The ‘S’ in ‘Harry S. Truman’ Really DID Stand for Something
So now it comes out that the ‘S’ in the name of Harry S. Truman actually did have a meaning. For years we’ve heard people say that the S “doesn’t …..
The Who2 Blog
Kier Starmer, SPECTRE Agent?
Look, this never would have happened if they hadn’t killed James Bond in No Time to Die. But they had to go for the cheap noble sentiment and the big …..
Humphrey Bogart in ‘Sahara’: A Brief Review
A few nights ago I decided on a whim to look for any Humphrey Bogart film I’d never seen. I landed on Sahara, a 1943 war film that was Bogart’s …..
Emily Blunt Tries to Remember Her Lines
Here’s a great little video from Variety in which actress Emily Blunt is handed cards with lines from some of her past roles and tries to remember the movies. It’s …..
Rosalynn Carter and the Battle for Mental Health
Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady of the United States and for 77 years the wife of former President Jimmy Carter, has died at age 96. She died on November 19, …..
All the Michael Gambon You Could Want
Our new biography of Michael Gambon is now live — just in time for him to join Jimmy Buffett, Tina Turner, and Daniel Ellsberg on our list of famous people …..
The Lincoln-Douglas-Trump Debates
“Faced with a litany of criminal charges, Donald Trump on Sunday told a campaign rally in Iowa that he would prefer to die by electrocution rather than be eaten by …..
LBJ’s Long Hair
The Atlantic’s Kevin Townsend has a lovely little article about how retired President Lyndon Johnson grew his hair out in Texas in the last year of his life. It starts …..
Mitch McConnell Is No Longer Fit for Office
We’ll say it if no one else will: Mitch McConnell is no longer fit to be a U.S. Senator, much less the Senate minority leader. NBC News has the latest …..
Happy Birthday to Jack Sowards, Who Wrote a Great ‘Star Trek’ Film
It might be going too far to say that Jack B. Sowards *saved* Star Trek. But he sure threw the franchise a lifeline when he wrote the 1982 film Star …..
Mark Gustafson Wins a Well-Deserved Oscar
Yes, yes, congrats to Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser and The Daniels and all the famous names. But the really big winner of Oscar night 2023 is Mark Gustafson, director …..
Jimmy Carter Did His Bit
[Editorial note: Rather than read the post below, try this wonderful article by journalist James Fallows, a Carter speechwriter in the 1970s: An Unlucky President, And A Lucky Man. And …..
A Brief History of Black Names, From Perlie to Latasha
A scholar disproves the long-held assumption that Black names are a recent phenomenon.
James Cameron Got It Right Again
The whole Avatar thing is the biggest boondoggle in the history of cinema. Who cares? — A S Hamrah (@hamrahrama) September 24, 2022 A lot of Avatar 2 tweets …..
Who Was the First Black Child To Go To an Integrated School?
School integration is often thought of as something that took place in the 1960s. But the first Black student to desegregate a school by court order was an Iowa girl named Susan Clark in 1868.
New: Try the News Quiz from The Conversation!
A light-hearted tour through the week’s most interesting news stories published on The Conversation.
Charles Henry Turner: The little-known Black high school teacher who revolutionized the study of insects
The son of a formerly enslaved mother, Charles Henry Turner was the first to discover that bees and other insects have the ability to modify their behavior based on experience.
The Embrace: A Visit to the New Martin Luther (and Coretta!) King Statue on the Boston Common
On a beautiful snowy Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in Boston, we went to the Boston Common to see the new tribute to Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott …..
Pelé, a Pope, and Barbara Walters: Last-Minute Deaths of 2022
Brazilian football legend Pele at China’s Imperial Palace in 2008 (WENN) 2022 was a typically busy year in famous deaths. We tracked the passings of 32 famous people, from world …..
Charles Schulz’s 100th Birthday: A Salute from the Funny Pages
Charles Schulz (1922-2000). Photo: United Features Syndicate Cartoonist Charles Schulz, the creator of Charlie Brown and Snoopy and the rest of the kids in the comic strip Peanuts, was born …..