Conformity,” she wrote, “is the bane of middle class communities.

Mrs. Gerry was an outstanding figure here,” the paper noted, “not because she tried to be, but because she couldn’t help being.

On occasion, people who tried to write family members living at Site X by addressing the letters to “Oak Ridge” got those letters returned to sender with a note reading simply: “There is no such place as Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Whether or not you agree with the outcome, the tremendous amount that the Manhattan Project accomplished in such a short amount of time–just under three years–is astonishing. It makes you wonder what other kinds of things could be accomplished with that kind of determination, effort, and financial and political support. What if the kind of money, manpower, and resources that went into the Manhattan Project went into the fight against hunger? Cancer? Homelessness?

So the Next time September 17 rolls around, eat a hot dog, watch some fireworks, and celebrate Constitution Day – that fateful date in 1787 when thirty-nine sweaty men dressed in stockings signed their names to the United States Constitution.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized: Oak Ridgers had kept the most amazing secret ever.

A dictator decrees,” she later wrote, “a president asks Congress for permission to organize.

Despite their marriage license and four children, black couples were not permitted to live as man and wife on the Reservation.

The rich sought to conquer one another on battlefields of architectural grandeur. Society fought wars in ballrooms and twinkling parlors, wielding the most haute of designers and decor as their weapons of choice, Italian marble beneath their feet.

Half the pleasure in life comes from learning to choose between things.