The truth is out there. That was the mantra of The X-Files, the wildly popular 1990s TV series in which a pair of FBI investigators – skeptical Dana Sculley and true believer Fox Mulder – explored a vast array of paranormal phenomena, ranging from werewolves to mermaids to ghosts. Along the way they uncovered a conspiracy to hide what our… Read more »
“You’re fired.” Those are two of the hardest words one can ever hear. There’s a former reality show star who happened to be elected to high public office who seems to speak them with unusual enthusiasm. But if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of that sharp-edged message, you probably didn’t feel entertained. Linda Kaplan Thaler acknowledges that while… Read more »
It’s possible that Rehoboam, the fourth king of ancient Israel, never saw it coming. Who knew that the outcome of his entire reign would come down to one defining moment? Rehoboam came to the throne upon the death of his father Solomon. As told in I Kings 12, the people of Israel approach him with a demand: “Your father put… Read more »
Philip Yancey’s bestselling books almost always gravitate toward two subjects: suffering and grace. His new memoir, Where the Light Fell – a harrowing account of his upbringing in the fundamentalist subculture of the American South – reveals why those two themes came to dominate his life. Until he reached his 20s, Yancey had experienced a great deal of suffering and… Read more »
Edgar Allan Poe didn’t invent scary stories and melancholy poems. But his brooding works have made him, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, the most widely recognized literary figure in American history. Everything he wrote was influenced by the tragedy of his personal life. He deeply loved four women: his mother, the mother of a close friend, his stepmother,… Read more »
On a summer day in 1986, Lauren Schroff walked up to the intersection of 56th and Broadway in midtown Manhattan. She was a single, 35-year-old marketing exec who was helping fuel USA Today’s meteoric rise to “the nation’s newspaper.” As she prepared to cross the street an 11-year-old black youth, a panhandler, asked, “Miss, do you have any loose change?”… Read more »
After 18 months of saturation news coverage of the pandemic, the televised images have become predictable. We see COVID patients lying in ICU beds. Exhausted nurses. Vials of vaccine rolling off pharmaceutical assembly lines. Running tallies of the sick and dying. Exasperated politicians. Protesters chanting at workplaces and school board meetings. Then there are the needles – seemingly endless… Read more »
It’s one of the strangest ways to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Every fall, members of Britain’s Royal Air Force ritualistically burn an upright wooden piano. “Piano fires” commemorate the RAF pilots (along with pilots who came from other Allied nations) who gave their lives to help win the Battle of Britain between July and October 1940. Nazi… Read more »
If you watched TV sports during the 1980s, you’ll probably remember the Rainbow Man. Rollen Stewart dreamed of becoming an actor. When his Hollywood career flatlined, he decided the ultimate act of self-promotion would be to show up on camera during major sporting events. Stewart donned a multi-colored wig and somehow managed to seat himself behind home plate, a goal… Read more »
Several years ago hundreds of physicians and researchers gathered for the convention of the American Heart Association in Atlanta. They were meeting to discuss, among other things, the importance of a low-fat diet for cardiac health. Observers pointed out, however, that their rate of consumption of fat-filled fast foods was almost identical to that of other conventions. One cardiologist in… Read more »
