I feel like I've let Harper Lee the cat down, even when I gave her a new friend.

Once again I have decided to turn down the company's generous offer of savings if I just signed on for autopay:

After reading this all I could think of (warning historian joke): "Admiral Yamamoto recommends the U.S. not retaliate for Pearl Harbor."

Cincinnati area friends: I'll be speaking at Bockfest on March 9th at Moerlein.

Politicians who use the word "freedom" in campaigns are almost certainly going to try and restrict women's freedom if they get elected. Legislation that has the words "free speech" in it are almost certainly designed to limit such a thing: see Ohio's newly passed Ed Bill for ex

....and now, for no particular reason, Harper Lee the cat and her opinion on the weather.

Still coming down.

I get the feeling Gillian is either expressing her disappointment or judging me. Of course these two things are not contradictory.

I often start a semester by asking students a simple question: why should they study history? One of the myriad of possible answers is often overlooked. If you study history you are less likely to make yourself look stupid. Hint: look up Berlin Olympics, 1936.

Soldiers of the Central Powers celebrate Hanukkah (1916). As I was researching for class I also found out Habsburg troops were deployed in small numbers to the Ottoman front. Then I stumbled across this image of Jewish soldiers of Austro-Hungarian army at the Wailing Wall. I think it is also 1916.

New publication announcement - A Tale of Two Fronts: A German Soldier's Journey through World War I by Hans Schiller, edited by @fredkrome.bsky.social and Gregory Loving, translated by Karin Wagner. DON'T FORGET - use discount code 24HOLIDAY2024 to receive 50% off: kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700638000/.

I have the best friends!

After several years of work, and some bumps along the way, this has finally arrived.

Mensch on a Bench and Hanukkah Gnomes, take that Elf on a Shelf!

A fun aspect of researching SciFi hist is reading the works of lesser known writers who produced a huge volume for the American pulp magazines. Ex: Vargo Statten, psud. of John Russell Fearn (1908-60) an Englishman who wrote several dozen Westerns, Mysteries, and SciFi stories.

SciFi Hist: future war scenarios tell us a lot about the anxieties of a particular era, and the expectations (or lack thereof) of technological change and it's impact on war.

SciFi Hist: Hugo Gernsback (1953) suggested that nuclear bombs be used to defend against a communist "air armada." Gernsback apparently missed the meeting which described the R & D of the Jewish Space Laser. TBF, the laser only came to light thanks to the ravings of a certain member of congress.

Excuse me, what did you say the wind chill temperature is this morning?

When's does spring training begin?

Anyone else think that reality is outpacing the Onion?

Now they tell me....

I am reminded periodically of the line from Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: "Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it." Not suffering from any particular malady today, just thinking of the play when I was reading the news earlier.

Wow, what an incentive to go to auto pay:

Saturday book recommendation (will probably post any day of the week but felt I needed a header): Samuel's restores Dreyfus to the center of what contemporaries called or just "The Affair." The Affair mainstreamed Antisemitism into French politics & brought the republic to the brink of civil war.

Testify

End of a busy week. Hope all are safe and well.

How I feel some mornings