I graduated college for the last time (presumably) about six weeks ago. According to my dissertation committee, I should be putting together a book proposal and an article from my dissertation this summer. The problem is that I have just about zero interest in touching my dissertation topic anymore. I'm burned out on dealing with Ronald Reagan's ( Read more... )

One of the enduring mysteries of recent history was the identity of Cobra Commander. We heard random bits of background over the years, that he was a former car salesman, that his beloved brother (and Vietnam vet) Dan died in a car accident, that he had a son named Billy. Somehow he always managed to escape from the forces of goodness and democracy ( Read more... )

David Dortort died on Sunday.  Who was Dortort?  For one, he was the creator of "Bonanza," one of the most successful TV shows ever.  I never watched it, so I don't really care about that.  Why do I care?  Because Dortort has a very tangential connection to my dissertation, of course!

Yep, it's going to be another one of those entries that nobody ( Read more... )

More adventures in dissertation writing.  Here's a goofy exchange from an oral history of Joseph Knowland, a Republican congressman (1904-1915) and owner of the Oakland Tribune:

Q:  Did you spend much time in Oregon with the lumber mills?
A:  Oh, I was up there several times.  I brought home a bear with me once.
Q:  A bear?
A:  A live bear.  I kept it ( Read more... )

I just encountered one of those weird, completely random research moments that nobody will care about but me.  My M.A. thesis involved the anti-Chinese movement in California in the 1860s and 1870s.  In 1879, Article XIX became part of the second California Constitution, which stated that "no corporation now existing or hereafter formed under the ( Read more... )

Today I finally finished reviewing the pictures of documents I took at the Reagan Library in May, which means it's about time to start writing the dissertation. I have rough drafts of two chapters done already (seminar papers that will become chapters), and about 50 pages of notes for a third chapter. Now I need to start writing the damn thing. ( Read more... )

"I'm going to talk fast, and I'm going to ask you to listen fast and if you finish first please be patient."

-Brigadier General William Glasgow, US Army Corps of Engineers, speaking before the "People and Water" panel at the Governor's Conference on California's Changing Environment, November 17, 1969

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Skimming through the Sierra Club Bulletin today, I came across one of the most diabolical schemes to defeat the environmental movement ever hatched. The March, 1975, issue of the Bulletin quoted extensively from a report "prepared for an as-yet undisclosed federal department by the consulting firm of Pandora Research, Ltd., of Chillicothe, Ohio ( Read more... )

The Special Collections room at UCLA's Charles Young Research Library is easily the worst archive I have visited in my short career.  FYI.  They don't allow photography.  Photocopies are a dollar per page, and will take about two weeks.  (By the way, how the hell is photocopying a document less damaging than taking a picture of it?!?)  You can only ( Read more... )

After weeks of wrangling and a last-minute change in research destinations (which came about today when my adviser asked if I could spend a day at UCLA instead of Stanford despite the hundreds of miles separating the two), I finally have an itinerary for my trip to California next week:

• Monday: fly to Los Angeles
• Tuesday: research at UCLA
• Wednesday: ( Read more... )