To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What’s the most unsettling word in the English language? Etymologists have made plenty of suggestions. Words like macabre, phantasmagoria, and sinister are somehow able to combine meaning, sound, and cultural associations to trigger a sense of fear. Horror expert Sydney Bermudez would add that words like uncanny, mimic, and threshold can… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In 1803, an English pharmacist named Luke Howard forever changed the way we talk about clouds. He helpfully suggested that clouds be classified into three groups. Layered clouds he called stratus. Fluffy clouds he named cumulus. And the high feathery ones he labeled cirrus. More than 200 years later, meteorologists and schoolchildren alike still… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Last Christmas I received a surprise gift. I definitely didn’t write a thank-you note. The week before December 25 I was besieged by a series of odd sensations on the left side of my torso. For a few days my stomach, side, and ribs felt prickly. Then they felt achy. Then… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here No one was prepared for the earthquake that struck the Tohoku region of Japan on the afternoon of March 11, 2011. Geologists are still coming to grips with its immensity and its consequences. Since Japan sits at the intersection of multiple tectonic plates, its citizens have come to expect occasional major… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Seattle is famous for its Space Needle, the Pike Place Fish Market, and the spectacular backdrop of Mt. Rainier. One of the city’s lesser-known attractions, which has long delighted residents, is the Montlake Spite House. The story behind this sliver of a dwelling, not much wider than its own front door,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here All swans are white. At least, that’s what Europeans thought for hundreds of years. “As rare as a black swan” became something of a proverb. It meant the odds were exceedingly low you would ever see or experience something. When Europeans arrived in Australia, however, they discovered there was a species of black… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What does it feel like to be an 11-year-old girl whose family has just moved to a new town? That’s the premise of Inside Out, the acclaimed 2015 film conceived by Pixar animator Pete Docter. A half dozen years earlier, Docter had been alternately startled, mystified, and intrigued by the changes… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Dr. Evil is back. This summer, Mike Myers is reprising one of the all-time comedic bad guys in a new series of commercials for Verizon. The gray-suited parody of early James Bond villains is attempting to launch Menace Mobile, a new mobile phone company, which he claims will have “the most… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In 1870, life for Horatio Spafford and his family seemed to be splendid. Spafford was a senior partner in a large and thriving Chicago law firm. He poured his assets into Chicago real estate. He enjoyed a friendship with the evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Within a few months, however, he and his… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s amazing how many interesting historical events have been impacted by the flip of a coin. In 1845, Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove decided that a coin flip – actually, the best two out of three – should determine who got to name their new settlement in Oregon. Pettygrove won. “Portland!”… Read more »
