Greetings From A Vanished World, During a 500 Mile Trek
Chris Lowney reports on his travels.
Protected: Faith In The Halls of Power Audio
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
You Are What You Eat: The All-American Breakfast
Cereal commercials, nutritionists, and your mother all agree—breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That’s why Congress has declared September to be "All American Breakfast Month!" That begs the question: what is the all-American breakfast, anyway? The answer to that question has changed over the years. A cowboy in the 1880s may have […]
Not A Suicide Pact
Richard Posner’s new book and the headlines.
Women and literature: the dual tradition of African American fiction
The prevailing wisdom of most African Americanists, is that due to the distinctive history and acculturation of Africans in the British colonies in North America, African-American literature is most meaningfully assessed in the context of multiple geographical, oral, and literary heritages.
Monthly gleanings
On August 23, I appeared on the “Midmorning” show on Minnesota Public Radio. Many of you called in with questions, to some of which I could give immediate answers. But, the origin of several words I did not remember offhand and I promised to look them up in my database. Here are my responses.
The Death of Crazy Horse
On this date in 1877, Chief Crazy Horse rode into Fort Robinson in what is now Nebraska. Although he had been a major force in the resistance to the white man, he had finally surrended the previous May and was trying to adapt to life on the reservation. Unfortunately he had enemies within the Lakota […]
Interview with Terence Tao
“At age two I tried teaching other kids to count using number blocks” Terrence Tao, recent Fields Medal winner, is also the author of Solving Mathematical Problems, which will be published by Oxford University Press in September. Tao’s Medal was in “honor of his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis and additive number […]
The Murder of Polly Nichols
We interrupt this academic blog for a tale of murder, murder most foul. On 31 August in 1888 Mr. Charles Cross was walking to work through Buck’s Row, a dingy and poorly-lit alleyway in the heart of London’s East End. It was around 3:40 in the morning when he spied what looked like a bundle […]
Origins of hip hop: “If I stop, I’ll die.”
Today we’ll look at the spoken word roots of hip hop by examining the life and career of one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time; Richard Pryor. Here is the entry on Richard Pryor from upcoming eight-volume ‘African American National Biography’.
Tit for tat, or, a chip off the old block?
Many words resemble mushrooms growing on a tree stump: they don’t have common roots but are still related. I will use few examples, because if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Nothing is known about the origin of cub, which surfaced in English texts only in 1530 (that is, surprisingly late).
A Tribute to Katrina Victims
“As daylight slowly returned and the wind eased during the morning of Tuesday, August 25, survivors emerged, stunned, from the debris. Some wept, some were stoic, and many were so dazed they did not recognize their profoundly altered surroundings. In many places, little but rubble stretched as far as the eye could see. What few […]
Dallol, Ethiopia
Ben’s Place of the Week
Dallol, Ethiopia Coordinates: 14° 14 N | 40° 18 E Elevation: -157 feet (-48 meters) If beating the heat is your goal, then Death Valley, California–the hottest location in the United States–might be one spot to avoid in late August. Dallol, Ethiopia is another. A small settlement in the state of Afar near the Eritrean […]
Excerpt from The Accidental Investment Banker
Below is an excerpt from the preface of The Accidental Investment Banker.
Origins of hip hop: Ice-T and “Cop Killer”
In this post, we look at rapper Ice-T, and his influence on the development of hip hop. A prolific and outspoken Rap artist, Ice-T helped pioneer the ‘gangsta’ musical style, in which the turmoil of urban street life is exposed through blunt, explicit lyrics and a bass-heavy, fluid musical style.
Tao Wins the Fields Medal
Oxford University Press congratulates Terence Tao on his prodigious accomplishment, winning the Fields Medal. The Fields Medal, which is named after Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields and awarded by the International Mathematical Union every four years, is the most prestigious international prize a mathematician can receive. Tao, who was born in Adelaide, Austrailia and now […]