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JoePa Meets Nero
Question: What do Joe Paterno and the Roman Emperor Nero have in common? Answer: damnatio memoriae Damnatio Memoriae (Latin for “the condemnation of memory”) is the act of trying to erase a person from history. In the Roman world, this meant erasing the condemned man’s name from inscriptions, removing coins with his image from circulation,…
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Book Ends
That handsome young fellow in the middle is my great grandfather. The not-so handsome elder gent there is my great, great grandfather. Legend has it that he is part Cherokee, which suggests that I should run for a Senate seat in Massachusetts. David Calvin, the young fellow, is about 18 in this photo from 1896.…
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What Has Athens to Do with Gotham?
When I mentioned to my wife that the new Batman movie comes out tomorrow, she responded, “What? Another superhero movie!” Those four words managed to express a perfect blend of astonishment and disgust. Her outburst reminded me of something Ross Douthat wrote earlier this year on the New York Times website. Douthat was bemoaning the…
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The Elves in the Mountains
I’ve noticed some internet commentary on President Obama’s “you didn’t do it on your own,” statement and decided to share my thoughts on it. Nearly every time I’ve seen this, both here on the blog, and from a former colleague of mine, the argument has been that the statement is simply wrong. The entrepreneurs of…
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Reflection and Choice 