Pilgrims Going to Church (1867), by George Henry Boughton The Pilgrims considered Christmas an abomination The Pilgrims — the people we celebrate each Thanksgiving, who came to America on the Mayflower, signed the Mayflower Compact and founded Plymouth Colony —...
As someone who's made a regular hobby of studying the Bible for about 30 years and counting, I find it hard to express how enjoyable the John P. Meier book series A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus has been to read. Chapter by chapter, Meier peels away...
The SC Johnson headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin is a peculiar little enclave. The company's heritage campus includes its iconic, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Research Tower and Administration Building, as well as the Golden Rondelle Theater, transplanted from the...
Who was Jesus of Nazareth, according to historical evidence? An ample crop of recent books on the "historical Jesus" has offered yet more answers to this perennial puzzle. Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth sounds very intriguing. Misquoting...
I haven't blogged in months. I've been mostly absent from Twitter and Facebook as well. Initially, I wanted to spend less time in these scattered and distracted modes of thought, and more time on focused and linear avenues like reading books. But then my wife Amy was...
Unfamiliar Fishes is the product a very fortunate convergence. Author Sarah Vowell has a delicious appreciation for the peculiar coincidences and ironies produced when cultures clash and combine into the slaw of American history — and Hawaii, our 50th state, is a...
Today, as news organization after news organization "remembers" the September 11 attacks — and as our fellow Americans remind us not to forget September 11 — I saw something truly shocking. It was a Facebook post by WISN 12 NEWS, Milwaukee's ABC affiliate: By The...
Madison, Wisconsin — Copy of a bust of Robert M. La Follette, Sr. by sculptor Jo Davidson in the rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol building at the entrance to the capitol's east gallery. Known as "Fighting Bob," La Follette served as a member of the U.S. House of...
e were talking gardening with our neighbor Katie last month when she mentioned that her daughter, Mary, has an interest in Racine history and has been researching our neighborhood's past online. I handed Katie my business card and told her I would...
Racine, Wisconsin — The Joshua Pierce House at 2800 Taylor Ave. Built in 1860-1861 in what was then Mount Pleasant, this "large and beautiful home” is where Pierce, a "thrifty farmer" and Mount Pleasant's road commissioner, lived until his death in 1904.
Racine, Wisconsin — The Joshua Pierce House at 2800 Taylor Ave., viewed from Pierce Boulevard to the home's north. Built in 1860-1861 in what was then Mount Pleasant, this "large and beautiful home” is where Pierce, a "thrifty farmer" and Mount Pleasant's road...
he Green Bay Packers' unique history, hometown, and ownership have been in the spotlight the past few weeks, and last night MSNBC's Rachel Maddow closed her show with an admiring look (video clip above) at the NFL's only remaining...
hile waiting for Racine to be buried by the Blizzard of 2011, many of us here in southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois are recalling the great Chicago Blizzard of 1967. That storm — on January 26, 1967 — dumped 23 inches of snow...
Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin — The Ernst Klinkert Barn is seen from a distance, beyond the vineyards of Piper Farms, LLC, 4615 Lathrop Ave. in Racine County. The Bluegrass style barn was built in 1889 by Racine brewery owner Ernst C. Klinkert for his sulky racing horses,...
Because so much of my time is spent in the attention-shattering online world, I hope to restore a little balance, when possible, by getting engrossed in a good old-fashioned book. As a lover of history, mythology, traditions and...
I have mostly ignored Dick Cheney and his torrent of wrongheaded criticism over the last year. Something is obviously broken in the man — namely, any sense of humility that would prompt a rational person to shut his mouth. Reportedly, Cheney criticized the Obama...
hen astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon 40 years ago this Monday (that's Buzz Aldrin pictured above), I was nine years old and absolutely transfixed by the entire mission. I had several plastic Revell models of the various...
As I have written here previously, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis back in 1999. The museum is housed within the former Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down 41 years ago tomorrow evening. This morning, I heard on the...
On Thursday evening, before President Bush's farewell address, I spent some time searching YouTube for an apt retrospective of his eight years leading our nation. There were some possibilities, but nothing really summed up the...
The web domain name for the George W. Bush library was in the news today on NPR's Morning Edition: The name is www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com. A Florida firm was handling Web services for the presidential library. The Dallas Morning News reports that the company's rights...
9:17 a.m. — I've got some leftover sauce reheating in the microwave. I'll mix it with the egg noodles boiling on the stove and call it breakfast. MSNBC is on my TV, and I can see my local polling place from my living room window. It's 61 sunny and clear degrees...
Today, on the national holiday celebrating the birth of the Martin Luther King, Jr., there's a news story about how King has been simplified into an icon and a catchphrase, and the details of his life and work have been softened, blurred, and appropriated. Being seven...
Now that Thanksgiving is in the rearview mirror, we can look forward to a full month of Christmas ads in the newspapers, Christmas commercials and specials on TV, Christmas music on the radio and in every retail store, and Christmas decorations throughout our...
Thanks to the miracle of the video recorder, Amy and I have been wading into The War, the seven-part, 14-and-a-half hour documentary on World War II from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that has been airing on PBS since Sunday night. It is excellent. [includeme...
Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field...
I continue to enjoy Countdown with Keith Olbermann every weeknight. There are a few bugs in the show that I would fix — for example, there's way too much talk about American Idol — but overall, it's a very refreshing hour and an entertaining downshift from the...
I first saw Bart D. Ehrman last March 14 when he was interviewed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Prior to that, he guested on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. The cover of Ehrman's book proclaims it a "New York Times Bestseller." There's even another book refuting his...
Montalcino (Siena), Italy — The day winds down at the Piazza del Popolo, Montalcino's main square. At left is the town hall, built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
Florence, Italy — The west side of Giotto's Campanile (bell tower) seen at dusk from street level on the Via de' Pecori. Obscured at left is the Battistero di San Giovanni, and behind that is the dome of Florence Cathedral (the Duomo — or Basilica di Santa Maria del...
Florence, Italy — View from the cupola atop Florence's Duomo toward the southeast. The church at left is the Basilica of Santa Croce. The tower near the lower right edge is the Bargello. Running along the foot of the hills in the distance is the River Arno. Just...
Pilgrims Going to Church (1867), by George Henry Boughton The Pilgrims considered Christmas an abomination The Pilgrims — the people we celebrate each Thanksgiving, who came to America on the Mayflower, signed the Mayflower Compact and founded Plymouth Colony —...
As someone who's made a regular hobby of studying the Bible for about 30 years and counting, I find it hard to express how enjoyable the John P. Meier book series A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus has been to read. Chapter by chapter, Meier peels away...
The SC Johnson headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin is a peculiar little enclave. The company's heritage campus includes its iconic, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Research Tower and Administration Building, as well as the Golden Rondelle Theater, transplanted from the...
Who was Jesus of Nazareth, according to historical evidence? An ample crop of recent books on the "historical Jesus" has offered yet more answers to this perennial puzzle. Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth sounds very intriguing. Misquoting...
I haven't blogged in months. I've been mostly absent from Twitter and Facebook as well. Initially, I wanted to spend less time in these scattered and distracted modes of thought, and more time on focused and linear avenues like reading books. But then my wife Amy was...
Unfamiliar Fishes is the product a very fortunate convergence. Author Sarah Vowell has a delicious appreciation for the peculiar coincidences and ironies produced when cultures clash and combine into the slaw of American history — and Hawaii, our 50th state, is a...
Today, as news organization after news organization "remembers" the September 11 attacks — and as our fellow Americans remind us not to forget September 11 — I saw something truly shocking. It was a Facebook post by WISN 12 NEWS, Milwaukee's ABC affiliate: By The...
Madison, Wisconsin — Copy of a bust of Robert M. La Follette, Sr. by sculptor Jo Davidson in the rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol building at the entrance to the capitol's east gallery. Known as "Fighting Bob," La Follette served as a member of the U.S. House of...
e were talking gardening with our neighbor Katie last month when she mentioned that her daughter, Mary, has an interest in Racine history and has been researching our neighborhood's past online. I handed Katie my business card and told her I would...
Racine, Wisconsin — The Joshua Pierce House at 2800 Taylor Ave. Built in 1860-1861 in what was then Mount Pleasant, this "large and beautiful home” is where Pierce, a "thrifty farmer" and Mount Pleasant's road commissioner, lived until his death in 1904.
Racine, Wisconsin — The Joshua Pierce House at 2800 Taylor Ave., viewed from Pierce Boulevard to the home's north. Built in 1860-1861 in what was then Mount Pleasant, this "large and beautiful home” is where Pierce, a "thrifty farmer" and Mount Pleasant's road...
he Green Bay Packers' unique history, hometown, and ownership have been in the spotlight the past few weeks, and last night MSNBC's Rachel Maddow closed her show with an admiring look (video clip above) at the NFL's only remaining...
hile waiting for Racine to be buried by the Blizzard of 2011, many of us here in southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois are recalling the great Chicago Blizzard of 1967. That storm — on January 26, 1967 — dumped 23 inches of snow...
Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin — The Ernst Klinkert Barn is seen from a distance, beyond the vineyards of Piper Farms, LLC, 4615 Lathrop Ave. in Racine County. The Bluegrass style barn was built in 1889 by Racine brewery owner Ernst C. Klinkert for his sulky racing horses,...
Because so much of my time is spent in the attention-shattering online world, I hope to restore a little balance, when possible, by getting engrossed in a good old-fashioned book. As a lover of history, mythology, traditions and...
I have mostly ignored Dick Cheney and his torrent of wrongheaded criticism over the last year. Something is obviously broken in the man — namely, any sense of humility that would prompt a rational person to shut his mouth. Reportedly, Cheney criticized the Obama...
hen astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon 40 years ago this Monday (that's Buzz Aldrin pictured above), I was nine years old and absolutely transfixed by the entire mission. I had several plastic Revell models of the various...
As I have written here previously, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis back in 1999. The museum is housed within the former Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down 41 years ago tomorrow evening. This morning, I heard on the...
On Thursday evening, before President Bush's farewell address, I spent some time searching YouTube for an apt retrospective of his eight years leading our nation. There were some possibilities, but nothing really summed up the...
The web domain name for the George W. Bush library was in the news today on NPR's Morning Edition: The name is www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com. A Florida firm was handling Web services for the presidential library. The Dallas Morning News reports that the company's rights...
9:17 a.m. — I've got some leftover sauce reheating in the microwave. I'll mix it with the egg noodles boiling on the stove and call it breakfast. MSNBC is on my TV, and I can see my local polling place from my living room window. It's 61 sunny and clear degrees...
Today, on the national holiday celebrating the birth of the Martin Luther King, Jr., there's a news story about how King has been simplified into an icon and a catchphrase, and the details of his life and work have been softened, blurred, and appropriated. Being seven...
Now that Thanksgiving is in the rearview mirror, we can look forward to a full month of Christmas ads in the newspapers, Christmas commercials and specials on TV, Christmas music on the radio and in every retail store, and Christmas decorations throughout our...
Thanks to the miracle of the video recorder, Amy and I have been wading into The War, the seven-part, 14-and-a-half hour documentary on World War II from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that has been airing on PBS since Sunday night. It is excellent. [includeme...
Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field...
