Over the course of this almost year-long #stampoftheday odyssey, I've learned some delightful trivia, unearthed some amazing stories, and become more educated about stamps and the wonderfully odd world of stamp collecting. But what's made it especially interesting, entertaining (to me), and worth continuing are the many ways that these daily stamps have given me …
Topic: Historical Figures & Events
Delving into the people and events that shaped history
About a week ago, I got a cryptic message on Facebook's Messenger app from Ed Symkus, a longtime arts journalist who had been a colleague in the 1980s when I worked at The Tab. "I've recently been searching through stuff I've accumulated, giving it away, and making room for new stuff," he wrote. "I just found …
"It is a sobering thought," Tom Lehrer famously said, "that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years." Lehrer's line, which I've loved and quoted for years, came to mind in the course of developing today's #stampoftheday post, which marks the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Warm Springs, Georgia on …
What, if anything, should be done with the Jefferson Memorial? Or, for that matter what should be done with any one of the hundreds, probably thousands, of schools and other buildings named after Jefferson, including the elementary school in Summit, New Jersey where my mother taught for over two decades. That's the #stampoftheday question brought on by …
Look closely at the image on today's #stampoftheday. When you do, try not to read the words but just focus on the image, which portrays three women dancing with their hands clasped together. And then, using just the image as your guide, try to figure out what the stamp is supposed to honor. You may recognize …
Over the past year, I've added stamps portraying Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Karl Marx to the many, many knickknacks on three small shelves in my basement office. The stamps - which collectively are today's penultimate #stampoftheday offering—have joined a diverse array of objects that include (in no particular order) a wooden birdhouse my mother …