It’s that time of year again when spring is in full bloom, and the boys of summer begin to play ball. What’s new this year for the major leagues is a pitch clock. Designed to help move the game along, the pitch clock penalizes a pitcher for failing to deliver his pitch within a certain […]
BASEBALL AND ITS IDIOSYNCRASIES Read More »
In Ancient Rome in the year 68 A.D. the emperor Nero committed suicide. A civil war followed, and Titus Flavius Vespasianus rose to the top and became the emperor Vespasian. One of Nero’s generals, Vespasian was the first of a dynasty of three emperors including his two sons: Titus and Domitian. The rise of the
WHAT WAS THE ARCHETYPE OF TODAY’S FOOTBALL STADIUMS? Read More »
In 1803, President Jefferson negotiated a major land transaction with the First French Republic and its First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte. Known as the Louisiana Purchase, the land acquisition nearly doubled the territory of the United States, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Jefferson sent a military expedition to explore this territory and
WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION BEHIND THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION? Read More »
He’s been called the world’s greatest lover. He was certainly a major womanizer, having over a hundred affairs with different women. In many cases his partners were what would be considered underage by today’s standards, and some of his liaisons involved women who were emotionally or psychologically unstable. He was an adventurer looking for pleasure
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GIACOMO CASANOVA Read More »
In this episode, LAPD detectives Aguilar and Lee are pursuing a serial killer who is terrorizing the area in the Harbor/Gateway District along Sultan Road. On the chance that Ben Williams’s killers would turn up at the offices of the South Bay Neighborhood Association the next day to get paid, Aguilar and Lee drove to
AN EXCERPT FROM SULTAN ROAD Read More »
The Berlin Wall was arguably the most significant symbol of the Cold War. After the end of World War II, Germany became a divided country between the Soviet Union in the east, and Western powers. Before long, tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western powers began to increase over disputes surrounding the administration of
THE BERLIN WALL: THE SYMBOL OF THE COLD WAR Read More »
Most of you know that I recently took a cruise to Alaska on Princess Cruise’s Crown Princess. But perhaps only a few of you know that I formerly worked for Princess Cruises as their Assistant Controller back in the 1980’s. In those days the business consisted of only three ships and was owned by a
CRUSING THEN AND NOW Read More »
From the day it was first written, the Declaration of Independence went through quite a journey to reach the place where it resides today. In that it constituted a death warrant for all those who signed it, the protection and preservation of it maintained a higher priority for the Continental Congress and the founding fathers
HOW WAS THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE PRESERVED? Read More »
The most recent of a spate of shootings in the United States took place in the small, southwestern town of Uvalde, Texas, where nineteen elementary school children and two teachers were senselessly murdered on May 24, 2022. The gunman was a teenager who bought military grade firearms and as many as 350 rounds of ammunition
ARE AMERICA’S GUN LAWS TOO LAX? Read More »
Mariupol in the Ukraine has made lots of news lately, most of which has been unfortunate owing to Russia’s recent invasion of the Ukraine. Prior to the devastation that has taken place there in the last five weeks, what type of city was Mariupol? Where was Mariupol located? What was so important about it? Founded
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MARIUPOL Read More »