Pick-A-Day

March 2023
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Archives

Whatchamacallit 7: Alan Turing First Day Cover

This is a first day cover of a stamp honoring Alan Turing, cancelled at the Bletchley Park Post Office.

This is on my mostly gay wall of art in my bedroom. Strangely, I do not remember exactly how I acquired it, but it was likely shortly after issue in 2012, which was his centenary […]

Visiting Gdańsk

May is a month with many legal holidays.

Combining the first one, May 1st, with the last weekend in April, plus taking Monday off, I headed to Gdańsk in Poland. I was sold on Gdańsk because it’s home to the Fahrenheit Memorial. Naturally, it became my first stop, providing me a place in the […]

Soviet War Memorial in Schönholzer Heide

Last Sunday I headed up toward northern Berlin, a part of the city I have not really taken the time to explore. This time I wanted to see the Soviet War Memorial in Schönholzer Heide, one of the three (that I know of) Soviet memorials to World War II in Berlin.

Surprisingly, the […]

My 2017 Western America Tour: Cheerful Colorado History (Not)

When initially planning my trip, I had envisioned going from the Great Sand Dunes to Laramie, Wyoming, taking the mountain route: The Rockies are a dramatic backdrop and there are lots of trails to hike and things to do.

The problem was, I couldn’t identify anything specific that I wanted to do – and instead […]

Tinian: A difficult journey, and not just literally.

The Hinode American Memorial is in the middle of a traffic circle along Broadway.

I spent today – Easter Monday – popping over to Tinian Island – the immediate neighbor to Saipan, which is, for the record, where I am right now. Visiting Saipan, and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, gets me one […]

49 States… plus DC and Guam

Me at the Southern Most Point of the 50 United States.

One of my long-term goals is to visit all 50 United States.

Such a stereotypical photo of Hawaii, eh?

My 49th State was Hawaii – time zone speaking 12 (now 11) hours different from Germany. Honolulu was supposed to be a non-stop […]

Tiergartenstrasse 4: A New Memorial in Berlin

If there’s one thing Berlin has in spades, it’s history. Lots and lots and lots of history. Much of it is depressing – the kind of history you want to forget but don’t because it should never be forgotten.

Like the Nazi’s Aktion T4 program that killed people who were judged to be insane […]

Hiroshima Peace Park

My first morning in Hiroshima was dedicated to visiting the Peace Park and related activities.

Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims

It’s a slightly odd, and convoluted, reason that I decided to visit Japan and, specifically, Hiroshima, this summer. While I actually had a number of choices as to which city I could […]

Bletchley Park

Last year was the 100th birthday of Alan Turing—the brilliant, gay, scientist who helped break the Enigma machine, and then (probably) committed suicide in 1954.

During the Centenary Celebration, I became aware of Bletchley Park, a museum at the wartime site of British code breaking. I filed away this knowledge for a future trip to […]

Echoes across space and time – Wyoming from Germany: My Wyoming Monologue

Below is my piece for the Wyoming Monologues, a performance put on at the University of Wyoming last night, March 8, 2013, following a performance of the Vagina Monologues. I owe a debt of gratitude to Ian, Stephan, Jay, Alexander, and Bonnie for their helpful comments during the writing process. Further, it would […]