Cue the ominous, dramatic music.  You know what today is, right?  This is Tax Day and if you waited until the last minute to complete your taxes, congratulations, you made it!  You have until midnight to get the challenging chore completed and to drop them in a mailbox.  As Benjamin Franklin said, there is nothing… Read More »

On this day in history, two assassinations could have been recorded rather than one.  Or perhaps an assassination could have been prevented.  We will never know how different decisions could have affected the outcome of this day in 1865.  Let me share the story. President Lincoln wanted to attend Laura Keene’s performance in Our American… Read More »

Eldrick Tont Woods, better known as Tiger Woods, became a professional golfer in 1996.  By the end of April 1997, he had won three major golf tournaments including the Masters on this day in 1997.  Woods became the youngest champion by two years and won the Masters by a record breaking 12 strokes.  Woods was… Read More »

On the Jewish calendar, Passover begins at sundown.  We start April 13 at midnight whereas the Jews start it at 6:00 p.m.  Trying to reconcile the two calendars can be quite a challenge.  While Gentile Christian Americans may feel that we have no part in this, I would suggest that Passover is even more meaningful… Read More »

If you read this devotional quick enough, you’ll have plenty of time to hop in your car and make the 181-mile drive to Euclid, Ohio.  Why, you ask?  Euclid High School is hosting the Cardinal and Johnny Appleseed Districts Quartet Prelims and Joint Convention of barbershop quartets.  And since this is National Barbershop Quartet Day,… Read More »

It’s that time of year where you do some spring cleaning, purging the closets, basement, and attic of things you’ve cherished for years but are only collecting dust and using up space.  Sentimentality makes you want to keep those things, but you probably have a wife like mine that is saying, “If you haven’t used… Read More »

It takes some guts to be a police officer.  It takes even more if you are going to slap the cuffs on a sitting president, hauling him off to the local precinct for booking.  Such was the case for Washington, D.C. police officer William H. West. City Hall had received many complaints about speeding vehicles… Read More »

Headlines in tomorrow’s 1974 newspapers would be variations of today’s big event:  Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s all‑time home run record.  “At 9:10 p.m. on the evening of April 8, 1974, the Atlanta Braves slugger became the career home run king, slamming a 1-0 fastball off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing into the left-center… Read More »

Sioux City, Iowa was the hometown of twin sisters, Esther Pauline Friedman and Pauline Esther Friedman.  They were born on July 4, 1918.  I’m sure you’ve heard of them.  Both were newspaper columnists and are better known for their pen names:  Ann Landers (Esther) and Dear Abby (Pauline).  At the beginning of their journalistic careers, they… Read More »

If there was an award for the most detested, reviled President of the United States, it would surely go to our 10th President, John Tyler.  Historians seem to agree, putting him in the list with Warren Harding, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.  Granted, these listings are arbitrary and slanted according to the bias… Read More »