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...

The recent Food and Drug Administration ruling that mercury used in dental amalgam fillings is not at a level high enough to cause harm in patients was a long-awaited next volley in what is an ongoing discussion about the safety of mercury. The agency did, however, reclassify it from a...

Our current system of health care leaves 47 million Americans without insurance. Some of these people are recent college graduates who tend to be healthy but may still encounter high health costs if they break a leg or are in a car accident; others are working people who still can't...

An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last Friday caught my attention because of the way it illustrated the many common misunderstandings about health care reform. The article, "Health Reform and Cancer" (http://http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204886304574306693989102298.html) is written by Myrna Ulfik, who is battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as well as uterine cancer....

More than 5 million visitors come to see the Grand Canyon each year, most of them during the summer months when families have time to travel. This year, as people look out over the canyon expanse, hike the trails, or ride in a helicopter to survey the amazing topography, they...

With sleep-away camps in full swing this month, package delivery services are also a little busier than usual as parents send "care packages" filled with favorite foods or small games to their offspring.

While these camp deliveries no doubt bring delight, the original "care packages" began as badly needed hunger...

Last week's chilling discovery that bodies within Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois were routinely being dug up and moved so that the burial plots could be sold again offers an opportunity to remind Americans that it was only two hundred years ago that "resurrectionists" would routinely raid cemeteries in...

Over the July Fourth weekend, my husband and I traveled to the West to visit friends. As we navigated parts of southern Montana in our rental car equipped with a GPS unit, we were deftly guided to our various destinations by the soothing tones of a voice programmed into the...

For most Americans, the mention of the Fourth of July brings to mind visions of fireworks before thoughts of the Declaration of Independence. How did fireworks become so inextricably linked with this important national celebration of our nation's freedom?

The use of small explosives for celebrations is said to date...

"Transcontinental Car Contest to Begin" is not a headline that would grab much attention in 2009, but with a dateline of June 23, 1909, it is a very different story. The trip from New York to Seattle across largely unpaved roads in automobiles that traveled at less then 20 miles...

As the automobile companies continue to wrestle with ways to stay in business and build more relevant, energy-efficient cars, new designs for electric cars as well as an electric hybrid are on the drawing table. Ironically, electric cars are not new; they were first used 100 years ago, the preferred...

Hearing that we, the American taxpayers, are now the majority stakeholders in General Motors is a bit like hearing we've just inherited a general store from an uncle we never knew in a town we've never visited. There's already a shopkeeper in place, so we don't really have to "do"...

Arlen Specter was a welcome sight on the midday television news yesterday. As a voter who tends to vote Democratic, I am delighted to welcome him to the Party and to note that the Dems should now have an easier time overcoming the "Party of No" in Congress, but my...

While there is nothing humorous about the current state of the economy, I could not help but smile when I read about something that seemed to help boost the economy in the 1930s. I was writing about phrenology (a method of analyzing a person's personality based on the bumps and...

As Salvation Army bell ringers spend the last few days before the holidays singing carols and ringing their bells to gain donations for the Salvation Army, people might be interested in knowing about one of the organization's transformative figures, Evangeline Booth (1865-1950).

Evangeline's parents, who lived in London, were...

"My understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer," was playwright David Mamet's insensitive comment about Jeremy Piven's early departure from Mamet's Broadway revival of his play, Speed-the-Plow. Mamet's quote appeared in the New York Times (December 19, 2008); he was said...