Scary Times, Predicted
I'm still working my way through Fateful Hours: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic by Volker Ullrich, in which he gives a riveting account of Germany's inter-war history, from World…
Marching Band Nostalgia
The peaked in high school meme describes those whose personal popularity and successes post-high school pale in comparison to the best four years of my life. BMOC, stud athletes, cheerleaders…
Cold Weather Fountaining
Sunday my wife and I visited the Bryant Park Holiday Market on its last day for this year - food, jewelry, clothes, knick-knacks, the usual - but the operating fountain…
Meandering Thoughts #60
A few issues with this sign at the Empire State Building's 86th floor observation deck: Isn't an unlawful act by definition prohibited? Is climbing the fence or throwing objects and…
New York City Love Letter
Sunday, my wife and I introduced a Connecticut friend to the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. Of course, one must see the Rose Main…
Random Learning #65
From the book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris I learned the etymology of the term redlining: In his acclaimed 2017 book, The…
Oh What A Year: 1933
[Nothing like spending a Sunday reading undigitized, bound periodicals at your local university library...] Time Magazine began 1933 by declaring Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president-elect, as Man of the Year.…
BITE Model of Cults
In Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA, the author John Lisle describes the worldview and culture of the CIA that led to unstructured and…
The New Penny Normal
For decades, amusement parks, gardens, museums, zoos, boardwalks, and anywhere else offer - for a price - to commemorate your visit by embossing their logo or image onto a penny,…
Random Learnings #63
I happened upon this article in a 1949 issue of International Conciliation (sorry, didn't note which issue, the name of the article, the author): The North Atlantic Pact is a…