Tag Archive: history

The Myth of the Assimilating Immigrant, Speaking English, and Eroding Americana

November 15, 2016 1 Comment

Discussions about immigration are funny. They tend to focus on the same small handful of heartfelt pleas; arguments about losing our culture, griping that immigrants don’t learn the language (“the language” being English), and the idea that immigrants of the past used to come here and work hard to assimilate themselves into American culture. As we’re about to discover, that last part is largely a myth. First, a word on the language. The United States has no official language. Never has. As immigration has increased from non-European countries, there have also been increasing calls for a national language, thus far to no avail. Some individual states do, 32 of them in all, but not the United States itself. Our documents are written in English, and…
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Politics, Random Musings

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The Atari 2600, Axis & Allies, classic board games, and other Youtube shenanigans

June 18, 2016 0 Comments

I’ve been lax in posting recent Hours in the Attic videos because Reasons, so I figured the best way to alleviate my guilt would be to post several at once. Two are board game-related, which is always fun because board games rock, and the third is a bit of Atari 2600 nostalgia. So that’s swell. Check them out while I get back to pretending I’m a writer (and don’t forget to subscribe):   This next one, I don’t know how Tig managed to salvage it, because I was just rambling without direction or focus. That’s what years worth of loving this game will do to you, I guess. Axis & Allies isn’t the deepest war game out there, but for me it’s the most fun. I still…
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Geek Stuff, Videos, Works by Eric

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Saving Private Ryan on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day

June 7, 2014 1 Comment

Watched Saving Private Ryan in honor of the 70th anniversary of D-Day yesterday. I still remember when I first saw this in the theater. I live in a retirement area with a huge senior population.When we went to see this the theater was full, and it was a sea of white heads in every aisle. My wife and I were some of the only young people there. It was harrowing. That opening sequence, no one had ever done anything like it before. For 20 minutes you’re assaulted with graphic violence and noise and fury that relentlessly pounded your senses. By the end of the sequence, you were out of breath and tired of being battered and just wishing for a break from the sensory overload. The result was that for the rest of the movie,…
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Films, Random Musings

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Why would you write about your lousy little town?

October 26, 2012 0 Comments

I never saw my hometown ’till I stayed away too long. –“San Diego Serenade,” Tom Waits This sort of sums up Lakehurst: Barrens, Blimps & Barons, a book I wrote and self-published about the tiny Pine Barrens town I spent years trying to leave. That’s right. For most of my teen years, I wanted to get the hell out of that place. So if I spent years trying to leave the town — and I jumped ship as soon as I could, fleeing at the age of 19 — why would I spend the time to write and publish a book about it? Tom Waits nailed it in the above lyric from “San Diego Serenade,” featured on 1974’s The Heart of Saturday Night. There is…
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Random Musings, Works by Eric, Writing

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TODAY IN HISTORY: Graf Zeppelin completes first Transatlantic flight, lands in Lakehurst

October 15, 2012 1 Comment

Yep, the little town that could made history in more ways than you realize. On this day in 1928, the legendary Graf Zeppelin completed its first ever Transatlantic flight, flying from Friedrichshafen, Germany to Lakehurst, New Jersey in about 111 hours. Capt. Ernst Lehmann was in command of this historic flight. Eight years later he’d be on an even more famous flight: the crash of Hindenburg. Sadly, he would not live to tell his story; Lehmann was one of the causalities of the disaster. The famed Graf Zeppelin landed in Lakehurst at around 5:28 p.m., making Lakehurst the destination for the world’s first ever Transatlantic flight by a passenger airship. The Germans had some company on the fight. U.S. Navy LCDR Charles E. Rosendahl was…
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Random Musings, Uncategorized

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