Bill Petro, technology sales enablement executive:
writes on History, Popular Culture, Tech Trends, and Travel

History of Thanksgiving: the Secular and the Sacred

November 24, 2020

HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING The origin of Thanksgiving Day in America has been attributed to a harvest feast held by the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. In 1621, Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony proclaimed a day of “thanksgiving” and prayer to celebrate the Pilgrims’ first harvest in America the year after their arrival on the…

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History of Vaccines: What This Means For Coronavirus

November 20, 2020

HISTORY OF VACCINES: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CORONAVIRUS Today, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they are submitting their Coronavirus vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Approval. What are vaccines, when were they first developed, and what is the road to an approved vaccine in today’s world? “Vaca” in the word vaccine sounds…

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History of Friday the 13th

November 13, 2020

HISTORY OF FRIDAY THE 13TH If you’re reading this article to learn the history of Friday the 13th, you’re in luck. Or perhaps bad luck. No one knows, with any certainty, when it began or why it’s to be feared. However, there are lots of entertaining speculative theories about the topic.     What is…

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History of Veterans Day: Lest We Forget

November 11, 2020

HISTORY OF VETERANS DAY A professor once commented, “We write things down so we can forget them.” Now, of course, this is true in the sense of writing down appointments so we don’t have to worry about missing meetings. But that’s just it; we do forget things. As individuals, we forget things that are important…

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History of Guy Fawkes Night: How gunpowder mixed with Parliament

November 5, 2020

HISTORY OF GUY FAWKES NIGHT For our friends across the Pond November 5th is known as “Bonfire Night” or “Guy Fawkes Night,” and all over Britain people fire off fireworks, light bonfires, and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. Guido Fawkes was an Englishman who, in popular legend, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament…

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History of the Holidays

What is the history behind the holidays we celebrate, both sacred and secular? Many of the sacred holidays in our American “Judeo-Christian” heritage have secular associations, while many of the seemingly secular holidays actually have religious roots. This covers all major U.S. holidays, and some international ones.

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Popular Culture

Featuring reviews of movies, concerts, and theatre. I write movie reviews as soon as I see them, which is usually the day they come out (or before). Reviews of Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, and Harry Potter films; rock and jazz concerts; London and Broadway theatre reviews.

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Tech Trends

Articles about current and future technologies and their possible implications. Topics include Apple iPhone, Apple Watch and some innovative technologies from other companies: internet, social media, email, virtualization, cloud, payment systems, personal data backup, geek holidays, nerd stuff, etc.

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Travel

After traveling 2 million miles to 46 countries, I've written some articles on the US, Peru, Ireland, France, Italy... wherein I share my adventures in cultural ignorance and education the hard way. You’ll find some differences that are fascinating and intriguing, humorous, or irritating — the last two need not be mutually exclusive.

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