You are a fifth-grade girl who comes home from school to find a doll on your front porch. The doll looks like you, is dressed like you, and there is something about the eyes. Who left it? Why is it here? And what makes this doll so special?
Jim Jenkins is an ace detective who solves the most difficult crimes. Yet he always works alone. Or does he?
Learning how to wiggle your ears is really hard. But you can do it if you keep trying. And if you learn to keep trying, no problem is too big. So if you can wiggle your ears, you can do anything!
Do you have a superpower? Mine is turning a two-sided piece of paper into a one-sided piece of paper. Okay, it’s actually a mathematical trick (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-timeless-journey-of-the-moebius-strip), but middle-school students don’t know that, so I usually get away with it. Yes, humans can have superpowers, although maybe not the kind found in comic books. For example,
When I worked as “Christmas help” at the local Disney Store one holiday season, I learned that calling someone a “customer” wasn’t a compliment. Our patrons were our “guests” and “customer” was a code word for a suspected shoplifter. I was reminded of this after reading”14 Secret Code Words You Might Want to Know” by
The origin of common expressions is always a fascinating subject. Some origins are reasonably obvious, like “flash in the pan” and “going off half-cocked,” come from firearms. But other derivations are more obscure. Take the word “tarnation.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this expression is a combination of two terms: darnation, a natural variant of damnation; and tarnal, a
You can take a rest, but is it possible to rest your brain? Consider when you’re zoning out on the couch — is your mind inactive too? All indications are the answer is no, your brain is still very much engaged. Through about 20 years of research, scientists have found what they’re calling a default
One thing you can say about English, it’s dynamic. (Whoever thought Google would become a verb?) New words get added every year. For example, Dictionary.com has recently added or updated more than 1,700 words. Here are some of the more interesting examples — Bed rotting — “noun. The practice of spending many hours in bed during the day,
“Essential for anyone who wants to understand the America we live in today, and the threads of its history, from the awful to the inspirational.” “I purchased because my daughter had to read this unsubstantiated, hollow and falsehood comic book. “ “This is one of the best books I have read. Full of history, compassion, suffering,
When I was a preschooler (I can’t remember my exact age), a first cousin died from a ruptured appendix. I barely remember her, but I still vividly recall every detail of the night she died. All my life, I’ve had the impression the appendix was a useless organ. It simply existed in our digestive tracts,
Sometimes in the study of history, the backstory is more fascinating than the actual event. Take February. Forget Ground Hog Day, this is also Black History Month. According to the History Channel website (https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month), this all began in September, 1915 when historian Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the
An image of the Castle Bravo nuclear detonation. (Image credit: Shutterstock) When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, the Cold War was a very real thing. The great fear was a major nuclear exchange could virtually end civilization itself. Recently an article headline jolted me back to that time — “Mass Starvation After
From the “I Wish I’d Written That” Department, here’s a cute poem I found today — My Doggy Ate My Essay BY DARREN SARDELLI My doggy ate my essay. He picked up all my mail. He cleaned my dirty closet and dusted with his tail. He straightened out my posters and swept my wooden floor.
