Tag: Arts & Culture

O. Henry’s Short Story, ‘The Romance of a Busy Broker’

In “Essays, Letters and Miscellanies,” Leo Tolstoy says: “Stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” Tolstoy urges us to resist the human tendency to be so consumed by work that we forget to look up and see the life that surrounds us. In his short story, “The Romance of a Busy Broker,” O….


Baseball Book Classics

Many people have a soft spot for baseball, America’s national pastime. Although having some enthusiasm for the sport won’t hurt, the following books are likely to be a hit even with those who don’t have a special interest in the game. For young children is Earnest L. Thayer’s classic baseball poem, “Casey at the Bat,”…


Film Review: ‘Here. Is. Better’

Not Rated | 1h 35m | Health, Documentary | June 23, 2023 Although the term “shell-shocked”—the now-archaic term for combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]—is not that far in the rearview mirror, the fact that PTSD can materialize out of many other stressful situations other than combat is only recently becoming clear to the general public. Many…


Architecture: Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage

“You enter a large and spacious hall or vestibule, the walls covered with a very splendid French paper—beautiful scenery, figures, etc.—the floor an oil cloth. … To the right are two large, handsome rooms furnished in fashionable and genteel style, … [and] to the left is the dining room and chamber. There was no splendor…


The Partnership of Courage, Innovation, and Flair on the USS Barb

During World War II, the commander and crew of the submarine USS Barb sank more sheer tonnage of Japanese vessels than any other American submarine. They also pioneered new tactics and used weapons never before employed by submarines. The history of the Barb’s success began in April 1944, when Eugene “Lucky” Fluckey was assigned to…


Samuel Ringgold Ward: The Nation’s Forgotten Abolitionist

Samuel Ringgold Ward’s great oratory skills were key to the movement to end slavery in the 1800s. The famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave Ward credit for being able to capture attention wherever he went. “As an orator and thinker, he was vastly superior, I thought, to any of us, and being perfectly black and of…


James Montgomery Flagg: A Face You Likely Know

James Montgomery Flagg (1877–1960) was one of those rare naturally gifted artists who seemed to be practically born with a pencil or paintbrush as an appendage. By the time he was 12 years old, he had sold his first illustration―not to a family member or friendly neighbor―but to Scribner’s St. Nicholas magazine. By the age…


1942’s ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’

NR | 2h 6m | Biography, Family, Drama | June 6, 1942 As I researched classic musicals, “Yankee Doodle Dandy” popped up. The rather odd thing was that I automatically knew the melody of the theme song and could hum it on a whim. After finally watching the 1942 film directed by the great Michael…


Are There Too Many Arts Graduates?

Commentary I can vividly remember the afternoon of my university graduation ceremony, not least of all because I got lost on the way to pick up my academic robes. I had hired them out from the University of Queensland (UQ)—for not an insignificant sum, I might add—and spent more than an hour desperately trekking across…


A US First: Leonardo’s Ingenious Drawings Visit Washington

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael created the epitome of Renaissance art. Most of us know Leonardo’s artistic brilliance through his best-known paintings, the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper,” yet Leonardo’s art is one tiny facet of his legendary genius. Some may be surprised to learn that he spent many years as an engineer,…