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WHY AMERICAN MILITARY ARE STATIONED IN GERMANY AND JAPAN

January 30, 2020 by

My sources say over 33,000 US military personnel live in Germany, and 50,000 in Japan when their census came in in 2013. I’m part of the chorus asking, “Why?” Then I remember WWII.

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BOOK HISTORY: LIVE IT THEN WRITE IT

January 29, 2020 by

Book history could be about the printing press, except books existed before the printing press. Just not as many, and not all in Europe.

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DECADE ENDS IN SOFT TALK, HARD TRUTHS

December 26, 2019 by

    Me: This decade ends the best of times and worst of times. Them: Did you just make that up, or are you finally going to admit to stealing from Charles Dickens? Me: Writers don’t steal, they borrow. Them: Like the time you borrowed a notebook from Payless in Pony Village?

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FUTURE YOU, FUTURE ME, UH HUH, WHICH ONE IS GOING TO BE

December 11, 2019 by

Will future you be alone in the world, walking the same path until the end of days? Future me says, “I hope not.” I’ve got a habit of watching people when they don’t know I’m watching. I especially like watching people who remind me of a different time.

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HISTORY BEGINNER: COMMON BASICS FROM UNCOMMON BLOGGER

October 15, 2019 by

Long stories blur into each other the more they’re told. Eventually a common thread emerges. I’m a history beginner, you’re a history beginner, we all be history beginners. If you don’t agree, then visit a new place, a place where you don’t speak the language, a place with different food, where you essentially throw yourself […]

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FRENCH PRESS IN THE MORNING AND RICK STEVES HISTORY

September 19, 2019 by

I noticed the French press in the sidewalk restaurants one Paris local said cost $100K in fees for table rights. Tight stadium seating from one place to the next looked formidable, but not to Rick Steves fans. Stadium seating? All eyes forward in most cases, but what’s to see? Traffic, on foot and in cars, […]

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TIME MOVES ON WITH A DEGREE OF SADNESS

August 30, 2019 by

Time moves on when you see is a collection of kid bikes, the same collection Toys R Us sold. The same bikes the rich kids rode, the hand-me-down bikes, and the bikes kids rode into teen hood. Lots of bikes going one place: The scrap yard.

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WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT JAY GATSBY?

August 28, 2019 by

The Great Gatsby patrols the modern world with Jay Gatsby walking point. (Just finished Hemingway’s Movable Feast. Scott Fitzgerald came in at the end. He and Papa were buddies in Paris before Zelda slipped a gear. In 2011 Paula McLaine wrote a novel called The Paris Wife about the same time. Read both books for […]

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PORTLAND PICTURE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

August 27, 2019 by

The Portland picture shows up after you forget about the beach, the river, the mountain. People show up to see the city sparkle and shine like the pictures they’ve seen in tourist magazines for fine living in the great Northwest, Portland pictures that seem to say, “Join us in reverence of our beautiful discovery.” Portland […]

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FASHION FORWARD: HOW TO DRESS AMERICA

August 15, 2019 by

Lady Liberty greeted my in-laws when they sailed on the Queen Elizabeth from England to Canada showing them how to dress America. She wore the same frock then as she does now with diagonally draped material pinned to her left shoulder and her bare right arm raised overhead holding the torch of liberty. It’s been […]

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