In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving one week earlier to help boost the economy. (I guess Black Friday was important back then, too!) But his plan backfired big time! Chaos broke out: some states followed the new date, others stuck to the traditional one, and a few (like Texas) just celebrated both. People were […]
Off the coast of Florida, long-lost Spanish treasure, over $1 million dollars’ worth, was recently pulled from the depths of the sea, a reminder of a sunken fleet lost in a hurricane over 300 years ago. Though hidden beneath waves for centuries, the treasure waited, untouched by time, until the right moment and the right […]
The artist Chuck Close once said, “Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.” Along the same lines, Tchaikovsky said, “A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.” E.B. White said it this way: “A writer who […]
Gordon, one of the founders of Gordon Conwell Divinity School, told of being out walking and looking across a field at a house. There beside the house was what looked like a man pumping furiously on one of those hand pumps. As Gordon watched, the man continued to pump at a tremendous rate; he seemed […]
The administrator of a large mental health clinic once described what he called the BYMF factor. A BYMF is a Beautiful Young Male or Female. This administrator noted that whenever an attractive-looking young adult entered the clinic, the receptionist immediately gave that person attention and was more detailed than usual in giving directions. In the […]
Leslie Weatherhead tells of a little boy who was admitted to an orphanage after his parents were killed. One of the first items on the agenda was to find a new set of clothes for him. He was given a new pair of pants, a new shirt, and a pair of shiny new shoes. Lastly, […]
In the classic historical drama, Braveheart, William Wallace was the Scottish hero who led the fight against British rule in Scotland. Alongside Wallace stood Robert the Bruce, a Scottish nobleman who betrayed Wallace, but later—after Wallace’s execution—rose up to lead Scotland to freedom and was known as Robert the First, King of Scotland. Before Robert […]
The new minister was filling in for a boys’ bible class and opened with what he thought was a simple question: “Who knocked down the walls of Jericho?” The boys looked puzzled. One said, “Wasn’t us.” Another chimed in, “We didn’t even know there was a wall.” Later, the preacher brought it up at a […]
In the summer of 1985, thirty-year-old Julie Gold, an aspiring singer/songwriter, was working odd jobs in New York City when she received word from her parents in Pennsylvania that they were shipping the family piano to her as a birthday gift. The day after it arrived, Julie sat at the keyboard and in two hours […]
There are many people who believe that Sherlock Holmes was a real person. After all, his “biography” is as easy to find as Winston Churchill’s! From 1887 to 1927, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of the famous detective known for his heightened skills of observation. Holmes was both memorable and beloved—and entirely fictional. Yet, there […]
