Random Learnings #17
I occasionally go to the University of Minnesota's Wilson Library to view microfilms of old newspapers. Today, I was reading about Queen Victoria's death in January 1901 and stumbled across…
Random Learnings #16
I purchased The Traitors by Alan Moorehead during my last visit to the Strand Bookstore in early December. Originally published in 1952 and updated in 1963, the book is about…
Random Learnings #15
Spending a Saturday morning drinking tea and perusing the Britannica Book of the Year 1948 - physical not digital - I learned something new about Iran (which isn't saying much,…
Random Learnings #14
European sports list the home team first while US sports list the home team last. I knew that football did that, but didn't know it extended to other sports as…
Random Learnings #13
John L. Stoddard was a lecturer who published ten volumes of his lectures, one of which I found at The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles. The volume I purchased were…
Random Learnings #12
My wife and I attended a game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last Saturday. I've attended a handful of games over the years, it's an incredible venue: almost consistently…
Random Learnings #11
Did you know that a German, and therefore a European Union, enclave within Switzerland? Neither did I. It turns out that the Basel Badischer Banhof in Basel, Switzerland - just…
Random Learnings #10
I'm not British and therefore haven't really understood the details about Windrush immigrants, though it's been front-and-center in the news for both its 75th anniversary and the attempts by the…
My Six Degrees of Separation
The premise behind Six Degrees of Separation is that a connection between any two people exists through six or fewer social connections. Though originally from a 1929 short story, it…
Random Learnings #9
Yesterday (July 28, 2023), a threatening storm went through Central Iowa. The storm had everything: winds, lightening, ominous clouds, rain potential, and storm warnings. Coralville was hosting fifty thousand RAGBRAI…