+ Add more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books to the thread, & again share the whole thing widely if you’re able. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, &--that’s right, right-wing snowflakes in the NH state legislature, read it & weep—happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend, all.

+ Second, a reminder that as I’m no longer able to tag here folks featured in the thread (got suspended for spam-tagging), I’m even more reliant on y’all checking out the thread, finding your work among all the goodness, & sharing it all far & wide. +

+ First, a quick note about the holiday: I learned from students in my adult learning class that current New Hampshire state law requires towns to call it Columbus Day. Well, I’m in Mass., but also & in any damn case: here in Casa de AmericanStudier it’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day & always will be. +

In next week’s thread!

As significant as Trains! have been in US history, I'd say they've been even more prominent in pop culture. There are so many examples I could have chosen for a weekend post to conclude the week's blog series--Hepzibah & Clifford's train ride! John Henry!--but I've focused on a telling quartet.

If you find yourself in Jim Thorpe, PA--& you should definitely try to get to the delightful small town named after our greatest American athlete, who's buried nearby--check out the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, which is both a working railroad & a historic museum. That & more in today's post! 🗃️

The Snowflake-in-Chief:

Taught indigenous resistance to Indian Removal this morning in my adult learning class, & learned from a student who's also a New Hampshire civic official that a current law in that state requires them to use "Columbus Day" for the holiday. Such fragile little snowflakes, the modern Right. 🗃️

Can a working train also be a museum? When is a railroad collective memory? I found myself wondering that earlier this year in the small town of Jim Thorpe, in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, as we watched the cars of the historic but very much still operating Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway roll past.

Beauty is truth, indeed!