Category: pragmatic historian

history pragmatic historian

Whatever Happened to Breakfast in Bed?

By Mary | by Mary

After decades of excessive consumption following World War II, Americans have swung toward a balancing trend of minimalism in terms of collecting stuff. While there are certainly plenty of people who indulge in purchasing unneeded items or shopping for shopping’s sake, we have reached a point in which people claim they would rather have experiences instead of stuff. Given this experiences trend, I’m curious about an observation I made recently upon waking. (Because isn’t “upon…

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history pragmatic historian

Aphantasia and the Study of History

By Mary | by Mary

Here is an amazing fact of life that younger people may not realize until they have a good number of years behind them: You never stop learning interesting, fundamental things about yourself. My husband and I are in our early 50s and Erik (that’s my husband, in case you didn’t know) just learned that he is aphantasiac. Here is the BBC article about aphantasia that brought this realization to him. Basically, people who have aphantasia…

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history pragmatic historian time

Unsettled by the Metal Detector Man

By Mary | by Mary

One day last week, our dog’s insistent barking (he rarely barks) announced that someone was near the yard. A man with a metal detector came to the door and asked if he could search our yard. He was attracted to our house because it is old. This is the second time this has occurred. Last year, a different man with a metal detector asked if he could search our yard because our house is old.…

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