At the Library of Congress, doing my best impression of someone who reads as much as Jefferson did.
Hi, I’m Joe Girard. I welcome you to share in my interests and compositions. I write about history, economics, sports, math, travel, and whatever else catches my attention — mostly because I can’t stop noticing patterns in things…and I am cursed with a very good memory and a curiosity that can’t be turned off.
This site is where many of those thoughts land. I welcome comments, suggestions and insightful discussions.
You can reach me at joe@girardmeister.com
on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joe.girard.752 (I only accept friend requests from friends of friends, or if someone finds me and sends a FB message. But I am highly selective)
A short bio: Joe Girard is a retired Aerospace Engineer and a lifelong passionate amateur historian, particularly of US history. Raised in Milwaukee and born in Chicago, he has spent years traveling to sate his curiosity of all things historical and interesting. He is father of three and grandfather (Opa) to two. He lives near Denver, Colorado.
1) Essays and musings are posted in blogs. Recent posts are shown at right with links.
Archived essays from this site: Archived Posts
2) My fictional-history novel “Write Your Score” can be found at Amazon.com. A story of found family, immigration, and re-invention, meticulously grounded in the real people, places and events of turn-of-the-century Americal
3) Charities we support below.
- To contact Joe just email him at joe@girardmeister.com
- You can add yourself to the “New Essay Notification List” by clicking here. [These are shown here as blog posts]
Older essays (from old website) and blogs at Older Essays
=============
Some of our Favorite Charities.
Kiwanis Club of the Foothills, Boulder Valley, Foundation: Primary activity is providing service dogs for economically disadvantaged children with invisible ailments Type 1 diabetes.
Also supports with funds and manual labor Sweet Dream in a Bag: providing personalized bedding for children in social and economic crises, and supplying nurtrious meals to children in disadvantaged families through Colorado Feeding Kids. Help developed principled leadership in youth; provide scholarships to worthy High School seniors.
Rocky Mountain Honor Flight: Treating WW2, Korean and Viet Nam vets with extreme dignity and gratitude by providing “red carpet treatment” for tours — with personal escorts — of monuments and historic sites in Washington, DC.
Intercambio — providing opportunities for learning American English and Culture to immigrants.
Real Choices Pregnancy Centers: Helping woman in pregnancy crises in all aspects.
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet: based in a south St Louis neighborhood, this order is a beacon of hope, community service and loving outreach. My mom was a member of this order as a young adult. It changed her life, and through it she formed me.
____________________________________________________________
A few really interesting columnists and bloggers Joe follows with some regularity:
Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe), unfortunately there is a paywall at the Globe, and I hit the limit on “free reads” most months. Jeff has a fascinating family history. He writes of contemporary issues with clarity and a unique perspective. You can subscribe to his work. Jeff has faced some issues lately and has been offline; but he’ll be back and is worth the read every time.
Bari just pl
ain shat the bed. DJT basically put her in charge at CBS news. Started very interesting as open-minded and intelligent Lefty. Went way right wing into MAGA land. Trashing stories the don’t support Trump’s POV. Very, very sad. Well I guess that’s where the money is these days. Her start up, The Free Press, went downhill after a great start. Then she sold it for the big $$$. But I unsubscribed well before when I saw the infamous substance start rolling downhill. Human POS, IMO.
Adam Kinzinger is a patriot: 12 year military veteran; flew combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq; six term congressman as conservative Republican; Christian; family mam; intelligent; servant to all.
https://www.adamkinzinger.com/
Thomas Sowell was here too. But he’s retired. I suggest any of his books on economics.
Also Walter Williams, but he passed away