On Christmas Day 1863, American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had every reason to feel discouraged and withdrawn. His second wife,...

A neighbor who's taking an English class this semester asked me about Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" today. It's been probably...

The NASA astronaut crew that manned the SpaceX Dragon capsule returned to Earth today after a two-month mission. I wrote this piece...

The band formerly known as The Dixie Chicks (now known as “The Chicks,” and I’m not going to weigh in on that right now) released a new...

On Monday, the ownership of the Washington Redskins announced that they’ll be retiring the Redskins nickname from Washington D.C.’s...

Okay, the title of this piece might be a little misleading. I’m not mourning the loss of small talk. I’m generally not a fan of small...

2020 has me feeling a little bit differently about the Fourth of July. In short, it's complicated. So I thought I'd try to articulate...

I grew up in the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia. When I was a kid, my local history was basically American history. Thomas Jefferson,...