The Sheldonian’s Laughing Head
”Here in Oxford, exposed eternally and inexorably to wind and frost, to the four winds that lash them and the rains that wear them away, they are expiating, in effigy, the abominations of their pride and cruelty and lust. Who were lechers, they are without bodies; who were tyrants, they are crowned never but with...
The Case of the Deadly Broad Street Pump
I wander thro’ each charter’d street, Near where the charter’d Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. Excerpt from “London,” by William Blake This reflection on William Blake’s 1794 poem “London” raises the question: How often does the human instinct to discover become nullified by an apparent...
The Paul Revere of the South
As many of us peruse the work and words of Maya Angelou, we thought it fitting to reflect upon the mentality she spent much of her life fighting against. The article below, from 1961 Alabama, celebrates the Lost Cause of the South in a manner very common to publications before the 1980s, ignoring the issue of...
Sweets on Broad Street
Broad Street in 19th century Norwich, Connecticut, revealed the sweet successes and entrepreneurial grit of African-American and Native-American locals the Peckham family. Below is text from a story by Dale Plummer on African-American entrepreneurship for The Day newspaper in October 1999: An important black-owned family business in Norwich in the mid-1800s was a confectionery and toy store operated on...
Famous Lists
Human beings love making lists. Lists have permeated our culture, they help us organize our thoughts, help us remember thoughts for later, and generally minimize the chaos of human lives. The exact origin of the word list is unknown, but it can be traced back to a Germanic word meaning pleasure, a telling connection in...
