Category Archives: History

Castoffs

Posted on December 17, 2019 by

Photo taken today on the south side of Wisconsin Avenue, somewhere between 35th and 12th Streets; can’t recall exactly where. This struck me as an interesting assortment of “forgotten” things, so I took the picture while stopped at a traffic … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

A video to prompt playtime memories

Posted on December 4, 2019 by

WIRED (which styles itself with all capital letters) just posted this 40-minute video on its YouTube channel, featuring commentary from the chief curator at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, about the most popular toys each year … Continue reading →

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In honor of Thanksgiving . . .

Posted on November 29, 2019 by

Here is a great article from Rolling Stone from five years ago (link HERE)  celebrating the 50th anniversary of Arlo Guthrie’s hilarious 18-minute musical saga recounting the consequences of taking out the garbage after Thanksgiving dinner. And here is the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Music | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Gearing up for Great Books – Nazi VR and Man’s Search for Meaning

Posted on November 11, 2019 by

In between grading and meetings, today I’m also getting ready to lead the discussion of Viktor Frankl’s classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Wednesday night at MSOE’s Great Books Dinner & Discussion event. As part of my prep, I found … Continue reading →

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PA ST

Posted on September 23, 2019 by

Abandoned for years, the old Pabst Brewing complex on the west end of downtown Milwaukee was redeveloped over the past decade by the Zilber Property Group. The area contains many of the brewery’s original buildings, with their signature crenallated rooftop … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, History, Milwaukee | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What You Can Learn About The Danger Of Assumption From The Original Woodstock Festival …

Posted on September 17, 2019 by

Originally posted on The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]:
One of the things I do when I first get a brief is try to see the creative opportunity. Where we can make the biggest and most interesting…

Posted in Creativity, History, Life, Music | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Weeds on a Milwaukee sidewalk

Posted on August 14, 2019 by

Gray morning in Milwaukee, but these weeds in the 1900 block of West Vliet caught my eye as I was driving past, so I had to stop and get out in the drizzling rain to take a picture. Maybe I … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Eleanor Roosevelt on “What’s My Line” and other famous things

Posted on July 22, 2019 by

I stumbled across a reference to this while doing something else online and couldn’t resist watching. In October 1953 Eleanor Roosevelt appeared as a “mystery guest” on the stump-the-panel quiz show “What’s My Line?” This episode, posted in its entirety … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The individual vs. society – Joseph Campbell, Gandhi, and JFK weigh in

Posted on June 14, 2019 by

I’m cleaning out my office today, throwing out old student papers and old lecture notes from courses I no longer teach. One of the files I came across was from a one-off class on mythology that I taught in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, History, Learning, Life, Political Analysis, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Visiting Sim – Part One

Posted on April 18, 2019 by

This past Saturday I went to a lecture/tour at the Milwaukee Public Library marking 90 years since Simba the lion came to live at the Milwaukee Public Museum, which then shared half of the building with the Central Library downtown. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, History, Milwaukee, Nature, Popular culture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments