In the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016, when I regularly showered Harvard’s Hemenway Gymnasium after biking to work, I thought surprisingly often about Senator Ted Cruz, who graduated from Harvard Law School, which surrounds three side of the gym. For some reason, I was obsessed by the thought that Cruz, a particularly distasteful […]

Do kids still learn about Betsy Ross and the first American flag? When I was a kid, I learned that Betsy Ross, a woman in Philadelphia, made the first American flag. I don’t recall learning how she came to have that job or how we knew that she carried it out. I just knew it

“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

“You got to be able to laugh at the Gadsden Purchase. It’s what life is all about.” So said Mike DiCenzo, a longtime writer for Jimmy Fallon, who played an audience member in a delightful bit that aired in March 2009. “Look at all the comedic possibilities,” DiCenzo added. “You’ve got [President] Franklin Pierce. Hello?

“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

The great American philosopher Kenny Rogers once sang: “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em Know when to fold ’em Know when to walk away And know when to run. …If you’re going to play the game, boy You gotta learn to play it right. Our current president clearly doesn’t know it’s time to

Where have you gone…James Oglethorpe? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo, woo, woo Those aren’t the lyrics but they are timely because the eyes of the nation are focused on the U.S. Senate races in Georgia, which was founded as a Utopian scheme by Oglethorpe, an 18th century social reformer who is

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

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

“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