“I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious,” George C. Marshall said at the start of a short remarks, given at Harvard’s commencement in 1947. After laying out the dire situation in Europe, Marshall, a former general then serving as US Secretary of State, discussed the broad outlines of a massive […]
Mr. We Could Use a Man Like Geoge Marshall Again Read More »
“A History of Ranching,” Buck Winn’s largest painting, is a 280-foot-long mural commissioned in 1950 that hung for decades in the “Corral Room,” at Pearl Beer’s brewery in San Antonio. At the time, it was the world’s longest mural. His smallest painting was the basis for today’s #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp, issued on December 29,
Pearl Beer, A History of Ranching, and a Texas-Sized Tale Read More »
Growing up, Shea Stadium was almost a religious shrine for me. Little did I know, that the really important – and still quite timey—shrine was less than two miles away. My feelings about Shea were so strong that I would get excited when we went past it as we drove from our home in New
Shea Stadium Wasn’t the Only Shrine in Queens Read More »
In 1962, when the U.S. Post Office Department released a jingle to go with its first ever Christmas stamp. Set to the tune of Jingle Bells, it went: “Christmas stamps, Christmas stamps, making our debut We’ll brighten up your Christmas cards, and speed them onto you. Don’t delay, mail today, it’s later than you think.
Why Are There Christmas Stamps? Read More »
“From a distance the world looks blue and green And the snow-capped mountains white.” I don’t know if the iconic picture of “Earthrise” taken from Apollo 8 on December 24, 1968 inspired Julie Gold to write “From a Distance” in 1985. But, I always think of that image when I hear it. From a distance
Seeing the Earth as It Truly Is 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 »
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 »
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 »