People are passing the following meme around thinking that it is arguing for the legalization of same-sex marriages. It’s not, although I’m confident Rev. Joe Hoffman would also like that to happen. The law in question, part of Amendment One, makes it a crime to perform a marriage ceremony forContinue Reading
I spent much of this last winter sorting through my grandfather’s collection of stamps. They come from a variety of sources. Some he clearly cut off envelopes. Some he probably purchased, as they are in glassine envelopes. Some were gifted to him by a cousin in 1935. I have zeroContinue Reading
Lesson One: I am doing very badly with my goal of posting history on appropriate days. On April 14, 1912, RMS Titanic sank, killing 1500 passengers while 700 survived in lifeboats. This week marks the 102nd anniversary. Lesson Two: CNN is even less on the ball than I am. TheContinue Reading
The problem with the Internet is that it has so much Internet in it. The Internet has put us into information overload. It provides us a huge amount of relevant information, but it also subjects us to an increasing onslaught of bad information. Some comes from people with a deeplyContinue Reading
I, like many of my friends, greatly anticipated the restart of Cosmos by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I like many things Tyson has done in the past, and he has a reputation for explaining sound science in language average people can understand and enjoy learning about. But he’s no historian. HisContinue Reading
In its early years, the History Channel was full of historical programming. Most of it was about World War II, so damn near everyone called it the Hitler Channel, but it was actually history. Today, not only do I not watch the History Channel, I actively warn people away fromContinue Reading
I am not a fashion-nazi. I am not going to complain because the hem is a bit off or you’re not using the right buttons. I’m not going to quibble over whether that dress is from the 1550s or the 1560s. Nor am I expecting a CW show to haveContinue Reading
When the CW announced it was going to do a historical drama in the form of Reign, I knew it was going to be bad. Maybe not Noah bad, but bad. First hint? While the show is clearly about a royal character, the advertisements never said which royal character…as ifContinue Reading
Oh, Valentine’s Day, how you don’t make any sense. Valentine’s Day comes from the Catholic Feast of St. Valentine, but even that holiday is problematic. There are at least three early saints with that name, and it’s not clear which one Feb. 14 was meant to celebrate. The Orthodox ChurchContinue Reading
The poor state of history education in our primary and secondary schools has left many of my college students seeing history as nothing but distinct facts to be memorized, often in list form. I know I had to repeatedly memorize the major battles of the Revolutionary War and their dates.Continue Reading