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The Legacy of Two Pies Ivan
It’s 1° F outside according to my thermometer and weather.com tells me that the wind chill is a frigid -13° F. So I guess I can understand why we got that dreaded phone call this morning just after 5...
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Study Shows VD is Good for Your Heart
Tomorrow we celebrate “love,” on that most romantic of days commemorating a couple of martyrs, a massacre, some very poorly behaving Romans, awkward relationship moments, and heart-shaped boxes of...
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How Joe Somebody Met Pretty Girl
Of the many wondrous mysteries of my childhood, one survived until I became an adult. Every year on the night of April 30th, someone rang our doorbell and disappeared, leaving behind a gift of four...
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The Cheese is Old and Moldy
In the summer of 1987, Paddy Coughlan and Dan O’Conner got to work digging peat on a farm near Glenahilty in Ireland’s Tipperary County and found a little more than they expected. The two men worked...
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Drinks with the Devil Lead to Puking Pumpkins
This morning I’ve been living the stay-at-home mom’s dream. I took my children to school, covered my kitchen table in newspaper, and carved jack-o-lanterns. Okay, maybe it’s not every stay-at-home...
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Praying for KitKats
I don’t know how it is in your neighborhood, but mine is starting to get pretty spooky. Mummies, skeletons, and witches peek out from behind trees jumping, unwelcome, into my periphery. I love my...
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A Shocking Turkey Recipe
The holiday season is nearly upon us, beginning here in the US with Thanksgiving next week. And if, like us, you’re hosting family for the big day that means it’s time to make plans for your turkey. We...
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Superglue, Bailing Wire, and Candy Cane Goo
If you were to walk into my parents’ house at Christmastime, you would see an artificial Christmas tree strung with lights and topped with the same lighted, multicolored star my parents have had for as...
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Sparkly, Gluten-free Love, and other Reasons we may not get Valentine’s Day...
I don’t care much for Valentine’s Day. And it’s not just because I spent two days crafting sparkly paper sharks with working clothespin jaws to hold packages of Goldfish crackers for my children to...
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The Mischievous Use of Pyrotechnics
Early this week, the signs began popping up in my town. I noticed them first at the busiest intersections, but soon they spread to public buildings, the entrances to subdivisions, and even as a...
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Controversial Christmas Merry-Making
It’s that time of year once again. The giant balloons have bobbed down 6th Avenue leading Santa to Macy’s on 34th. The door buster Black Friday deals (many of which now start on Thanksgiving Thursday)...
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That’s How it Could Have Happened.
It all started with a dinner party. In the early 1940s, musician Anthony Pratt made his living performing concerts at hotels throughout the English countryside. The popular evening entertainment of the...
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Santa Claus: A Fat, Jolly Kleptomaniac with a Raging Coke Addiction
In 1931, Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom was approached by the Coca-Cola Company to reinvent the image of Santa Claus. The artist had a lot to work with. The legend which had begun with the...
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A Fine Specimen of a Novel Except for not Having a Head
On September 10, 1945, a farmer by the name of Lloyd Olsen was expecting his mother-in-law for a visit and so he set about doing the unsavory work of killing a chicken for dinner. He scooped up a young...
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A Post for Every Season
In 1958, seventeen-year-old American high school student Robert G. Heft needed to find a good project for his history class. Realizing that his nation might be on the cusp of something important, Heft...
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Take a Walk, Ya Scurvy Dogs
A couple weeks ago, I had a run-in with a pirate. It was a sunny, post-tropical storm day in Charleston, South Carolina, a place that takes great pride in its pirates. We’d been in the area to...
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A Celebration Worthy of a Slice of Non-Satan-Spit-Poisoned Pie
Centuries ago, though no one is quite sure when, Michael the Archangel engaged in war with the forces of evil. It was a great battle that ended with the expulsion of Lucifer and his minions from...
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Nothing Says Christmas like an Excess of Pickles
In April of 1864, during the American Civil War, Private John C. Lower of the 103rd Pennsylvania Infantry, was captured and taken to a Confederate prison camp. There, after many months of captivity, he...
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Santa Might Be On To Something
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been busy this holiday season. Already several times I’ve party planned and cleaned and hosted and cleaned. I’ve shopped for gifts, a task that no matter how early I...
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Corned Beef and Cabbage and Something about Snakes
Last week I got to do something fabulous. I took a quick girls’ trip to Florida with my sister, cousin, and aunt. And I did not take my kids or my husband. Not that I don’t like traveling with them....
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