One way I keep up with historical and cultural interests is through my association with the Associates of Colonel Philip Ludwell III, a historical non-profit association focusing on interesting personalities of the 18th-century in the Colony of Virginia. In an age when we can Facebook message each other from the United States to Siberia (something I’ll occasionally do with cousins), …
“In the suburbs, things are very safe and laid out. You know where things are, so there isn’t a lot of adventurousness. That’s always tempting to fall back on. I had to fight that instinct to fall back and cleave toward safety rather than adventure and variety.” – Patton Oswalt An interesting – and frightening – quote. It brings up …
I am pleased to have recently completed the website design for a nonprofit historical association called the Associates of Colonel Philip Ludwell III (ACPL). ACPL is focused on investigating the life and times of an interesting, little-known, but influential Virginia landowner and statesman who lived in the 18th century. The design is based in WordPress and features blogging capability, which …
So we know how coffee is promoted these days – there are all kinds of inventive ways. Three cool versions are shown here. But how was coffee promoted and regarded in 1650s London? Well, there’s this description which I found via Bryant Lillywhite’s 1963 London Coffeehouses (George Allen & Unwin), while reading an interesting biography of the great Christopher Wren: “in …
Earlier this week I had the good fortune to meet a friend at his club – one of those nice, 100+-year-old, private clubs that give off an air of gentility and professionalism. Over the years, I’ve been to this club numerous times for events, lunches, and drinks, and always felt refreshed by the quiet, stately atmosphere. The food is good …
DC TechDay was invigorating yesterday. Better put: the more you engaged in it, the more you got out of it. Talking with so many marketers, designers, founders, and coders yesterday made me grateful that we live during the exciting world of smartphone-centered, cloud-based technological power. Prior to 2007, it was never so much fun as it now is to be …
Like a lot of people, I’ll use hashtags to accent a social media post, notably among friends on Facebook. The hashtag serves as sort of a tongue-in-cheek addition to my main message. Yet while the hashtag has been around for a while, I still see people misusing it, notably on Twitter. Well, maybe “misuse” is too strong a word, but …
World-renowned wine expert Jancis Robinson, in this morning’s particularly fine FT Weekend, is refreshingly honest about the changing role and status of “experts” like herself in today’s society and economy. A couple quick quotes by Ms. Robinson succinctly state today’s new reality: “In the 21st century, the internet and now, particularly, the smartphone have changed everything.” “I have gone from …
Just came upon some of these commercials from ’93-94 – I barely remember them. Amazing to see how much of this became true (and how some of it didn’t – at least in the exact ways the commercials are phrased). Remember that the Mosaic web browser came out in early 1993, the Netscape browser a year or so later, and …
