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Confectionary Kernels and America’s Least Most Awful Choice
On September 9, 1950 the town of Midland Park, New Jersey experienced a holiday tragedy the likes of which had been previously unknown. The effects would be felt by retailers across the nation and by...
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Scary Stuff: The Attack of the One-Eyed, One-Horned Alligator in Short Shorts
I’ve mentioned before that Halloween is not my favorite time of year. Not that I don’t like a fun costume or a good sugar high. I just really don’t enjoy scary things. Horror movies, haunted houses,...
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Crime Doesn’t Pay. Neither Does Poetry.
July 26, 1875 wasn’t a great day for John Shine. The man who would later become a US Marshal and a California state senator, at the time, worked as a stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo. That day, only a...
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Yes! Wonderful Things! Fashionable Man-Cardigans and the Mannequin Challenge
In 1907, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon hired Egyptologist Howard Carter to aid him in his excavations in the Valley of the Kings. Carter worked for years, with a brief break caused by World War I, but it...
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Dear Coffee Shop Dudes: The Blogger Recognition Award
First published in London by editor John Dunton on March 17, 1691, The Athenian Mercury, ended with the following announcement: All Persons whatever may be resolved gratis in any Question that their...
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Something to be Thankful For
In May of 1897, American author and humorist Samuel Clemens (or Mark Twain) arrived in London as part of a lengthy world tour. There he was greeted by the news that his cousin, a Mr. James Ross...
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From Ox-Drawn Wagon to Airplane: Sharing Dysentery for Thanksgiving
In April of 1852, a twenty-one year old husband and new father named Ezra Meeker, set out with his wife and infant son on a trip to the West. The journey began in Eddyville, Iowa and ended more than...
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Nothing Says Christmas like an Excess of Pickles
In April of 1864, during the American Civil War, Private John C. Lower of the 103rd Pennsylvania Infantry, was captured and taken to a Confederate prison camp. There, after many months of captivity, he...
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Santa Might Be On To Something
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been busy this holiday season. Already several times I’ve party planned and cleaned and hosted and cleaned. I’ve shopped for gifts, a task that no matter how early I...
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That Gift in the Top of Your Closet
In February of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln followed up on a letter that had been sent to his predecessor by Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongut, the king of Siam. The king had made a generous offer...
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Even People With Bodies Buried In Their Basements Aren’t Perfect
In 1726, when he was just twenty years old, young Benjamin Franklin decided to be perfect. His Puritan upbringing had provided a pretty good understanding of right and wrong, so he figured it wouldn’t...
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How Otto the Visionary Became a Well-Rounded Person
Several years ago when we were the mommies of much littler littles, a friend of mine asked me for some mommy advice. My friend grew up in Upstate New York, where winters are bitter cold and ponds form...
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Anything You Can Do, Has Probably Already Been Done by a Fictional Character
On November 14, 1889, journalist Elizabeth Bisland began an epic journey. Departing from New York with little luggage and only six hours notice from the owner of the monthly family magazine...
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The Rich Bird-Like Timbre of the Fourth Grade
This has been a big week in the life of my fourth grade son. Something he’s been looking forward to for a long time finally happened. Because in our school district, about half way through the school...
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Trending in History: Giants and Jerkfaces
On October 16, 1869, on William Newell’s farm near Cardiff, New York, two men digging a well, hit something surprising with their shovels. What they eventually uncovered was a ten foot tall, 3,000...
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Empress for Life and a Free Glass Vase
On November 30, 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte needed to deliver some bad news to his wife Josephine. Nearly fourteen years after he married this widowed mother of two who was six years his elder, and almost...
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A Plague of Gesundheits
Sometime over the past few weeks, influenza descended in full force on our fair city, stretching across the region, flooding our doctors’ offices, our schools, and our homes. One area school even...
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Tree-Tapping Squirrels and Ooey, Gooey Deliciousness
In 1557, French cartographer André Thévet published Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, an account containing a number of tales of the New World, gathered from men who’d been there. One of those...
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The Ear-splitting Crack of My Broken Backyard Dreams
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Bahamas. He hoped he would find gold, spices and silks, and a faster trade route to China. What he found instead was fertile land, an...
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Corned Beef and Cabbage and Something about Snakes
Last week I got to do something fabulous. I took a quick girls’ trip to Florida with my sister, cousin, and aunt. And I did not take my kids or my husband. Not that I don’t like traveling with them....
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