Letter Writing and Digital History
Mom wrote a letter to Grandmother when I was nine months old, thanking her for baby clothes. [Gotta love the AIR MAIL: despite the trials and tribulations of the United…
Homecoming Buttons
My grandfather attended Northwestern University before being drafted during World War II (for which I am eternally grateful, as he met my grandmother while stationed in New Mexico and therefore…
Book Review #4
Jill Eicher's book Mellon vs. Churchill: The Untold Story of Treasury Titans At War tells the post-World War I battles between the United States and its allies - primarily the…
Security Through Stupidity
Nostalgia and happenstance had me visit my former high school in Miles, Iowa to watch a girls' high school basketball game. Much had changed since I last visited 10+ years…
Ghosts of Radio Shack
After its 2015 and 2017 Chapter 11 bankruptcies and the sale of its intellectual property in November 2020, Radio Shack today is strictly an online retailer. Innumerable articles attempt to…
CVE by License Plate
Unlikely the car itself represents a real CVE but my curiosity got the best of me: what are 905 CVEs? Let's query and find out! There are 26 distinct CVEs…
Family History #1
My grandfather was an intelligent man, always looking for something to keep himself engaged in the world, to keep his brain nimble. While living in his retirement community, he told…
Art Linkletter Gym Dandy Surrey
Fall 1967, 2½ year-old me playing outside at my grandparents' house in Westport, CT. In the background, the family Volkswagen Bug that transported us from our Manhattan apartment. I'm sitting…
The World At My Birth
I was born March 1, 1965, so let's see what made the New York Times the following day, March 2, 1965: Australia Punishes Dawn Fraser For Capers as Olympic Swimmer…
Random Learnings #69
Growing up in Iowa, all I knew of Kossuth County was its unusual size: essentially double the size of other counties in the state, it's the reason Iowa has 99…