The AP reported back in January that piano sales in the U.S. have dramatically declined. According to the story, in 1909, more than 364,500 new pianos were sold in the U.S. Now, only between 30,000 and 40,000 are sold annually. What are the reasons behind the decline? In part, it’s because modern piano restoration is
READ MOREIn 1892, George Hardy, the principal of a New York Grammar school said, “Worthless literature is the curse of the child’s intellect and the bane of the child’s morals, yet it has the market; and its widespread distribution and rapid sale are striking testimony alike to the deterioration of the popular taste and to our
READ MOREIt was recently implied by Breitbart that actress Marion Cotillard made several un-PC statements about feminism. Judging by her original statement in Porter magazine, Breitbart’s assessment wasn’t all that far off: “‘For me it doesn’t create equality, it creates separation. I mean I don’t qualify myself as a feminist.’ ‘We need to fight for women’s
READ MOREIn the name of science and the advancement of the human race, many prominent individuals sincerely called for government eugenics programs in the early 20th century. It was only after the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed to the world that talk of eugenics quickly subsided. These quotes serve as a strong reminder of the
READ MOREThere was only one poem I was required to memorize in all my years of schooling – Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Like most students today, I had an education in which memorization was not emphasized. My understanding is that it is even worse now. Today, the word “memorization” is
READ MOREYesterday, Pew Research released a report which showed that 59 million immigrants have arrived in the U.S. in the last 50 years. This far exceeds the 32 million immigrants which arrived between 1840 and 1919. The immigration debate can be quite sensitive for a number of reasons. For one thing, denying entry to a
READ MOREIn a post last Friday, I pointed to a Harvard professor’s belief that the U.S. and China could be at war with each other in the next decade. The two most popular comments on the post thread brought up the eventual possibility of a conflict with Russia, as well. In light of that possibility, I
READ MOREDid you ever have a parent or grandparent who regaled you with stories of life before television? In an era where almost everyone carries a tiny screened device in their pockets, such a life seems impossible to replicate, but one school in London has accepted the challenge. As The Guardian reports, the London Acorn School
READ MOREOccasionally, you’ll see gun-ownership advocates mocked for believing that the Founders both feared a standing army and believed that an armed citizenry would be a deterrent against a military takeover of the country by its own government. Why it seems absurd that the Founders would hold such views is beyond me. The Founders had just
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