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 […]
Saying Goodbye to Frederick, Susan, Karl and Abe Read More »
Look closely at the image on today’s #stampoftheday. When you do, try not to read the words but just focus on the image, which portrays three women dancing with their hands clasped together. And then, using just the image as your guide, try to figure out what the stamp is supposed to honor. You may
Botticelli and the Pan American Union Read More »
What, if anything, should be done with the Jefferson Memorial? Or, for that matter what should be done with any one of the hundreds, probably thousands, of schools and other buildings named after Jefferson, including the elementary school in Summit, New Jersey where my mother taught for over two decades. That’s the #stampoftheday question brought
What Should We Do with the Jefferson Memorial? Read More »
“It is a sobering thought,” Tom Lehrer famously said, “that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.” Lehrer’s line, which I’ve loved and quoted for years, came to mind in the course of developing today’s #stampoftheday post, which marks the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Warm Springs, Georgia
It’s Sobering to Think That When FDR Was My Age… Read More »
About a week ago, I got a cryptic message on Facebook’s Messenger app from Ed Symkus, a longtime arts journalist who had been a colleague in the 1980s when I worked at The Tab. “I’ve recently been searching through stuff I’ve accumulated, giving it away, and making room for new stuff,” he wrote. “I just
Ed Symkus Gives Me a Prized Pulitzer Read More »
Over the course of this almost year-long #stampoftheday odyssey, I’ve learned some delightful trivia, unearthed some amazing stories, and become more educated about stamps and the wonderfully odd world of stamp collecting. But what’s made it especially interesting, entertaining (to me), and worth continuing are the many ways that these daily stamps have given me
Great Talent and Bad Behaivor: Ruminating on Frank Lloyd Wright Read More »
“Moral force can be a bulwark against aggression and that it is possible to make aggressive forces yield without resorting to power,” said Gunnar Jahn, chairman of the Nobel Committee, at the December 1957 ceremony honoring Lester Pearson, who is still the only Canadian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Pearson, then Canada’s secretary of
Waging Peace: A Timely Lesson from Lester Pearson Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) is far from perfect. Nevertheless, it’s still worth paying attention to what its head said today. “While we have all undoubtedly been impacted by the pandemic, the poorest and most marginalized have been hit hardest – both in terms of lives and livelihoods lost,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a biologist,
The WHO’s Accomplishments and Unfilled Potential Read More »
I have been looking forward to writing about Booker T. Washington, who was born on April 5, 1856. But it seems especially timely to be writing about him today. In some ways, Washington, who founded the Tuskegee Institute and was the dominant Black political leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s, has been on
Getting Past the Myths and Sterotypes of Booker T. Washington Read More »
When we moved to Lexington in 1996, I knew that Patriots’ Day, the annual celebration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, was a big deal. After all, I had been living in the Boston area for 16 years. But, it turns out, I had no idea what a big deal it was in Lexington,
The Night Lexington’s Reenactment Taught Me About Fear and Danger Read More »