This may be hard for some of you to imagine, but once upon a time, there was no internet. <gasp!> I know! Crazy, right? Now imagine being far from home – away from your family and friends – and potentially in a dangerous place. Are you homesick? But… there’s something there that can link you…
Once upon a time, I met a camel named Ali and he told me all about his time in the US Army Camel Corps. He was born in Egypt but was captured by humans and loaded into the belly of a ship that spent 3 months sailing from Egypt to Texas. Sounds pretty unbelievable, doesn’t…
Did you say horse diving? Yes, apparently horse diving used to be a thing. It was the brainchild of Dr. Carver who claims he once had a horse that loved jumping off bridges into the water. Horse Diving eventually became a headline act at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City and in many smaller fairs…
A headless chicken? That’s a joke, right? A cliche? Well, yes and no. It turns out there really was a famous headless chicken. His name was Mike and he lived in Fruita, Colorado in 1945. He wasn’t supposed to be famous. He was supposed to be dinner. But fate was on his side that day…
If you’re like me, you’ve seen The Wizard of OZ movie many times. But have you ever stopped to wonder how it came to be? It turns out that The Wizard of OZ has quite the backstory and history! I don’t remember now why I decided to read Finding Dorothy. My to-be-read pile is quite…
Chicken Sisters, Chicken Wars, and Harvey Girls… What on earth could these three things have in common? I recently read Chicken Sisters by Kj Dell’antonia. In the prologue to the story, two sisters who had started out as Harvey Girls left the Harvey House restaurant to start their own restaurants, both serving fried chicken. Three…
Is life more extraordinary than we might realize at the time? Two friends, Gene Weingarten and Tom Schroder, came up with the idea for this book when Gene asked Tom, “I wonder what happened on May 17, 1957.” And so began the journey that ends with One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24…
The Marvelous Thing That Came From a Spring: The Accidental Invention of the Toy That Swept the Nation This book, written and illustrated by Gilbert Ford, is a delightful telling of how Richard James was inspired to create the Slinky toy. A mechanical engineer tasked with finding a way to cushion delicate machines aboard…
Last summer I received a letter that had been carried by the Pony Express. And no, it hadn’t been lost for 158 years. Want to know what happened? Keep reading… The Pony Express is a well-known American mail delivery service of the early 1860s. A relay of young horseback riders rode non-stop at top…
Ali Pasha, the war hero, lived a life of quiet anonymity for 50 years. But in 1968, he was discovered and in 1986, his fame grew even more widespread. The headline read, “A Great War Survivor of Shot and Shell.” Who is Ali Pasha, you may be wondering. Well, to learn Ali’s story, we must…
When I wrote about the Goodbye Christopher Robin movie and the story behind A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books, I found out that the books were inspired by a real bear. Winnipeg was an American black bear who traveled from Canada to England and ended up living in the London Zoo. Recently I found a few books…
Have you heard the legend of the ravens at the Tower of London? If the ravens ever leave, the tower will crumble to dust and great tragedy will befall the people of England. What is a raven? Basically, a raven is a large black bird. They are in the same class as crows (the Corvus…