RJS El Tejano

Texit

This is going to be one of the tougher things I will try to write. As they say, stuff is complicated. I’ve been in and around Texas ever since Berkeley, which is now going on nearly four decades. It sure ain’t 1980 any longer, when I left Philly as the City of Champions, not theContinue reading “Texit”

Idiocracy

Yesterday, August 27, 2025, really must be counted as one of the worst days of my life. Because the Mets swept the Phillies? Honestly, I really couldn’t care less. Baseball, like. getting to the ocean, used to be one of the things that made Summer what it was. That hasn’t been true for some timeContinue reading “Idiocracy”

Borrador: La Familia Lizardi en Veracruz

You may cite, but please give credit to Draft. Errors are mine

Syriana + Quark= Our Neighborhood (*)

Last night, I watched Syriana for the nth time. Maybe after n+1 times I will finally be sure I have figured out what the Hell was going on. And having Bashir from Deep Space Nine as an Emir really doesn’t help. I keep looking for Quark. Oh, well. Looking for Quark. The Ferengi as metaphorContinue reading “Syriana + Quark= Our Neighborhood (*)”

The Cathedral Isn’t Telling

I live in San Antonio, Texas. It’s ok. Everyone has got to live somewhere. So why not here? But occasionally I wonder just what the Hell I am doing here. Today was one of those days. I always admired the opening line of Mario Vargas Llosa’s brilliant novel, Conversation in the Cathedral (1969). “At whatContinue reading “The Cathedral Isn’t Telling”

Habemus Villanovam

Richard J. Salvucci, Villanova ’73 Don’t worry. I’m not about to try to bask in Pope Bob’s reflected glow–although I may be one of a very few. I’ve had my differences with Villanova for fifty years. I studied there. I taught there briefly and then went on to greener pastures. I have occasionally suggested thatContinue reading “Habemus Villanovam”

Suicide Hill

When I was a little kid–oh, oh, here we go–we made do with the “toys” that Mother Nature gave us. Since I was a little kid in an urban environment, 66th and Haverford in Philly, toys were frequently trees, hills, pot holes, walls, dog defecating grounds, abandoned beer bottles, and various swearing neighbors, usually maleContinue reading “Suicide Hill”

Selling Off The Swamp and Other Nonsense

https://substack.com/home/post/p-159546801 Normally, I figure the best way to explain anything in economics is to reduce it to a level that I can understand. As I’ve been repeatedly reminded by former students, that’s generally not worth spending time on. But my former colleague Shana McDermott has written a piece on this DOGE nonsense–at least the publicContinue reading “Selling Off The Swamp and Other Nonsense”

Penn Wynne, Redux

Fly, Eagles, Fly! Ok. Now that I got my daily dose of filiopatriotism out of the way, we can return to more serious stuff. My faithful readers (hello?) know that I am sort of hung up on the history of Haddington (West Philly) and Penn Wynne (Montgomery Country, just outside the city limits). I grewContinue reading “Penn Wynne, Redux”

So Far, So Bad

This is really not so much of a blog post as the start of trying to work out why Mexican independence got off to such a shaky start in the 1820s and 1830s, although, really, it is mostly confined to thinking about what went on there in the mid-1820s. And, to be even more specific,Continue reading “So Far, So Bad”