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. We'll put them through …
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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 Jersey …
"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, 1945 …
"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 aid …
My family moved to Summit, New Jersey in the summer of 1963. Six years later, Summit, celebrated the 100th anniversary of its incorporation as a separate township. Today's #stampoftheday, which isn't a stamp, marks that celebration with a special envelope that was cancelled by the post office in Summit on January 1, 1969. While the logo …
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 Republic …
Today, when violent right-wing fascists have attacked the US Capital, I find it heartening to see that on January 6, 1941, at a time when the Nazis and other fascists controlled most of Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used his State of the Union address to make a full-throated defense of democracy and freedom. Given 11 …
I grew up singing many of Stephen Foster's well-known songs, particularly "Oh Susanna," "Camptown Races," and "Old Folks at Home" (aka "Swanee River"). But I don't remember ever thinking about (or being asked to think about) what I was singing, only that they were catchy and fun songs. But I digress and want to go back …
"Loom" is an often overused word. But it's the right word to describe how I remember the Pulaski Skyway, a three-plus mile elevated road that connects Jersey City and Newark and crosses the Hackensack Meadowlands. In my memory, we often drove underneath the looming skyway and through the Meadowlands, which, were full of signs of industrial …