THE PAGE TURNS

October 30, 2026November 11, 2026

“You Can See Everything”: RIP Patrick Stewart

At one point, when I was pregnant many years ago, we discussed naming the child Picard. Perhaps the middle name. We also discussed Duncan and Morgan, two characters from a book series, and Janeway for a girl. Our eldest was named Kelson, after a character from said book, and the youngest has a middle name from Babylon 5. (The youngest now goes by a different first name, and the eldest on social media uses his middle name first and some other random name … names sort of don’t really matter, so parents should’t obsess too much over it).

Who didn’t love Jean-Luc? However, when Patrick Stewart, who died yesterday, was first announced in 1987 to be the new captain on the new series The Next Generation, I had a hard time seeing him as a good guy. At the time, the American press called him an “unknown British actor,” but if you watched PBS or films made by British directors, he was very much known indeed.

October 18, 2026October 28, 2026

The Immovable Object Don’t Get No Respect

Golden State Valkyries & Atlanta Dream are in the WNBA finals, two of the best defensive teams in the league. The first game met the defense-forward narrative. Back in June, Kiah Stokes blocks a shot by Angel Reese. Photo from San Jose Mercury News.

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense…

That’s what they say. Lead with offense and defense will take care of itself. They also say:

Irresistible force meets the immovable object…

But offense, the irresistible force, gets most of the credit. So what happens if you build a team–a basketball team in particular–around defense? What happens if you recruit two-way players, athletes who are almost equally good at preventing scoring as they are at scoring? If you find ways to rotate the defense fluidly, to move players in and out of the game by having everyone on the bench play with ease, to slow the game down, block the shots, scramble after balls until your defense creates your offense?

The answer is that you don’t appear in any of the stats. But you appear in the finals. With a chip on your shoulder.

September 7, 2026October 21, 2026

Picnic & Protest, the Origins of Labor Day

International Workers of the World archives, wikimedia.

May 8, 1882: Peter J. McGuire, at that time the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners… suggested the first Monday in September for the holiday he had in mind, “as it would come at the most pleasant season of the year, nearly midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, and would fill a wide gap in the chronology of legal holidays.”

Mr. McGuire’s resolution was adopted and a committee was appointed to plan a demonstration inline with his suggestion of a street parade, “which would publicly show the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations”, to be followed by “a picnic or a festival in some grove.”
Origin & Significance of Labor Day, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1936.

It’s Labor Day weekend, though unless you’ve been a member of the pipefitter’s union or the Wobblies, you may not realize that does not refer to doing household projects before the bad weather starts or going back to work after summer vacation. Labor Day has a very special history in the United States, even though the influence of organized labor is not what it was in 1882 when the holiday was designed. It’s worth a pause to remember why it’s there. What may be more interesting is why it’s then. Choosing an early day in September was a feature, not a bug, of the union organizers, nearly 150 years ago. Well-played, I say.