A long overdue Meander

For the past two weeks I got an inordinate number of hits from Hong Kong. They seem to be trailing off now. No idea why as whoever or whatever it is generating these hits wasn't looking at any posts. When I get hits from Singapore, which also seems a bit suspect, I see a number of corresponding hits on my posts. Maybe this is a legacy of the time my cousin taught at the American International School in Singapore? Blogger doesn't provide much in the way of analytics and I really don't want to spend time dissecting this. At least it is not coming from Russia or some Central Asian country, which had been the case a few years ago.

This blog has morphed over the years. It went from an American history reading group in the wake of the collapse the NY Times reading groups, around 2010, to what is now a personal blog. The only person that still hangs around from that time is Trippler. The others have either moved on or passed away, like Chartres and Robert Whelan. We had some fun interchanges and it is nice to see that these posts are still being hit. For students looking for crib notes on Am history, these posts and comments are a gold mine, as they are filled with trenchant observations and a great number of links. We took our reading group seriously. Maybe too seriously, as we came across as "scholars" and others were afraid to chime in. Most of us were armchair historians.

AVRDS liked to post "Meanders" from time to time to break up the seriousness of the blog. It was a way to comment on current events or share lighter reading interests. I see these "Meanders" are still being hit but I've long lost track of AVRDS.

Surprisingly, there isn't much interest from the US. There might be 3 or 400 hits per month. That's probably Trippler looking in or one of my facebook friends that I sent a link to. Otherwise, it is a scattershot of hits from all over the world, I assume because someone hit on a post in doing a google search of a subject, as I sometimes do. As a result, there is no way to generate revenue off this blog. When I did try to monetize it a few months back, all I got were unwanted ads peppered through the blog and posts. No money, so I demonetized it once again. The blog simply doesn't generate enough regular traffic to warrant blogger paying me anything. Oh well.

I suppose in this day and age blogs have become obsolete anyway. Most persons turn to social media sites and youtube to vent their opinions, often with lavish visuals to make it look like they have some kind of news channel going. They are all vying to be the next Jon Stewart or John Oliver. I don't have such pretensions. Besides, it takes too much effort.

However, I do enjoy a response to my posts. If there is anyone out there showing any interest, don't be afraid to comment. Just no spam, please.

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud. -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!

Dispatches from Vilnius

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