“Urban Slang,” a “Vulgar Tongue,” and a “Woman in the Straw”

A few years back I marveled at the internet believing it the only place I could go to access an “urban slang” to English dictionary or translator (urbandictionary.com is one of my favorites). As an aged and balding white man, knowing and learning “the slang” meant a certain measure of “conversation” with my students. They seemed shocked that I knew some of their lingo, but soon figured out that I needed a computer to translate. Now they have apps that can translate that slang. Suddenly, I have an image of Mitt Romney in the streets of Boston poking at his 4G phone trying to figure out whether he’s been dissed or not.

 

How to find images via the Library of Congress web site

A tremendous amount of imagery is available to college students and scholars by of the Library of Congress. Problem is, the LOC’s web site is a bit clunky. So I produced this short video to show how one can navigate the catacombs of the LOC cyber space.

 

Religion, Nature, Culture, and Malibu?

Excuse me as I dust off this here keyboard… (cough, cough, wheeze). It’s been a while hasn’t it? Not that I haven’t had inspirations or stories to tell (I have), I’ve just been up to my elbows in work, work, work (which is a good thing).

But the Yuba semester has ended, nearly every grade turned in, and now I find myself with a couple of more hours per day to ponder or call my own. So with that, do expect a couple of more posts per month than what’s been coming out.

News flash – The ISSRNC (International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture) selected my proposed paper for the upcoming conference this August at Pepperdine University. Malibu here I come!

 

Aligned Planets and Necessary Thank You’s

Sometimes the planets DO align. It’s official, folks… I am heading to Bristol University in the UK this September.

I feel so lucky. First, my amazing wife and my two beautiful children who’s encouragement makes it possible to take this really mega-big step.

 

JFK, Higgs Boson, and the “Umbrella Man”: Dangers Historians Face

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy has always held a deep fascination for me. The 1960s is the decade many historians point to as one of America’s most turbulent, soul searching, similarly edifying to many while confounding to others. Kennedy’s murder in November of 1963 continues to symbolize that transition, the loss of an innocent age perhaps running head first toward courted disaster. Meanwhile Dylan’s anthem played in the background, “These times, they are a changing.”

 

Treyvon Martin and Shaima Alawadi: Victims of Fear, Racism, and Headgear

Race is learned.

Three simple words pointing to a chiseled truth, and yet, as hard and set as that simple statement is, the ability to end racism seems so distant, still. Which, for me, is a bit unnerving: logic tells me that if race can be learned then the opposite holds true, race can be unlearned.

 

Teaching at Beale: It’s all good!

I’m so thrilled to be back behind the podium (actually, I do walk the class a lot). Met with twenty-four students of Early American History at the education facilities of Beale Air Force Base last night. Looks like a great crew. I’m still buzzing.

 

Morals, Banks, and Resignations – “Oh, My!”

In the year 1711, Joseph Addison penned one of the greatest satirical lines on the topic of banks. “Methought, I returned to the great hall, where I had been the morning before, but,” wrote Addison in The Spectator, a London-based subscription, “I saw, towards the upper end of the hall, a beautiful virgin, seated on a throne of gold. Her name, as they told me, was Public Credit.”[1] By my calculations, then, this makes 301 years worth of moral outrage over what you and I commonly coin… banks (pun intended).

 

Published!!! — again!

The International History Review, a London-based Routledge journal for scholars, will soon publish one of my book reviews. Its next issue will detail my insights into War In An Age of Revolution, 1775-1815 published by Cambridge University Press way back in 2010, and edited by Roger Chickering and Stig Förster.

 

And the winner is! …. Answer to a Previous Poll

A little bit ago we posted a fun poll asking readers to identify the source of a certain quote. Admittedly, this poll was inspired by the seemingly anti-woman posturing by conservatives. The poll asked to:

Guess the date and the source of the following quote:

As a general rule, we think girls had better learn modern languages than ancient. One reason for this opinion is, that a girl of good abilities and superior resolution can obtain a respectable knowledge of a modern language in two or three years; whereas to become truly proficient in Latin or Greek is a ten years’ labor. A moderate acquaintance with these two languages would, however, be beneficial to any young lady, and two or three years’ study of them, in connection with other branches, could do no harm. The study of a foreign language is, in the highest degree, beneficial and educating. With regard to mathematics, we should not desire a daughter of ours to go beyond arithmetic, algebra; and the first six books of Euclid’s geometry.

The possible answers were:

• July 11, 1860 – A Franklin, Pennsylvania newspaper called the “Franklin Repository”
• May 1, 1925 – President Calvin Coolidge before a May Day Festival in Wisconsin
• February 19, 2012 – Rick Santorum campaign stop in Altuna, Michigan
• October 22, 1905 – Jane Addams at Chicago’s Hull House

The answer was…

“A” the Franklin Repository newspaper of 1860.