Visiting the island of Svalbard (previously known as Spitsbergen) is probably not on anyone’s bucket list or plans for travel this summer.  Where would you guess this place might be?  It’s in Norway, in case you’re wondering.  One of the major cities is Longyearbyen, “the world’s northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000, and… Read More »

Today’s devotional is a bit hard to work into a spiritual application.  However, I couldn’t let this day pass and I will get to a spiritual application.  Bear with me, though, as I set this up. In 1976, a cartoonist named Jim Davis started a strip that was known only to local newspapers.  On June… Read More »

The year was 1974.  Neil Enloe, a 36-year-old singer and songwriter who had been saved as a 15-year-old had a moving experience aboard a cruise ship.  While performing music on the ship, he took a break between sets and saw a sight that melded his patriotism with his Christianity.  Three months later, he penned a… Read More »

Not only was yesterday a special day for dads, it was also a special day for thrill seekers across the United States.  Yesterday marked the 140th anniversary of the first roller coaster built in the United States. LaMarcus Adna Thompson built the Switchback Gravity Railway for Coney Island Amusement Park in Brooklyn, NY with the… Read More »

Sarah Lemire started out an article for Today.com with these words:  “Dads have it made. They get a whole day devoted to them during the best month of the summer: June.”1   This hasn’t always been the case. In 1972, President Nixon put Father’s Day on the official federal holiday calendar.  However, the first day honoring… Read More »

The English language is always evolving and changing to give us idioms and expressions whose origins have been long forgotten.  Consider a few interesting ones. Have you ever been in a group conversation and everyone is trying to avoid “the elephant in the room?”  There is something that everyone knows about and it’s as large… Read More »

Two-hundred and forty-nine years ago today, the Continental Congress passed the following resolution:  “Resolved, That six companies of expert riflemen [sic], be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; … [and] that each company, as soon as completed [sic], shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed… Read More »

Here is a devotional that will keep you in stitches.  It’s the story about one of the most revolutionary inventions to ever hit the market — the sewing machine.  For centuries, sewing was done by hand with a needle and thread.  Seamstresses and tailors put hours into the production of a single garment.  The introduction… Read More »

In 41 years of driving, I can say that I’ve only been stopped three times by the police.  Each time, I was clearly in the wrong and I admitted my fault immediately to the officer.  I was ticketed twice and once, I was let off with a warning.  I never once thought of trying to… Read More »

Today is National Call Your Doctor Day, a day established in 2016 by Bright Pink, a charity organization whose “mission is to accelerate, deepen, and expand the impact of life-saving breast and ovarian health interventions.”1  The idea is to encourage women to get their well-woman check-ups to help ensure that they stay well.  However, this… Read More »