The Art of Logic
It’s not just that both are right in this case. Both are right in every case. Even as “hard” a science as physics tells us light is both a particle and a wave. Quantum mechanics tells us electrons can be … Continued
A Mooch, a Tirade, an Assault–and Historical Memory
William Rickenbacher, apparently, had a keen sense of history. He told his son, Eddie, future race car driver, World War I flying ace, and Eastern Airlines CEO, “You’re a lucky boy to be born when you were. There are a … Continued
The Roof, the Bike, the Umbrella–and Historical Memory
Looking back across the bulk of the twentieth century, Eddie Rickenbacker said he got the idea for his umbrella bike after (or perhaps during) the barnstorming tour of Roy Knabenshue in his dirigible. “Everyone turned out to watch,” the seventy-five-year-old … Continued
WWI Armistice Centennial, Part II
Privilege. I was also privileged to spend an academic year, plus another summer, abroad during my college years. The influence of that summer in France on my World War quasi-obsession cannot be overstated. Like the young ambulance drivers of the … Continued
WWI Armistice Centennial
I was in Boyds Mills, Pennsylvania, attending a nonfiction writers’ workshop on August 4, 2014, the one hundred year anniversary of the start of World War I.1 I announced the fact to my fellow attendees. Thus began a four-and-one-third-year centennial … Continued
Weighty Elections
Change was long overdue. The stock market had crashed in Hoover’s first year as president. Prospects looked bad for the next two years before turning truly dire in 1931. Democrats, who hadn’t held power since the war, knew their time … Continued