Almost a year ago I wrote an entry in which I argued that, as most of the large nations in the world are lousy at soccer and have scarcely improved in the almost 90 years that the World Cup has been staged, soccer cannot truly be called the global game. I also argued that one… (read more)
“…And above, in the light Of the star-lit night, Swift birds of passage wing their flight…” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from Birds of Passage, 1858. The old ‘Watertown Path’ of 1630 is today known as Brattle Street, as stated on the street sign in the photograph below. This ancient road is one of the earliest… (read more)
“Cambridge at any time is full of ghosts” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (1836) “What did you do in this world that cannot be killed? What did you leave behind that the wind can’t blow away? A thing of beauty is here forever. Nothing can kill the beautiful deed.” Brother Blue, eulogy for Igor Fokin at… (read more)
The worst loss in the history of US soccer it has been called. With the elimination of the woeful United States men’s national team from qualification for the World Cup in Russia in 2018 the small segment of the media that pays any attention at all to soccer in America has been dragging the team… (read more)
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” King James Bible, Matthew 5:14. “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our… (read more)
“One if by land, and two if by sea: And I on the opposite shore shall be.” The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. First published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1861 . “We returned from Cambridge by way of Charlestown. Crossing that ferry to Boston…” Dr. Alexander Hamilton, Entry Wednesday, August 15, 1744… (read more)
Let’s say you are a Republican candidate for President of the United States. You have talking points and policies that seem out of touch with mainstream America and you say things that the typical American, which is to say the type of person advertisers want to reach, urban dwellers with cash between the ages of… (read more)
Most of my rambles around Boston have been in the ‘neighborhoods’, the areas added to the original town on the Shawmut peninsula over the course of the century after the creation of the United States of America. This is not in any way a rejection of ‘ye olde towne’; in fact, the profound historical complexity… (read more)
“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there “ Opening line from The Go-Between, by L.P. Hartley, 1953. I had the great good fortune some years ago to study with the late Eugen Weber, one of the most charismatic lecturers I have had the pleasure to hear. Fortunately for us, many of… (read more)
Look, let me begin by stating that, although I have never personally visited any of the 54 counties that I am about to discuss, I am sure that they are not horrible places. Not only are they likely (having not visited any of them) quite varied and interesting, some are probably very beautiful and I… (read more)
