Bizarre BTW that the NYT would draw so much attention to the Margraten cemetery & not mention the removal of panels honoring African-American soldiers. It's national news here!

eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/artikelen/ve...

and a third on the other side of Liege:

and 20 minutes away there's another, similarly-sized site (we'll take you there next time):

indeed. as I think I mentioned on the former microblog site, there are four Isbells buried or memorialized in the Margraten cemetery, alongside comrades from just as diverse backgrounds as those who landed at Omaha:

anyway, for historians of technology on a similar trek, I highly recommend the Landing Museum in Arromanches. a piece of the PLUTO (PipeLine Under The Ocean)! beautiful models from the 1950s w/ the tools used to make them! charming schoolchildren's drawing also from the '50s! well worth it. 6/6

all of which makes this 👇 (the removal, apparently at the behest of the Heritage Foundation) of acknowledgements of the role of African-Americans in liberating Limburg & burying the US war dead) extra infuriating: 5/x

www.dutchnews.nl/2025/11/call...

AFAIK no African-American & possibly no Indigenous names on that particular monument, but they died on or near those beaches as well 4/x

he died alongside 1st-/2nd-/nth-generation Americans w/ Syrian, Polish, Ukranian, Askenazi, Swedish, Spanish/Latinx, Scottish, English, etc. last names. 3/x

I was struck (as also when visiting the 3 US WW2 cemeteries near Maastricht) by how multi-ethnic the force landing at Normandy was. take this monument to the 5th Engineer Special Brigade that includes the name of a (probable) distant relative, James Isbell of Texas: 2/x

haha, thx this helps w/ my "Harry was really well-known outside @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social so now that he's retired we should hire a new historian of psychology to maintain our leadership in that field" pleas to my colleagues.

that said, I would've pointed to this equally important source:

your jam ... or your gelatin? when in Bielefeld you can also take a tour of the Dr. Oetker factory.

also, Fred really misses a trick (so to speak) by drawing a comparison b/t M♈sk and HL Hunt w/o noting that their supposed "cultural Christianity" was somewhat belied by their, uh, mutual profligacy:

in raising a (nominal) Texan, we sometimes help her get comfortable with her (nominal) heritage by drawing a distinction b/t the "good" quirky Texas (idk, Ann Richards, Richard Linklater, Norah Jones, Barbara Jordan, take your pick) & the type of Texans Fred's talking ab/ here

it's a big state! he probably should've titled the essay "The Dallas/A&M Ideology." anyway, it seemed tilted toward that end of the state & its political/business elite to me - not much Houston in there, among others.

the same principle would apply to a right-wing Game of Thrones coalition, tho