Meredith McLendon

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@Historycourses If you can, go to the APS. They have a fantastic special exhibit for the 250th.

https://t.co/M1MEHH2po9

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@FreddyLA7 By car or by legs, tho.

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@bethanyshondark I answered one of these more honestly at one point and the doctor advised me to "try to be less stressed."

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

Happy Gaspee!

[Bob Elder @southernphd]

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.

In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.

Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.

When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.

She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.

As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.

Rest in peace, professor.

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@jessegenet It's hard when your closest family lives far away, but yeah.

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@ItsAndyRyan The Woodlands, TX
https://t.co/lx2KXDACBs

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@mbateman Locally, helped kick off Gaspee Days celebrations

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@mbateman Took them to Philadelphia and Valley Forge

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@avivafashion11 @Scholastic One year I made a rule that you had to buy an actual book, kid came home with a diary! 🤦‍♀️

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

Kids are so much better than robots, glad I have a bunch.

[Stirrups Now! @uniformcritic]

Today in 1991: Nolan Ryan at age 44 strikes out 16 & pitches his 7th no-hitter. A 122 pitch masterpiece…here’s the final full at bat.

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

Currently reading

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@teachthemx3 @TexBetsy This is what happened to my oldest. Pulled in 1st for help reading, created a problem in math, not fixed until we discovered it in 3rd during covid.

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

Day 9 of chalk circle still wildly entertaining the 2 year old

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

Finally popping up, but several of the tulips have been roughed up by squirrels

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

Somewhere deep down under all this snow are daffodils and tulips, 🤞will be beautiful this spring

[Dave Wilson @dwil]

Huge trip. The night before, Mikhail Gorbachev went to On The Border with R.C. Slocum and John David Crow.

[NASA @NASA]

Welcome home Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy! 🫶

The Artemis II astronauts have splashed down at 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11), bringing their historic 10-day mission around the Moon to an end.

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@meimakes Or a chalk circle on your driveway. "It's a track!"

[Meredith McLendon @meremclendon]

@KelleyBabcock @CarranoJoe @drakmog @JamesAFurey You might check out the Sentence Composing series by Killgallon, too. It has brief, mostly sentence level practice that builds skills, and our IEW writing has needed less revision since adding it.

https://t.co/I1rzZKisF3