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Journalist and public figure

10/31/2026

A young Gary Sinise dressed as Superman (center) alongside childhood friends on Halloween in Blue Island, Illinois (1960).

10/27/2026

In 1941, in the port city of Rotterdam, a tram conductor named Willem van Dijk turned his daily route into an act of rebellion. His tram, painted in faded yellow, rattled through the city streets, carrying passengers to and from work under the watchful eyes of occupying soldiers. Yet hidden within the wooden floorboards of his tram were escape maps, ration coupons, and even small radio parts smuggled between safe houses.

Willem wore his uniform cap low, his hands steady on the controls. To the Germans, he was just another man doing his job, ringing the tram bell and collecting fares. But to those who waited nervously at certain stops, his tram was a lifeline. He would slow down just long enough for a hidden package to be dropped or retrieved, his eyes never leaving the tracks ahead.

Once, an officer boarded suddenly, suspicious of a crowded car. Willem’s heart pounded as the soldier’s boots thudded across the wooden floor. Beneath those very planks lay documents that could have condemned dozens. The officer sneered at the weary passengers, then jumped off at the next stop. Willem exhaled only when the tram turned the corner.

Years later, survivors spoke of him with quiet reverence: “He drove not just a tram, but a bridge between despair and hope.”
In the face of tanks and guns, Willem’s greatest weapon was the steady rhythm of his tram, carrying not only passengers but the heartbeat of resistance.

10/26/2026

My Dog is the Reason Your Amazon Package is Late

(The old "oh clumsy me falling off this seat" routine gets them every time.)

10/25/2026

Evolution of the Apollo cuff checklist: from simple label to collectible These three photos cover the whole history of the Apollo cuff checklist. Here is (my opinion only) the most interesting thing about each.

Apollo 11, 1969. Neil Armstrong’s cuff checklist was a fabric panel sewn onto his left glove, about as sophisticated as the laundry label in your shirt. Its first item is “Transfer Cam.” Nowhere does it mention the mission’s top priority, the contingency sample: a quick scoop of soil in case they had to leave in a hurry. Armstrong followed his wrist, went for the camera, and Houston had to remind him, with the world listening, to pick up some dirt.

Apollo 16, 1972. Three years on, the list had become a tabbed, spiral-bound field manual with a geology seminar built in. The “Boulder Tips” pages tell the crew to photograph before touching, chip every layer and bag the shadowed soil. They did actually get soil that had never seen sunlight. Charlie Duke gave his flown copy to backup commander Fred Haise as a thank-you. It sold at Bonhams in 2009 for $206,000, three years before anyone had formally settled who actually owned it.

Apollo 17, 1972. Gene Cernan’s EVA-1 checklist spent 7 hours 12 minutes on the Moon and still carries the dust to prove it. The auction house commissioned a 99-page report to confirm that. In 2012 Congress passed HR 4158, confirming that Apollo-era astronauts owned the mementos NASA had let them keep. That is how a piece of government equipment became a sellable heirloom. In September 2023 it fetched $375,000 at RR Auction, on its second outing, after failing to reach a $500,000-plus estimate that April.

Look at the glove in the photo: it’s a replica, by an artist whose work appeared in the film “First Man”. So the genuine Moon-dusted checklist sits on a Hollywood glove, while Armstrong’s genuine glove carried a list that forgot about the dirt.

From sewn label to field manual in three years, and from field manual to collectible in fifty.

10/17/2026

Drugstore lunch counter, Detroit, 1955. From the photo book "The Americans" by Robert Frank.
In the 1950s, the Tropical Fruit Company marketed an "Orange Whip" concentrate to be served as a fountain beverage.

10/15/2026

Lads, Moss Side, Manchester, England, 1964 - by Sefton Samuels

10/15/2026

Dundee, Scotland, Photo by Joseph McKenzie, c. 1965

10/14/2026

In 1959, a coffee maker was an optional extra in Volkswagen cars.
The Hertella Auto Kaffeemachine was the first and only known dashboard-mounted coffee maker. Manufactured in 1959 specifically for the Volkswagen Beetle, it came with porcelain cups which could stick to the machine magnetically.

10/12/2026

Győr, July 18, 1954. People are being rescued from the flood in Győr with an amphibious vehicle.

10/11/2026

When the victims of Pompeii died in AD 79, they were buried by volcanic ash that solidified around their bodies, locking them in the ground. The soft tissue decomposed, leaving the skeleton in a cavity. Now, it is certainly true that when the plaster cast method was first introduced in the 19th century by Giuseppe Fiorelli, some bones were taken out of the cavities prior to the casts being made (see Pompeii by Alison E Cooley, page 107). But many bones do remain inside and, in some cases, entire skeletons. These images show the cast of a young boy, no older than five, who died in the House of the Golden Bracelet. The photo on the right shows a CT scan of the cast and his skeletal remains inside.

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