May - 27
2013
If you’ve followed this blog over the past few years, you would know that professional wrestling is a huge interest of mine. I’ve already written about cage matches and about “the original Pearl Harbor job“, but this post will focus more sharply on the aspect of professional wrestling characters, specifically those who are…
Jan - 20
2013
As I mentioned in my last post, I spend a lot of time teaching my high school students about the American Civil War. Or, to be more accurate, I should say “the Civil War era”. As I tell them on the first day of the school year, I’m a pacifist, and I don’t…
Jan - 20
2013
So in my day job I teach American history (and since I work at a boarding school, it is often my night job as well). One of my classes is a survey course on U.S. history. I believe that it is impossible to understand America without understanding the Civil War, so every year…
Dec - 08
2012
Six months ago today I had my back operation (a microdiscectomy and laminectomy of L5, if you don’t remember). While the initial recovery had its ups and downs, overall I am reasonably pleased with my progress. I saw my surgeon a few weeks ago and he told me that I should feel free…
Oct - 04
2012
On Thursday, October 4, 2012 I was the guest speaker at the kickoff to a film discussion series hosted by Penn State Wilkes-Barre at Movies 14 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The overall theme of the series is movies that have to do with the end of the world. The first film chosen was Stanley…
Sep - 04
2012
So tonight is the first night of the quadrennial multi-day event known as the Laff-A-Lympics Democratic National Convention. In typical fashion, the mistakes began well before the convention ever started—by scheduling the convention of the party of labor in a “right to work” state, with the lowest labor union membership in the nation. …
Jul - 27
2012
I have been planning this series of occasional blog posts for some time now. My local newspaper, the Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre, PA often features very silly letters to the editors. In fact, I had planned that they would provide the source material for the inaugural post in this series until I read…
Jul - 23
2012
As I write this (almost 1:00 PM on July 23), the NCAA penalties to Penn State’s football program have been blowing up the Twitterverse and the rest of the interwebs. A Google search turns up over 200,000 hits for “Penn State” and NCAA in just the past 24 hours. Three of the top…
Jul - 14
2012
As you may have seen from my previous posts, I have been a fan of pro wrestling for most of my life. I have already written about the art and artistry of cage matches, but today I want to write about tag teams. In wrestling, a “tag team” involves teams of two or…
Jul - 13
2012
Well, I had my “1-month” checkup today following my microdiscectomy operation. The surgeon wants to see me for follow-ups at intervals of 1 month, 3 months, six months and 12 months post-surgery. In addition to checking on me, part of the routine involves filling out forms where I assess my current pain status…