Every class I took on the American Revolution focused on the thirteen colonies. In my limited knowledge of the war, the French and Spanish were doing their own things west of the Mississippi, leaving the British-owned but lightly settled Illinois Country in between that saw no real action. I had no idea that the southern part of the old Northwest Territory had been a theater of war until I got a postcard advertising the Filson Historical Society’s Northwest & Indigenous Revolution Tour. It was time to expand my world view from where I’d left it in high school. Our main tour stops were Fort ..read more

Welcome new subscribers! One monthly newsletter is devoted to Ohio River trivia, and always includes ten questions. It’s the rare person who can answer all ten correctly without a deep dive into each topic. Do your best and have fun while learning something new. Before delving into the trivia questions, I’ll prime you for this month’s topic with historical background on higher education in the Ohio Valley. * The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for settlement and government of the territory and stated that “…schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” I talked about th ..read more

The more I learn about the European kings who colonized the world, the more they blow my mind. For example, I was just in Barbados and picked up a book about its founding. Essentially, one of King James’s buddies fell into debt with some London merchants and figured the best way out was to start a colony in the Eastern Caribbean, as one does. He asked his king if he could have one, and the sovereign basically said, “Sure, take ‘em all.” It’s always who you know. Something not dissimilar happened when that same King James claimed North America from sea to shining sea and called it Virginia, aft ..read more

Hello, beautiful people. It’s trivia time again! Those who read my last newsletter reviewing David McCullough’s book about settling the Ohio Territory will remember that the first white settlement on the Ohio River was named Marietta. In a prior quiz, we revealed that Marietta was named for Queen Marie Antoinette, whom Revolutionary veterans thought had done more than anyone else (even Ben Franklin) to convince King Louis XVI to support their effort. So let’s explore more of the French influence in the Ohio River Valley this month, shall we? QUESTIONS * What’s the name of the county where Mari ..read more

The other night, my spouse and I were scrolling through the channels and came upon the 1972 pilot of M*A*S*H. Matt and I had watched the CBS reruns on a black-and-white TV every night as we pulled a meal together in his tiny college apartment. We loved the show’s zany characters and its stick-it-to-the-man pacifism and didn’t notice (much less mind) the laugh track. So we curled up on the couch to relive the experience. Here’s the pilot’s plot line: The Swamp’s Korean houseboy, Ho-Jon, gets accepted to study at Hawkeye’s alma mater, but he has to pay to get himself there. The camp raises money ..read more

Hello, friends. I hope your December was better than mine—I came down with Covid and basically napped my way through the last two weeks of 2023. I managed to listen to a couple of good books and catch up on my podcasts, some of which I’ll list in the intermission between questions and answers for this month’s quiz. Oh, and I knitted this scarf. If you come down with something this year, my best advice is to BE SICK. Don’t half-ass your respite, as it will only prolong your misery. Be sick, then be well. Of course, this advice applies to those who aren’t a brief illness away from homelessness ..read more

The Ohio River was America’s longest slavery border. It shaped the culture and institutions of the entire region before the Civil War, and into the present day. As I continue expanding my body of work here, I’ll show you what I mean. First, a note about slave borders. We usually think of the Mason-Dixon as the dividing line between slave- and free-states, but it wasn’t intended for that use when it was surveyed to settle a colonial land dispute. The original was only 233 miles long and didn’t even cover the entire southern border of Pennsylvania because parts of it weren’t involved in the land ..read more

Readers (and listeners) loved last month’s Ohio River Trivia. More, more! Encore, encore! You asked for it, you’ve got it. My first newsletter each month will be ten trivia questions about the six states that border the Ohio River. I pull several questions from my prior newsletters, so faithful readers have a leg up! ANSWERS IN THE FOOTNOTES, so don’t click them until you’ve made your final choices. Free and paid subscribers never miss a quiz or newsletter. QUESTIONS * In which Ohio River city did the screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo serve his federal sentence for contempt of Congress i ..read more

Born in the 1960s, I missed the nuclear duck-and-cover drills, where school children knelt under their desks and covered their heads. We learned that same drill for tornado sirens, not nuclear annihilation. My first memory of anything nuclear was Three Mile Island in 1979, not bombs. It wasn’t until 2023 that I learned that the Ohio River Valley had played a major role in the country’s uranium enrichment program because, once again, it was mostly over by the time I finished high school. The Atomic Energy Commission located plants, labs, and ancillary operations along a stretch of the river tha ..read more

Hello friends, I have been told I have a “trap mind” because it traps and holds onto random facts and scenes. For example, I remember the leopard-printed socks that my friend Carola bought 34 years ago when our oldest children were in their strollers. Obviously, my trap mind is unpredictable and undiscriminating, but it occasionally serves me well—for example, trivia nights and marital arguments disagreements discussions. How about you? Would you love some Ohio River trivia to whip out at your next office lunch or PTA fundraiser? Look no further. I’ve got you covered. Here’s a quiz about the s ..read more