Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Pumpkin Boy, Vasco de Gama, a pirate, and General Nathaniel Lyon!

Happy 201st Birthday, Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin!

I will eat a piece of cake for each of you.

Merry Christmas!

Cait, Ben, and Graham (c. 1989) wish you a happy holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Youth's Companion

17 April 1902

Happy Halloween!

Thomas Kendel

Wakefield, Ma

c. 1680

Save Like It's 1492!

I got an email from Staples this morning. The subject was, "Save Like It's 1492! Discover a World of Savings!"

It took me a moment to realize that it's Columbus Day weekend (ever since living in California, I'm always surprised that some states still celebrate Columbus Day). Until I remembered this crucial bit of information, I was very, very confused.

Happy Patriots' Day!

 If you live in Massachusetts or Maine, you already know that today is Patriots' Day. I didn't go out to the reenactment, but I did drag Pete over to Cambridge Common on Saturday night to visit the brass horseshoe prints commemorating the ride of William Dawes.

There are several graves in local graveyards dedicated to those killed on April 19, 1775. British Regulars are buried in Lexington, Arlington, and Milk Row Cemetery in Somerville. Minutemen killed during the battle are buried in all over the place — the Jason Russell gravesite in Arlington is one of the most impressive. I find the British soldiers' graves particularly sad. The makeshift marker in Arlington looks so woefully forgotten. In Lexington, some 19th- or 20th-century mourner erected a more permanent memorial, but it's still anonymous and sad:

The "Lexington Alarm" was a defining moment in the lives of many New England men. Years later, it was the most memorable moment of their lives. In Brooklyn, CT, Asa Pike's gravestone marks him as one of the many Connecticut men who marched to Massachusetts in the days following the battle.