Sep 04 2024
This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Flickering chandeliers, mysterious portraits, hitchhiking ghosts, Madame Leota, and a color palette filled with smoky purples and eerie blues made the ColourPop x Disney Haunted Mansion makeup collection almost impossible to mistake for an ordinary beauty launch. Originally released in 2023, …
Aug 20 2024
Long before television filled living rooms, smartphones filled pockets and streaming services offered almost any song on demand, Americans gathered around a radio. They listened for news from distant cities, baseball games unfolding hundreds of miles away, comedians performing before studio audiences and orchestras broadcasting live from ballrooms. Children followed adventure serials. Families scheduled evenings …
Aug 19 2024
In the summer of 1917, two girls walked down to a stream behind a house in the Yorkshire village of Cottingley carrying a camera. When they returned, they had something extraordinary. The photograph showed nine-year-old Frances Griffiths sitting beside a bank of foliage while four delicate winged fairies appeared to dance in front of her. …
May 12 2024
Mother’s Day often inspires us to look for words that feel more meaningful than a greeting card. Poetry can do that beautifully. A few lines can capture gratitude, childhood memories, grief, admiration, tenderness, and the complicated bond between mothers and children in ways ordinary conversation sometimes cannot. Poets have been writing about mothers for centuries, …
Mar 25 2024
Holi is one of the best-known Hindu festivals, celebrated with color, music, food, gatherings, and traditions that welcome the arrival of spring. It is observed across India and in Hindu communities around the world, but the way Holi is celebrated can vary considerably from one region to another. For many people, Holi is associated with …
Mar 17 2024
St. Patrick is one of the most recognizable religious figures associated with Ireland, yet much of what people think they know about him comes from stories written long after his lifetime. He did not begin life in Ireland. He was born in Roman Britain, was kidnapped as a teenager and taken to Ireland as a …
Aug 13 2023
There is something strangely cinematic about going back to school. Fresh notebooks, new schedules, awkward introductions, crowded hallways, cafeteria politics, first crushes, intimidating teachers, and the feeling that an entirely new chapter might begin on Monday morning have inspired generations of movies. That makes late summer the perfect time for a back-to-school movie marathon. Whether …
Jul 07 2023
I fell in love with Cuba, or at least the idea of Hemingway’s Cuba, in my mid teens. I read an article about the writer and delighted in the romance of a bygone age, salsa and adventure preserved in time. Maybe the idea of vintage cars made the historic more tangible. I determined that one …
Dec 21 2022
It’s officially winter today, and I hope everyone has a happy, warm, and enchanted winter holiday season! The winter solstice, also referred to as “midwinter” and “the longest night,” is the day of the year with the least amount of sunlight and the longest night for those on the Northern Hemisphere. Astronomically, it marks the …
Nov 25 2022
Today’s artist spotlight is on the American Modern artist, Charley Harper. He was born on the family farm in Frenchton, West Virginia, on August 4, 1922. Growing up, he not only had the farm to explore, but also the Appalachian hills, where he spent time wandering the land and observing the wildlife. This upbringing suited …
