I'm interested in things that are big, complicated, expensive, important, and, for most people, most of the time, really boring, until and unless they don't work well or fail entirely. Today's #stampoftheday offering - 3 and 8 cent stamps issued by the United Nations Postal Administration on February 8, 1955 - speak to that interest because …
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Although I know it's not true, I believe the word "hassle" comes from the man who founded what became the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has often been "hassled" (and worse) for its work on climate change. Here's why I want this all to be true. NOAA traces its history back to multiple agencies, …
In May 1977 about 2,000 protestors, some of them people I knew, occupied the site of an under-construction nuclear power plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire. Six months later, when the United Nations issued two stamps honoring the 20th anniversary of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the New York Times dryly noted, "...the United Nations is again …
In 1975, like many in the cast, I grew a beard for our high school's production of "Fiddler on the Roof." (I played the rabbi.) Except a few brief interludes in the late 70s, I've had a beard ever since. Beards change the way people look, and, presumably how they are perceived. That's dramatically illustrated by …
For about two decades, maybe longer, we've ended our Passover Seder by singing "Amazing Grace." It's always late and we're full - of food, spirit, love, and hope, and other good things. Obviously not a traditional Jewish song, its message of hope and redemption resonates in way that makes it the perfect ending for the …
Like many people interested in urban and environmental issues, I have long been interested been interested in Oregon's long history of progressive populism. And like many people who have looked up to Oregon's lead in those areas, I've been puzzled and concerned by the fact that the state also has been - and continues to …
I have no idea why a stamp honoring "American Sokol," an obscure gymnastics organization was the popular stamp issued in 1965. But I do know that Sokol has a pretty interesting history. In 1965, stamp collectors sent more than 12.5 million separate items - mainly special envelopes - to the different post offices around the country …
In September 2009, not long after Senator Ted Kennedy had died, 91-year old Senator Robert Byrd, who had been quite ill, spoke on the Senate floor about his late colleague. "Not very ago, I picked up a book of poetry which Ted Kennedy had given to me in July 1996," said the ailing Byrd, who had …
"Baker shut up. Able isn't who you think he is," was the "punchline" of one of the few stories my father would tell about being a soldier in World War II. (Or at least that's how I remember the story). When he was 19, my father was the radioman in a mobile reconnaissance unit from the …