July 11, 2026 | Rome, Italy
Prop planes fly through it...

La nube

A Sunday silver lining softens the havoc caused by European air traffic stoppages.

Rome barbershops are closed on Monday.

Luck

If you're in Rome on a Monday and want a haircut, you're ... blessed.

Truman holds up Chicago's early edition headline at the end of the 1948 race.

Endgame

Ask not for whom the bell tolls. After all, you're reading this online.

Khrushchev's shoe: When the Cold War was cold...

Moonless

Francis Fukuyama rightly warned history was ending. He didn't foresee so much narcissism.

Illustration from "Life" magazine depicting the deterrent the U.S. had available to stem the rising tide of Soviet ICBMs.

Icky

Before puberty and girls came civil defense drills and teacher-aliens.

A private voice didn't need an audience. Ruminations were their own reward.

Black I

Once out, the first person now flourished. But what about social maturity?