Stamp of the Day

What do Robert Louis Stevenson, Sally Rand's Nude Ranch, monkeys racing tiny automobiles, Diego Rivera, and Indiana Jones, all have in common? The answer is that they are all connected to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, which opened on February 18, 1939 on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The start of that event was …

In the 1970s, when people travelled and airlines served something resembling real food, my mother decided that the silverware used by Braniff Airlines looked almost exactly like her silverware at home. So when she had a choice, she flew Braniff (which stopped flying in 1982). And when she "deplaned," Braniff silverware from her meal and …

John Glenn, the first American (and third person) to orbit the earth, wasn't my favorite astronaut in the mid 1960s. That honor belonged to the lesser known Wally Schirra, who was the fifth American and ninth person to orbit the earth. And that's why the gerbil I accidentally killed was named Wally, not John. Glenn and …

Although I'm 63 and not yet eligible for the COVID vaccine, I've been watching as people I know have started getting the vaccine. The roll-out, of course, hasn't been handled well and even if it were, the demand is much greater than the current supply. So, like many others, I am waiting and hoping, not …

Drive into many towns in America and you'll see familiar sight: a gold and blue circular sign that says, "Rotary International." While I've seen these for years, I confess I don't know much about Rotary International. I have a vague sense that Rotary's local clubs have been a mainstay of local town life, a place where …

In 1949, my father received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Cooper Union. Seventy years later, we found his lab reports and tests in the boxes of papers, photos, and ephemera that we had put in storage in 2013. To be clear: this meant that my parents had taken those papers with them on six …

The third wave of the great 1918-1919 influenza pandemic peaked early in March of 1919. Although the third wave wasn't as deadly as the apocalyptic second wave in mid 1918, it was much deadlier than the first wave, and hit particularly hard in several major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Memphis, Nashville, San Francisco …

Before there were Google Maps, before there was MapQuest, there was something my daughters called "GrannieQuest." GrannieQuest was a remarkable, personalized navigation service. If you were driving somewhere, you would call my mother and ask for directions. You would quickly get accurate, detailed directions (told from memory) even if it had been years since my mother …

"In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost," is one of many lines that Dante Alighieri wrote in the 14th century that seem totally appropriate for March 2021. It's appropriate for me today, because I spent the day on Zoom doing exactly …