A dozen or so years ago, Carol — my photographer wife whose images often grace this space — was hired by Amtrak to go to Pueblo, Colorado, where the passenger railroad was testing America’s version of the Japanese “bullet train.” Although our nation was embarrassingly late to the party, high-speed train travel was finally pulling […]
America’s High-Speed Rail: ‘I Think I Can, I Think I Can’
Posted June 28th, 2011 at 7:07 pm (UTC-4)
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We’re No. 1? Not in World Expos
Posted June 24th, 2011 at 1:50 pm (UTC-4)
Last time, in a grand tour of the six great world’s fairs hosted by the United States in the single decade of the 1930s — Depression times, no less — I pointed out that it has been 27 years since tour nation threw such a party for the world. And there won’t be another one […]
World’s Fairs Then, Now, and Whenever
Posted June 17th, 2011 at 4:42 pm (UTC-4)
Imagine a time of wonderment when lofty dreams and sleek designs and magical technology could inspire a worn and dejected nation to dream. World’s fairs had that power in the 1930s — the decade that bore the brunt of the Great Depression — when six U.S. extravaganzas lifted spirits and gave our people the […]
Whole Lotta Shaking, Baking — and Snaking
Posted June 9th, 2011 at 1:30 pm (UTC-4)
Last posting, I presented a reasonably close inspection of the somewhat aloof, but by no means separatist, Amish people and their culture. I pointed out that although the sect clings to 19th-century ways, it is growing and thriving. As I noted, however, the long-term success of other onetime “people apart” in the mainstream American culture […]
The Amish: Among Us But Apart — and Thriving
Posted June 6th, 2011 at 6:04 pm (UTC-4)
Many U.S. separatist religious or cultural sects have seen their numbers diminish or die out. In fact, in a short follow-up to this posting in a couple of days, I’ll tell you about two of them. But some remarkably plain people who wear what must be uncomfortably hot outfits as the American summer nears, and […]
The Office
Posted June 2nd, 2011 at 2:29 pm (UTC-4)
I’ve written a lot about work — about office etiquette and stresses and violence; promotions and firings and telecommuting; and about “office politics” and what passes for office humor. See the comic strip “Dilbert” and the hit American TV show “The Office” for more about workplace humor, much of it doleful, akin to sarcastic “jailhouse […]
