Question on George Washington’s Birthday: Would He Be a Good Candidate Today?

There’s nothing like celebrating February 22, George Washington’s birthday, during a presidential campaign year. Mount Vernon, the historical site comprising George Washington’s home and plantation (oh, and the home of 300+ people legally owned by him and his wife, Martha), has been having fun this election cycle, with a tongue-in-cheek “George Washington for President” website, […]

Best Super Bowl Commercial: American Revolution Turbotax, of course

 Tonight’s American Revolution surprise: a witty Turbotax commercial , complete with background music from a fellow whose name I once heard historian John Morton Blum pronounce in a lecture as “Bobby Die-lin” (I don’t think Blum was a big fan). Sure, what the colonists were protesting was lower taxes, more stringently enforced, but hey, it was a […]

Friday funnies: 20 something betters

In the midst of lots of grading, one interesting thing to see is how many ways students express similar thoughts, which, depending on the question, are sometimes all the variations on a given theme.  In light of that, I thought it might be a nice walk down memory lane to see twenty nose jokes, all in […]

Buzzed on Research

Research can be boring, draining, sometimes physically or emotionally exhausting.  For previous projects, I’ve logged weeks worth of time doing data entry, and have had students  who have dealt with such topics as rape and infanticide, and the appearance of cannibalism (soon to be published with NYU Press!).  Every once in a while, though, research can become a […]