Old-school news, just in time
by Kevin Burton If I told you my first two years of formal education – the grahamcracker years – were spent in Bermuda, would you then nod knowingly. Mm Hmm…That explains a lot! No one said a word to me about the Bermuda Triangle whilst I was there (whilst being a Britishism I brought out …
Continue reading “I Survived The Bermuda Triangle, Or Did I?”
by Dictionary Scoop We recognize certain symbols almost without thinking. Yet, when we stop to consider them, the object and the idea it represents can seem unrelated. As history unfolds, some unforeseen events created symbols that stuck until they became conventions. Here is the story of how 10 everyday objects became universal symbols. 1-Why …
Continue reading “Why Do Wedding Rings Go On Fourth Finger?”
by Sarah Anne Lloyd interestingfacts.com The iconic American mall emerged in the 1950s as a “third place” — a social environment separate from home and work — for the growing suburbs. Typically anchored by a department store, malls offered shoppers a chance to reach multiple places on foot, at least once they parked …
Some Of History’s Best, Wittiest Responses by Kevin Burton Sometimes a question is a softball, served up right into your wheelhouse, ready to be hit out of the park. But if you’re like me, you usually think of the witty, brilliant response after the fact, a day or two later. Don’t you …
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by Rob Patterson Best Classic Bands There are two Woodstock festivals that happened in 1969: First and better known is the Woodstock Myth: the paramount Aquarian Age experience, as the mythic echoes imply, and they are not without a sizable measure of truth in some ways. The second is what really happened: the reality of …
Continue reading “Keepin’ It Real About The Story Of Woodstock”
by Robin Levinson-Kingand and Sheila Flynn BBC Dolly Parton was a lot of things – a country musician, a philanthropist, an actress, a storyteller and a businesswoman. One thing she never was, however, was a politician. But don’t think it’s because no one asked her. In 1999, during an appearance on the talk …
Continue reading “Dolly Parton: One Thing Americans Agreed On”
by Kevin Burton Sometimes at the movies, the writers ask you to suspend disbelief. For one 70s song, I couldn’t do it. The song is “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. In a quivering delivery, Dolly begs this Jolene character, “please don’t take my man.” I just never could buy that. I thought, …
Continue reading “Country Music Icon Dolly Parton Dies At 80”
by Kevin Burton The song that topped the pop chart 50 years ago today was for me, a guilty pleasure. “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee was an international smash. In addition to the US, it was number 1 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa, …
by Kevin Burton If one of your favorite new songs got banned from commercial radio today, you might not even know it. That, of course, would tamp down the outrage a bit. But back in the day radio was king, and airplay, or lack thereof, had big sales implications. What follows is …
by Dictionary Scoop American English has influenced global vocabulary for more than a century through movies, advertisements, literature, music, businesses, and technology. Some words that began as distinctly American expressions eventually became common almost everywhere, even in places where English is not an official language. Here are 12 Americanisms have crossed oceans and …
