Yesterday we heard the sad news that American photographer Roy DeCarava had passed away at the age of 89. One of the pioneers of a new kind of American street photography, especially between the late-40s and late-60s, DeCarava focused his lens on the desolation of the neighborhood where was spent most of his life: Harlem. [...]

The Statue of Liberty, a French gift to the U.S.A. on the occasion of the Declaration of Independence’s centennial, was dedicated on October 28 1886, which makes Lady Liberty exactly 123 years old today. As a celebration of all that that huge hunk of metal has come to symbolize over the years, we’re looking at [...]

The Star-Spangled Banner, better-known to some as the national anthem of the U.S.A., was first sung exactly 195 years ago, we’re told. Though it was not approved as the official national anthem until 1931, the 1814 poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” by Francis Scott Key was immediately set to the popular British drinking song “The [...]

In a loving Los Angeles Times piece last week on the occasion of Saturday’s celebration, Mike Boehm remembers the time 50 years ago when L.A.’s idiosyncratic, cathedral-like folk art monuments the Watts Towers were almost torn down. Built by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia between 1921 and 1954, the property was slated for demolition, but rescued [...]

Today is Leif Ericson Day, an occasion to celebrate the achievements of that valiant Norse explorer (approx 970-1020), most notably being the first European to set foot on the North American continent, likely somewhere near the tip of what is now Newfoundland. Given his broad region of influence–Iceland, Norway, Greenland, North America–you might find celebrations [...]

180 years ago today, Scotland Yard opened for spy business in London. Technically called the Metropolitan Police Service, it’s essentially the headquarters for the police force that oversees Greater London (as opposed to inner city London, whose surveillance falls to the City of London Police). Of course, the force is now housed at New Scotland [...]

As magazine readers, we usually pick up issues based solely on their cover (occasionally, we skim the table of contents). In doing so, we tend to pick up some pretty awful stuff because, well, most of the unusual covers these days are being published by really bad magazines. You’ll note that evolution in Best Week [...]

Of all the world’s massive and mysterious monuments, the easiest to copy (save perhaps the pyramids) must be Stonhenge – provided you ignore the problem of how its multiple-ton blocks were lifted into place before modern machinery. Regardless, recent replicas abound. Inexplicably, the great Pi Stonehenge (also known as Stonehenge 3.141…) was left out of [...]

Yesterday was Labor Day, which we found out was actually originally a Canadian holiday sparked by labor disputes in Hamilton and Toronto in the 1870s. American labor leader Peter J. McGuire was visiting Toronto in 1882 when he came across one such celebration, and decided to import the idea to the U.S. He organized the [...]

It’s easy to forget, in these days of handheld devices and interactive, hyper-dynamic web design, that websites were pretty much hideously ugly 10 years ago. Or maybe our aesthetic standards have changed and they actually seemed acceptable at the time. Either way, perusing the Telegraph’s listicle of How 20 Popular Sites Looked When They Launched [...]