When representatives of the British colonies signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Benjamin Franklin is reported to have joked “we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” But despite the humor, the threat was real. Signing...
Today people come to the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina to enjoy the rugged beauty and, in a few places, an obscene amount of tourist trap attractions. It is easy to imagine the days when the people who lived in the hills were isolated...
Last week when I was working on a craft project with kids at church, I offered them the choice of using white paper or card stock with a tan swirl pattern designed to look like parchment. I was guessing that in in the time of Jesus, paper hadn’t been invented yet. But...
On a trip to Colorado years ago, we visited a site with replicas of ancient American cliff dwellings. The site is commonly decried as fake, but we enjoyed the opportunities to climb through the semi-accurate replicated dwellings, and we particularly enjoyed all the...
The recent funeral of Queen Elizabeth II broke with a 300-year-old British tradition started by George III. His predecessor and grandfather, George II had a large and public funeral at Westminster Abbey in 1760. That would be the last time the 11th Century icon hosted...
Since I live in a beach town, it should be easy to find a bathing suit that fits, right? It isn’t. I can find thousands of t-shirts that mention the word “ocean,” but nothing comfortable to wear in the actual ocean. But it used to be so much worse. When...
