Odd Bits
The Thrill of the Vote
This post first ran on election day in 2008. I’ve run it several times since then. My feelings on the subject haven’t changed: It’s election day in Chicago. I just walked home from voting for a new mayor and a new alderman–and I miss my old neighborhood. For ten years I lived in South Shore: …
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From the Archives: Quilting–Protection against More than Just the Cold
Another post from the archives, this one from 2013 *** When we think about quilting, we tend to think about hand-crafted patchwork coverlets and puffy down coats. We don’t think about armor. But in fact, quilted armor played an important role in European warfare from the time of the Crusades through the sixteenth century. The…
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From the Archives: Choosing (Historical) Sides
A frivolous post from 2016, that feels a little more pointed today. *** Recently a friend of mine texted me from Culloden in Scotland[1]–the battlefield where the Duke of Cumberland routed Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite forces and effectively ended the Jacobite cause. (Charles was later involved in a half-hearted French plan to invade England in…
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