Today is the 85th anniversary of Orson Welles’s legendary broadcast of H. G. Welles’ The War of the Worlds, a terrifying broadcast that was less terrifying than you might think it was. You probably know a lot about the Welles broadcast, a dramatization of H. G. Welles’s novel which he hosted for CBS’s Mercury Theater. […]
This is the New England Primer, the first American text used to teach school children to read. It was in print from 1681 to 1830 and was, for millions of children in the New World, their first experience with formal education. In addition to the alphabet, it reinforced Puritan and Calvinist beliefs that life was […]
Four hundred years ago today, the Globe Theatre burned to the ground. If you studied Shakespeare in high school, you surely studied the Globe Theatre. Here’s what you might remember about it: The Globe is the theatre most associated with William Shakespeare, and many of his plays were first performed there. The theatre, which is explicitly […]
Sites visited on my day trip to Lauderdale County: 1. The Fort Pillow Historic State Park 2. The Alex Haley Museum 3. Gus’s Fried Chicken Adventures in Lauderdale County #2: The Alex Haley House and Museum “Find the good–and praise it.” -Alex Haley After visiting Fort Pillow, I made the short drive to the […]
It was 43 years ago today that “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)” sprang from John Lennon’s head fully formed. John Lennon wrote and recorded “Instant Karma!” in a single day. He famously stated “I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.” The single, which bore the […]
It was on this date in 1940 that the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsed. It is not often that I write about physics on this blog, but I feel confident enough in my understanding of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse of 1940 that I can create a post about it. Furthermore, all the knowledge you are about to […]
Bohumil Hrabal was born on this date in 1914. Ask any literary type who his favorite Czechoslovakian author of the twentieth century was, and most will say Franz Kafka. Less well-known is Bohumil Hrabal, author of more than fifty books, who was born on this date in 1914. Hrabal was born at the start of the first […]
A photographic response to It Came From Memphis by Robert Gordon. Last month, I discussed It Came From Memphis, Robert Gordon’s wonderful 1995 book about the misfits of the Memphis music scene. I wrote that I wanted to drive around town and take pictures of the locales mentioned in the book–the bars, clubs, recording studios, and […]
Jay McInerney is 57 years old today, which means that, yes, you are getting old. Jay McInerny turns 57 today, and if you think that that just can’t be, please keep in mind that Simon LeBon and Belinda Carlisle are just behind him at 53. The 80s became the new 70s sometime around the millenium; […]
Today is the birthday of Vachel Lindsay, a poet I know almost nothing about. Vachel Lindsay is one of those poets whose name I know, and who I have a vague idea existed on the fringes of the modernist movement, but about whom I know almost nothing else. Even after doing a little bit of […]