U.S. 19, Westover, WV, 2012. Ho ho ho!

Still looking for the perfect holiday gift for that sports fan on your list? Big Loosh — the biography of a football All-American, MLB umpire, NBC sportscaster, and bestselling baseball author … all in one! From @univnebpress.bsky.social.

Interwar postcard of USS Arizona, unmailed, with San Francisco addresses written in pencil on the back. Kept on my desk or a shelf for many years. #NeverForget

Love a radial engine! This P-26A Peashooter is a work of art (National Museum of the U.S. Air Force) — #avgeeks

We will never be as good at this as Canadians… 😂🇨🇦⚾️

"The Trump administration has privately informed European allies that Washington will no longer remain NATO’s primary conventional defense provider beyond 2027, three people familiar with classified conversations this week told Kyiv Post."

Did you know this, #avgeeks?

A favorite at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton OH: A-17 attack plane, military model of the civilian Northrop Gamma. American flier Frank Hawks set point-to-point speed records in a Gamma called Sky Chief in 1933. — #avgeeks

Christ on a cracker — these seemingly hostile drones only missed Zelensky’s plane because he was unexpectedly early www.thejournal.ie/drones-dubli...

A bit brisk at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton OH today!

I didn't expect to run across Ernie Pyle as a prewar aviation columnist for the Washington Daily News while researching my biography of speed flier Frank Hawks. “It is my impression that he is one swell fellow,” Pyle wrote after their first encounter. — #avgeeks — 1/2

“This meeting was … a 55-minute stream-of-consciousness performance from a president who began and ended with décor critiques and featured a pep rally for ocean-based vigilantism in the middle.” …

Frank Hawks’ speed plane Time Flies. The seat lowered during flight so the canopy was flush with the fuselage. I’m writing his biography now. (Air Progress Air Trails Annual 1938)

Requested an interlibrary loan of George Plimpton’s Paper Lion. Found a surprise inside.

Home Depot wanted holiday cheer, got a whole-ass choir calling out their partnership with ICE instead…

A stage actor during his youth, international speed flier Frank Hawks appeared in movies during the 1930s plus starred in a Hollywood serial, The Mysterious Pilot. Here's a newspaper ad from March 1938. — #avgeeks

“The boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay …”

The best news photo I ever took ... and I was still in J-School at Ohio State. Go Bucks! (OSU Lantern, November 24, 1975)

My first full-length work on #WW1 #baseball (still available from @mcfarland.bsky.social). Book #6 on the topic is coming in February. Who’d have thought?

I’ve been around awhile, and I’ve seen some things.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I spent so much time writing his biography that I think and speak of him now simply as “Ronnie.” (And I did meet him once, long ago.)

Everyone be safe while traveling for Thanksgiving! (Artist: O’Dell Dean, 1917)

Illustration of Frank Hawks’ Texaco 13 speed plane over Paris, in an ad for its Wright Whirlwind 300 engine, June 1931. — #avgeeks

Mark Kelly: "My wife, Gabby Giffords, meeting with her constituents, shot in the head. Six people killed around her, a horrific thing. She spent six months in the hospital. We know what political violence is and we know what causes it too, The statements that Donald Trump made incites others."

Clearly, nobody at Yahoo has ever seen Columbus.

Douglas O-38F observation biplane, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton OH, 2024. I’ll need another propeller fix soon while writing the biography of 1930s speed flier Frank Hawks. — #avgeeks

My 2008 book on JFK’s funeral, now out of print.

A favorite discovery, tiny sketch of a female baseball player. An illustration for a newspaper article, 1913. Artist unknown. Maybe the new @wpbl.bsky.social can use it!

Happy this includes my book Big Loosh: The Unruly Life of Umpire Ron Luciano …

For what it’s worth, as a commander and officer it was my duty, moral obligation, and legal requirement to first question and then to not obey any illegal order I was given. The same is true for everyone who swear their oath. Hope that clears things up.

Democratic messaging to our military about killing civilians extrajudicially is too polite. Soliders, sailors and Marines need fair warning that at a future point, a restored military judicial process will review these slayings, and those executing an unlawful order will be subject to that process.

Insanity

Frank Hawks (right) flew Will Rogers on a Red Cross drought-relieve tour across three states in 1931. “There’s more than a million people in the country with more money than ever before," Rogers said, "but there’s 10 million people who are poorer than ever. It’s up to us to do something about it.”

An old favorite — Elmer Andrews Bushnell, “A Birdseye View of Uncle Si Tiller’s First View of the Aerial Mail Plane.” (Topeka State Journal, May 10, 1919, via Library of Congress) — #avgeeks

Happy Holidays from the University of Nebraska Press! Great books make great gifts, so until December 31, 2025, our entire catalog is available for 50% OFF.

MLB umpire Ron Luciano was an All-America football player at Syracuse before he entered baseball. He played briefly for the Indianapolis Warriors of the minor United Football League after injuries ended his dreams of an NFL career. Learn more about Ronnie in bio Big Loosh, @univnebpress.bsky.social

Yes, there is baseball in November — the Dominican League on mlb.tv. Enjoying the broadcasts, tho’ the Spanish is too fast for me.

I included this panel in my book Nine Innings for the King, from @mcfarland.bsky.social.

Here's Mutt later, as an American doughboy in 1918, explaining baseball to a Britisher — a panel from my favorite WWI sports cartoon.

Bud Fisher, the creator of Mutt and Jeff, took a vacation as WWl began in Europe. He drew himself into a cartoon and added a joke about the English Channel. An American, the cartoonist later was a captain in the British Army. (Harrisburg Telegraph, August 10, 1914, via Library of Congress)

“I'm not a financial expert, but if I had disposable cash I'd avoid the hyperinflated AI bubble and invest in a company that manufactures pitchforks.” …

From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."

What would Jesus do? See the photo below.

I’ve published two books with McFarland: Ballplayers in the Great War & Nine Innings for the King — order them as holiday gifts today!

👇👇👇 — by @willbunch.bsky.social

My thanks to @brucemcclurenh.com and SABR's Clyde Sukeforth Chapter for inviting me to talk about Ron Luciano last night! For more about the umpire, sportscaster and author, see my book Big Loosh, from @univnebpress.bsky.social.

The Aurora Borealis in central Ohio tonight …

Long ago and far away.

Central Ohio this morning.