Sometimes a fish is more than a fish. Consider, for example, what we can learn from the King Salmon featured on today's #stampoftheday. A 3-cent stamp issued on November 9, 1956, it was the third in a what turned out to be a 22-year series emphasizing the importance of wildlife conservation. Viewed from the lens …
Topic: Contemporary Issues
Discussing the pandemic, 2020 politics, and other recent happenings
Here's an implausible and oddly timely pitch for a Netflix mini-series. A Republican presidential candidate clearly loses he popular vote and appears to be on track to lose the electoral college. But his backers argue that the popular vote count in several key states nominally won by Democrats was badly flawed. They get their allies in …
In the midst of current trade disputes with—and heated pandemic fueled rhetoric about - China, it's easy to forget the strange long history of US relations with China. Today's #stampoftheday, a 4-cent stamp depicting Sun Yat-Sen issued on November 12, 1961, reminds me of that history, particularly America's more than two-decade long refusal to recognize …
On November 13, 1937, when today's #stampoftheday was issued, Alaska was a territory, not a state. The stamp, which pictures the mountain formerly known as Mt. McKinley, was part of a four-stamp series celebrating Alaska and three other US territories: Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Today, Alaska and Hawaii are states. About 732,000 …
On November 19, 1863, Edward Everett, one of America's great 19th century orators, gave a more than two-hour speech at the ceremony dedicating a new cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When he was done, President Abraham Lincoln, who had been asked by the event's organizers to give "a few appropriate remarks," stood up to speak. According to …
As the nation lurches towards a presidential transition, it seems oddly appropriate that today's #stampoftheday pictures a one-term, 19th century president, who, one of his obituaries contended, "possessed...none of the attributes of greatness." The president in question is Franklin Pierce, who was born on November 23, 1804 and served for one term, from 1853 to 1857. …
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 seminal figure, …
"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 replies. "They …
"What does labor want," asked Samuel Gomers, who is pictured on today's #stampoftheday. "We want more school houses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more constant work and less crime; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate …