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…
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…
Unique Hotel
My wife and I visited Iowa City, Iowa last week to attend a University of Iowa women's basketball game, a rather bad loss to Minnesota. Our hotel was Graduate by…
Random Learnings #67
If we know anything about National Socialism, it's that for the first time in German politics human stupidity has been successfully and completely mobilized. -Kurt Schumacher, SPD member of Weimar…