I’ve been taking a world history class on Coursera, and I was surprised to learn that around 1100 AD, one of the largest cities in the world was located in what is now the United States. It’s in Illinois, and is known as Cahokia Mounds. From the Cahokia Mounds official website: A Thriving Ancient Metropolis According to archaeological finds, the city of Cahokia was inhabited from about A.D. 700 to […]
The Big M was cleaning out his beloved garage and found this in my stacks of stuff: It’s the Austin phone book from 1939, the year my mother’s parents were married. My grandmother moved from the distant town of Del Valle (just past the Austin airport) to join her new husband on a farm 10 miles closer to Austin but still outside the city limits. She had never had a […]
A lot of people here in Central Texas believe we have only two seasons: Summer and Not Summer. It does feel that way. This morning the temperature dipped below 70 for the first time in months, and I overheard a little boy outside my children’s school complaining to his mother about the cold. He wanted a jacket. It’ll be 85 by afternoon, though, so he’ll be okay. We won’t be […]
The Big M informs me that my previous post was off-putting in its jingoism. That’s tough to hear. Jingoism implies “an extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of a group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group.” Yikes. Look, I love Texas, but I get that not everyone does. I’m on a search for Truth, and the Truth is that Texas […]
Did you know that Gen. Sam Houston was a protégé of Gen. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of our United States? I wonder what ol’ Sam would have thought if someone had told him that his name would be the first word ever spoken on the moon. What’s got me thinking about Houston? I mean, besides that U2 is playing in concert there tonight and I’m missing it? I’m reading […]
Flabby Brain 