And this did zero for rugby’s US profile. It was buried on a steaming platform while sports fans were watching college (American) football on all the major networks and ESPN (I watched it at an Irish pub in Boston where at most a 1/3 of the pub cared - the rest were there on a Hallo-weekend stop)

and we can let them riot on an empty street

Thanks Simon (we need to catch up) - those very positive words mean a lot coming from a legend like Simon Grigg

I’ve always thought of my filing cabinet book as a material history of Taylorism (with a focus on information)

To be fair the text is “only” 389 pages. There is another 70 pages of notes, timeline and discography. But it’s still a lot of words! We know Chris was partial to a lot of words.

We were born in the right time

I also have about a dozen turnpike postcards but that one went nowhere so to speak

A few years ago I went on a post office vintage postcard collecting kick. I have about 100 postcards including a post office from all 50 states (which took a bit of hunting).

www.instagram.com/polesofcambr...

I have no memory either. It can be first on the list of things that aren’t in the Knox bio!

Is this parody?

You were robbed by an uncaring public

Some more background on the history of passports & free Black people pre 14th Am. States could issue passports & abolitionists exploited this to use ppts to argue for citizenship. And while numbers are low the State Dept did issue more than 2 passports (1)

Naturalized citizens could get a US passport, including Chinese. From 1903-5 a disclaimer on US passports issued to citizens of Chinese descent said their ppt did not guarantee them entry to the US.

For more see my book The Passport in America: The History of a Document global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Key to remember: in mid-19c passports were a novelty and not clearly linked to citizenship. Debates over the citizenship for free Black people were important to the US passport taking on its role as a certificate of citizenship (4)

In 1856 Congress declared only the Secretary of State could issue passports but governors continued to issue them for the next few decades. The same act also clarified that a passport could only be issued to a citizen (3)

A free Black woman Sarah Remond was issued a US passport in 1859 initiating a controversy when the US embassy in London refused ti recognize it. Usually free Black people got a special certificate that recognized their birth in the US and the right of protection (2)

Some more background on the history of passports & free Black people pre 14th Am. States could issue passports & abolitionists exploited this to use ppts to argue for citizenship. And while numbers are low the State Dept did issue more than 2 passports (1)