I’m sure everyone is familiar with what claims to be the world’s oldest profession, so I won’t mention it. My question is what could be the second oldest? I would vote for the forces of arms — militias, paramilitary, military, whatever label works. I was reminded of this by a recent article, “What’s the Oldest
Suddenly it’s August, and school starts (for me) in 12 days. This year I’m telling myself I’ll slow down, and will not be substituting as much as in the past. At least that’s the plan, but I’ve said that before. Being a history nerd, I originally wanted to teach social studies. It took me two
We tend to look at things through prejudicial lenses. Especially in early civilizations, we naturally assume the rulers were all men. But what if they weren’t? We do know of some exceptions. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt, ruling from 1479 to 1458 BCE as one of the few female pharaohs. Her record survived because her accomplishments overwhelmed
In his day, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was the richest man in the world, the Elon Musk of that era. He was reviled as a ruthless businessman, amassing a near-total monopoly in the oil business. And yet, he was also very religious and revered as a generous philanthropist who aided a wide variety of causes,
How much do we owe the original inhabitants of this continent? When it comes to names, quite a bit. Take a word as American as you can get — barbeque. This word originated in the Caribbean with the Taino culture as a term for a wooden frame used for cooking meat over fire. Europeans adopted
We need heroes. The ancient Greeks had Ulysses and Hercules (actually Heracles was his Greek name). More modern times have given us the likes of Harry Potter and Superman. We look up to real people, too. In politics, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are at the top of many lists. In the military, Sergeant Alvin
Every so often, I read something that really makes me think. Like the headline “The 3 Things Experts Wish Everyone Would Wash Their Hands After Touching” by Monica Torres. If you had a childhood like mine, I’m sure you heard the “Wash your hands” command many times. But what do the experts think are the
How many words are in the English language? I have read sources that claim anywhere from 400,000 to over a million if you count scientific and technical terms. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for new words. Today I found an interesting one: chiaroscuro. It means “an effect of contrasted light and shadow created
“History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.” — Clarence Darrow As a history nerd, I would agree that history does repeat. For example, this country has had several periods of turmoil regarding immigration. I wrote about one of these, the Know-Nothing movement, in a January, 2024 column (https://www.bobwelbaum-author.com/revisiting-the-know-nothings/). I was reminded
Have you ever wondered why water expands as it freezes? Or why it changes temperature more slowly than other liquids? Science has known for years about water’s weird properties, but they haven’t been able to find a reason. Until now. Evidence has been found that water is actually two liquids, one denser, and one less