Historical Tidbits Archives

May 22, 2026May 23, 2026

Decoration Days

The tradition of roses and the military go back 2000 years to the Romans. Annually, the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation hands out over 120,000 roses and carnations in Arlington National Cemetery (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue)

This coming weekend is Memorial Day weekend, officially an observance to honor fallen soldiers but unofficially the beginning of the summer. We have Congress in 1968 to thank for creating the Uniform Holiday Act, which turned many of our solemn, meaningful observances into convenient three-day weekends, perfect for getaways full of clogged traffic leaving town and home improvement projects that I don’t have enough time to finish because I didn’t start until Monday. On the other hand, the garage could use a spruce up…

I’ve never been able to warm up to Memorial Day, and trying to put my finger on it, I think it’s because of the hypocrisy. To the extent that there’s a typical saying besides “Hot Dogs Half OFF!” or “Beach is Open” or “Maybe there’s a frontage road around this mess…,” the speeches come from politicians determined to shape the idea of sacrifice into a battering ram to justify more use of force. It doesn’t help that every single American war in my lifetime has been about the elite in the US sending the have-not soldiers into places we should not be, but of course that’s not the fault of those in uniform, thank you for your service. (Don’t get me wrong; I would rather have a military than the alternative.) It just too often makes me think of those Jackson Browne lyrics:

I want to know who the men in the shadows are,
I want to hear someone asking them why,
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight and to die…
Jackson Browne “Lives in the Balance”

Still, perhaps in penance for not sufficiently appreciating the sacrifice because of politicians’ crocodile tears, I can offer up a little historical journey. Not why America created Memorial Day because all those bot-churned quasi-stories will trace it to the Civil War. Instead, my question is was putting flowers on military graves always a thing? How did other, older cultures used to celebrate their dead? We’re one of the few cultures that only observes this for one day and restricts it to people in the military.

Meanwhile lots of other cultures, historically, set aside time to remember those who passed before us, especially family members.

April 22, 2026April 22, 2026

S is for Singapore

Fast Facts:

Named for: Siṃhapura, Sanskrit for “lion city”
Capital: It’s a “city-state,” i.e., Singapore is its own capital.
Long/Lat: 1.17 N/103.5 E, 17 hours and 8500 miles west of Castro Valley.
Population: 6.1 million or 100 Castro Valleys. Third most densely populated region in the world, after Macau and Monaco.
Size: 287 sq mi or 16 Castro Valleys
Avg temp in April: 90 F/30 C, close to the equator
Median income: $150,000, close to Castro Valley
Ethnicity: 74% Chinese, 14% Malay, 9% Industries
Main industries: Trade. Trade. Trade. Their economy is “free, innovative, dynamic, and business-friend.” Surprisingly, not especially corrupt.

One of the key architects of what Singapore has become was Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles. I know, the name sounds made up. That, too, is a metaphor for Singapore, a place of such contrast that it’s hard to believe.

Singapore is tiny, but huge in population. The 3rd most densely populated in the world, the 176th smallest land base for a country. It’s both island and city, near the sweltering jungles at the equator, but a futuristic high-tech sparkling megalopolis. It’s surrounded by Malaysia, also islands and cities, both rural and urban simultaneously. Singapore means “Lion City” though apparently there’s never been a lion, other than in a zoo. Its symbol is the Merlion, half-fish and half-lion. Perhaps Singapore’s success has been in taking on multiple identities.

Encyclopedias on Singapore begin its history with the 14th century, though surely there were people before that. The Malay people who predated the Kingdom of Singapore called it Pulau Ujong, meaning “island at the end of the peninsula.” But that’s a geographic description and not great for creating the image of a city-state. It was called Temasek, a trading port, a mix of Malay, Indian, South Asian, and Chinese people. Lion City seems a more intriguing name even if there never were lions. A Palembang prince in the 14th century reportedly spotted what he believed was a lion but it was really a tiger. Yet, he gets credit for suggesting its name, Siṃhapura.

April 20, 2026April 20, 2026

The Panama Canal: 500 Lives per Mile

The original Panama Canal still operates a century later. Kajmeister photo.

A grand vision. Incredible hubris. Stupidity and poor planning. Thousands of lives lost. A miracle of modern science and engineering. A doorway between oceans. The Panama Canal was–and is–all of these things.

Yesterday, I wrote my A to Z post about the country of Panama. But I mentioned the serendipity of being in Panama while it was time to write about Panama. And the first thing anyone usually thinks about Panama is The Canal.

Knowing I was planning this trip through the canal, Nan, one of my chickleball friends, recommended an excellent history of the canal: David McCullough’s The Pathway through the Seas. It earned a Pulitzer Prize 50 years ago, and for good reason. I had to speed-read the last of the 600 pages, just finishing it it in time–phew! otherwise, we would have been stuck in the locks. Spoiler: they did it. It was cray-cray. Herein, I will give you the speed version, 2000 words instead of 600 pages, the How, Why, and What the Canal was all about.