberg Variations” That’s what Nisa, my amazing sister-in-law said has been helping her through the past, difficult several months. It wasn’t a random comment. Every Passover, over dinner, we go around the table (or the screen) and give each person an opportunity to talk about freedom and/or their narrow place, if they choose. Nisa

Did Frances Elizabeth Willard, the long-time president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), ever go to a Seder? If she went, did she follow tradition and drink four glasses of amazingly sweet Kosher wine? Or did she follow WCTU’s dictates and, as many people do, drink four glasses of grape juice instead? I ask

I spent the better portion of today cooking and trying to remember to think about freedom. I was cooking – and trying to think about freedom – because Passover starts tonight and it really is a Passover like no other. While we’re doing something very low key tonight with our daughters, tomorrow we’re hosting a

Since early Tuesday morning when I got an appointment get a vaccine at 6 pm tonight, I’ve known that today was going to be meaningful. , Getting the shot would be meaningful enough, of course. But just to add a meaningful cherry on top, tonight is the night I was going to say Kaddish at

To a man with a post office, every problem looks like a stamp. At least that seems to be the thinking behind today’s #stampoftheday, a 4-cent stamp issued in 1961l. Unlike most stamps, it doesn’t picture a person or a place. Instead prominently features seven of the most famous words in American history: “Give me