Suggested Family Activity • Thursday, August 6 Today is both National Root Beer Float Day and National Wiggle Your Toes Day so celebrate them both by wiggling your toes while you enjoy a nice, cold root beer float. To make a root beer float at home: Put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a tall mug that you’ve put into the freezer until it feels ice-cold. Pour in some root beer and there you Read more
A Secret Elvis Presley Property Has Surfaced in Mississippi—and It’s for Sale He was “the King” of rock ‘n’ roll, but Elvis Presley also loved land. The late legend’s prized mansion, Graceland, sits on over 13 acres of land in Memphis, TN. Living surrounded by nature was his reprieve from a life of fame, and he often retreated to the woods to reconnect and relax. “The King” was also well-known for taking care of his family, friends, Read more
Coronavirus Disease 2019 Since it was first detected in Wuhan, China in December, COVID-19 (commonly referred to as simply “coronavirus”) has spread to other countries, including the United States. Cases of the virus have been reported across the country, with some areas declaring a state of emergency. As such, it’s important for you to be informed about how the virus spreads and what you can do to protect yourself and others. Below, we’ve provided information Read more
Hear Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in Original 14th-Century English One of the many reasons Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century magnum opus The Canterbury Tales is considered a groundbreaking collection of stories is because he chose to write it not in a highbrow language like Latin or French, but in the common tongue of the people: Middle English. Since colloquial English has changed quite a bit over the past seven centuries, The Canterbury Tales that you might have encountered in high school Read more
On the Heartbreaking Difficulty of Getting Rid of Books Summer Brennan Attempts Marie Kondo’s Approach to Tidying Up Her Library Like a lot of avid readers, I enjoyed Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up but bristled when it came to the section about books. The gist of her now-famous method is this: go through all your possessions by category, touch everything, keep only that which “sparks joy,” and watch as your world is transformed. It Read more
15 Facts about Monty Python and the Holy Grail Ni! Ni! Ni! In honor of the 40th anniversary of Monty Python’s quest for the Holy Grail, here are a few facts you may not have known about the legendary comedy. 1. THE NAME “MONTY PYTHON” DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING. The name of the highly influential comedy troupe made up of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin was made up by the Read more
Mississippi On December 10, 1817, Mississippi was officially recognized as the 20th state in the United States of America. Mississippi joined the Union as the 20th state in 1817 and gets its name from the Mississippi River, which forms its western border. Early inhabitants of the area that became Mississippi included the Choctaw, Natchez and Chickasaw. Spanish explorers arrived in the region in 1540 but it was the French who established the first permanent settlement Read more
Holiday TV Schedule 2019 It’s time for Christmas to have its annual TV takeover. That starts with one parade (New York City on Thanksgiving morning) and continues through another (Disney parks on Christmas morning), four weeks later. In between are cartoons, competitions, music and movies. Lots of movies, actually. In a typical week, there are at least nine new ones – three on the Hallmark networks, three on Lifetime, two on Ion, one on UPtv – Read more
HOW TO TELL IF A BOOK IS A FIRST EDITION Chances are if you’re an avid book collector, you’ve looked at your shelves and thought, “I wonder how valuable some of my books are!” Or maybe you’re a used bookstore patron and you’ve stumbled upon really pristine, really old copies of popular books that were super cheap, and thought maybe they might be worth more than their sticker price. If you don’t know how to tell if Read more
HOW TO REMOVE STICKERS FROM BOOKS You know when you get a great book but the cover is marred by a terrible sticker? So you peel off the sticker, but it either refuses to budge, or leaves a terrible, sticky residue? Or, worst of all: The sticker must remain in place and be a terribly placed sticker? We did some very scientific research to find the best ways to remove stickers from books. We tested a Read more
