The President, the City and the War The museum shop at the National Archives has to be just about the best in a city with some pretty cool ones. They seem to have something for everyone. There with a group of eighth-graders recently, I made an impulsive purchase of a book because it was about […]

Things Must Be Slow Bookings must be way down if even I got a suite at the Hilton. Trust me, not complaining here. It’s a great hotel located about a ten-minute walk from the Wembley Park Tube station and adjacent to Wembley Stadium. And, Wembley is ten quick stops north(ish) of Bloomsbury, my hangout for […]

Drums in the Distance I live a stone’s throw from the “Hinkley Hilton” in Washington, DC, where the Jodie Foster obsessed assassin nearly murdered Ronald Reagan in 1981. This morning I awoke to the sound of beating drums and chanting; nearly as loud as when the Lubavitcher Jews are celebrating in the street on the […]

Make Way for the Elephant Robert Emmett, Irish patriot, was hanged, drawn and quartered in Dublin, Ireland, convicted of leading a failed rebellion for Irish freedom in 1803. He was 25 years old. Emmett was a protestant from a wealthy family, hardly the type to commit “high treason.” But he identified strongly with Catholics in […]

Washington National Cathedral To Charge Admission It’s official: beginning in 2014 Washington, DC’s iconic National Cathedral will begin charging a $10 admission fee. To wit, the top ten ways to cover their budget gap. 10. Baptismal Font Admission Lottery- The Font will be refit as a lotto-style ping pong blower with balls marked $5 to $25. Pay […]

  Nelson Moves In Washington, DC’s Massachusetts�s��Avenue is called “Embassy Row” for a reason: lining the street for several miles are a string of mostly stately buildings which now serve as the Washington home to foreign governments. These buildings are on their second lives, at least, having originally been built as stately mansions of the […]

I chose death. Let’s be honest, that’s where the drama is.

Here we are, on the cusp of Memorial Day, when we honor and remember those who died serving our country.

  The War Relocation Act Seventy-one years ago today Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order requiring 120,000 mostly Japanese-Americans to report for forced relocation. In the wake of the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, politicians, leaders and many others concluded that all Americans exhibiting the features of Japanese ancestry were potential spies, soldiers or […]