Back in the 1950s, public school English classes were buttoned-up affairs: grammar drills, vocabulary lists, the occasional expository essay, and writing poems about Thanksgiving turkeys. Imagination and creativity were something you practiced after class, not during. Creative writing—when it was offered—was squeezed through the narrow pipes of patriotic prompts and copycat assignments: “Write about George Washington’s childhood, but make it…
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Top News Stories from Around the World And why you’ve never heard of them
Think the world’s gone completely off the rails? You could be right. And we’ve got the stories to prove it. From gnome invasions to perfume that smells like pizza, these stories sound like rejected plotlines from a fever dream, but every one of them actually happened. They’re real and based on actual reported events. We’ve just added a little seasoning…
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How the West Got Fat The Salty, Starchy, Greasy Truth Behind America’s Original Snackpocalypse
It’s easy to romanticize the Old West. Hollywood gave us dusty cowpokes with jaws sharp enough to split a whiskey barrel and waistlines tighter than their lariats. Meanwhile, historical photos offer a somber parade of gaunt-faced pioneers and skeletal sodbusters, squinting toward the camera like they’re gaping maws of dysentery. But let’s put away the sepia-toned lies for a moment…
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Once Upon a Compliance Check Fairy Tale Characters Who’d Be in Deep Legal Trouble Today
With key government agencies going dark faster than a GPS-guided SUV losing signal in a DMV parking lot, we’re left to ponder: what would have happened to our beloved fairy tales if faced with our current regulatory kerfuffles? How would our favorite fairy tale characters have dealt with today’s bureaucracy and red tape? The following articles tackle precisely that. We’re…
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Sordid Sayings and Pompous Proverbs Unraveling the truth behind the lies
The early bird catches the worm So, we’ve all heard the phrase “The early bird catches the worm,” right? A classic nugget of wisdom, passed down through generations, warning us that if we hit snooze one too many times, some overachieving, oat-milk-latte-drinking go-getter is gonna snatch our opportunities right out from under us. But let’s be real—what kind of lunatic…
