Category Archives: History

Everything “new” is old (again!😀)

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Katherine Wikoff

I suppose every generation believes it has discovered something new when actually that something has been around not just for a while but for a very long time. Like, sometimes centuries! Let me start off with a little Milwaukee hometown … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creativity, History, Life, Media studies, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Revisiting the Bill Moyers series of interviews with Joseph Campbell

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Katherine Wikoff

This is revisiting only in a general sense. During discussion in my political science class this morning, I had occasion to refer to Joseph Campbell. My students had not heard of him, so I gave some quick background, referring to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Creativity, History, Learning, Political Analysis, Popular culture, Teaching | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Authoritarianism and Engineering?

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Katherine Wikoff

Well, I learned something new today while teaching my political science course. I was walking students through my recommended process for getting started doing research on political issues, and at this point we were comparing basic Google search results with … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Milwaukee, Political Analysis, Teaching, Technology | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Karma? (Or, what goes around comes around)

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Katherine Wikoff

Remember Rueben Kincaid, the Partridge Family’s manager? A while ago I read David Cassidy’s memoir (C’mon, Get Happy) and discovered that Dave Madden, the comedian and comic actor who played Rueben, was a really sweet, generous person. Among his good … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Schoonmaker Reef

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Katherine Wikoff

This is what a Silurian coral reef looks like, 425 million years later. I parked in the back/side lot at my local grocery store this morning while shopping for Thanksgiving. (The main lot gets very crowded on the day before … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Milwaukee, Nature, Science | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A post for Labor Day

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Katherine Wikoff

Here’s a Smithsonian article about the Battle of Blair Mountain, a labor uprising from a hundred years ago by coal miners in the hills of West Virginia: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/battle-blair-mountain-largest-labor-uprising-american-history-180978520/ The Battle of Blair Mountain occurred about a year after the Battle … Continue reading →

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

A chance encounter with “Tubular Bells”

Posted on March 16, 2022 by Katherine Wikoff

Heard this old song on the radio driving home today. It has literally been YEARS since I’ve heard it or even thought about it. The song, “Tubular Bells,” was released in 1973 and went on to be used as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, History, Media studies, Movies and film, Music, Popular culture | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Charles Manson – Dennis (“Beach Boys”) Wilson Connection

Posted on January 7, 2022 by Katherine Wikoff

Well. Here is something I’d never heard about before, never once in all the years since I first read the grisly details of Sharon Tate’s murder in the Sunday newspaper’s Parade magazine when I was just a kid under ten … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, History | Tagged , | 18 Comments

Go!

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Katherine Wikoff

Just a couple of photos from a gray day in Milwaukee. I actually took these pictures over a month ago (October 22), but as today is another gray day, I decided to share them. Sometimes, like today, I’m feeling “gray,” … Continue reading →

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

Remembering the “typewriter era”

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Katherine Wikoff

Students in my freshman-level technical communication course were intrigued by our discussion today of document design during the “typewriter era.” We were examining some memos from the early Microsoft Windows period, right about the time that people were beginning to … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Digital society, History, Life, Milwaukee, Popular culture, Teaching | Tagged , , | 12 Comments