This week: Learning from the losers / Spend the holidays with some generals at war / Our love affair with bookstores / A critical look at Barack Obama / Presidential sex scandals
Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here.
1. What Trump Showed Us About America
Politico Magazine | November 2020
“A disruptive presidency is coming to a close. Here’s what 35 thinkers say it revealed — not about the man, but about the rest of us.”
2. Generals at War: The television series.
National Geographic | 2010
“[The] series takes a fresh approach to the great battles of World War Two, examining them through the decisions, dilemmas and disasters of the generals on both sides.”
Watch the episodes: El Alamein | Stalingrad | Kursk | Singapore | The Bulge | Midway
3. The Etiquette of Defeat: What Donald Trump Can Learn From History’s Biggest Losers
By Daniel Mendelsohn | Vanity Fair | November 2020
“From ancient Macedonia to recent Emmy Awards, history offers good and bad examples of how to handle not winning.”
4. How to Suture a Wound
By Malia Wollan | Tip :: The New York Times Magazine | August 2020
“A medical-grade suture kit is the most hygienic option, of course, but sometimes you have to improvise.”
5. A Literary History of the Writerly Love Affair with Bookstores
By Jorge Carrion | Lit Hub | November 2020
“Good bookshops are questions without answers. They are places that provoke you intellectually, encode riddles, surprise and offer challenges, hypnotize with that melody — or cacophony — which creates light and shadows, shelves, stairs, front-covers, doors opening, umbrellas closing, head movements indicating hello or goodbye, people on the move.”
6. Blackjack with Matthew McConaughey
By Simon Willis | 1843 :: The Economist | November 2020
“The smooth-talking Hollywood actor reveals his hand”
7. Barack Obama Doesn’t Have the Answers
By Osita Nwanevu | The New Republic | November 2020
“The former president seems unable to reckon with the failures of his presidency and diagnose the Republican Party’s incurable nihilism.”
— Also see from Politico: Could Obama Have Been Great?
8. A Look At Grand Army Plaza’s $8.9 Million Restoration Design
By Jen Cheng | Gothamist | November 2020
“The arch, which was dedicated in 1892, is the main focus of the restoration work.”
9. A Presidential Affair: The Secret, Salacious Sex Scandals of U.S. Presidents
By Joyzel Acevedo | Rummaging Through the Attic :: Jezebel | October 2020
“[P]olitical figures and their sex lives were frequent topics of discussion in the press throughout most of the 19th century. But things shifted in the early 1900s, with the establishment of the National Press Club.”
10. Can I get the coronavirus twice?
Viral Questions :: Associated Press | September 2020
“It seems possible, though how often it happens isn’t known.”
Tell your friends!
stillness of heart 