November 2020

Oh, Thanksgiving. A bad day for turkeys, most everywhere. There are loads of jokes talking of the turkey’s demise. “What did the turkey say to the turkey hunter on Thanksgiving Day?” “Quack, Quack!” Heck, the President even pardons a turkey every year. Reportedly, that turkey gets to live out a full life, dying eventually, of […]

Late November can be a chilly time if it chooses. Such was the case in England, for on this date, November 24, in the year 1434, the River Thames froze over solid. Then, 281 years later, again on this same date, that London river froze over again, solid as a rock. Apparently, it wasn’t uncommon

Medicine has been around for all the ages. Necessity. It is the nature of the human body, after all. We are healthy, and then we get sick. So from the beginning of time, we have worked to alleviate these illnesses. There is evidence, dating back to prehistoric times, showing that shamans and apothecaries fulfilled the

Five months before his murder, as relations with the Soviet Union continued to be strained, John F. Kennedy made a speech at the American University, Washington DC, on the subject of world peace. With hindsight, his final five words would turn out to be a chilling comment. The speech ended: No problem of human destiny

It’s just easier to tell people that the Pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution. It’s wide-sweeping, and you can say it, all in one sentence. But that’s not really the truth. They made their voyage, on that Mayflower, in 1620. Our Pilgrims, those Puritans, were from England as we know. And in England,

There he came, on this date in 1908. Alistair Cooke. Yes, it is his birthday. He is the British-American TV host, so well known for his work on Masterpiece Theatre. He was born in Manchester, England. When I first heard his name, I thought it was Alice the Cook. I believed they were talking about

It is the place where someone, or something, is going. The destination. Destination is a popular word in the world of life philosophy. Eleventy people have uttered quotes about this ideology. “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” — Greg Anderson “Sometimes it’s

It happened 394 years ago today. St. Peter’s Basilica, in Rome, Italy, was consecrated. And by that consecration, it became the world’s largest Christian Basilica. There was another church, standing on the spot. Known as the Old St. Peters. It was there a long time, from the 4th century to the 16th century. But one