Traveling north along Virginia's eastern shore one passes through villages with practical names like Oyster and Birdnest, and through villages with Indian names like Nassawadox and Pungoteague. Then just south of the Maryland line one comes to the village of Temperanceville. Predictably, it's a very small town, for of all the...

Aristotle Onassis rose from abject poverty to become one of the richest men in the world. He was the only man personally to own a national airline: Greece's Olympic Airways. He counted his wealth in billions. How did he rise from poverty to wealth? He worked hard. He was intelligent. He was willing to take big risks. And he had...

Among Tibetan Buddhists it has long been believed that marmots (similar to our groundhogs) are the incarnations of Lamas -- Buddhist priests. When they hibernate in the winter they are said to be meditating and praying. It is also believed that when the cat purrs, she is praying. The fact is that only humans pray. Indeed, it is...

In a recent Kudzu comic strip, the minister is talking to his secretary and he is upset. "I told you to let me proof read these church bulletins!" he shouts. And then he reads from last week's bulletin: "Floyd Barton and Linda Snipes were married last Sunday in the Church ... and so ends a friendship that began in...

One of the Seven Wonders of the World was the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria. The world's first skyscraper, it was said that the light could be seen 30 miles out to sea. It shone for 1700 years -- but shines no longer. Jesus' light shines to the ends of...

When Dr. Albert L. Shelton went to Tibet as a missionary doctor, he faced some difficult cases. One was a man who had a serious head wound. Dr. Shelton didn't think the man would survive, but an operation was attempted -- and it was successful. About three weeks after the man recovered Dr. Shelton was walking down the...

Recently newspapers carried the story of two women who had the same first, middle and last name, were born on the same day, and had the same Social Security number! It took a while to straighten out the mix-up with the Internal Revenue Service. Both had a father named Robert, both had studied cosmetology, both...

Mignon McLaughlin wrote, "One of life's few really reliable pleasures is to have a family you love, and to leave them for a week." That fits with what one grandfather said about his grandchildren: "I love to see them come and I love to see them go." Loving one's family does not mean never leaving them for a few days. In fact...

Sarah Winchester inherited the fortune made by the Winchester rifle company. Believing that the spirits of dead Indians were haunting her, she went to a medium. She was told that she would not die until her house was finished. So she employed a crew of carpenters. They worked for...

They have lost the cornerstone of the U. S. Capitol building in Washington, D. C. The building has been enlarged and remodeled and renovated so many times that somewhere the cornerstone has been lost. It seems to some that the very cornerstone of our government has been lost -- individual responsibility and self...