Most high school kids fantasize about winning some version of the Big Game. With their peers cheering from the sidelines, they dream of making the decisive penalty kick, hitting the game-winning three-pointer, or kicking a field goal as time expires. My good friends Kevin Kelso, Mike Goler, John Shaw and I couldn’t do any of those things. But we knew… Read more »
There is general consensus that the finest ceramics Western artisans have ever produced came from the workshop of Josiah Wedgwood. Wedgwood (1730-1795) was either the 11th or 13th child born into his middle class British family – historians still debate the point. What no one debates is that his artistic gifts and entrepreneurial spirit became powerful drivers in the Industrial… Read more »
Two minutes into US Airways Flight 1549 on January 15, 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger III suddenly had quite a lot on his mind. His A320, having departed New York’s LaGuardia Airport on its way to Charlotte, NC, had just ploughed into a flock of Canada Geese. Almost instantaneously, both engines lost power. At that point the plane was above the Bronx, one of… Read more »
You have to feel for Carson Wentz. The Indianapolis Colts are paying him millions of dollars. He has sufficiently elite skills to be one of only 32 athletes who will regularly start at quarterback for an NFL team next fall. Just six years ago he was drafted second overall by the Philadelphia Eagles. Scouts and general managers couldn’t say enough… Read more »
A dozen years ago, the authors of a popular blog in the state of Oklahoma took a poll: “Who is the most powerful person in our state?” Jesus came in second – a rather surprising outcome, given that Oklahoma is widely regarded as the buckle on the Bible Belt. Chief meteorologist Gary England of KWTV, the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma… Read more »
I began to tie my own necktie when I was a teenager. From the start, it seemed maddeningly difficult. Unnatural. I felt clumsy. Do I really have to learn how to do this? Over time, however – and lots of practice – things changed. Tie-tying became something I could do without even thinking. In fact, if I had to explain… Read more »
Some subjects are just too painful, too controversial, or too recent to make people laugh. Surely Adolph Hitler is near the top of that list. But that didn’t stop actor and director Mel Brooks from satirizing Nazi Germany just 22 years after the collapse of the Third Reich at the end of World War II. In his 1967 movie The… Read more »
Year ago I heard a presentation called “What Not to Say at a Funeral.” In the presence of someone else’s grief and pain, so often we feel compelled to say something – anything – that will help make sense of the mystery of this loss. We want to make the moment easier. But the following statements are almost guaranteed to… Read more »
McDonald’s is amazing. The chain with the golden arches has been presenting itself as the world’s greatest happiness provider for almost 80 years now. The original McDonald’s restaurant – owned by brothers Dick and “Mac” McDonald – opened in San Bernardino, California. The brothers originally sold hot dogs. When they switched to burgers, fries, and shakes (and pieces of pie),… Read more »
On Memorial Day 1933 the world awaited news of the winner of the Indianapolis “500.” Television was, of course, still years away, as was live radio coverage of the race. The results of key sporting events typically went out to the nation’s newspapers via teletype. In the hamlet of Walsenburg, Colorado, the editor of The World-Independent newspaper had taken the… Read more »
