The hot new thing for dictionary companies is picking the “Word of the Year.” Merriam-Webster has picked the word ‘justice’ for 2018. You can quibble over whether that is really the most significant word for the year, but the dictionary bases its pick on how often the word was looked up during the year and
READ MOREOkay, so with the holiday season coming to a close, we’ve now been through the entire dialectical sequence for the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Featured in the film Neptune’s Daughter, the song won an Oscar in 1950 and remained a popular standard for decades. That was the dialectical thesis. Then came the antithesis. More recently, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has been judged to be
READ MOREAmericans have just celebrated Christmas and we’re about to celebrate New Year’s Eve. But did you know there’s an unofficial holiday coming up on January 7? It’s called Divorce Monday. That’s the first Monday after New Year’s, and every year it has the dubious distinction of seeing a spike in the number of divorce filings.
READ MOREThe New Year’s Eve celebration at Times Square will again this year feature John Lennon’s song “Imagine.” We thought this article, first published in 2017, would be worth revisiting today. Republishing it also affords us an opportunity to wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. Thank you for all of your support in 2018. We look
READ MOREJanuary 1 will mark 60 years since Fidel Castro’s seizure of power. How are we to assess this long period, especially from the perspective of the average Cuban citizen? The fact that Cuba used to be one of the richest countries of Latin America at the time of Castro’s revolution and is now one of its poorestought to
READ MOREThirty-five years ago today—on December 27, 1983—the world witnessed a most extraordinary act of forgiveness. In Rome’s Rebibbia Prison, Pope John Paul II met for the first time with Mehmet Ali Agca, the very terrorist who shot him four times in St. Peter’s Square just two and a half years earlier. The two men sat inches from
READ MOREIf you were to view the evolution of politics in the West in traditional left versus right terms, you undoubtedly would see the political preferences of most people have shifted leftward. Just look at how most Americans view federal spending: total government spending (federal, state, and local) accounts for 37.7 percent of the country’s overall
READ MOREWe live in an age of rapid technological change. 20 years ago, someone would have laughed at you if you said you had a mini computer in your pocket. Today, Americans spend an average of 11 hours on their tech per day. Experts predict around 40% of the jobs done by humans will soon be the
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