Woody Guthrie’s Doodle-Filled List of 33 New Year’s Resolutions From 1943
On January 1, 1943, the American folk music legend Woody Guthrie jotted in his journal a list of 33 “New Years Rulin's." Nowadays, we'd...
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Jonas Salk (1914–1995): A vaccine against polio
Those who lived through the 1940s and 1950s will not forget the devastating ravages of poliomyelitis, a spinal cord motor neuron disease...
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Where art thou, Mother Christmas? by Roald Dahl
It’s a great shame that Roald Dahl never actually wrote any full-length Christmas stories. The subject is the perfect territory for him....
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Illustrations from the Soviet Children’s Book 'Your Name? Robot', by Mikhail Romadin
As we approach three full decades of a world without the Soviet Union, certain details about life in the societies that constituted it...
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Jane Austin and her use of pins to edit her work
The common consensus is that writers hate editing, but that’s not always the case. Truman Capote once said, “I’m all for the scissors. I...
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"It's Just A Ride" - Bill Hicks
Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes, and today I want to share with you a short 3-minute video clip I watch from time to time. It's...
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In 1988, Kurt Vonnegut Writes a Letter to People Living in 2088, Giving 7 Pieces of Advice
The mind of Kurt Vonnegut, like the protagonist of his best-known novel Slaughterhouse-Five, must have got "unstuck in time" somewhere...
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The occupation of Alcatraz by Native Americans in 1969
On March 8, 1964, a small group of Sioux made landfall on Alcatraz Island, which had been abandoned as a prison the previous year. They...
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c. 1321-1941Death masks. Faces from beyond the grave
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). While decorative funeral masks have been used to adorn the dead since ancient times, from those gracing...
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Farewell, My Dear Brother
On October 15th of 1944, with support from Nazi Germany, the far-right Arrow Cross Party took control of Hungary and immediately began to...
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In 1908, racers attempted to drive from New York to Paris in the dead of winter. It got complicated.
On the frigid morning of Feb. 12, 1908, a quarter of a million people lined the streets of New York City to witness the start of a...
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Why It Mattered: The Rolling Stones’ ‘Let It Bleed’
The album opens with a whisper. Haunting vocals conflate the imagination and inject a certain sense of desperation for what will happen...
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Woody Guthrie, ‘Old Man Trump’ and a Real Estate Empire’s Racist Foundations
In December 1950, Woody Guthrie signed his name to the lease of a new apartment in Brooklyn. Even now, over half a century later, that...
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Otis Redding And His Revolution
Fifty-two years ago, on December 10, 1967, a private plane carrying Otis Redding and the members of his touring band stalled on its final...
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Jólabókaflóðið, The Christmas Book Flood
December abounds with holidays and reasons to celebrate. There's St. Nicholas Day, the Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucia Day,...
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