Recently Lynn Johnston's "For Better or For Worse" comic strip depicted the father changing all the clocks. When his little daughter asks why, he explains carefully that putting the clocks ahead gives an extra hour of daylight every evening, that they will be changed back in the fall, and that it is called Daylight Saving Time. His little...

The countryside around Vienna is divided into the Waldviertel (the Forest Quarter) the Weinviertel (the Wine quarter) an the Mostfiertel (the Cider Quarter). In the past, the main crop is the pear which is made into a drink, a spiced bread, and is also stored for the long winter. They have a saying in that region of Austria: "Ente...

When the Romans overran the Bible lands most of the Jews were dispersed to other lands. But a few Jewish enclaves remained. The Jews who never left the Middle East are seen by one author as indicators of the appearance of Jesus. In his book Christianity 101, Gilbert Bilezikian concluded that Jesus must have been short by...

Some people in Madagascar dig up the bones of their ancestors from time to time and feature them in a festival. They do it to honor their ...

According to an article in the March 18, 1997 issue of USA Today there are twenty-two recurring gay and lesbian characters on prime time television! Twenty-two! First the homosexual community wanted society to permit them to live as they do. Then they wanted society to say that it was moral. Next they wanted society to...

Created from Georgia marble and Florida coquina stone, and ornamented with the forms of plants and animals, the Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida was built to house a 57-bell carillon. Visitors sit amidst the splendor of a lovely subtropical garden to listen to the lovely music of the bells. Every part of the carillon moves mechanically...

Visitors to EPCOT at Disney World may wonder about the name. Originally it was an acronym for Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow. It was to be a whole new kind of city, but it was never built. Showcase exhibits from other countries took the land that was supposed to be the site of the City of Tomorrow and took the...

Many Kentuckians grew up believing that the name of their state meant "Dark bloody Ground." It was that, of course, for the hunting ground of native Americans that became the battle ground between them and the white settlers. But Professor Theda Perdue of the University of Kentucky and Professor Michael Green of...

Years ago in Manchester England there lived a factory worker who had a very responsible job. The whistle that marked the beginning and end of the work day was operated by a clock and it was his job to be sure the clock was accurate. So every day on his way to work he stopped by the window of a clock shop. In the window...

It is well known that the German people have always been a highly regimented culture. The idea of Ordnung, a sense of order, permeates German society. And that is a worthy trait. It may, however, have now run amok. Recently the newspaper Bild Zeitung reported that in Germany today there are 4,874 laws, 84,900 regulations...