While the United Kingdom was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, its Royal Navy had the bad habit of impressing United States citizens from vessels it encountered. So Congress threatened war. Not wanting to wage war on another front, Parliament agreed to concessions. Communications across the Atlantic being rather slow in those days, news of the … Continue reading Battle of Queenston Heights
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Due to pressure over many years from people of Italian descent, in 1968 Lyndon Johnson signed legislation to make Columbus Day a federal holiday effective in 1971. The traditional date for Columbus Day was October 12, but in order to keep federal holidays as part of a long weekend, the date is now observed on … Continue reading Indigenous Peoples’ Day
The First HoPS Meeting
During the period in early 1971 I maintained ties with the folks on the fifth floor of Mifflin Hall, as did Carl, though I’m not sure whether Perry and Terry visited there as often as we did. I still thought of myself as part of the Penn State community, even though I was no longer … Continue reading The First HoPS Meeting
Making Board Games Great Again
This comes via This Week in Freudenfreude. It seems some enterprising Canadian teenagers have created a game called American Dictator. I can’t imagine where they might have gotten the idea. It’s rather like Monopoly but with some interesting differences. The board is in the shape of a (the?) pentagon. For example, take a look at … Continue reading Making Board Games Great Again
Jeffrey Archer
You may have heard that Jeffrey Archer died recently. He did not live the most, uh, honourable of lives, if I may so put it. You can probably tell that just by looking at him. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1969 to 1974, but after almost going bankrupt he turned to writing, … Continue reading Jeffrey Archer
Early Birds
I know that I promised myself not to pay too much attention to the election, because as someone (Sondheim) once wrote, “If you have no expectations, You can never have a disappointment.” But this country has such a damned long election cycle, and I’m such an impatient kind of guy, I can’t seem to help … Continue reading Early Birds
Three Cases
There are a bunch of cases coming before the Supremes of which I find three in particular to be very interesting on their merits. Of course, I have opinions on them. First up is Jouppi v. Alaska: In 2012 a pilot named Kenneth Jouppi contracted to fly a passenger from Fairbanks to Beaver, Alaska, which … Continue reading Three Cases
Nancy, Reversals, and Pepper
A mixed bag today. First up is a new limited podcast about Nancy Pelosi called The Speaker: Trailblazer. Lightning rod. First woman Speaker of the House. Nancy Pelosi never intended to run for office — but in 1987, a twist of fate thrust her into San Francisco’s political arena. In Congress, she seized power and … Continue reading Nancy, Reversals, and Pepper
Your Song
One of our frequent visitors at our Southgate townhouse was Denny, the Vietnam vet from Lewistown that we had gotten to know in Mifflin Hall who was in his late 20s but looked 40. Denny was still rooming with Ken, the fundamentalist Christian, on the fifth floor of Mifflin Hall. I don’t know if he … Continue reading Your Song
The Friday Headline Quiz
Usually on Fridays, the folks at Electoral-Vote.com have a fun little quiz. The way it works is this. The headline of each of the stories has a word or words that form a theme. The readers have to guess what the theme is. Oh, yes. The theme words always appear after the colon. There are a … Continue reading The Friday Headline Quiz