Profiling the Delegates by What They Did Outside the Convention Halls

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH I have not been able to find the original YELP-produced results, but the results have been reported by Ana Swanson in an article for the Washington Post [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/27/the-strange-and-wonderful-things-people-search-for-during-the-republican-and-democratic-conventions/] and by Brittany Kriegstein in an article for Business Insider [http://www.businessinsider.com/difference-between-rnc-and-dnc-on-yelp-2016-7?utm].  

Some Observations about the RNC, Days 1-2

BY MARTIN KICH Even before the convention began, more than 100 women posed nude for an “art installation” called “Everything She Says Means Everything.” Here is how an Esquire story on this protest opened: “As the sun rises Sunday morning over the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland, 100 women stand completely nude, holding large,…

Is Chachi Responsible for Garry Marshall’s Death?

BY MARTIN KICH In Trump world, there are no coincidences. To cite just one of the more recent egregious examples of this phenomenon, Trump suggested that if Ted Cruz’s father bore a close resemblance to someone in the background of a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald, then Ted Cruz’s father may have been involved in…

The Earth as Art

BY MARTIN KICH Thousands of images taken by ASTER, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, are now available online. Many of the images look like works of art. Consider the following image of an alluvial fan in the semi-arid interior of China:  

Happy Canada Day!

  If you are not especially familiar with this holiday, it’s not entirely your fault. Canadians themselves were very slow to embrace it. The following is a succinct history provided by Mental Floss: “Happy Canada Day! On July 1, 1867, the nation was officially born when the Constitution Act joined three provinces into one country:…

Review – Galileo's Middle Finger

BY PATRICIA S. BOWNE There’s been a lot posted here about Alice Dreger, but I don’t see any review of her book. Here’s one I wrote back in March 2015, when it was hot off the presses (this review previously appeared on The Royal Academy at Osyth blog). ———————– It’s been a while since I…

Remembering Elsie Janis

BY AARON BARLOW At the end of The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces (1919), Elsie Janis wrote: Now I must call a halt. I love talking, and as I can’t talk to everyone, I like writing. Just a few words in parting to the women: You have been wonderful–and while I love…

Reading for Pleasure to Get Ready for College

BY KELLY HAND Parents and teens worry a great deal about what it takes to get into college, but as they prioritize advanced courses, SAT prep, and extracurricular activities, it’s easy to forget about what it takes to succeed in college. In his new online May–June Academe article, “An Open Letter to High School Students…