Random Learnings #31
Unlike Woodrow Wilson, a Princeton professor with a PhD in political science, Truman had no abstract theories about the office. (In fact, he was the last occupant of the White…
Random Learnings #30
I have read many - too many - books, articles, scholarly papers, etc., about the anti-Semitism faced by Holocaust survivors faced returning home, especially in Eastern Europe. By a large…
Random Learnings #29
The last Shah of Iran, Shah Reza Pahlavi, was a huge Rangers fan: The diplomats pressed for yet more royal visits, ideally with the shah comping to Britain again. The…
Random Learnings #28
Bring sunblock to a solar event. My wife and I went to Carbondale, IL to see the 2024 solar eclipse at Southern Illinois University. Our very first eclipse, so we…
Random Learnings #27
My wife and I ate at Brasa this evening and saw this on the menu: How refreshing to see a restaurant actually treat their employees like .... um ... employees?…
Random Learnings #12 FOLLOWUP
Original post: https://scottsosna.com/2023/09/26/random-learnings-12/ According to this nytimes.com article, (paywall, a different free version here) a bill may be introduced in California's state assembly to give reparations to families of people…
Random Learnings #26
In the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, the first two rounds are hosted by top-four regional seeds. Though not guaranteed, the home court advantage does increase teams' chances of making it…
Random Learnings #25
I recently finished reading Ken Follett's Edge of Eternity, Book Three of The Century Trilogy - I read the first two books, Fall of Giants and Winter of the World,…
Random Learnings #24
I'm currently reading War and Peace in Soviet Diplomacy by T. A. (Timothy Andrew) Taracouzio, which discusses the Soviet Union's diplomatic efforts to survive from its founding in 1917 through…
Random Learnings #23
From the review of the book Socialism vs Capitalism by Boris L. Brasol in the New York Times, Sunday, November 21, 1920: ...Mr. Brasol wrote under fear that Bolshevism was…