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IDENTIFYING ARCHITECTURE BY USE

April 1, 2019 by

The first question history people ask when they see some place different? “What happened?” Then they start investigating the architecture, interviewing and researching and writing what they think happened. Sometimes they get it more right than others. What’s the first question history museum people ask when they see the same thing? “What is it?” In […]

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HISTORIOGRAPHY: THE HISTORY OF HISTORY AND WHO GIVES A GOOD RIP

February 20, 2019 by

I saw a question on twitter, a summary of a question a history grad student asked their advisor. “Who will read my thesis besides you?” The answer they got back: “No one, because it won’t matter to anyone else but you and us.” The unnecessary slam the professor included? “Put a ten dollar bill in […]

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BIG MOMENTS CHANGE LIFE DIRECTION

February 5, 2019 by

The first thought I have when I hear someone complain about their life going nowhere fast? ‘Then do something to change your life direction.’ Do I give advice on what to change? Oh, hell no. My advice to boomerpdx readers follows the same line of thinking: Don’t offer advice to someone complaining about their life […]

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WRITE A BOOK, THEY SAID. IT’LL BE FUN, 2

January 18, 2019 by

    What is the goal of writing a book? To get readers to turn the page. Such a modest goal. Should there be any other? I call it a building block, that’s what I call goals. What happens when you achieve your goals, when you have readers turning to the next page. Write another […]

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Millennial History Break: WWII-era

August 22, 2018 by

    It’s been a long time since history delivered WWII. A long time to learn what happened, too.   But not all are interested in the lessons of WWII, particularly the death camps where those deemed undesirable by the German authorities were warehoused until further notice.   Further notice was death for six million […]

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Historical Debris: A Record Of Time

July 23, 2018 by

    Most museums have a bar they set for accepting historical debris, artifacts, one of a kind deals, and whatever an important person touched or signed.   Paul Revere silver, the last breath of Thomas Edison, the Magna Carta? No one is making any more of that stuff, so that’s a bar too high. […]

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How Older Men Express Themselves When No One Is Around To Call BS

July 18, 2018 by

  I knew older men who’d been everywhere, done everything, and could drive any car ever invented.   They’d had every job from sales executive to mailman, to factory worker, to fighter pilot in three wars. Sometimes it was true.   One of them said he was shot down and imprisoned on a Japanese held […]

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HISTORY HERO IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

May 6, 2018 by

    As I reflect on a history and pick one history hero, it starts with the yard sign I had posted and now keep in the garage.   Obama and Biden weren’t the perfect match, didn’t get everything right. What they did was put a best foot forward. They proceeded as if they knew […]

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PORTLAND CROSSROADS CULTURE BETWEEN SCIENCE, AGE, AND ATTITUDE

April 30, 2018 by

    All towers growing around Portland have at least one thing in common: At one precise moment they could either be a building going up, or on the way down. Like bomb exploded landscapes resemble a controlled demolition after the dust settles, a first glance can be so misleading.   Click the link to […]

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DELICATE DANCE OF FRAGILE FRIENDSHIP

April 28, 2018 by

    Can friendship survive if you say the wrong thing at the right time, the right thing at the wrong, or even the right thing at the right time.   If someone says the wrong thing at the wrong time, the friendship is doomed. No matter what the relationship, the wrong thing at the […]

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