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All paid subscribers have already received this special link in advance (happy advent calendar day 12) but we still have some stock so I wanted to share with you all! I so appreciate you being subscribed to my newsletter and reading my inner thoughts, historical deep dives and unconventional flavor combos that I wanted to make sure I sent out an email blast prior to posting about it on socials.

For those who deal in arms, war is a business, a very lucrative one, at that. Historians look to the sale of arms to the Indigenous people of the Americas by Dutch traders in the 1600s as the start of the arms business in America.  Before the American Revolution, the colonies didn’t have widespread arms or gunpowder manufacturing capabilities, and the British were pretty successful at keeping it that way. The Colonial Militia had to retreat from the Battle of Bunker Hill because they ran out of ammunition.

One of the quirks of my day job is that there are a few cities I return to again and again, driven by the vagaries of the tech trade show circuit. Three trips to Las Vegas, four to Berlin, a few to Los Angeles, and more besides. But my first, and most frequent, is Barcelona, a city I’ve now been to six times, exclusively consisting of 3-5 day visits in late February.

Welcome to the weekend! Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s newsletter: Bar Crawl: We’re introducing a new recurring feature! Get a crash-course in Milwaukee’s drinking scene by going on an afternoon bar crawl. Featured Field Guide: Download your copy of our Field Guide to Milwaukee! This 56-page dining guide is formatted for your phone and includes a curated four-day itinerary with 35+ recommendations for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks.

Barbara Baxley was one of the first actresses I met when I moved to New York in 1989 to begin work on what became Follies of God. In my copy of Who’s Who in the Theatre, Baxley provided both her address and her home telephone number, and I utilized both to ask her for an interview. Barbara and I spent many days together, and she was unafraid of honesty. Barbara was also bold in telling me how wrong I was, and she disabused me of many things I thought I knew from reading biographies and listening to gossip.

The essay below titled, “So You Want To Be a Historian,” is authored by historian Barbara Fields and appeared in The Washington Post in 1991. I only learned about it yesterday as a result of seeing it on my social media feeds. So much of this resonates with me as a historian, but also as a history educator, and as a student of history. I don’t typically share other people’s writing in its entirety on my own site, but I am going to make an exception here.

Barbara Lane I've bee a book columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, book reviewer for NPR, and several national newspapers, and author interviewer for City Arts & Lectures, the Commonwealth Club, and a number of literary festivals. 200 subscribers ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjaOt0ZuYq5mclrum

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD DAY AND WELCOME! To another edition of Barbecue, Bets, and Beats - as far as I know, still the only Friday newsletter to talk about Texas barbecue, sports betting, and music all in one neat little package. As always, I am happy you have elected to devote a small sliver of your time to my musings here. This week’s edition of the Triple… ncG1vNJzZmiika6us7rOpZtnq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1wrsCrmZ6bpZp6o7HTrGSappRir6at06xkaW1gaw%3D%3D

Welcome to Home & Away. It is September 1, 2023, which means that summer is all but over and fall is hovering off stage. Apples are close to being picked and turned into pies, cider, and sauce. Students are back in school, although it is difficult not to wish that many public schools did a better job of educating them. While I’m at it, I would add to my wish list that there was more school choice; it is outrageous that the teachers unions and the politicians they support limit the number of charter schools rather than improve the quality of what is offered in the public system.