About

I'm an expat Californian who is obsessed with traveling to strange and exotic destinations in the former Communist Bloc. I also like tacos, beer, surfing, trapshooting, and the geopolitics of oil. I currently live in Arlington, Virginia and work in Washington, DC. Read more about me here, check out my photo album, or send me an e-mail.

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    POTD: December 7, 1941


    Destroyer USS Shaw exploding during early morning air attack by Japanese on Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, near Honolulu.

    pearl_harbor_attack_uss_shaw_1941.jpg


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    POTD: McCain/Fey ‘04

    Saw this on Wonkette a while ago. Still amusing.

    SNL comic Tina Fey and Sen. John McCain on cover of LIFE 10-15-2004.

    life_magazine_john_mccain_tina_fey_2004.jpg


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    POTD: Nixon/Khrushchev Kitchen Debate, 1959


    Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (2L) vehemently arguing w. VP Richard Nixon (2R) who is furiously objecting as an excited interpreter (C) translates their firey words re US ideas on home construction during “kitchen debate” at American Natl. Exhibit at Moscow Fair

    The entire transcript is worth reading, but this is the best line:

    Khrushchev: You’re a lawyer of Capitalism, I’m a lawyer for Communism. Let’s kiss.

    Sounds like the title of a Panic! at the Disco song.

    nixon_khrushchev_kitchen_debate_1959.jpg
    (Howard Sochurek, 1959)


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    POTD: Backpackers in Dubrovnik, 1957


    dubrovnik_backpackers_1957.jpg
    (Michael Rougier, August 1957)

    Tourists carrying backpacks sightseeing in Dubrovnik.

    Young people traipsing about wearing jeans and gigantic backpacks with a flag pinned to them. Fifty years later, and not much has changed (except for the footwear. Flip-flops, please).

    Dubrovnik is by far one of the most beautiful places on earth. If I win the lottery, I’m moving there, buying a flat in the Old City, and spending my days eating pizza and seafood, drinking beer, and listening to the 80 year old dudes at the bar tell stories about whatever.


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    POTD: Malibu, 1961


    Post Gidget invasion, and Dora’s nightmare.

    surfing_malibu_1961.jpg
    (Allan Grant, 1961)


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    POTD: November 22, 1963


    Pres. John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline arriving for a tour of the city on the morning of Kennedy’s assassination.

    I always thought this photo was incredibly sad. A little over an hour after this photo was taken, Kennedy would be pronounced dead.

    jfk_jackie_love_field_1963.jpg
    (Art Rickerby, 1963)


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    POTD: Apollo-Soyuz “vodka” rations, 1975


    American astronauts Tom Stafford and Deke Slayton holding tubes of vodka given to them by Russian cosmonauts during historic rendezvous and linkup of Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft.

    Who cares what space food tastes like when your meal comes with a tube of vodka?

    (The tubes of vodka didn’t actually contain vodka, as that is probably the last thing you want your crew to drink when piloting spacecraft. As a joke, the Soviet cosmonauts pasted vodka labels onto tubes of borscht and presented them to the Americans for a toast. Yes, tubes of borscht. I think I’d rather have the vodka.)


    (1975)


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    POTD: Nuclear test dummies, 1955


    Atomic Bomb Test In Nevada
    Scorched & disheveled male mannequin clad in dark business suit standing in the desert w. lady mannequin in bkgrd., 7000 ft. from the 44th nuclear test explosion, a day after the blast, indicating that humans could be burnt but still alive.

    Well, that’s comforting. The tie on the dummy is a nice touch as well.

    nevada_nuclear_test_dummies_1955.jpg
    (Loomis Dean, May 1955)


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    POTD: Oil wells near Los Angeles, 1937


    Los Angeles, over seventy years ago. Wonder what is there right now. Probably a mall.

    los_angeles_oil_wells_1937.jpg
    (1937, Horace Bristol)


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