“The response to truth is often even more truth; that is why regimes fear even small bits of it.” – Victoria Amelina
“Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes!… Galileo: No. Unhappy the land where heroes are needed.” – Bertolt Brecht, “Life of Galileo,” in Collected Plays, trans. John Willet (Bloomsbury, 1995), scene 13
I’m living in New Hampshire now because of eldercare responsibilities. Here are a few posts that marked the transition.
- New Hampshire Winter, Dec. 16, 2021 (why NH & 2 photos)
- To Everything There Is a Season, July 15, 2022 (Dad’s passing & I’m a grandfather)
- Sign of Life, Aug. 25, 2023 (update and 4 photos)
For a little personal historical context, here are a couple pictures of the house where I grew up in the 1970s, a property my parents gave up in 2013: The Old House and Barn, July 15, 2022.
The hashtags at the end of these and other posts are how I indicate blog categories nowadays. See the archive page for more.
I didn’t blog a lot when I moved up here, but I used Twitter until late 2022, when I posted Bye Bye Birdie, Dec. 4, 2022. Then came other platforms. If you’re interested in social media that isn’t siloed and doesn’t use problematic algorithms, I’ve begun a list of social media and blogging resources that include my own posts. There’s also a post about my change in blogging platforms.
During and in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. election season, I found myself posting photos, drawings, and posters from the past, frequently under the rubric #PastAndPresent, but also #Migration, #GenderAndSexuality, and #BlackHistory, for example. Another category I favor is #Cartoons. Below is an example. See Knock-Out Blow to the Russian Bear: Postcard from 1904–05 for details.
I linked history to politics in another way with We Need a New Political Translation Dictionary (English–English), Nov. 25. 2024. If I had extra bandwidth for politics, that would be worth pursuing further.
Of course, I also expressed rage a couple times, or used offensive language, but I tried to be constructive when I could: Eighteen Points toward Strength and Solidarity in a Time of Fear and Despair, Feb. 2, 2025.
A big category for our times is #InformationDisorder. I don’t write about it that much, but I’ve quoted good authors on the subject. In fact, I’m maintaining a short list of books that I’ve found useful for understanding the current moment, and information disorder features heavily.
By the way, there are important links between contemporary information disorder and competing misshapen images of how history works. See Timothy Snyder and the Existential Significance of History, Mar. 29, 2025.
To round out this first newsletter, let me highlight a recent post that brings together memory and old notes I found from my grandmother.
Cookie Baking Lists from My Grandmother
Aug. 30, 2025
While sorting through a jumble of things my mother has been saving, I ran across a box of index cards (3" x 5") and small pieces of notepaper that her mother had used for cookie recipes in her later years. I had seen these in her kitchen back in the day, but I took a fresh look and found that she had also used the box for record-keeping.
A card with the heading “Total cookies by year” captures her output between 1977 and 1985. A second card has a line drawn down the middle with one entry (top-left) for her Christmas cookie ingredient costs in 1981 and another (top-right) for her mince pie filling costs the same year. The way she formatted this data suggests she had intended to repeat these calculations in subsequent years.
I took the following picture yesterday in Wonalancet, NH, from the small cemetery where my grandmother lies.
