It may be Madness for everyone else, but the arrival of March in Vermont means one thing: it's Maple Sugar Time. As both the temperatures and sap rise, you see the web of sap lines descending from the woods to galvanized vats beside the roads, as dense clouds of wood...

So Much Depends Upon a Decent Pair of Socks

"Look for the union label..."

If you are of a certain generation, you'll recognize those words instantly as the first line of a song that became a 1970s advertising icon.

Sung by a swelling chorus of lovely ladies (and a few...

So What Day Is it After All?

OK. We all do it. It's printed on calendars and displayed in bank windows. We mistakenly call the third Monday in February Presidents Day, in part because of all those annoying commercials in which George Washington uses his legendary ax and "Rail-splitter" Abe...

Two thousand, nine-hundred and twenty-two days.

What would you do with that much time?

That's what a president who is re-elected and fully serves both terms in office gets to work with. But as history tells us, more than a few presidents who desired a second term were not returned...

"A work that aspires, however, humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line."

The great novelist Joseph Conrad wrote those words in a literary manifesto called "A Preface to the Nigger of the 'Narcissus.' "

Oops, I mean "Slave of the 'Narcissus.'" Or...

There is a new skirmish in the so-called "Christmas Wars."

If you are coming to see the Big Tree in Rockefeller Center by way of the Lincoln Tunnel, you'll be greeted by two starkly opposing views of the Christmas Season. As the Daily News reported on Dec. 2,...

The Senate vote vote on a measure which could have put an end to the "Don't Ask. Don't Tell" policy immediately brought to mind the 1948 decision by President Harry S. Truman to desegregate the U.S. military.

(The Truman Library offers a comprehensive overview of the 1948...

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

That was the moment at which World War I largely came to end in 1918. One of the most tragically senseless and destructive periods in all history came to a close in Western Europe with the Armistice -- or...

Pop Quiz: How many Representatives are in the House of Representatives? That was one of the stumpers in a recent Civics online survey.

The answer: 435.

Here's another question that wasn't included in that survey: How many Electors are there? Add 100 Senators to the number of Representatives...

Who is the Vice President? How many Senators are there? How many Supreme Court Justices?

A new online survey suggests many Americans can't answer those Civics 101 questions. That is a point underscored in a recent New York Times Week in Review article, which points out how many Americans don't...

Pop Quiz, hotshot: Who is Job?

For a country that is seemingly wild about religion, we may not be a Godless Nation, but we sure are a Clueless Nation.

The latest survey of American knowledge (or ignorance!), conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, tested...

We've been hearing a lot about America's tradition of religious freedom and tolerance lately. But for centuries, religion has been used as a weapon to discriminate and cudgel "non-believers" and "heathens," many of whom came to America in search of religious freedom they never found. The battle over faith in...

In polite society, one supposedly never discusses religion or politics. In America, it seems we can rarely separate the two.

The latest fracas over faith in the public square involves the plans for Cordoba House, an Islamic Center, including a "mosque," to be built two blocks from Ground Zero. Proposed...

As we pursue happiness and work our way towards Independence Day on July 4th, here are a few fascinating facts about the document that created the United States of America and the day that the nation was born.

First of all, we celebrate the wrong day -- as far...

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger informed slaves in the area from the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston, Texas, that they were free. Lincoln had officially issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but it had taken two more years of Union victories to end the war...

Okay, it is official. "Summer" is here. A few days ago, I saw the first article promising higher prices at the pump for Memorial Day. The traditional kickoff to the summer season always brings front-page stories about travel costs, traffic snarls, picnic tips, and what to wear at the beach....

In a recent Fox News colloquy, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin explained America's religious traditions to Bill O'Reilly. Discussing the recent National Day of Prayer, both underscored their belief that America is a "Christian nation," founded upon Judeo-Christian principles and the Ten Commandments. Speaking of the Founders and the nation's...

In the midst of the ongoing immigration and "Christian nation" debates, it is always instructive to look at America's past for clues to the present. There is, as they say, nothing new under the sun.

On this date, April 27 in 1791, Samuel F.B. Morse was born. If you remember...

In the midst of all the "Tea Party" chatter these days, it is a tad surprising that the anniversary of another significant Boston event went largely unnoticed last week. It was, after all, 240 years ago on March 5, 1770, that the Boston Massacre took place.

And what was...

On March 3, 1931, The Star Spangled Banner, with words written in 1814 and set to an old drinking song, became the national anthem.

It was September 13, 1814, American was at war with England for the second time since 1776. Francis Scott Key was an attorney attempting to negotiate...