New SAT words: Declaration, of, Independence

Today College Board president David Coleman announced that the test prep overlord money-mill non-profit giant will be changing once again its venerable SAT.  It’s going back to a top score of 800, making the vocabulary better reflect college usage, and eliminating the penalty for incorrect answers, all in the hopes of making the test a […]

Stay thirsty, my framers

Stanton Peele recently posted noting the prodigious consumption of alcohol at a farewell party for George Washington, near the tail end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787.  Here’s a transcription of the bill for the evening, which is estimated at a 2011 equivalent of $15,400 for “55 gentleman,” thus $280 a head.  And those […]

Fighting Over the Founders Now in Production

Definitely coming to a bookstore near you: Fighting Over the Founders.  Looks like it will come out with NYU Press  in December or January.  Until then, read nothing else, and once you get it, no breaks until you’re done!

On Presidents Day, Celebrating… Hamilton?

Yep, internet discount site Groupon is festing its customers today by offering them deals to save $10 at local establishments.  Them’s a lot of Hamiltons.  Next year, maybe they’ll offer us President’s Day deals saving us 10 ten times as much on that other Founding Father non-president by letting us keep more of our Benjamins.

American Revolution Museum Needs Revising

The soon-to-be-built Museum of the American Revolution will be going up in Center City, Philadelphia (that’s downtown, for those of you unfamiliar with the City of Racial Tension Brotherly Love).  That much is certain.  What it will look like on the outside, however, appears now to be partly a matter of negotiation.  And while it’s […]