For the past few years, my Sunday nights have been dedicated to catching up with my favorite characters on television. Beginning in early January, there is a pretty good chance that I will be spending my Sunday nights watching the final season of Downton Abbey. Earlier this year, I had to say good–bye to Don Draper and the rest of the complicated characters on Mad [...]
With the vast strides we have made in technology, it’s hard to imagine what reading a book will look like in the year 2114. It’s also seemingly impossible to predict what the content of these novels will be. I’m sure Jane Austen never saw Pride and Prejudice and Zombies coming. However, thanks to Scottish artist Katie Paterson, one book slated for publishing in 2114 is already [...]
It’s easy for a work of art to be lost to the ages and, unfortunately, all too common. But what about art that’s been hidden behind other art? Though not as common as a piece simply being destroyed, there is a surprising number of paintings underneath other paintings. Discovering these hidden works has been almost impossible until recently, when X-ray technology has given [...]
When asked to picture a high school play, most people probably see a shaky spotlight focused on a student standing in front of a backdrop painted on an old bedsheet, reciting lines dutifully—if somewhat unenthusiastically—and waving around a rubber prop for emphasis. These days, you might see what I saw as a stage manager in high school. Productions have been getting bigger and [...]
When I was younger, story time was arguably my favorite part of the day. My mom and I would sit on our living room couch as she read to me from the books I had carefully picked out at the library. On many occasions, a Dr. Seuss book would be in the mix, my favorites being The Foot Book and the more popular One Fish Two [...]
The recently departed and eminently quotable Yogi Berra once said, “I really didn’t say everything I said.” Turns out he’s not the only one. False or misattributed quotations happen all too frequently—especially on the internet. It’s very easy for these falsities to happen online. If an image, like a meme or an infographic, looks authentic enough, an incorrect quote from Morgan Freeman can be [...]
Have you heard about monthly subscription boxes? It seems like the topic is popping up everywhere. I have several friends and family members signing up to receive a wide range of materials right at their front door each month. And who doesn’t appreciate a good piece of mail, especially when it’s a box full of goodies? These monthly subscription boxes come in all [...]
Raise your hand if you’ve used a typewriter in the past five years. Odds are you haven’t, unless you’re like Tom Hanks, in which case, you’re a passionate collector of the old writing machines. In fact, Tom Hanks is so devoted to typewriters that he created an app with developer Hitcents to capture that old typewriter feel in the digital age. Hanx Writer, [...]
On July 14, 2015, after nine years and more than 30 billion miles, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew within 7,800 miles of Pluto. As New Horizons passed by the icy world on its one–way journey into the cosmos, it recorded and beamed volumes of priceless data and images that NASA will be busy analyzing for years to come. The flyby was the biggest event in twenty–first–century space exploration and [...]
As is true of most people who pursue a career in publishing, I have always loved to read. In college one of my majors was English, and I happily spent a good portion of my college career reading novel after novel for credit. However, we have all come across at least one book that s just too difficult. My most difficult book so [...]