Category: History
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What Day Is It?
Today we in America celebrate the birth of our first President. George Washington was born on February 11, 1731 and ironically celebrated his 22 birthday on February 22, 1753. Reread that if you have to. Now, we Americans celebrate his birthday on the third Monday in February which never falls on either date. How did…
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Whatever Happened to Skepticism?
Science! is a big thing these days especially among politicians who insist that you have to listen to the experts because, presumably they know more than you do. Don’t trust your own common sense because that’s the kind of thing that told people that the earth was flat. Except, whoops, nobody ever believed that except…
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Happy Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year is a two week festival beginning Sunday January 22 this year. The celebration lasts 2 weeks, from New Moon to Full Moon, the halfway point of the month. This year is the Year of the Rabbit. Probably most of us here share the sign of the rabbit in the Chinese calendar. The…
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Arriving in California
California is the place of constant reinvention. Starting as the sleepy remote adjunct to the nation of Mexico only to be totally transformed into an almost instant American state by the 49ers of The Gold Rush. Then the Jewish American Dreamers who fled the East Coast and Edison’s stranglehold on the film business to found…
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A Gringo’s Christmas
The last rays of the sun were slipping below the horizon as we felt the wheels of our Volkswagen van sink into the sand underneath us. My father and I looked at each other, knowing we were in big trouble. It was the day after Christmas, 1973, and Baja California’s shiny new Highway One had…
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Who is Santa Fe Named After?
Southwest Names Back in the 80’s, I had a long-term per-diem assignment in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The company provided us a rental car with unlimited mileage, so we made good use of it, frequently exploring New Mexico, driving up to Santa Fe and even Taos. Albuquerque is unique geographically. Like Denver, it’s a mile high,…
Musings of a Restless Mind 