Appreciating all that makes America special

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Music: Aaron Copland

Posted by on Aug 27, 2010 in Music | Comments Off on Music: Aaron Copland

Though certainly not the first American composer whose music captured the national mood, Aaron Copland created ballets, popular works, and...

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Actress: Bette Davis

Posted by on Aug 26, 2010 in Actor | Comments Off on Actress: Bette Davis

Bette Davis still scares me. I can go back and watch movies from her early career, when she was young and beautiful, and I think,...

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TV Show: The West Wing

Posted by on Aug 24, 2010 in TV Show | 1 comment

I’ll start by saying that I love the work of Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing’s creator and principal writer. He wrote one of my...

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Kid Stuff: Rocky and Bullwinkle

Posted by on Aug 23, 2010 in Kids Stuff | 1 comment

Actually, there were two series that ran one after the other: Rocky and His Friends (1959-1961) and The Bullwinkle Show (1961-1964). Both...

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Singer: Buddy Holly

Posted by on Aug 22, 2010 in Singer | Comments Off on Singer: Buddy Holly

    He died at the way-too-young age of 23. He’d only been recognized on the music scene for a year and a half. And yet he managed...

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Architecture: Golden Gate Bridge

Posted by on Aug 21, 2010 in Architecture, Kids Stuff, The Arts | Comments Off on Architecture: Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beautiful bridges not just in America, but in the world. No wonder it placed number five in the...

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Food: Maryland Crab Cakes

Posted by on Aug 20, 2010 in Food | Comments Off on Food: Maryland Crab Cakes

I might have called these “Chesapeake Bay” crab cakes instead. But if you trace them to their true home, you come back to...

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Song: "Let's Stay Together"

Posted by on Aug 19, 2010 in Songs | 1 comment

We’re going to call him Rev. Al Green, because that’s who he is today. He was still just Al in 1972, when he recorded...

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Americana: 7-Eleven

Posted by on Aug 18, 2010 in Americana | 1 comment

As with other Great American Things posted here, this post honors the convenience store 7-Eleven in its past, when it was ubiquitous in...

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Travel: Grand Teton National Park

Posted by on Aug 17, 2010 in Travel | Comments Off on Travel: Grand Teton National Park

  In this roughly 40-mile long range of the Rockies, you’ll see nine peaks over 12,000 feet high, the highest being (no surprise)...

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