Month: August 2023
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Weekly Wanderings: August 27, 2023

I’m usually a fast reader, but I took my time last week with a collection of essays by historian and journalist Timothy Garton Ash. In Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, Garton Ash blends his firsthand observations of political movements in various European countries (mostly in the former Soviet bloc) with broader analysis of European…
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Weekly Wanderings: August 20, 2023

Following freelance journalist Jen A. Miller on Twitter (whatever, X) and Instagram led me to purchase a “Passport to Your National Parks®” a few weeks ago. Why? First of all, I love both notebooks AND checklists. More seriously, Miller’s posts made a convincing case that filling her book with passport stamps helped her expand the…
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Weekly Wanderings: August 13, 2023

My knowledge of U.S. Presidents in the late 19th century is … a little shaky. If pressed, I could probably name all of the men who came between Grant and McKinley; no promises I’d have them in the correct order, though. The single thing I previously knew about James A. Garfield was that he served…
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Weekly Wanderings: August 6, 2023

Just links this week—I’ve been in Philadelphia, visiting with family and friends, and am getting ready to head home to Ann Arbor. China StoriesKeith Bradsher, “Anger Builds in Towns Deliberately Flooded, in Part, to Save Beijing”Chang Minxiao and Fan Yiying, “In China’s Dance Schools, a Dangerous Obsession With Weight Loss”Kit Fan, “‘I don’t know if…