Too Many Beers Permalink
In the ’90s, it was effortless to select a craft beer: It was the one that tasted different. Today, quality is no longer the sole differentiator. To stand...
Posts by Tags
Alcohol
American West
A Few Select Reasons to Support Public Media
I’ve run across a few rather good pieces put out by various public media entities over the last few days and I figured might as well pass them along
Baby Veronica
Capobianco’s involve Below D-List Reality Show Host in Veronica Dispute
Until this morning I was willing to give Matt and Melanie Capobianco some benefit of the doubt in regards to the Baby Veronica situation. While I believe the...
Books
“Denaturing” and the Return of Wildlife Permalink
Russell Baker in the New York Review of Books reviewing Jim Sterba’s Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battle...
Print Versus E-Books Permalink
Nicholas Carr in the WSJ:
“Together, it and I earned a Read Badge of Shared Achievement” Permalink
Wonderful “Reading Life” essay on the well-read book as a thing of beauty:
A Few Select Reasons to Support Public Media
I’ve run across a few rather good pieces put out by various public media entities over the last few days and I figured might as well pass them along
Bruce Springsteen
The Story Behind ‘Glory Days’ Permalink
Lovely New York Times profile of Bruce Springsteen and Joe DePugh, the inspiration for the “big baseball player” in “Glory Days.“
Comics
Censorship and Diversity in Comics Permalink
These days, there’s a broad consensus that the Comics Code — which has been endlessly discussed and condemned by comics historians — was disastrous, and t...
Connecticut
It Would Seem the Hartford Courant Cut the Editing Budget
While I cannot speak for the dead-tree copy of the Hartford Courant, the online version of Kevin Rennie’s Sunday column looks like it missed the proofreader....
Culture
Priorities
In January 2013 the New York Times public editor wrote a column discussing how front page obituaries in 2012 “became something less than a rarity.” According...
Digital History
Coding? But You’re a Historian
When I went away to start my undergrad I was not only a pretty socially awkward person (alert: still am), but I had my own computer for basically the first t...
Dissertation
Always Take First Hand Accounts With a Grain of Salt
One of the many books I picked up today at the library was We Are Still Here: A Photographic History of The American Indian Movement, a good looking large gl...
Education
Kenneth Goldsmith on “Uncreative Writing” Permalink
Lovely piece by Goldsmith:
TurnItIn and Plagiarism Permalink
Interesting article on Turnitin.com, a Web site professors and universities use to (hopefully) catch students passing off plagiarized work. Unfortunately the...
The Dangers of All-Nighters
Anyone who attended college more than likely pulled at least one all-nighter to get some work done. Most would call it a right of passage. However, there’s a...
Environmentalism
“Denaturing” and the Return of Wildlife Permalink
Russell Baker in the New York Review of Books reviewing Jim Sterba’s Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battle...
Mass Transit and the Environment Permalink
Freakonomics:
Grad School
Go Out and Do the Things
As a historian of Native American history I have three major conference options to present research and meet people in the field: the Western History Associa...
This is What They Call a Metaphor
He was born in the summer of his 27th yearComing home to a place he’d never been beforeHe left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born aga...
Hacks
Updating NGINX with Pagespeed via Bash Script
Two important things before anything else:
History
This Isn’t Us and Claiming History
After all the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday a hashtag sprung up on Twitter proclaiming, “This isn’t us.” As many have pointed out, this is ...
From the Archives: The Vanishing Americans
Here’s a little article I pulled from a digital copy of The Indian, May 28, 1970:
Race and Charleston, or The Time I Almost Punched a Docent
Upon entering South Carolina on I-20 from Augusta, Georgia, you’re greeted by a highway sign proclaiming the section of the Interstate to be named in honor o...
Old Hickory Returns
Here’s a photo of Obama’s Oval Office
Where’d the Death Come From? Editing Wikipedia’s Wounded Knee Entry
According to Alexa, the English language version of Wikipedia is the seventh ranked site on the Internet and the only vaguely academic site besides the omnip...
Bob Englehart’s Golden Hill Paugussett Cartoon
In her book, Cash, Color, and Colonialism: The Politics of Tribal Acknowledgement, Renee Cramer made a passing reference to a cartoon in the Hartford Courant...
The West, The Wild West, and California
Monday’s freshman American history survey ended with the students having to write about what the defined as the west and what would fall into the “wild west....
Myth, Memory, & the Vietnam War Permalink
New York Times:
The World 50 Years Ago Permalink
Castro looks terrible in the baseball uniform and Nixon looks pretty good playing badminton in a suit.
Censorship and Diversity in Comics Permalink
These days, there’s a broad consensus that the Comics Code — which has been endlessly discussed and condemned by comics historians — was disastrous, and t...
Beer Archive Permalink
Archive I have no use for but wish I did:
Murray Hall Name Debate
In the 1930s Oklahoma A&M president Henry G. Bennett wanted some new buildings from the alphabet soup of New Deal public works programs. He managed to se...
Kinda, NPR, Kinda Permalink
The linked story is about an attempt to reopen the murder of George Polk, a journalist killed covered the Greek Civil War in the late 1940s. However let’s fo...
State Department Yeti Hunting Rules Permalink
The memo stipulated three rules: Yeti hunters must pay the Nepalese government for a permit; hunters can photograph, but not kill, any Yeti that surfaces...
The Ghosts of Louisiana’s Johnson & Gosset Plantation
Sometime around 1859 or 1860 two cousins from Kentucky tore down “the handsomest and most commodious mansion on the Mississippi,” seemingly within months of ...
Personal Maps Permalink
Google’s Michael Jones in The Atlantic:
“They do take their work seriously. As seriously, at least, as can be expected of a woman.” Permalink
News on 6 digs up what has to be one of the most sexist news reports ever. The report covers a shocking phenomenon in Tulsa at some point during the 1960s––f...
At Least It’s Only a Belief in Vampirism Permalink
George R. Stetson writing about the belief in Vampirism amongst the population in rural Rhode Island during the nineteenth century:
Tony Judt Wasn’t a Fan of British Punk
From Postwar:
On Abourerzk’s AK-47s at Wounded Knee
Former Senator Jim Abourezk discussing his visit to the occupied town of Wounded Knee in 1973 with the South Dakota CBS affiliate:
AIM’s Founding Permalink
From the Associated Press’ obituary of Russell Means:
Hoboes, Tramps, and Bums
There are three types of the genus vagrant: the hobo, the tramp, and the bum. The hobo works and wanders, the tramp dreams and wanders and the bum drinks ...
Thanksgiving, 1970
1970 marked the 350th anniversary of the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock and like usual the residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts were planning the annual P...
Let Them Have Cake
We tossed the cakes to them and I fed them like chickens with small pieces of cake and like chickens they ate it. Mr. Stevens kept guard with a whip with whi...
“Saturday Night in a Saloon” Or John Ratzenberger’s Opening Photo Credit From Cheers
In watching the final installment of Ken Burns’s “Prohibition” documentary I noticed a picture that was notable solely because I watch too many old reruns of...
The Yankees Certainly Didn’t Play the Cubs in July 1934
I’ve long gotten over bickering about factual errors in historical movies, yet Public Enemies just got on my nerves. The IMDB issues page should shed some li...
Even The Entertainment Was Traumatic
Even the entertainment could be traumatic in No Man’s Land. People would gather at makeshift rodeo stands near Boise City, OK on Saturday afternoons to wa...
San Francisco Before the Quake Permalink
Lovely video of a journey through San Francisco just days before the devastating 1906 earthquake.
Rolling Stone on Early 70s Airport Security
While conducting some research on Leon Russell I managed to come across a gem of a Rolling Stone article from February of 1972. In response to the destructio...
Idiocracy
How to Get Thomas Home Security to Stop Calling You
Getting repeated calls from a number close to (253) 246-8552 or from a spam telemarketing company billing themselves as Thomas Home Security? Adding your num...
James Bond
Journalism
It Would Seem the Hartford Courant Cut the Editing Budget
While I cannot speak for the dead-tree copy of the Hartford Courant, the online version of Kevin Rennie’s Sunday column looks like it missed the proofreader....
Kialegee Tribal Town
Broken Arrow Casino Debate Now Dealing With Facebook Comments
While I was out of town the Kialegees’ plan to open a casino in Broken Arrow basically fell apart. So naturally the controversy would go away (unless of cour...
Tiger’s Statement of the Kialegee Casino Permalink
“It’s a complicated issue of jurisdiction over a Muscogee Creek allotment and procedures to obtain gaming on that allotment while maintaining a good worki...
John Sullivan’s “Pandora’s Box” Won’t Happen Either Permalink
From last night’s meeting to oppose the Kialegee casino in Broken Arrow:
Creek Nation: “We don’t intend to build casino at 111th & Yale” Permalink
Fox 23 asked the Creek Nation about the groundless rumors to build a casino on the site of an Indian smoke shop and the tribal Chief of Staff flatly denies t...
Who’s Behind Phil Lakin’s “Solid Rumors?”
The one thing that’s annoyed me more than anything about the growing controversy over the planned casino by the Kialegee tribe in Broken Arrow is the complet...
New Muscogee Principal Chief on the Kialegee Casino Permalink
New Principal Chief George Phillip Tiger on the proposed Kialegee casino in Broken Arrow:
Kialegee’s establishing a “beachhead” in Broken Arrow Permalink
Dewey makes it into a war:
Stay Classy, Broken Arrow Permalink
The opposition to a proposed casino in Broken Arrow has been kicked up a notch:
Law
Misc
Losing the Old and the New
Two interesting articles in the New York Times this morning, one wondering what happens to writing in the margins given the rise of digital books, and the ot...
Movies
Views on the Revenant
When I saw The Revenant I was immediately struck by the cinematography of the arctic scenery throughout the film, and as I said on Facebook it looked like Iñ...
The Yankees Certainly Didn’t Play the Cubs in July 1934
I’ve long gotten over bickering about factual errors in historical movies, yet Public Enemies just got on my nerves. The IMDB issues page should shed some li...
Music
From the Archives: The Vanishing Americans
Here’s a little article I pulled from a digital copy of The Indian, May 28, 1970:
Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show: Live Permalink
There are just seven people who – to varying degrees – don’t give a shit. Soon they will become smooth, professional, and monied. But tonight they don’t g...
Tony Judt Wasn’t a Fan of British Punk
From Postwar:
The Story Behind ‘Glory Days’ Permalink
Lovely New York Times profile of Bruce Springsteen and Joe DePugh, the inspiration for the “big baseball player” in “Glory Days.“
A Few Select Reasons to Support Public Media
I’ve run across a few rather good pieces put out by various public media entities over the last few days and I figured might as well pass them along
Native Americans
From the Archives: The Vanishing Americans
Here’s a little article I pulled from a digital copy of The Indian, May 28, 1970:
Natives Shaped the Land Too
20th Century Fox released a 45 minute documentary on the making of The Revenant, and while it’s a good look inside the film’s production and draws parallels ...
Views on the Revenant
When I saw The Revenant I was immediately struck by the cinematography of the arctic scenery throughout the film, and as I said on Facebook it looked like Iñ...
Red Wolf Comic Features Native Artist
Marvel got a bunch of flack when they released a teaser for their forthcoming semi-reboot that included Red Wolf, a native character, who looked kind of lik...
Bob Englehart’s Golden Hill Paugussett Cartoon
In her book, Cash, Color, and Colonialism: The Politics of Tribal Acknowledgement, Renee Cramer made a passing reference to a cartoon in the Hartford Courant...
Nebraska Borders and Vice
This single by NPR is hilariously ironic. The basic idea is that rural Nebraskans are upset that Colorado’s newly legal pot is slipping across the border and...
Who’s to Blame for Anna Mae Aquash’s Death?
The New York Times Magazine published a piece of the death of Anna Mae Aquash, an AIM activist murdered in 1976, last month:
Update to BIA Recognition Changes
Back in March I finally got around to writing about the BIA’s proposed changes to the recognition process. Today the BIA released a revised version that will...
BIA Recognition Changes in Connecticut
I’ve been meaning to write an in-depth single about the Bureau of Indian Affairs attempt to change the process for tribes getting recognized and the backlash...
The Issue of the Seminole Mascot
The final BCS National Championship saw the Florida State Seminoles beat Auburn for their first national title since the 1999 season. A day later David Zirin...
Thou Shall Not Criticize the Blackfoot Tribal Business Council Permalink
Normally if you dislike politicians and you take to Facebook or Twitter to voice your opinions you can usually expect little to happen unless you make a thre...
Depp as Tonto Permalink
Depp’s performance as Tonto is more of the same shtick he’s been doing for most of this century. He’s not mimicking the flamboyant Jack Sparrow routine as...
Scanning the Mail
My Grandfather gets loads and loads of junk mail. Most of it is from the likes of AARP and other organizations encouraging him to save medicare, social secur...
First European Depiction of Native Americans Found at the Vatican Permalink
During the recent restoration of Pinturicchio‘s Resurrection fresco (1494) on the wall of the Hall of Mysteries in the Borgia Apartment at the Vatican has...
Business Insider Articles Hideously Inaccurate Piece About Wind River
The concluding chapter of my thesis touched on the issue of people writing poverty porn articles in regards to life on Native American reservations. In addit...
Screams From a Swamp Prompting Bigfoot Rumors Permalink
The Oregonian:
NY Times Returns to the Topic of Violence on Reservations
Earlier this year the New York Times published an article highlighting the crime rates on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, today they’ve got another on...
Casino Gaming Coming to Rhode Island Permalink
AP with the newest competition for Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods:
On Abourerzk’s AK-47s at Wounded Knee
Former Senator Jim Abourezk discussing his visit to the occupied town of Wounded Knee in 1973 with the South Dakota CBS affiliate:
AIM’s Founding Permalink
From the Associated Press’ obituary of Russell Means:
Indian Organizer Lies About Interactions With Police in Kay County
This article on Indian Country Today Media Network caught my attention because it not only took place just north of me in Kay County, but because it supposed...
Indian Versus Native American Permalink
Apparently there was some terminology controversy on one of those Bravo shows that showcase rich white women bickering with each other:
Matt Lauer Drops “Indian Giver” Over Designer Panties Permalink
I actually had the Today Show on when this segment ran (why I don’t know) and can honestly say I don’t remember this part of it, nevertheless this knocks off...
For Justin Bieber, Being Indian Means Free Gas Permalink
“I’m actually part Indian,” he says — “I think Inuit or something? I’m enough percent that in Canada I can get free gas.”The “free gas” misconception ...
Thanksgiving, 1970
1970 marked the 350th anniversary of the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock and like usual the residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts were planning the annual P...
Oklahoma’s Tribal Informercials Permalink
Wonderful essay on Oklahoma’s growing crop of tribal commercials (example for anyone living outside the friendly confines of Oklahoma) and how they may not h...
North Dakota Fights To Keep Nickname
North Dakota: Where we’re so bored we fight to keep a racist mascot.
Nerding
Publishing a Markdown CV to PDF and HTML
Huge caveat from the get go: I don’t know how useful any of this will be to anyone. For one, there are probably far more elegant ways of doing this whole aff...
Oklahoma
Six Degrees to Hatred
By all accounts W. Tate Brady was not a nice man to most people he met. While he played a pivotal role in the founding of Tulsa and early Democratic politics...
What’ll Come to Tulsa Permalink
Someone finally answers why Tulsa has such a big problem with meth “labs:”1 I dislike the use of the term “lab” as the statistics cover the s...
Tulsa’s Architectural Link to 9/11 Permalink
Front page New York Times article from yesterday on the fact that Tulsa’s BOK Tower is basically a smaller version of the Twin Towers. It should be noted tha...
Journalist Goes Noodling Permalink
If you don’t live in Oklahoma (or more generally the Southeastern US) you’ve probably never heard of noodling.1 Even if you do know spend some time reading S...
Personal
2016
Spent a weekend with the monks at Clear Creek Abbey
It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive
Hell’s brewin’ dark sun’s on the riseThis storm’ll blow through by and byHouse is on fire, Viper’s in the grassA little revenge and this too s...
Photography
“Saturday Night in a Saloon” Or John Ratzenberger’s Opening Photo Credit From Cheers
In watching the final installment of Ken Burns’s “Prohibition” documentary I noticed a picture that was notable solely because I watch too many old reruns of...
Politics
Speaking at Americans
…[E]lectoral politics, particularly as interpreted by pundits and jounalists and party operatives, is explained in a language that is spoken at Americans,...
Sports
A History of Tulsa’s 100-6 Loss to Houston Permalink
Brian Phillips in Grantland:
Trumped
Old Hickory Returns
Here’s a photo of Obama’s Oval Office
Tulsa
Priorities
In January 2013 the New York Times public editor wrote a column discussing how front page obituaries in 2012 “became something less than a rarity.” According...
Unexplained
State Department Yeti Hunting Rules Permalink
The memo stipulated three rules: Yeti hunters must pay the Nepalese government for a permit; hunters can photograph, but not kill, any Yeti that surfaces...
The Ghosts of Louisiana’s Johnson & Gosset Plantation
Sometime around 1859 or 1860 two cousins from Kentucky tore down “the handsomest and most commodious mansion on the Mississippi,” seemingly within months of ...
Screams From a Swamp Prompting Bigfoot Rumors Permalink
The Oregonian:
University of Tulsa
A History of Tulsa’s 100-6 Loss to Houston Permalink
Brian Phillips in Grantland:
Vampires
At Least It’s Only a Belief in Vampirism Permalink
George R. Stetson writing about the belief in Vampirism amongst the population in rural Rhode Island during the nineteenth century:
Whalers
Nate Silver on Hockey Relocations Permalink
Traditional Nate Silver single with lots of numbers and charts trying to answer why Canada hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in 20 years. Mostly it boils down to bad ...
Whalers Links
Gordie Howe Turns 85 Today
NY Post Says Malloy Actively Seeking a Whalers Return Permalink
The details from the NY Post report:
Jeff Jacobs Apologizes For Believing in Don Quixote Permalink
Jeff Jacobs writing in the Courant about Don Quixote’s demise and apologizing for his small rule in it:
Howard Didn’t Kill Hockey in Hartford, He Just Made It’s Death Messy Permalink
Great column by Jeff Jacobs on Howard’s exit and the future of hockey in Hartford. Spoiler: Professional hockey is probably done.
Don Quixote Out of Hartford Hockey. Again.
So much for all those plans for a new XL Center and Don Quixote triumphly returning the NHL to Hartford. The Hartford Courant reports the Rangers have taken ...
Malloy: “Don’t Hold Your Breath” Permalink
Sensibility from Dannel:
Bobby Crawford, Former Whaler, Says Return Improbable Permalink
Someone alert Don Quixote! Crawford in an interview with the Canadian paper The Intelligencer:
Hartford’s Don Quixote Continues Chasing Giants
Howard Baldwin, not satisfied with an average of 4,700 per home game this year, is back chasing rainbows and attempting to implant delusions of grander and s...
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
Here’s a helpful reminder should you stumble across any of the previous Articles about attendance, either the Connecticut Whale or otherwise: attendance numb...
Baldwin Continues the Quest
Howard Baldwin, for better or worse, refuses to acknowledge the longshot (an understatement frankly) chances Hartford has of ever landing another NHL franchi...
A Check on the Whale's Attendance Numbers
Who’s curious to see where the Whale rank in the AHL’s overall attendance standings following a few months of re-branded hockey and the outdoor festival? Pro...
The Dream That Never Was is Dead
The Whale Bowl was played yesterday and wind and cold are being blamed for poor attendance. The failure to turn out a decent crowd for the whole game sent co...
The Knock-Off Whalers
Before November 27th of last year one would walk into the XL Center in Hartford and be greeted by a wall of pictures showcasing the sporting history of the X...
Required Reading for All Whalers Dreamers
Here’s an excellent piece from “Puck Daddy” that not only summarizes the current discussion of whether or not the Atlanta Thrashers will relocate to Canada b...
Do Hartford’s AHL Attendance Figures Mean Anything for its Potential NHL Future?
In remarks given yesterday at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce’s Business to Business Expo, Howard Baldwin, the new owner of the Hartford Wolfpack (o...
Wikipedia
Where’d the Death Come From? Editing Wikipedia’s Wounded Knee Entry
According to Alexa, the English language version of Wikipedia is the seventh ranked site on the Internet and the only vaguely academic site besides the omnip...
Wounded Knee 1973
Where’d the Death Come From? Editing Wikipedia’s Wounded Knee Entry
According to Alexa, the English language version of Wikipedia is the seventh ranked site on the Internet and the only vaguely academic site besides the omnip...
Look at Wounded Knee Sale From Australia Permalink
The Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s Jane Cowan travels to Wounded Knee to look at the potential sale of 40 acres of land by Jim Czywczynski. She leads w...
Writing
Kenneth Goldsmith on “Uncreative Writing” Permalink
Lovely piece by Goldsmith:
Charles Simic on Boredom Permalink
Charles Simic on his “high school reunion” with boredom following Hurricane Irene:
The Lost Art of Postcard Writing Permalink
Wonderful essay by Charles Simic on the *New York Review of Book’s *blog.
Catch the Reader
…If I seem to stress the reader’s interest rather more than the pure urge of the writer, it is because, for me, the reader is the essential other half of ...