design history ideas pragmatic historian time

A Thought Experiment on Flag Day

Today is Flag Day in the United States. I thought it was Father’s Day, but that’s next weekend. My days are all messed up with working from home because they just run into one another. I can see why holidays are so important for marking time. I don’t typically pay much attention to Flag Day, but as circumstance would have it, I was thinking about the U.S. flag a couple of days ago. Here was…

Continue reading

design family history observations

Dr. Bronner’s Gets a Facelift

Have you heard of Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap? It’s liquid soap that can be used for pretty much anything, whether as a body wash and shampoo or as a household cleaner. We prefer the Hemp Peppermint variety. The soap is all organic, with Certified Fair Trade ingredients. The funkiest thing about this soap is the packaging, specifically the label. When you purchase a bottle, you get a spiritual/philosophical tome of very tiny print that covers…

Continue reading

art design history inspiration pragmatic historian

Tarot for Enlightenment

Happy Easter! Given the pandemic and the necessary stay-at-home order we are under, this is not a normal Easter. On a typical Easter, we would be getting together with family to eat a nice dinner and socialize. It would also be somewhat warmer. Instead, we are all in our individual homes doing homely (in the British sense of the word) things and it’s around freezing in Minnesota, with snow in the metro. I am writing…

Continue reading