by B.L. Unkel | Aug 31, 2024 | Everything Else
Many things we consider staples in today’s world were discovered or invented by happy accidents. This toy is one of them. The Beginning In the early 1940s, Richard James, a naval engineer at a navy shipyard in Philadelphia, was trying to solve the problem of...
by B.L. Unkel | Aug 24, 2024 | Everything Else
I don’t know where you are, but here in Texas it’s H.O.T. Since last Thursday was Daffodil Day, I decided to cool off with the first flower of Spring. The Greek Myth The daffodil’s botanical name is narcissus and comes from the Greek myth of Narcissus and Echo....
by B.L. Unkel | Jul 13, 2024 | Travel
Have you ever attended a World’s Fair? Do you even know what it is? The Fair In the U.S., it’s called a “World’s Fair.” Continental Europe and Asia know it as an International or Universal “Exposition”—Expo for short—while the United Kingdom refers to it as an...
by B.L. Unkel | Jul 6, 2024 | Travel
For more than two hundred years, people dreamed about connecting England and France by tunnel. In 1994, the dream finally came true. This is a look at the Channel Tunnel after the build. (To learn how it became a reality—from concept to construction—read “Did You Know...
by B.L. Unkel | Jun 29, 2024 | History
This is the story behind the story of Arlington National Cemetery. The Beginning A couple of years after he married, John Parke Custis (Martha Washington’s son and George Washington’s stepson), purchased two plantations in northern Virginia to be closer to his...