Melissa asks: Is honey considered vegan? There’s a reason there’s the expression “busy as a bee.” These buzzing insects’ entire lives are dedicated to making sure the hive keeps humming and the next generation of bees are born. Worker bees are consistently building, cleaning and protecting their home. When they are not tending to the hive, they are foraging for […]
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Kim M. asks: How do they decide when Easter is? The holiday of Easter is celebrated by over two billion Christians globally. Marking the day that Jesus rose from the dead, it’s always commemorated on a Sunday in the spring. Despite this, the exact date has consistently changed throughout the many centuries the holiday has been recognized. Additionally, various sects […]
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The Beatles’ 1967 hit “Strawberry Fields Forever” has long been considered one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded. Released in February of that year as a double A side single along with Penny Lane, the song peaked at number eight on the US Billboard charts (The Turtles’ “Happy Together” was number one that week). In 2011, Rolling Stone named […]
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While not thought to be directly related to modern Valentine’s Day traditions, the beginnings of celebrating love (of a sort) in February date back to the Romans. The feast of Lupercalia was a pagan fertility and health festival, observed from February 13th through the 15th, that was celebrated at least as far back as 44 BCE (the year Julius Caesar […]
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Wrestling for honor and victory can be traced back to a least 4000 years ago, to the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia. The first great work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, was written around 2100 BCE. In it, the two main characters Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and Enkidu, who was sent by the gods to challenge Gilgamesh over his appalling abuse […]
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It is undisputed that Josh Gibson was the greatest position player in Negro League history. He could field, throw, catch, and most of all, he could hit. His power was legendary. It was claimed by Chicago American Giants infielder Jack Marshall that Gibson hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium in 1934, in the history of the stadium the only player […]
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Sometimes the worst nightmares are the ones you don’t have. There are numerous conditions, disorders, and illnesses that either limit or prevents the amount of sleep an individual is able to get. Many of them are quite dangerous, but none of them are as frightening or rare as fatal familial insomnia. Prion diseases are a category of rare fatal brain […]
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This is the time of year when millions of Americans are being stricken with March Madness (See: How March Got So Mad). Over a hundred teams (both men’s and women’s) are competing against one another for the right to be called a champion. This is a goal that all of these collegiate athletes work towards and most would never give […]
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An expensive meal at a fancy restaurant, a declaration of romance, and a big, fat diamond ring- this is a pretty standard formula for an engagement proposal. After all, it has been ingrained in all of us that a diamond ring equals love and the bigger the diamond, the more love there must be. Well, believe it or not, diamonds […]
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When I was a kid, my parents had a collection of historic old, yellowed newspapers. For example, I distinctly remember an old Washington Post newspaper sitting on a bookshelf from July 21, 1969 with the headline “The Eagle Has Landed – Two Men Walk on the Moon.” Or a fading, brownish-yellow one from August 8, 1974 with the big headline, “Nixon […]
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It was June 1931 when the law finally caught up with Al “Scarface” Capone for good. After three years of building a case against Capone for tax evasion, the FBI was finally ready to arrest and try the notorious gangster. In the October of that same year, he was found guilty on five counts of tax evasion between 1924 and […]
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John I. asks: Is there anyone buried in the tomb of the unknown soldier or is it just all symbolism? It’s Armistice Day, November 11th, in the nation’s capital. It is a brisk day at Arlington National Cemetery. Dignitaries stand silently on the third anniversary of the ending of World War I, watching as a single white casket is lowered […]
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Ben Franklin accomplished a lot of things over his 84 years on Earth. He was an influential newspaper editor and printer. He was an inventor, known for bifocals, the lightening rod, and Franklin stove. He was the governor of Pennsylvania for three years. He was an American founding father, who had a hand in drafting the Declaration of Independence. The […]
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Birds chirping, Sun shining, temperatures warming, and the smacking of a baseball hitting a glove – ah, the sights and sounds of spring. Okay, maybe up north and on the east coast, they are still digging out from the latest snowstorm, but those signs of the changing season aren’t far away. On the west coast and down south, the annual […]
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On December 22, 1849, members of a Russian intellectual literary group known as the Petrashevsky Circle were sent to Semyonov Square to meet their fate – death by firing squad. With the men pointing their rifles and fingers resting on the trigger, a messenger from the Tsar rode into the square waving a white flag. Like something out of a […]
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On a field about fifty miles from Boston, Strawberry Hill, on the evening of September 3, 1880, history was made. It is unlikely the department store employees who were tossing around a ball knew that this game would still be talked about 135 years later. As the crowd took their seats, the ball players took their positions; the Sun dipped […]
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Charles Darwin said humans descended from monkeys. Darwin coined the term “survival of the fittest.” Darwin was the first person to theorize evolution as the origin of species. Darwin did not believe in God. Darwin played shortstop for the New York Yankees. These are just few of the common myths that are associated with Charles Darwin. (Well, maybe not playing […]
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The legendary Roald Dahl’s book Charlie & Chocolate Factory from 1964 (and its subsequent two film adaptations from 1971 and 2005) told the story of a magical candy factory and its eccentric and mysterious owner Willy Wonka. A chocolate river, gum that is a whole turkey dinner, never-ending gobstoppers, and, of course, the singing and dancing oompa-loompas are just a […]
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