It may be just a date on the calendar to a lot of folks, but have you ever stopped to wonder: why is January 1 when we mark the beginning of a new year? As with most things, it all goes back to the Romans. The Romans had a deity named Janus, god of doors…
Whenever people start talking about “ringing in the New Year”, you’ll usually hear them talk about doing so with things like a kiss, a toast, a New Year’s resolution, a movie marathon, or an entire dozen donuts all to themselves. But when you think about it…none of those things ring, do they? So, why do…
You probably had eggnog over Christmas. (Heck, you probably still have some eggnog leftover in your fridge right now). But while it’s definitely delicious, why is it called “eggnog”? The “egg” part doesn’t really need an explanation, does it? Eggs are the foundation of eggnog, with their yolks usually being combined with other elements like…
Pretty much everybody knows the story of Jesus Christ’s birth, right? Born in a manger, visited by three wise men or “Magi” / “kings” from the East or Orient who arrived bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And while pretty much everyone knows what gold is, the other two are less well-known. So, what…
There may not be a good luck charm as well-known as the horseshoe. You see them hanging over entrances to homes & barns, depicted on clothing (like the “Lucky” brand), in jewelry, as well as in that magically delicious cereal. But why is the horseshoe considered a symbol of luck? One of the earliest mentions…
Once folks regained consciousness following their turkey coma on the day after Thanksgiving, a large majority of them did what so many red-blooded Americans have done through the years: they went shopping. Last year alone, shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion just in online shopping on “Black Friday”, with that single day bolstering the bottom…
Now that the spooky season is officially over, the public’s demand for pumpkins plummets. And that means all those displays you’ve seen at area grocery stores & farms become economically (and literally) rotten. So, what happens to unsold pumpkins once Halloween is over? Some pumpkin farms use their unsold inventory as compost to increase soil…
Whether you’ll be trick-or-treating tonight or buying discounted candy you’re your nearest drugstore tomorrow, Halloween is the season to go nuts when it comes to consuming sweet treats. I know it can be tempting to burn through your Halloween bag in one fell swoop, but if you exercise patience with your haul of Twix &…
I took my daughter to Hersheypark last night for their “Dark Nights” Halloween event, when, out of the blue, she pointed at some port-o-potties & asked: “How do they clean those things?” As unexpected as the question was, it was totally valid. How DO they clean those things? I mean, disinfecting port-o-johns can’t be as…
Here in America (or “the colonies”, as our relatives across the pond once called it), it’s not out of the ordinary for folks to use the terms “British” & “English” interchangeably when talking about anything related to the empire that gave us such prized gems as William Shakespeare, The Mini (both Skirt & Car), and…