Vonda recently said something about hectograph and asked if I remembered it. I wrote back to her: Oh do I remember hectograph. We had one when I was 12 or so. My brother Karl used it most; I think … Continue reading
Tag Archives: History
ow many of you hate your hair? Wave your hands! I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who likes their hair.
Continue readingby Sherwood Smith My grandmother died a couple months ago, just short of her 97th birthday, as a result of a fall, or she’d still be going strong. I thought I’d share a few memories that she shared with me; … Continue reading
Recently I found myself in New Orleans, where I had never been before, with a couple of days to explore. My first thought was to take a guided tour, and I found a plethora of offerings: walking tours, horse-drawn cart … Continue reading
by Sherwood Smith Rebecca West once said about Jane Austen: Really, it is time this comic patronage of Jane Austen ceased. To believe her limited in range because she was harmonious in method is as sensible as to imagine that … Continue reading
We already tax cigarettes and alcohol and gas. Why not charge taxes on transfat if society has to pay for your diabetes and heart attacks? Let’s tax Big Macs! If marijuana is our biggest cash crop, just think of all the mental hospitals we could build by taxing it.
Continue readingWith all the cries about the impending collapse of the print publishing industry due to the advent of digital books. I had some funny notion that I could put together a blog that might show historical cycles of publishing. But what ended up holding my attention was the history of books before the advent of the printing press, which seems fitting given the topic that started my research.
Continue readingI remember my own introduction to US History half a century ago: boring. Behavior and grunt memorization were the keynotes of history, with side-trips for making graphs and tables. Always, of course, with the US of A as Number One … Continue reading
I’m working on an anime post, but I’m at a family compound, and I’m having difficulty wrestling the DVD player away from gamers. So — there may be a anime post later today, and it may be January first, instead. … Continue reading