IHARE – Teacherhostels, History and Archaeology Programs
Can Robert Mueller redeem the former party of Lincoln? That’s a tall order for any individual especially when it is not even part of your job description. Nonetheless, he may end up being the one who restores the Republican Party. It is a party in flux struggling to define itself with an uncertain outcome. RINO […]
Where were you on the Day of Infamy? Where were you when you learned that Kennedy had been shot? Where were you when the towers fell? Perhaps the more appropriate question to ask is not “where were you…?” but “were you?” In other words, we have shifted from a time of people remembering events in […]
First contact is a venerable science fiction concept. It refers to the literal first physical contact between beings who previously had had no direct contact with each other. Frequently, prior to first contact, one group, the technologically more powerful one, observes the second one possibly leading to close encounters of the first kind. Or in […]
The story of Jephthah’s Daughter is a short one in the Book of Judges, Chapter 11. Within biblical scholarship, it has been identified as a “text of terror,” a designation coined by my own biblical professor. This fearsome sobriquet derives from the deadly end experienced by the young woman. She was sacrificed to the Lord […]
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What goes around, comes around. These simple universally-known precepts are beyond the mental capabilities of elected officials in the DC Expanse. People there operate under a different set of guidelines. They believe that If you deploy a superior weapon effectively, the other side will never […]
Once upon a time there was a statue to King George III in Manhattan, then there wasn’t. The statue was dedicated on April 26, 1770 at Bowling Green, the southern tip of the Manhattan island. It had been commissioned by the General Assembly of the New York colony. It was resolved: That an Equestrian Statue […]
In times of confusion, trouble, and uncertainty, who better to turn to for guidance than Rod Serling? The upstate-New Yorker created The Twilight Zone which in ways he never anticipated continues to be available to us today to help show us the way. As it turns out he devoted several episodes that shed light on […]
Robert E. Lee has been in the news a lot. His statues have become a battleground for the culture wars between the alt right and the alt left, the Neo-Confederates and the Politically Correct. Lost in the heat of war is the light of understanding. We are at a teachable moment to use a jargon […]
It’s all fun. It’s all a circus. It’s all a rodeo. [It’s all a professional wrestling arena.] Until it smacks of racism.” David Letterman on Trump’s birther movement (quoted in “Chemistry, with Complications,” NYT August 16, 2017 paper copy). Above, a segment from 2012 in which Mr. Letterman mocked Mr. Trump for outsourcing his clothing […]
Everybody knows and loves Tom Hanks. We were sleepless in Seattle. We got mail. We were stranded on an island. We miraculously landed a jet liner on the Hudson River. What’s not to love about Tom Hanks? Tom Hanks also became big. As it turns out he did so on the boardwalk at Rye Playland […]
by Peter Feinman
by Peter Feinman
by Peter Feinman
