The Cuba embargo sounded like a good thing in 1960. So did the hula hoop, and Bobby Darin. You can still find a hula hoop, but it has long since stopped being state-of-the-art childhood fare anymore — except maybe in Cuba, where the 1959 Chevy remains king of the road. Sadly, life…
If a war on Christmas actually exists, it began with Bing Crosby and a Jew. Crosby and composer Irving Berlin didn’t mean to wage war on Christmas. They meant to have a hit song. “White Christmas” was that. In a PBS documentary about Crosby, biographer Gary Giddens calls the song, the most popular…
‘Tis the season. Long before “holiday giving” became a catch phrase, a group sought to slow down America’s No. 1 infectious killer, one penny at a time. So began Christmas Seals – the campaign which in 1907 set out to conquer the “white plague.” A few readers will guess what that plague was,…
Police did not kill Michael Brown. One policeman did. Black people did not burn down buildings in Ferguson, Mo. A few idiots did. It is our sad nature to assign the acts of one, or of a few, to the many (see: Islam) and that’s one reason why we appear to be going…
Maybe the most insidious modifier in the ongoing disservice we call education reform is “outcome-based.” As in, “To make students voracious readers, use this method.” As in, “To prepare students for four-year colleges, use this method.” Usually “outcome-based” methods are described as “evidence-based.” Bring out the charts and graphs. “Outcome-based” sounds…