..., he said (to your great-grandparents).

"Government has become ungovernable; that is, it cannot leave off governing. Law has become lawless; that is, it cannot see where laws should stop. The chief feature of our time is the meekness of the mob and the madness of the government."

—  G.K. Chesterton

The "Secret" History of Halloween

Steven Wedgeworth:

"We have shown that the modern holiday, while incorporating various elements of recreated ancient paganism, medieval Christianity, early-modern Reformation and nationalism, and Celtic Romanticism, is nevertheless an entirely modern construct, coming into its own in postwar North America. This is our Halloween."

Many different theories of the origin of Halloween have been floated through the years, but this article digs further into the real story than any I've seen.

Full article...

Life Together

"I know every town worth passing through,
but what good does knowing do
with no one to show it to?"

— Jason Isbell, from "Traveling Alone"

Wojtek the Bear

"Wojtek [...] was a Syrian brown bear cub found in Iran and adopted by soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps. During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek helped move ammunition."

More on Wikipedia...

Divine Presents

"Lord, [...] make other men's gifts to be mine, by making me thankful to thee for them."

— Thomas Fuller

Calvin on Monday-morning QBs

"[M]any complain when God executes his judgments: they would measure all punishments by their own ideas, and subject God to their own will."

— John Calvin

Merton on Solitude

"I ought to know, by now, that God uses everything that happens as a means to lead me into solitude. Every creature that enters my life, every instant of my days, will be designed to wound me with the realization of the world’s insufficiency, until I become so detached that I will be able to find God Alone in everything. Only then will all things bring me joy."

— Thomas Merton

Taking the fork in the road.

"[Y]ou cannot build a federal system when the component parts belong to different civilizations. Neither can you do it when the component parts were once part of the same civilization but have been headed in different directions."

— Douglas Wilson

Exploding glass

Destin (an engineer from Huntsville, AL, and the host of Youtube channel "SmarterEveryDay", with 1M+ subscribers) explains a phenomenon known as "Prince Rupert's drop".     There's some really good high-speed video of what happens:

Rubber, meet road.

"[I]f we think our great grandfathers should not have had such a hard time repenting, then maybe we should demonstrate for everybody how simple and easy it is."

— Douglas Wilson