Even in the 1920s, the economy had quite an effect on the holidays, starting with changes for the president and his family. In 1928 Herbert Hoover and his wife had done their holiday shopping in Rio de Janeiro and celebrated Christmas Day on a battleship traveling back from their good-will...

Just as stores in 2009 took special precautions after a Wal-Mart worker was trampled by a frenzied crowd on Black Friday in 2008, stores in earlier times also learned from the past. While some of the measures are no different from safety measures today, some are unique to the time...

In preparation for a panel discussion being held at Greenwich Library this month as part of the celebration of Lincoln's bicentennial, I began wondering how the holidays were viewed in Lincoln's time--particularly early in the Civil War.

Though Lincoln certainly had his hands full, the press of the day did...

Most of us love going to the movies. Whether we are there to be entertained, enlightened, or to be exposed to other worlds, we love sitting in the darkened theater to "be told a new story."

One hundred years ago people had the same desire to see, to think...

"Short and sweet" seemed just right for a holiday week blog.

I found the perfect gem to share, a quote from Will Rogers, as I flew back to New York from Colorado where I'd been visiting my mother.

Humorist Rogers (1879-1935) once said: "Why pay to go to...

We often read about Rosa Parks' bravery in refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, but very little is written about what happened to African-Americans who wanted to board an airplane. They fared no better than Parks did on the buses....

Last week I visited Gettysburg and learned what it means when we hear, "the acts of men shaped the fate of a nation..."

Being there on the Gettysburg Battlefield, I understood service and sacrifice to one's country in a way that I have never understood it before. I could...

As Americans we have little memory of days when our loved ones could be snatched away from us by a contagious illness. We watch our friends and relatives go through cancer diagnosis and treatment, and we know a few people with diabetes or some type of autoimmune disease that requires...

As our minds begin to fill with thoughts of the ghosts and goblins that are sure to haunt this Halloween weekend, it seems a fitting time to think about the stories behind two of the tools of crime detection: DNA evidence and fingerprint identification.

Today you can't watch a...

One of the pleasures of having attended Smith College was being on the mailing list for a mini-fundraiser to celebrate Gloria Steinem's 75th birthday as well as the donation of her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection (the archives at Smith College).

Another pleasure of being a Smith alumna is...

"In all this discussion about health care reform, we never hear about health care. It's
always about insurance," say many people who talk to me about what's going on in Congress.

Good point. The focus of most discussions has been on health insurance, because with the American system,...

We punch short messages into iPhones and Blackberries and use touch typing methods to write longer missives on computer keyboards. After two to five years, these devices are all considered hopelessly out of date, yet these technological inventions employ a keyboard that was designed for reasons that were applicable to...

No one wants to work for a boss who micromanages everything. You receive the assignment; you come up with your plan to get the job done, and the next thing you know he or she is breathing down your neck, second-guessing what you're doing. If you're like most people, you're...

"I know you would all like to see a really strong health care reform bill go through by the end of the year so that all of you can move on to the next causes that interest you," said Chuck Bell, program director of Consumers Union, at a meeting sponsored...

If there are days when you step away from the news feeling discouraged about this country, I have a solution: Plan a trip to Washington, D.C. and spend a day on Capitol Hill. You will be reminded that it is our capital and our nation; you cannot help but relish...

Many years ago recycling happened naturally. In the early 1900s, people "made do" and re-used, from jars for canning home produce to hand-me-down clothing and toys for children. And items were frequently transformed to new uses. Good lumber from a ramshackle house was removed and used in building a new...

Today a mere glitch in cell phone service or -- don't say it -- a malfunction of our cell phones is enough to send most Americans into panic mode. Young people can barely remember a time when we weren't all telephonically tethered, and yet, cell phones are actually a relatively...

Today Labor Day is primarily thought of as the long weekend that marks the end of summer. But as one might guess, Labor Day was started as an outgrowth of the labor movement. As labor unions gained in power, they wanted to establish an annual tribute to the contributions workers...

In what can only be described as a miracle of Internet connectivity, I have heard from a person whom I mentioned in a blog post I wrote last autumn about how and when the tradition of presidential debates began http://americacomesalive.com/blog/2008/09/long-history-of-debates.html. In the post, I noted that debates are a...

The United States Congress has passed a bill that provides for the phasing out of all incandescent light bulbs by 2014 (100-watt bulbs can not be used after 2012).

The primary alternative for consumers today is the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL). These bulbs are said to be 75...