Dan Valentine — where are you?

September 6, 2006

Readers of the Salt Lake Tribune in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s probably recall the work of Dan Valentine in his daily “Nothing Serious” column. Don’t they?

A friend recently sent an old piece of schmaltz from Valentine, “I trust you’ll treat her well,” about sending a daughter off to the first day of school. It was misattributed to Victor Buono (now you start to see my interest).

Valentine’s column was a rambling collection of not-serious observations about people the newspaper covered and events in Utah and the Intermountain states. Occasionally he would write about some event in a memorable fashion — the first day of school for his daughter, the first day of school for his son — and occasionally he’d do a tribute to some underappreciated profession, like truckers, waiters and waitresses, young mothers, secretaries. In those tributes, there was almost always a line like, ‘She’s America’s [future (teachers), heart (nurses), breakfast-tomorrow-morning (truckers)] with a smile on her face!’

Old columns appeared in paperback print collections sold in every truck stop and diner in the west — at least, that’s what it seemed like when the University of Utah debate squad travelled, and found the things everywhere we stopped. Standard breakfast behavior was for someone to grab the sample and perform one of the columns, for sport, to irritate the other debaters — but often enough to the appreciation of other breakfasters who found Valentine’s columns appropriate and touching, rather than out of place and out of time in the Vietnam era, especially at breakfast.

Dan Valentine passed, and his son, Dan Valentine, Jr., took over the column briefly. Valentine joined our writing team with Orrin Hatch for a brief time, too, later.

Query — Does anyone know: Are those collections of Dan Valentine’s old columns still available anywhere? (I don’t find them on Amazon as currently published.) Does anyone know where Dan Valentine, Jr., is these days? If any reader knows, please put a note in the comments. Read the rest of this entry »

90 Comments | Author query, Cold War, History, Humor, Newspapers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Great history teachers

September 4, 2006

From Civil War Memory.  Go see.

Leave a Comment » | History, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Remembering Labor, on Labor Day

September 4, 2006

Here in the U.S. we celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday in September. Throughout much of the rest of the world, Labor Day is May 1. The U.S. changed that because international labor movements, especially communists, celebrated the day (remember the annual parade of missiles and tanks in the old Soviet Union’s Red Square?); U.S. politicians wanted there to be no confusion that the U.S. doesn’t endorse communism. September honors America’s early union movement appropriately, too — the first Labor Day parade in New York City was on September 5, 1882.

America has much good labor history to celebrate, however, and we should make more of it. Textbooks we have in Texas classrooms tend to shortchange the labor movement, and especially the notable social gains made because of labor in wages, benefits like health care and vacations, civil rights, etc. Teachers need to supplement labor history offerings to keep kids up with Texas standards.

Memphis garbage workers in 1968

Memphis Sanitation Workers, striking in 1968, for suitable wages and treatment as human beings. It was in support of this strike that Martin Luther King, Jr., was in Memphis when he was assassinated. Photo by Richard L. Copley, from Wayne State University’s Walter Reuther Library’s I AM A MAN exhibit. You can sponsor a traveling version of this exhibit.

Read the rest of this entry »

19 Comments | Civil Rights, Education, Freedom - Economic, History, Labor and unions, Lesson plans | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

History in video: Japan’s surrender, 62 years ago

September 3, 2006

I had looked before without success, but not since early this year. Looking for something else, I found this link to videos at the National Archives, available for downloading.

This is a 9-minute newsreel on the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, for one example, aboard the U.S.S. Missouri — on September 2, 1945, 62 years ago yesterday.


The National Archives videos promise to be great sources for classroom teachers.

3 Comments | Education, Harry Truman, History, History video sources, Teaching, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Collateral damage: War is hell

September 2, 2006

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.” – Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, from an address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy, June 19, 1879, known as his “War is hell” speech (Wikipedia entry on Sherman).

(Query: Does anyone have an electronic link to the full text of Sherman’s address that day? Or, do you know where it might be found, even in hard copy?)

Jeff Danziger’s cartoons in The Christian Science Monitor kept me buying that paper for a while. I don’t know who carries his work now, but it’s still good, vital cartooning. I saw the caption to one of his cartoons as a signature line in an e-mail post, and just the caption caused me to pause and pray for an end to war. The whole cartoon is below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | Bad Quotes, Cartoons, Current History, Good Quotes, History, Political cartoons, War | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

The flood tide of technology

September 2, 2006

When we were setting up the computers for the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors in 1985, Ted the Computer Guy from Interior told us the ITT machines were the latest, greatest, and that the 10 megabyte hard-drives were all that anyone would probably ever need. 

We used Macs borrowed from staffers’ homes to do serious graphical layouts, and with the cooperation of Commission Vice Chairman Gilbert Grosvenor, then head of the National Geographic Society, much of the serious word-, photo- and chart-crunching was done by NGS employees, as donations.  The report was published in its most-accessible form in 1987 by Island Press, who had better typesetting and editing capabilities than the Government Printing Office (GPO).  My hard drive began to seriously bog down after four months — pre-Windows, it actually limped over the finish line, complete with a 5,000 member database of media contacts and their publications about the commission and it work.  ITT got out of desktop computing shortly after that big government contract.  My current computer strains with just more than 30 times the capacity of that old ITT machine — in RAM alone. 

From the President’s Commission I moved to the Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) — one of my charges was a technology demonstration office that had an IBM desktop loaded with amazing features, like a dictionary, and a GUI interface (we couldn’t use such machines in our offices, of course).  Checker Finn was Assistant Secretary of Education for Research — stuck in bed for a few weeks with a back injury, he demonstrated how tyrannical useful e-mail could be, with several dozen e-mails a day between him and those of us with management responsibilities.  We used a 600-baud telephone connection.

Generation gap, hell!  This is revolutionary:  TDK Develops 200 GB Blu-ray Disc.

TDK announced Thursday that it had reached a new milestone in data storage on Blu-ray discs, revealing a prototype that can hold 200GB. The disc doubles TDK’s previous 100GB prototype and is possible by creating six distinct layers of data, each capable of holding 33.6GB.

The prototype, like all Blu-ray media, is single sided. “The ultra-ambitious technology roadmap for Blu-ray has now been confirmed as realistic, with landmarks such as this proving the long-term value of the format against its rivals,” said TD vice president Bruce Youmans. TDK said such high-capacity discs could be commercially available in several months.

The most revolutionary thing about it:  It’s not even small news.  Your newspaper won’t mention it.  Readers of this blog may not even know what Blu-ray is. 

In my classroom, I have a chalk board.   The eraser is old and works poorly.  I’m supposed to prepare the next generation.  Dick Feynman was a prophet.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
(copyright 1963 and 1991, Bob Dylan)

Leave a Comment » | Blu-ray, Current History, History, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson rebuts Bush

September 1, 2006

One of the more interesting rebuttals to the remarks of President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was made by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.  It may be an internet flash-in-the-pan, but you should read it, here.  And read about it here.

Tip o’ the old scrub brush to Dr. David Raskin and Marga Raskin.

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Current History, Dissent, Freedom - Political, Good Quotes, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Colorado flag flap update

August 26, 2006

Update, August 28:  Interesting discussion at The Education Wonks.

The 7th grade world geography teacher in Lakewood, Colorado, Eric Hamlin, reached a compromise agreement with the school district over the display of foreign flags in his classroom, according to a couple of reports I heard last night after I posted on the controversy.  The World, a co-production of BBC, Public Radio International and WGBH in Boston, carried a thorough report, in audio.

But then he decided to resign from the school anyway, according to Matthew Rothschild at the online Progressive.  Denver Post columnist Jim Spencer added a few details, including the very temporary way the flags were mounted (the Colorado law bans “permanent” displays).  Lots of comments, including the text of the law, at Reason.com’s Hit and Run. (I have the complete text of the law below the fold.)

It would be difficult to write parody like this. Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments | Current History, First Amendment, Flag etiquette, Freedom - Political, Geography - Political, History, Pedagogy, Public education, School discipline | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

“Men make angels?” Darwin, more accurately viewed

August 25, 2006

Public broadcasting’s unpopularity among certain members of the conservative punditry may be squarely laid at the foot of public broadcasting’s tendency to smash inaccurate myths and unworthy icons.  While certain pay-for-pray televangelists like to fill their coffers by bashing Darwin, public radio programs look deeper, and find different answers to some questions.

American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith has an archived program on Darwin and his journals, in which one may see a gentle, religious man struggling with the knowledge that nature rarely shows what the pulpit pounders claim. 

For example, here is an excerpt from Darwin’s journals in which he wonders about the power of ecological niches to pull evolutionary advance from “lower species” — if humans ceased to exist, Darwin wonders, would monkeys evolve to fill the niche?  If angels did not exist, would humans evolve?

Darwin as a religious man, a man concerned with morals and a concern for the donwtrodden of societies, is a picture often hidden by those who attack science.  The picture tends to rebut, refute and make silly so many of the claims of the enemies of evolution. 

Here is another excerpt, in which he notes that humans are one species, not separate species as the creationists of his day claimed.  This is exactly contrary to the views argued by the Coral Ridge Ministries’ anti-Darwin diatribe scheduled for this weekend.  The website for Speaking of Faith has several excerpts from Darwin’s diaries and notebooks in which he explicitly ponders issues of faith and evolution, well worth the read and MP3 listen.

The program’s host, Krista Tippett, has several essays (not necessarily on Darwin, but on other religious people who ponder the meaning of science knowledge) which also provide rebuttal to the distorted views of Darwin popularly held.  She writes about Darwin’s journals, for example, “There is much in Darwin’s thought that would ennoble as well as ground a religious view of life and of God.”

That’s a view D. James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Ministries does not admit.  He is much the poorer for the log that blinds him.

Nota bene:  Also see the link to The Darwin Digital Library.  It is a useful source of original documents and solid commentary.

6 Comments | Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Ethics, Evolution, History, Intelligent Design, Science, Science and faith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Brilliant news about dark matter

August 23, 2006

No, not “dark matters,” nor even “a dark matter.”  Dark matter.  The stuff that we can’t see that may make up three quarters of the matter in the universe.

And with news this big, it still took a couple of days to get to me, courtesy of P. Z. Myers at Pharyngula.  Why wasn’t this on the front page of every newspaper on the planet?

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced they have direct evidence of dark matter.  Here’s the photograph:

X-ray/Optical Composite of 1E 0657-56

Caption:  This composite image shows the galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, also known as the “bullet cluster.” This cluster was formed after the collision of two large clusters of galaxies, the most energetic event known in the universe since the Big Bang.

Hot gas detected by Chandra in X-rays is seen as two pink clumps in the image and contains most of the “normal,” or baryonic, matter in the two clusters. The bullet-shaped clump on the right is the hot gas from one cluster, which passed through the hot gas from the other larger cluster during the collision. An optical image from Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxies in orange and white. The blue areas in this image show where astronomers find most of the mass in the clusters. The concentration of mass is determined using the effect of so-called gravitational lensing, where light from the distant objects is distorted by intervening matter. Most of the matter in the clusters (blue) is clearly separate from the normal matter (pink), giving direct evidence that nearly all of the matter in the clusters is dark.

I am old enough to be able to recall that the news of Wilson and Penzias’ confirmation of the Big Bang, and consequent disproof of Steady State, also was not front page news.

All of which suggests newspapers have their priorities wrong.

NASA’s press release was headlined simply, but importantly:  NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter.  Go to the NASA site and look at the great animations.

Scientists usually have a few beers after such news.  It may be a good time to purchase stock in breweries.

1 Comment | Astronomy, History, Physics, Science, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More maps!

August 23, 2006

This is too good to leave in comments.  A reader named Chris commented on my earlier post about NOAA maps with a list of sources.

Humans generally take in information much faster visually, and retain it longer.  Maps provide a key tool for teaching history.  The more the better, I think.

Chris wrote:

The NOAA data center is one of many really neat places to get data, images, and materials. Here are a few more (and let me know if you want more on any one topic, as I collect links like these – and happen to work in the field!):

Earth Observatory Science site. Free! One of the best sites out there.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

Visible Earth:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

Find Space Objects! Easy views from your location. Cool.
http://www.heavens-above.com/

Space weather/environment. Great insight into the sun and upper atmosphere.
http://spaceweather.com/
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/

Elevation, land use, maps, and lots of other GIS data:
http://seamless.usgs.gov/

Learning technologies. Some fantastic educational materials:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/index.html

Direct Readout Data. Great images.
http://directreadout.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Distributed Active Archive Center.
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/www/

More great free images.
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Cheers!
Chris

Leave a Comment » | Education, Geography - Physical, History, Maps, TEKS, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Joe Rosenthal – Iconic Iwo Jima photo revealed a lot about war and Americans

August 22, 2006

Photo by Joe Rosenthal, Associated Press

 

Joe Rosenthal died. He took the photo of the U.S. flag-raising atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima that became an icon of the Pacific War, of dedication to duty, and of the deeper, sometimes darker currents of war and life in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times captured the basics of the story, noting that the photo Rosenthall took was the second raising of a larger flag, a smaller one having been raised a bit earlier. (Other worthwhile stories include those in the Seattle Times, Scotsman.com, and The San Francisco Times.)

Mt. Suribachi, though little more than a large mound on the island, is the highest point there and visible all around the island. The raising of the flag on that spot was a morale booster for U.S. troops and a morale-buster for holdout Japanese troops engaged in one of the nastiest, bloodiest battles of a nasty, bloody war. As the LA Times noted, a third of all U.S. Marines to die in the war died on Iwo Jima: 5,931. Nearly 7,000 U.S. servicemen died, in total — and, fighting to the death from deeply hidden tunnels, nearly all of the Japanese defenders died. Read the rest of this entry »

8 Comments | Atomic Bomb, Famous Battles, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Heroes, History, Patriotism, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More carny barking!

August 20, 2006

A nice mention today from the Carnival of Bad History, hosted by David Beito at Liberty and Power (part of the History News Network site) — pointing to my posts correcting the history behind folding the U.S. flag.

Go visit and browse around.  As usual the Carnival of Bad History has some wonderful posts, and the blogs they come from are generally first rate.

And, if you’re visiting Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub on recommendation of the Carnival — thank you, take a look around, and leave some comments!

1 Comment | Bogus history, Education, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Forgotten Texas history: Battle of Medina

August 19, 2006

1813?

Reporter Art Chapman in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes a plea to remember the deadliest battle for Texas independence, fought years before the Texas Revolution.

On Aug. 19, a group of battle re-enactors will commemorate the Battle of Medina, fought in 1813 between Spanish forces and members of the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition. (Austin American-Statesman photo and caption)

 

Read the rest of this entry »

8 Comments | Famous Battles, Freedom - Political, History, Lesson plans, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of History XXXVII

August 15, 2006

It just gets better every time you go!  The 37th Carnival of History is up at Mode for Caleb. 

There’s a pointer to my James Madison post of some days ago, where I noted the need for a new, popular biography of Madison, to round out and balance the couple dozen fine books on the American Revolution, and the people who made it and cemented it into place. There’s also a pointer to a very interesting bit of Madison/Jefferson trivia, their use of codes, at the American Presidents Blog.

(I know some people who would love to do the Madison book, should any of you be publishers in need.)

Leave a Comment » | History, James Madison, Religious Freedom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »