An estimated 200-300 people are dead.  17,450 buildings destroyed.  Over 100,000 homeless.  2,000 acres of a city burned.  And there is over $4 billion in damages (in today’s currency).  This all happened, starting on this day in 1871 with fires raging for two days in the city of Chicago.  And it all started with a… Read More »

Colin and Wyatt Yager, brothers and fishermen, captured what could be the video of the year.  While fishing the Portsmouth Harbor in Eliot, Maine, they saw a humpback whale breaching the water a couple of times.  Colin had his fishing rod in one hand and had pulled his phone out with the other, hoping to… Read More »

There is a new concept taking our nation by storm.  Of course, according to Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “there is no new thing under the sun.”  So, technically, this is an old concept with a modern-day spin.  It’s called cultural Christianity. Go back in time to when the word “Christian” was first used.  Acts 11:26 says,… Read More »

Apple may have begun as a fruit but, today, if someone says “apple,” we may not be thinking of a Red Delicious but of a tech company in Cupertino, California in the midst of Silicon Valley.  Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, Jobs is certainly the most recognizable… Read More »

Have you ever been enjoying an ice cream sundae or a milkshake from Chick-fil-A and wondered what a maraschino cherry really is?  Are there maraschino cherry trees out there that we’ve never seen?  Most of us are saying, “Are you kidding?  The cherry wasn’t atop my dessert long enough to wonder what it is!” Well,… Read More »

For those who love – or at least, like the game of baseball, 1951 is one of those memorable, historical years.  The National League pennant race pitted the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Giants.  While the Dodgers were 13 ½ games in the lead by mid-August, the Giants were in last place, 13 ½… Read More »

There is a drink sold all across this nation that is celebrating its 59th birthday today.  It was created at an SEC school and borrowed the name of their team mascot.  It’s also a drink that caused some of the football team to vomit immediately after consuming it because of the original vile taste. The… Read More »

I saw something at school a few weeks back that really impacted me.  I saw two very young, elementary children come out of the high school doors where the buses unload each morning.  They walked through the midst of high school students on their way to the elementary school. So what, you ask? That probably… Read More »

Violet Beauregarde was the gum chomping brat – uh, I mean, child – from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and the remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).  She proclaims that the current piece of gum she’s chewing has been in her mouth for three months – a new world record. My question… Read More »

It all began with 12-year-old Mary Kellerman.  Then, 27-year-old Adam Janus dies on the same day, presumably from a heart attack.  These two are followed by Stanley and Theresa Janus, Mary McFarland, Paula Prince, and Mary Weiner.  On this day in 1982, our trust in humanity dwindled as fear, skepticism, and cynicism began to be… Read More »