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Black History Month 2025 ASALH Theme
This is Black History Month and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) theme this year is African Americans & Labor. When I look back on my youth, I think of my time learning on the job to be a survey crew technician and drafter for a consulting engineer company in…
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Keep Hope Alive
Just a reminder, Isabel Wilkerson will be giving her presentation, ” “Caste: How the hierarchy we have inherited restricts our humanity” from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, in Prem Sahai Auditorium (room 1110) in the Medical Education and Research Facility. I’m about halfway through her book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” It’s a…
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Just Got Isabel Wilkerson’s Book: “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”
I just got a copy of Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” I read her other book, “The Warmth of Other Suns” years ago. It won a Pulitzer Prize. I read the first section, “Toxins In The Permafrost And Heat Rising All Around.” It brought back memories of the 2016 Presidential Election,…
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Is Edinburgh Manor in Iowa Haunted?
I have no idea whether an old former county home in Jones County is one of the most haunted places in the Midwest or Iowa or the USA. And I wouldn’t be saying that if Sena and I had not watched a TV show called “Mysteries of the Abandoned” (broadcast on the Science Channel) which…
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 2025 Events and Some Thoughts
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week started January 20, 2025. There will be several very worthwhile events, many of which are listed here. Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Humanities Medal, will deliver the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Lecture on February 5, 2025 at the University of Iowa Medical Education…
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Did You Know They Won’t Be Making Yardsticks Any Longer?
Anecdote alert! Sena just got back from shopping and had a priceless little story about shopping for a yardstick for measuring window film to apply on a door window. I suppose I should say that the title of this post is a dad joke that some people might not get. Sena asked a Menards worker…
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Remarks on Svengoolie TV Movie Phantom of the Opera 1943 and More
We watched Phantom of the Opera (1943 version) last night. And then, just for good measure, we watched the Phantom of the Opera (1925 silent film) today. We watched the latter on the Internet Archive. I’ll say one thing, the absence of commercials in the 1925 version is great. Even though I like cornball jokes…
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That Donut Song by Washboard Sam
I got a kick out of a song by Catfish Keith last night on the Big Mo Blues Show on KCCK radio. It was “Who Pumped the Wind in My Doughnut.” He always sings songs with lyrics that I mostly don’t understand and that was one of them, at first. I’ll give you a hint;…
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The Greatest Christmas Record of All Time
Last Friday night on the Big Mo Blues Show on KCCK radio, I heard Eric Clapton sing a song that I later found out was a cover of a song originally co-written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones, “Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday.” A Wikipedia entry about it reports that it has…
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Amaryllis or Hippeastrum Trio?
The Amaryllis trio are reaching for the stars, and “star” may be the operative word because I just found out the name of the flower may be in dispute. It turns out that the actual name of the Amaryllis is probably Hippeastrum due to a change in the genus classification of this striking bloom. My…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 