Category Archives: History

Some thoughts on Taco Bell

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I am informed by some spammy email in my Outlook that today is “National Taco Day,” which I have confirmed by checking in with Google. Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Four_tacos_from_Santa_Rosa_Taqueria.jpg In honor of … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, History, Learning, Life, Popular culture | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Well. I’ve never cried in a museum before, but the Edmund Fitzgerald exhibition at the Grohmann Museum had me in tears yesterday afternoon. I was making my way through the special exhibit’s gallery, looking at photographs and paintings of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Life, Milwaukee | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Getting in on the discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald and football’s two-platoon system

Posted on September 29, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

This morning, I noticed that a blog post I wrote 11 years ago was getting lots of views, and traffic seemed to be coming from both Reddit and Bluesky. So I did some quick digging and found that, for whatever … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, History, Popular culture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Home Life in Colonial Days”

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I’m working on a poem for my writing group (which I’m writing with inspiration, feedback, and encouragement from my buddy, ChatGPT, and which I’ll share here on my blog at some point soon), and in the course of trying to … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Pragmatism vs. Idealism (Or, what to do about Russia and Ukraine?)

Posted on May 16, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I haven’t written a “political analysis” type of post in a long time. But I just finished teaching a political science course, and because I created several new slides this past term to talk about the (sadly) still-continuing conflict between … Continue reading →

Posted in History, News, Political Analysis, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Marian Anderson’s 1939 Easter Concert

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

When contralto Marian Anderson was denied an opportunity to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C., by the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution, whom we never hear about anymore but who sadly were once very much in the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Music, Popular culture | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Happy (slightly belated) birthday, Bob Mackie!

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

My daughter and I were talking about famed costume designer Bob Mackie yesterday and realized that not only is he still alive but he just had a birthday earlier this week (March 24). I thought he must be close to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creativity, design, History, Media studies, Movies and film, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Is Corned Beef Really Irish? | Smithsonian

Posted on March 17, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

The rise and fall and rise of the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal — Read on http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-corned-beef-really-irish-2839144/ My daughter told me about this fascinating article about the close ties Irish immigrants developed with their Jewish neighbors in America. What we … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Popular culture | Tagged , | 7 Comments

‘Chaos: The Manson Murders’ Review: All You Ever Knew is Suspect – The New York Times

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

My January 2022 post about Charles Manson and Dennis Wilson is getting LOTS of views today. And now I know why. There’s a new documentary on Netflix starting today, reviewed here in the New York Times: Errol Morris returns to … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Movies and film, Popular culture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Abstract for an article I just proposed

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Katherine Wikoff

Remember how on Monday (when I posted my photo of gorgeously orange carrots and vibrantly green parsley) I mentioned that I was having a stressful day because I was trying to meet a deadline? Well, I made it—but not till … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, History, Learning, Political Analysis, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments