It often takes some people longer than others to "find themselves," to find something they can do well and that they enjoy enough to make it their career. Some people know from an early age what they're cut out to be and do. Others struggle for a while, trying first this and then that until they find their calling. I had a college roommate who knew from his first day as a freshman what his calling was, and he never wavered from it once. In fact, he died a few years ago, still

I have just finished reading a book that I can highly recommend to anyone interested in delving into the inner workings of the officer corps of the U.S. Army in Western Europe during World War II. It is titled Contents of a WWII Footlocker: A Memoir of the U.S. Army Third Armored Division by Edith Nadine Brackman. The book is predominantly composed of the many letters written by Brackman's father, Oliver William Brackman Jr., to his parents and sister just before and througho

In today's world of high-tech, various media, and instant communication, anyone can be a published writer. Quality doesn't matter, it seems. And everyone tries it. It doesn't matter if they have any talent or imagination or expertise in any particular subject or field or even any semblance of command of the language. Everyone has access to the means of communicating; therefore, they think they must. So they write, producing unmemorable tripe that is forgotten as soon as it's

What good is a standard if it isn't upheld and maintained? Pulitzer Prize medallion The Pulitzer Prizes were first awarded in 1917 to honor "the most disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by any American newspaper during the preceding year." The standards by which winners were determined were clearly set forth. Joseph Pulitzer The Pulitzer Prizes were established by wealthy newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer in his 1904 will. Pulitzer, born in Hungary in 184

The causes of wars are seldom what they are made out to seem, and their conclusions almost always have unintended consequences for which the belligerents have not prepared and that cause continuing headaches afterwards. Such was certainly the case with the Spanish-American War of 1898 . Since the days of George Washington's administration, the United States had been isolationist in its foreign policy, paying strict heed to his warning against foreign entanglements. But as Am

Early explorers must have been superstitious, or at least they were attuned to the importance of historic anniversaries of fellow explorers' deeds. How so? Well, consider the following three events that all occurred on this date during the so-called Age of Exploration, yet they were years apart. First, on this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus , an Italian, entered into contract with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Christopher Columbus By the terms of the contrac

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The following day, April 10, Lee delivered his farewell address to his troops, outlining the terms of surrender and issuing to them his final order, known as General Order No. 9 . Lee dictated the order to his aide de camp Colonel Charles Marshall and then edited it himself to produce the final version. It was release

Edison, Howe, Bell, Henry, Smith, and Wesson. These are the names of men renowned for not only their numerous inventions but also the fortunes those inventions brought them. They were both great idea men and shrewd businessmen. Walter Hunt, inventor Like them, Walter Hunt was an accomplished inventor. He has been referred to as a "prolific inventor," a man with "a penchant for invention and innovation," and one who was "compulsively creative." But he was also described as a

It all began with a simple essay contest. The goal of the winner would be to write a simple, straightforward, 100-word essay enunciating what a true-blue American citizen believed and wholeheartedly supported. The winning entry would be "the best summary of the political faith of America" with special emphasis on "the duties and obligations of citizenship." The idea for the contest was the brainchild of judge, mayor, and state legislator Henry S. Chapin . The city of Baltimor

During the last couple of months, our state has experienced several earthquakes, almost all of them unfelt except by the most motion-sensitive people and the seismologists' seismographs. Most of the quakes in South Carolina tend to be centered in either the coastal plain near Charleston or, more recently, around the area of Columbia, the state's capital. About 70 percent of them occur in the central part of the state. Even the most powerful movers and shakers in the statehous

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente had played major league baseball for 18 seasons before being tragically killed in a plane crash on December 31, 1972. During that long career with the same team, he had become a fan favorite for his actions both on and off the field. He was adored by fans across baseball and intent on helping others, especially young people. Roberto Clemente with a young, admiring fan Clemente making a spectacular play in the field His statistics

Sometimes one person's misfortune can be, or lead to, another person's good fortune. Bad news for one can be good news for another. We never like to be on the bad-news end but only on the good-news end. And when it happens, as much as we hate it for the other person, inside we're glad for what his misfortune has done for us. So it was in an incident that occurred on this date in 1954. Bobby had already made a name for himself in professional baseball. He had already played si

Felix Hoffmann 's father suffered from a painful case of rheumatism, and he asked his son to find him a medicine that didn't have the negative side effects of sodium salicylate, the drug commonly prescribed at the time for that and other ailments. After all, Felix was a chemist with Friedrich Bayer Company. Felix researched decades of other scientists' experiments and conducted many of his own in an effort to grant his father's request. Then, on August 10, 1897, he made his f

The name Constantin Fahlberg is by no means a household name any more. But it ought to be. Constantin Fahlberg, chemist Fahlberg was born in Tambov in central Russia in 1850. He developed an early interest in chemistry and later moved to the United States, where he got a job as a chemist at Johns Hopkins University doing chemical research. One evening in 1878, while in his lab doing research, he got so involved in it that he suddenly realized that he was late for supper. He

World War II started out as an uphill battle for the United States. We were unprepared. Our allies had been, or were on the verge of being, defeated by the Axis juggernaut - the Nazis in Europe and the Japanese warmongers in the Pacific. Once we were in the war, the news was bad as we lost one possession after another in the early months of the war. We were strictly on the defensive, never on the offensive. Then came a bit of good news that gave us a ray of hope. We had a her

One of my earliest memories as a child is of waiting for the afternoon newspaper to be delivered to our mailbox by Jonesy, our "paperboy." (He was actually an adult driving an old, beat up, blue, late-Fifties Chevy.) I couldn't wait to plop down on the grass beside the driveway and open the paper to the comics page. I read every one of the strips, but among my favorites were Pogo , Nancy and Sluggo , Lil Abner , Beetle Bailey , and Dick Tracy . Comics later took second place

Last month's recent snow/sleet/ice storm brought back memories of childhood snow days. Days of no school and a lot of sledding until our toes, fingers, and noses were nearly frostbitten. And when we finally came inside to thaw our appendages, dry our wet clothes, and eat hot food, there were interminable sessions of playing Monopoly . Coincidentally, today marks the anniversary of when that board game first went on sale in 1935. Lizzie Magie's "The Landlord's Game" The game o

Just before the attack on Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry into World War II, approximately 88 percent of American households had an automobile. The numerous automakers were rolling out new models with bold features and looks in growing quantities. For example, Ford turned out 691,455 new cars in 1941. But the war brought a sudden end to that. In 1942, Ford produced only 160,000 new cars. William Knudsen, president of General Motors and head of the Office of Production Management

The RMS Republic , commanded by Captain Inman Shelby and carrying 742 passengers and crewmen, sailed from New York on January 23, 1909, 117 years ago. It was headed for ports around the Mediterranean. The RMS Republic The Republic was a large, majestic ship, "a palatial liner," of the White Star Lines . She had been built in 1903 in Belfast, Ireland. Because of the large number of wealthy Americans who sailed aboard her, she was often called "the Millionaires' Ship." In add

It might be the beginning of January, but baseball is never far from my mind. After the Braves' dismal year last season, I'm beginning to feel like I did when I was a kid and first began to follow the Braves and experienced their loss to the Mets in the first-ever league playoff series. But, like the Cubs fans said for decades, there's always next year. But what turned my attention back to baseball this time was two events on this date in history: Stan Musial' s contract in 1