Blogger Steve Goodier recently recounted an anecdote from the earliest days of international air travel. In the 1930’s, Britain’s Imperial Airways pioneered flights from England all the way to the Pacific. Unfortunately, the company’s fleet of underpowered and undersized aircraft had to make many stops in between. One of the tongue-in-cheek expressions of the day, “If you have time to… Read more »
Today marks the first celebration of America’s twelfth federal holiday. On June 18, 1865, Union soldiers under the command of Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas. He brought news of something that had happened more than two months earlier: Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Virginia at Appomattox. The Civil War had officially ended…. Read more »
If you had a ticket to take one ride on a time machine, where would you go? Would you revisit the past or travel forward into the future? Ever since H.G. Wells rolled out his 1895 fictional bestseller The Time Machine, people have fantasized what it would be like to journey through history. Until recently, according to physicist Paul Davies,… Read more »
In his epic six-volume memoir of the Second World War, Winston Churchill recounted the highs and lows that marked his years as British Prime Minister. By the fall of 1941, his nation stood almost singlehandedly against the might of Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, and Imperial Japan. Churchill’s call was to “keep the seas open and ourselves alive.” Realistically, the situation… Read more »
Want to steer away from controversy at your next dinner engagement? Avoid three topics: Politics, religion, and what constitutes the best drinking water. Bottled or tap? Spring-fed or snow melt? Brand names or generic? Isn’t it all just water? Perrier launched the bottled water craze by putting a few ounces of “imported” H20 into a fancy bottle and selling it… Read more »
When Tim Keller and his wife Kathy launched a new church in Manhattan a few decades ago, they knew it would be a draining endeavor. Keller, who struggles with work addiction, had discerned that his life would be seriously out of balance for at least the first three years. That meant he would be working at a pace that he… Read more »
Author and evangelist Tony Campolo was once invited to speak at a small Pentecostal college in eastern Pennsylvania. Before the chapel service, several of the faculty members took Tony into a side room to pray with him. Tony got down on his knees and six men put their hands on his head and began to pray. Now Pentecostal prayers can… Read more »
When I was growing up, some of the older boys in my school used to taunt me: “Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o!” It appears they were right, because it’s all come horribly true. I’m old. My name is McDonald. And I do indeed live on a farm – a small horse farm about a half-hour’s drive from downtown Indianapolis. … Read more »
Norman Borlaug may be the most remarkable person you’ve never heard of. The American agronomist, who died in 2009 at the age of 95, revolutionized global food supplies. In the words of former Minnesota Senator Rudy Boschwitz, “Norman Borlaug is the first person in history to save a billion human lives.” Hunger has always stalked humanity. In France alone between… Read more »
According to Greek mythology, the seemingly invincible warrior Achilles was saddled with the original Achilles heel. His mother Thetis, in an effort to endow her infant with immortality, had dipped him into the river Styx. Unfortunately, his left heel never made it into the water. That’s the place where she had been holding him. Having one small point of vulnerability… Read more »
