Category: History

  • Thoughts on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

    Thoughts on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

    Today being Martin Luther King Day, I’m reminiscing a little about my short time as a student at Huston-Tillotson College (one of this country’s HBCUs, Huston-Tillotson University since 2005) in Austin, Texas. It’s always a good idea to thank your teachers. I never took a degree there, choosing to transfer credit to Iowa State University…

  • What Questions Should We Ask on MLK Day?

    What Questions Should We Ask on MLK Day?

    I ran across this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in my notes: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. This week we’ll be getting the two biographies of…

  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day Events 2026

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day Events 2026

    Here’s a list of events I know of so far regarding the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day: The city of Iowa City has day of service and other events you can find at this link. The city of Coralville has events starting on January 16th and more, which you can learn about…

  • Glue Myself to My Biography

    Glue Myself to My Biography

    There’s a reason for why I so often tell Dad jokes. In keeping with my post from yesterday about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s biographies: I glued myself to my autobiography. You may not believe it, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. We’ve ordered a couple of biographies about Dr. King. One…

  • A Few Thoughts About the New Biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, “King: A Life”

    A Few Thoughts About the New Biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, “King: A Life”

    I just learned today about the new biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. written by Jonathan Eig. It was published a couple of years ago and I found a lot of YouTube interviews of him. I didn’t look through hardly any of them and saw only one in its entirety, which is below. Like…

  • Martin Luther King Jr Day 2026 in Iowa!

    Martin Luther King Jr Day 2026 in Iowa!

    Martin Luther King Jr Day is coming up! Here’s a list of events already scheduled so far in Iowa. The announcements are posted by Fabulous Iowa.

  • 11 Card Cribbage Now!

    11 Card Cribbage Now!

    Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve and it’s time for 11-card cribbage! Recall, the American Cribbage Congress (ACC) website has a cribbage variations page in which the unknown author reports there being many cribbage variants, including 11 and 13 card cribbage. So, yesterday we played 12-card cribbage and we decided to address the 11-card variant today.…

  • The Missing 29 Cribbage Board and a Little History

    The Missing 29 Cribbage Board and a Little History

    We’ve been searching around for our 29 Cribbage Board. It’s in the shape of 29 which is the highest score you can get in cribbage. The hand is typically shown with three 5’s and the nob Jack and the cut card is the other 5. This is usually a diamond 5, but the heart or…

  • Thoughts on Comebacks

    Thoughts on Comebacks

    I watched the first half of the Colts vs 49ers game last night and I thought Philip Rivers didn’t look half bad for a 44-year-old guy who’s been out of the game for five years. Did you know he has 10 kids? OK, now that I’ve got that out of my system and that would…

  • Pearl Harbor Day Today

    Pearl Harbor Day Today

    Today is Pearl Harbor Day and it reminds me of the time we made a trip to Hawaii in 1997 and visited the USS Arizona Memorial. There was a guy named Norm in our tour group and he and his wife Lee (Leota) made friends with me and Sena. They were in their seventies at…