Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
Railroads and the Civil War
Teaching today has put me in the mood to post something historical — Railroads and the Civil War Some consider the American Civil War to be the first modern conflict. For example, it saw the first battle between ironclad warships, the first successful use of the submarine, warfare directed toward the civilian population (Sherman’s March
For Crossword Puzzle Fans
I rarely do crossword puzzles myself, but I know they’re a very popular pastime. They were even the storyline of an episode on The Simpsons. I mention this to share one of the most diabolical crossword-puzzle clues I’ve ever found. I’m fond of using it in the classroom when I substitute teach and things get dull.
Call Me a Pacifist, But…
Despite a 20-year career in the Air Force, I find at this stage of my life I loathe violence. It could be because I have been to war myself (Vietnam). It could be that there is just too much violence in our culture, from fiction (TV and movies) to fact ( the nightly news). Or
Some History Quotes
I never got to be a full-time social studies teacher. But if I’d had, I would’ve used quotes to help put things in perspective. Here are some of my favorites — “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.” — Napoleon Bonaparte “History will be kind to me for
On the Academy Awards
I’m not a big movie fan myself, but it’s almost impossible to tune out the Academy Awards this weekend. One of the most informative sources I’ve run across is American Public Media’s “Marketplace” radio business program. Last week they did a series of stories on the Oscars, focusing on the less glamourous aspects of movie-making,
Scrubbing the Gene Pool
Have you ever heard of the Darwin Awards? As the website www.darwinawards.com explains: “The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it… For example, one of the 2014 awards was a double for two men who tried to take a selfie with a wild elephant
Word of the Day — Distaff
Previously I’d mentioned the importance of learning new words. And the fascinating thing about language is it’s always evolving. New words are created, meanings change, and new meanings are added. How many words in English have only one meaning? Not many, I would guess. My favorite example of how a word’s meaning can change is
Zombies Around Us
Have you ever felt you were being controlled by someone else? Be glad you’re not a ladybug. These little aphid predators can fall victim themselves to a parasitic wasp in a particularly gruesome way. These wasps sting ladybugs, leaving one egg inside. When the egg hatches, the larva eats its host from the inside out.
The Magic Book
I’ve mentioned earlier about encouraging students to use a dictionary. February 1st was the anniversary of publication of the first part of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1884. According to the February 1, 2015 email from The Writer’s Almanac, It covered from “A” to “Ant.” The Philological Society of London had conceived the
Some Thoughts on Travel
Some time ago, I decided my life’s ambition should be to become so important that I would never have to wait on anyone again. Boy, do I have a long way to go. Actually, my President’s Weekend trip to Southern California for the Disneyana Fan Club Expo went pretty smoothly. And the 80+-degree temperature upon