Author: megneal

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Enormous Dust Storms Traveled All the Way to the East Coast

Beyond the endless rows of parched farmland, the starkest visual indication of an ecological system gone awry was the series of dust storms that swept across the Great Plains for much of the 1930s. The frequency of storms increased as the decade progressed, going from 14 in 1932 to a peak of 72 in 1937.

While some of these were milder and more localized "sand blows," others were enormous "black blizzards" that wiped out visibility altogether as they ripped across several states. One such tempest, which commenced in the Northern Great Plains on May 11, 1934, carried an estimated 350 million tons of silt all the way to the Eastern Seaboard, with ships a few hundred miles offshore even noting the accumulation of dust on their decks. But the most notorious of the storms was the one that roared south from the Oklahoma Panhandle at winds reaching 60 mph on April 14, 1935. The event came to be known as "Black Sunday" and yielded the first known use of the term "Dust Bowl" in newspapers.

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Migrant “Okies” Faced Discrimination

Unsurprisingly, the unforgiving conditions prompted many residents of the Dust Bowl's hardest-hit regions to uproot their families in search of better pastures farther west. Approximately 2.5 million people moved from their Great Plains homes throughout the 1930s, with the notable share of Oklahomans giving rise to the pejorative nickname of "Okies" for any migrants who departed the desolate Midwest.

The 200,000 or so migrants who journeyed to California found no immediate improvement to living conditions; those who sought to eke out a living picking fruit in the San Joaquin Valley often were forced to live amid unsanitary conditions in tents and shantytowns, while those who ventured south to Los Angeles were for a time turned away by the LAPD's "bum brigade."

Although later research showed that the population decrease of the Dust Bowl states reflected both the continuation of post-World War I migratory trends and the lack of new arrivals to the area, there's no doubt that Dust Bowl migrants marked a distinct subset of Americans who struggled during the Depression era.

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FDR Launched an Array of Programs To Aid Farmers

As part of the sweeping legislation passed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the federal government enacted a series of programs geared toward farmers ravaged by the Dust Bowl. The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act and Farm Credit Act in 1933 allowed recipients to refinance their loans and access new lines of credit, while the Farm Security Administration of 1937 offered educational opportunities and health care plans for participants.

Other programs sought to undo some of the environmental issues at play. The Soil Erosion Service, which became the Soil Conservation Service in 1935, provided instruction on sound farming techniques such as crop rotation, and awarded subsidies for farmers to leave certain areas idle to let the land recover. Then there was the massive Shelterbelt Project, which tapped unemployed laborers to plant more than 220 million trees across a 1,300-mile row from Texas to Canada in an attempt to block winds from whipping up the dreaded dust storms.

Credit: Photo by Dorothea Lange/ Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo

The Dust Bowl Produced Some of the Most Enduring Art of the Century

As human suffering can be a catalyst for creativity, it's not surprising that some of the most powerful American art of the 20th century emerged from the Dust Bowl years. Photographer Dorothea Lange showcased the toll of hard living on her subjects, as exemplified by her famed "Migrant Mother" portrait from 1936. Painter Alexandre Hogue supplied his "psychorealistic" view of the era, with works highlighting the desolate landscapes and emaciated cattle of the Great Plains. Author John Steinbeck captured the desperation of the displaced Joad family in his 1939 masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath. And folk singer Woody Guthrie, who endured Black Sunday from his north Texas home and actually lived the life of the migrant "Okie," relayed the heartache of those lean years with his first commercial album, 1940's Dust Bowl Ballads.

What the U.S. Presidents Did Before Taking Office

Ronald Reagan at the pool — Credit: John Kobal Foundation/ Moviepix via Getty Images

Author Timothy Ott

August 20, 2026

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A look through the life journeys of all 45 people who have served as U.S. president reveals a general blueprint for ascending to the highest office in the land. Many spent a sizable chunk of their early careers in the military and/or as lawyers, before climbing the political ladder with increasingly prominent roles that garnered the national attention and support needed to make a successful run at the White House.

Of course, there is no one set path that leads to the presidency. Many future commanders in chief navigated unusual first jobs or failed ventures along the way. Here are nine early roles held by people who eventually became known for calling the shots from the Oval Office.

Abraham Lincoln: Tavern Owner

Abraham Lincoln held down an array of jobs during his young adult years in the town of New Salem, Illinois, although the one that often stands out to contemporary eyes is his stint as a tavern owner. To be specific, the venue Lincoln co-owned with his militia colleague William F. Berry was a “grocery,” a store that sold alcoholic beverages to be consumed on the premises. Because a license was needed for such transactions, Lincoln is sometimes described as the only licensed bartender to become president. Unfortunately, Berry supposedly spent too much time indulging in the liquor stockpile, and Lincoln sold his share of the store to his co-owner after less than a year. But the business relationship came back to haunt the future president when Berry died two years later, leaving Honest Abe responsible for the grocery’s debts.

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Ulysses S. Grant: Farmer

Although he became Lincoln's most celebrated Civil War general and springboarded from that role to the White House, Ulysses S. Grant largely struggled in most of his other professional endeavors. One such endeavor, as described in Kate Havelin's biography Ulysses S. Grant, was his attempt to farm the 60 acres of land in St. Louis, Missouri, that had been gifted to him by his father-in-law. The appropriately named "Hardscrabble" farm initially failed to produce anything of significant growth beyond its trees, which Grant chopped down and sold as firewood on the streets of St. Louis as his family's main source of income. By the time Hardscrabble finally began yielding quality crops, Grant was unable to capitalize due to an economic downturn and his own health problems, forcing him to sell the farm by the late 1850s.

Calvin Coolidge: Toy Maker

Unlike the previous presidents on this list, a 14-year-old Calvin Coolidge didn't need to support himself or a family while attending Black River Academy in Ludlow, Vermont. However, his father insisted on the fiscal lessons to be learned from employment, according to Hendrik Booraem's biography The Provincial, and so the elder Coolidge set up his son with a weekend job at the Ludlow Toy Manufacturing Company in 1886. It's unclear what specific duties the 30th president performed, but they likely included tasks such as sawing, gluing, and painting the wares. In his autobiography, Coolidge noted simply that he "came to know how toys and baby wagons were made" during his brief tenure at the factory.

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Harry S. Truman: Haberdasher

Upon returning home from World War I, Harry S. Truman teamed up with his Army buddy Eddie Jacobson to open a men's clothing store on the ground floor of the Glennon Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. A popular meeting place for other veterans, the Truman & Jacobson Haberdashery initially enjoyed brisk business, with Truman handling sales and bookkeeping and Jacobson overseeing inventory. However, the good fortune dissipated with the onset of a recession in the early 1920s, resulting in the store's closure in September 1922. Similar to Lincoln, Truman was saddled with the financial burden after his former partner declared bankruptcy, finally settling his debts in 1935.

Richard Nixon: Frozen Orange Juice Executive

After graduating from Duke Law School in 1937, Richard Nixon landed a job with the Wingert and Bewley law firm in his hometown of Whittier, California. However, the legal position apparently didn't quite satisfy his professional ambitions, and Nixon soon added the role of president of a frozen orange juice venture called the Citra-Frost Company to his résumé. According to eyewitness accounts, Nixon spent much of his free time diligently cutting and squeezing oranges in an attempt to make his side business a success. However, he couldn't quite solve the problem of proper packaging in a time before the development of frozen juice concentrate, and Citra-Frost went bankrupt after an attempt at storing plastic juice bags blew up a refrigerated boxcar.

Lyndon B. Johnson: Elevator Operator

As told in Volume 1 of Robert Dallek's Lone Star Rising biographical series, a 17-year-old Lyndon B. Johnson spent part of 1925 aiding his lawyer cousin in San Bernardino, California, with the hope of getting a leg up on a fledgling legal career. When it became apparent that the cousin couldn't provide the professional assistance he sought, Johnson spent about a month working as an elevator operator, before heading back home to Texas. Johnson later returned to San Bernardino during the 1964 presidential campaign and demonstrated that he remembered his vocational training from four decades earlier by taking passengers up and down the same elevator he once oversaw.

Gerald Ford: Football and Boxing Coach

After starring on a pair of national championship-winning football teams at the University of Michigan, Gerald Ford leaped at the chance to become an assistant football coach at Yale in 1935, with an eye toward earning his law degree from the esteemed institution. Things didn't initially go as smoothly as he'd hoped; the Yale administration denied his request to apply to the law school, believing he'd be too busy to juggle classes and professional responsibilities, before grudgingly allowing him to take a reduced course load in 1938. As part of his obligations, Ford also had to serve double duty as the school's boxing coach. As he recalled in Sports Illustrated in 1974, he took a crash course in the sport the summer before joining Yale by venturing "to the YMCA three times a week to get punched around by the Y's boxing coach." He wrote, "I didn't get good, but I got good enough to fool the Yale freshmen."

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Ronald Reagan: Lifeguard

Ronald Reagan, of course, was a Hollywood actor before heading into politics, but even before that he was a celebrity in his hometown of Dixon, Illinois, for his exploits as a lifeguard. According to Anne Edwards' profile Early Reagan: The Rise to Power, the tall, athletic teenager embarked in 1926 on what became a regular summer gig on the banks of the Rock River, a tributary notorious for its strong undertow. Reagan frequently plunged into the water to pull out flailing swimmers, and afterward would carve a notch on a log to mark his success; by the end of seven summers, he had embedded 77 notches into the log. Reagan later referred to the experience in his autobiography as "one the best jobs I ever had," citing the figure of 77 lives saved as "one of the proudest statistics of my life."

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Bill Clinton: Grocery Stock Boy/Comic Book Salesman

As he described to Conan O'Brien in 2017, Bill Clinton landed one of his first jobs at a local Hot Springs, Arkansas, grocery store at age 13. However, the store owner was suspicious of his stock boy's left-handed ways, thinking it a sign of demonic influence, and insisted on right-hand usage until Clinton awkwardly knocked over two glass jars of mayonnaise. The pair eventually smoothed things over, and the owner even let the young assistant sell his used comic books out of the store. But that particular venture didn't work out in the long run for Clinton, who lamented that he never should have parted with the classic comics that surely would fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars from collectors today.

Who Portrayed Abraham Lincoln Most Accurately?

Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln” — Credit: TCD/Prod.DB/ Alamy Stock Photo

Author Michael Nordine

August 20, 2026

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Only one person has been portrayed on-screen more than Abraham Lincoln, and he doesn’t actually exist: Sherlock Holmes. Honest Abe has been inspiring filmmakers since 1908, when Van Dyke Brooke directed The Reprieve: An Episode in the Life of Abraham Lincoln, and has since appeared in more than 300 movies.

An unknown actor played the 16th president in The Reprieve, which concerned Lincoln’s pardon of the “sleeping sentinel” — a Union soldier who fell asleep on duty and was initially sentenced to death for his mistake. Given Lincoln’s status as one of America’s most revered leaders, it’s little surprise that the first movie made about him focused on his mercy and compassion — traits highlighted in just about every other film inspired by Lincoln.

But which of these portrayals was most accurate? Before answering that, it’s worth taking a look at some honorable mentions.

Noteworthy Films About Lincoln

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Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

Before he was president, Lincoln worked as a lawyer. Oscar-winning director John Ford chose to focus on this era of Honest Abe’s life in his excellent biographical drama. Henry Fonda — another screen legend who received an Oscar nomination for his leading role in The Grapes of Wrath and also starred in such classics as The Lady Eve and 12 Angry Men before winning Best Actor for 1981’s On Golden Pond — was perfectly cast as the idealistic attorney defending two brothers who are falsely accused of murder.

Screenwriter and critic Frank Nugent lauded Fonda’s performance as one of those “once-in-a-blue-moon things: a crossroads meeting of nature, art, and a smart casting director. Nature gave Mr. Fonda long legs and arms, a strong and honest face, and a slow smile; the make-up man added a new nose bridge.” You could argue that on a physical level, Fonda captured Lincoln’s essence better than any other actor.

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The Tall Target (1951)

Despite being the title character in Anthony Mann’s underseen thriller, Lincoln himself appears for less than a minute of The Tall Target. And yet the film is worth mentioning not only because it’s a good movie but also because it focuses on a lesser-known chapter of the former president’s life: the unsuccessful Baltimore Plot. The assassination attempt occurred just prior to Lincoln’s inauguration and was initiated by Southern sympathizers to prevent him from taking office. Dorothea Dix, a nurse who heard rumors of the conspiracy and alerted authorities, described it simply: “Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration was thus to be prevented, or his life to fall a sacrifice.” Leslie Kimmel played Lincoln during what was essentially a cameo appearance, doing a fine job given his limited screen time.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

This adaptation of the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith deserves a brief mention for the outlandishness of its premise. Though it’s feasible that Lincoln might have spent nights and weekends slaying the undead if they actually existed, they of course do not. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times put it best when she wrote that the title Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is so good that “it’s too bad someone had to spoil things by making a movie to go with it.”

The Most Accurate Portrayal

Lincoln (2012)

On the question of both the best and most accurate portrayal of Lincoln, the consensus is clear: Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. Between 2002 and 2017, Day-Lewis appeared in just seven movies. He received Oscar nominations for four of them, and won twice: once for There Will Be Blood and again for Lincoln. The famously unprolific thespian is among the most renowned screen actors of all time, and the many fans who were saddened to hear of his second retirement following Phantom Thread are surely looking forward to his return in 2025’s Anemone, which was directed by his son Ronan.

While there’s no question that Day-Lewis’ portrayal of Honest Abe was amazing — in addition to his third Academy Award, he also won a BAFTA Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award, among others — many viewers were naturally curious as to its historical accuracy.

The actor, whose reputation for being choosy about his roles precedes him, was hesitant to sign on to the project because, he told The New York Times, he felt that Lincoln had “been mythologized almost to the point of dehumanization.” He only accepted the role on the condition that he be given a year to prepare, which he spent reading books about the president as well as Lincoln’s own speeches. Latching on to historical accounts that Lincoln had a somewhat reedy voice, Day-Lewis made this a crucial aspect of his performance — in part because high-pitched voices carry better in crowds, which could have contributed to Lincoln being such a compelling orator.

The result received high marks from historians. In an interview with NPR, A. Lincoln: A Biography author Ronald White praised Day-Lewis for his “delicate balance between the homely Lincoln — the homespun Lincoln — and the high Lincoln of the second inaugural address,” adding that the actor “walks like Lincoln, the way he puts his feet down one at a time. He talks like Lincoln — not the baritone voice of Disneyland, but the high tenor voice. Daniel Day-Lewis studied Lincoln intensely, and what comes out is a very accurate depiction of the spirit of the man.”

Allen Guelzo, a Civil War professor at Gettysburg College, was similarly laudatory. “I remember thinking afterwards that all the time I’d been watching the movie I had never thought that Daniel Day-Lewis was acting,” he said in an interview, “because what he portrayed seemed so close to my own mental image of what Lincoln must have been like.” Given the universal praise and bevy of awards Day-Lewis received for his performance, it’s hard to disagree.

For similar articles, subscribe to our sister brand Movie Brief, brought to you by our resident film critic Michael Nordine. You’ll receive a weekly review and recommendation of a new movie, whether in theaters or available to stream, as well as a list of 25 must-see movies when you first sign up.

Why Do We Throw Rice at Weddings?

Rice thrown at wedding, 1952 — Credit: Al Moldvay/ Denver Post via Getty Images

Author Kristina Wright

August 20, 2026

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If you’ve been to a few weddings, you probably know the flow by now: the vows, the kiss, and then the party, with a few time-honored traditions woven in. One of the most iconic rituals? Guests showering the newlyweds with rice as they make their grand exit. It’s a festive moment and makes for a great photo — but have you ever stopped to wonder where this tradition comes from?

What may seem like a simple gesture is actually rooted in centuries of symbolism. That tiny grain of rice carries big meaning, representing fertility, abundance, and good fortune — and the practice shows up in different forms across cultures and eras. Let’s take a look at how rice-throwing became a wedding classic, and why grain-tossing rituals have endured through the centuries.

Grains Were Linked to Ancient Fertility

In ancient agricultural societies, fertility wasn’t just desirable — it was vital to both survival and spiritual life. Ensuring crops grew, families expanded, and communities thrived depended on a close relationship with the natural world. People believed that calling on the natural crop cycles — planting, harvest, and renewal — during a marriage could help ensure the couple’s future would be equally productive. Showering newlyweds with grains was a symbolic way of welcoming the life-giving forces of nature into the new union.

Among early cultures such as the Celts and Mesopotamians, native grains including wheat and barley were considered sacred symbols of abundance and growth. These grains played a role in wedding ceremonies as offerings to spirits or deities associated with fertility and harvest. In some traditions, they were thrown at the bride and groom to bless them with children and prosperity. The act of tossing grain physically reinforced the hope that their marriage would be as fruitful as a well-tended field.

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Greeks and Romans Tossed Grains To Call on the Gods

As civilizations became more organized, these agricultural customs became woven into more formal religious traditions. In ancient Rome, guests often tossed wheat or barley at weddings in honor of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, fertility, and family. Roman brides sometimes wore crowns or garlands of wheat in their hair, highlighting their expected role in continuing the family line.

Greek ceremonies included similar practices, invoking Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, through offerings of grain. These were not simply quaint traditions — they reflected larger beliefs about the social order, divine favor, and the sacredness of the household. In both cultures, grains were offered not only for luck but also as part of a broader worldview that linked successful marriages with divine blessing and societal stability. A good harvest and a good marriage were seen as intertwined — and both needed the favor of the gods.

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Rice Played a Sacred Role in Ancient Asian Ceremonies

While wheat and barley featured prominently in the West, rice took on sacred importance in many Asian cultures. In China, rice has symbolized life, wealth, and harmony with nature for thousands of years. Historically, rice featured prominently in ancestral offerings and seasonal rites, and its association with fertility and family continuity made it a natural part of wedding customs. In some regions, for instance, rice was scattered around newlyweds to bless the union or offered to ancestors to gain their favor for the marriage.

In India, rice has been integral to Hindu wedding rituals for thousands of years. One of the most meaningful customs is Akshata, in which whole grains of rice — often dyed with turmeric or vermilion — are showered on the bride and groom as a symbol of abundance, fertility, and divine favor.

Across Southeast Asia, similar rituals appear, many tied to local fertility goddesses, such as Dewi Sri in Indonesia. Wedding ceremonies often include offerings of rice to spirits or deities to ensure harmony, fertility, and a blessed union. In these cultures, rice is not just food but also spiritual currency, deeply connected to the cycles of life and marriage.

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Rice Was Introduced to Europe Through Trade

Despite its importance elsewhere, rice was largely unfamiliar in Europe until it began arriving via trade routes from Asia and the Middle East. By the Middle Ages, it had made its way into European markets, thanks to expanding contact with the Islamic world in places such as Spain and Sicily, and increased trade spurred by the Crusades.

At first, rice was considered a luxury item — rare, expensive, and used mostly by the wealthy. But over time, it became more accessible and began appearing in ceremonial contexts, including weddings. Its symbolism — fertility, longevity, and abundance — dovetailed neatly with older European traditions. Long before rice arrived, rural communities used native grains such as wheat, oats, and barley in wedding rites to bless the couple with prosperity and children.

By the 19th century, throwing rice at weddings had become a widespread and beloved tradition in Western cultures. It was a way of honoring ancient fertility symbols with a modern twist, combining imported ingredients with long-held wishes for joy, health, and a flourishing family life.

Credit: Keystone/ Hulton Royals Collection via Getty Images

How the Rice-Throwing Ritual Has Changed

In recent decades, the tradition of throwing rice has shifted as couples opt for alternatives that are either more environmentally friendly or better suited to specific venues. Today, it’s not uncommon to see guests showering newlyweds with dried flower petals, birdseed, bubbles, or biodegradable confetti. These variations serve the same symbolic purpose — celebrating the beginning of a new life together with joy and good wishes — while also accommodating modern sensibilities.

Some venues discourage the use of rice because of cleanup concerns or the widespread (but incorrect) belief that it harms birds. That myth, which gained traction in the 1980s, claimed that birds would eat the rice, which would swell in their stomachs and cause injury or death. However, wildlife experts and ornithologists have since debunked that idea. Birds can digest uncooked rice just fine — after all, it’s a staple food for many wild species around the world.

While fewer couples may use rice today, the impulse behind the tradition endures. Whether it’s a cloud of bubbles or a scatter of petals, these celebratory send-offs are a continuation of an ancient wish: that the couple’s new life will be fruitful, joyful, and blessed with abundance.

We Tried To Write an Entire Article in Middle English

Page from “The Canterbury Tales” — Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc./ Alamy Stock Photo

Author Nicole Villeneuve

August 20, 2026

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When William of Normandy invaded England in 1066, it began a transformation of the Old English language. The Norman conquerors replaced the Anglo-Saxon ruling class, bringing with them their Anglo-Norman language, which was based on Old French. Over time, the two languages blended. Old English grammar became simpler, and the English vocabulary expanded with the addition of French words. The result was a new stage of the English language: Middle English, spoken around 1100 to 1500.

During this time, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, one of the most famous examples of Middle English literature. Chaucer’s writing — and the English language in general — was not uniform at this time. Spellings varied and were often phonetic, and pronunciation differed by region; Chaucer often used whichever version of a word fit his rhyme.

There were some differences between the Middle English alphabet and our modern alphabet. Middle English included letters such as “þ” (known as thorn) for the “th” sound, and some other letters — such as “u” and “v” or “i” and “j” — were interchangeable. There were also some common words we no longer use. Middle English used “thou” for informal speech and “ye” as a formal or plural form, both of which were replaced by “you.” And third-person verbs ended in “eth” or “th” (such as “goeth”), which was later simplified to “s.” During the Great Vowel Shift, which occurred between 1350 and 1600, the pronunciation of many words also changed. For example, in Middle English, “sheep” sounded more like “shape,” and “bite” sounded like “beet.”

Another major shift occurred when the printing press was introduced to England in 1476, marking the start of a new stage of the language, known as Modern English. As printed books became more widespread, spelling and grammar became more consistent, and English began to take its current form.

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Middle English Translation

Below is the same article written in Middle English. For this translation, we referenced the University of Michigan’s Middle English Dictionary, Harvard’s translation of “The Canterbury Tales,” the 14th-century Wycliffe Bible, and various AI tools including Claude Sonnet, ChatGPT, and OpenL. We omitted special characters such as ī, ǒ, ā, ē̆, and obsolete letters such as þ (thorn) and ƿ (wynn), using the modern English alphabet instead. It’s also worth noting that many words in Middle English had multiple spellings, so there is more than one possible translation.

Whanne William of Normandi iyede Engelond in the yeer of oure Lord a thousand and six and sixti, it bigan a gret chaunge of the Olde Englissh langage. The Norman conquerours becomen the Anglo-Saxon lordes, and bringen with hem here Anglo-Norman langage, which camen of Olde Frenssh. Over tyme, the two langages blenden. Olde Englissh gramere was moore simple, and the Englissh wordes expanden with the addicioun of Frenssh wordes. Thereof cam a newe tyme of the Englissh langage: Middel Englissh, spoken betwixe the yeer of oure Lord a thousand an hundred and the yeer a thousand an five hundred.

During this tyme, Geffrey Chaucer wroot The Tales of Caunterbury, oon of the moost famous ensamples of Middel Englissh litterature. Chaucer's writyng — and the Englissh langage in generale — was nat uniforme at this tyme. Spellinges varied and were often writen after the soun, and pronunciacioun varied by regioun; Chaucer often used which-ever versioun of a word fitte his rime.

Ther were som differences betwixe the Middel Englissh alphabete and oure Modern Englissh alphabete. Middel Englissh includid lettres swich “þ” (icleped thorn) for the “th” soun, and som lettres — swich “u” and “v” or “i” and “j” — were bothe used. Ther were also som commun wordes we speketh nomore. Middel Englissh used “thou” for informal speche and “ye” as a formal or plurel forme, bothe of which were chaunged to “you.” And thrid-persoun verbes endden in “eth” or “th” (swich “goeth”), which bicometh “s.” During the Gret Vouel Shiften, that fel bitwixe the yeer of oure Lord a thousand thre hundred and fifti and a thousand six hundred, the pronunciacioun of mani wordes also chaunged. For ensample, in Middel Englissh, “sheep” wolde soun moore lyk “shape,” and “bite” wolde soun lyk “beet.”

Another gret shiften fallen whanne the prentyng presse camen to Engelond in the yeer of oure Lord a thousand foure hundred six and seventi, bringing the biginning of a newe tyme of the langage, icleped Modern Englissh. As prented bookes bicom moore brod-spred, spelling and gramere bicometh moore stedefast, and Englissh bigan to take his present forme.

Why Do We Call It ‘History’?

Ancient Greek historian — Credit: The History Collection/ Alamy Stock Photo

Author Bess Lovejoy

August 13, 2026

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The modern English word “history” comes partly from the Latin historia and partly from the French storie (or estoire), but those terms both trace their roots back to the same place. Not coincidentally, that place is one of the bedrocks of Western civilization: ancient Greece.

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Going back about as far as we can, the word “history” can be traced to the ancient Greek verb οἶδα (heda), meaning “to know.” From there, the Greek ἵστωρ (histōr) arose, which had a variety of meanings depending on the context. As a noun, it could mean “wise man,” “judge,” “witness,” or simply “one who knows.” As an adjective, it meant “knowing” or “learned.”

The Greek word historia evolved from that histōr root. It originally meant “a learning or knowing by inquiry,” “an account of one’s inquiries,” or simply “inquiry” or “narrative.” That word was borrowed into Latin (also as historia), where it meant “narrative of past events, account, tale, story.” Interestingly, although historia was borrowed from Latin into Old English as stær (or ster or steor) to mean “history, narrative, story,” our modern English word “story” comes from the French storie or estoire.

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As so often happens in English, the modern word is a blend of various influences and threads that can be hard to extricate. But etymologists (those who study the origin of words) note that in post-classical Latin, historia sometimes became istoria, which in Old French became estoire or estorie, meaning “story, chronicle, history.” Of course, it makes sense that “history” and “story” would be linked, given that history is itself a kind of story — perhaps the ultimate story.

According to Merriam-Webster, the term “history” first showed up in English sometime before the 12th century, with the meaning “a chronicle of significant events.” At that point, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word was borrowing from both Latin and French.

The term “historian” came later — around the middle of the 15th century, likely from the medieval Latin word historianus. (Sadly, the Old English wyrd-writere, to mean “one who writes an account of events, a historian or historiographer,” never caught on.)

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Of course, the world had historians long before the modern term was in use. The Greek scholar Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE, is often called the first historian. He’s thought to have been the first to collect historical materials in a systematic and investigative way, to vet their accuracy, and to construct them into a narrative (or a historia).

The Histories (or Historíai in Greek), Herodotus’ lengthy account of the rise of the Persian Empire and the Greco-Persian Wars, is the work that made his reputation. Yet his legacy is controversial: Herodotus is called the “father of history” as well as the “father of lies,” a duality that points to the difficulties of reconstructing the past and the more problematic ways that history can be a story. But it’s worth remembering that whatever the challenges, the root of the term goes back to one of the most fundamental human impulses: the desire to know.

What Did U.S. Money Look Like in the 1800s?

Greenbacks, circa 1863 — Credit: Sheridan Libraries/Levy/Gado/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Author Timothy Ott

August 13, 2026

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While the Coinage Act of 1792 established the United States Mint and the dollar as the unit of currency for the fledgling nation, it was quite some time before a fully standardized monetary system took root. In the meantime, people in possession of valuable metals continued to use them for transactions, local banks offered their own currency, and foreign money continued to flow until being banned as legal tender in 1857.

Despite this relative instability, Americans today would largely recognize the various forms of currency that exchanged hands in the 19th century, even if the designs and denominations of the coins and paper bills often differed from those in circulation today. Here’s a glimpse at what money looked like as the United States came of age.

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Gold Coins

The 1792 Coinage Act stipulated that all U.S. coins were to feature a depiction of the goddess Liberty on the front, while gold and silver coinage also required the display of an eagle on the back. As a result, the gold eagle ($10), half-eagle ($5), and quarter-eagle ($2.50) coins that went into circulation in the 1790s were all engraved in this fashion through the 1800s.

By the mid-19th century, the discovery of gold in California ushered a new wave of the precious metal into the economy, resulting in the creation of the new $1 piece, the $20 “double eagle,” and the octagonal $50 unit, aka the “slug.” Unusual denominations from this era include the $3 coin, which featured Liberty in a Native American headdress, and the $4 “Stella,” which displayed a five-pointed star instead of an eagle.

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Silver Coins

Although the silver half-dime, dime, quarter, half-dollar, and dollar pieces all surfaced by the mid-1790s, the U.S. Mint rarely churned out the first three in the early years of the 19th century, and the dollar was temporarily discontinued in 1804. Nevertheless, silver endured as an important component of the economy, with the full figure of the "Seated Liberty," accompanied by a shield and pole with a cap, adorning most coinage in the 19th century.

A clear outlier of the bunch was the 3-cent "trime" that was minted between 1851 and 1873, the smallest of all coins at just 14 millimeters in diameter and the first silver piece to not display an eagle on the reverse. Although the federal government attempted to make gold the sole monetary standard in 1873, the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 reintroduced silver into circulation, with the "Morgan Dollar," and its large profile of Liberty's face, emerging as a popular coin.

Copper Coins

Although gold and silver dominated U.S. currency in the antebellum period, the first coins to enter circulation following the Coinage Act were the large cent and half-cent in 1793. The large cent, which was roughly the size of a modern half-dollar, displayed either the "Matron Head" or "Braided Hair" profile of Liberty for most of its 19th-century run, while the half-cent featured similar designs across its quarter-sized dimension.

Both denominations underwent major changes in 1857; the cent was shrunk to its current size, while the half-cent was discontinued altogether. Another notable copper coin from the era was the short-lived 2-cent piece, which displayed a shield instead of Liberty, and became the first coin to feature the motto "In God We Trust" when it appeared in 1864.

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"Greenbacks"

As part of efforts to fund the Civil War, the Union issued a temporary series of Demand Notes in 1861, before switching over to United States Notes in 1862. Both became known as "greenbacks" for the distinct green ink used as an anti-counterfeiting measure. As the earliest widespread form of U.S. paper currency, these notes resembled current legal tender in some ways, including the green color, but with some noticeable design differences.

The initial versions of the $1 and $10 notes respectively featured Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and President Abraham Lincoln on the front, while the reverse sides of various bills included extensive wording or patterns such as the crisscross sawhorse design. Additionally, greenbacks and other early paper currency were printed in the larger dimensions of 7 3/8 inches by 3 1/8 inches, until shrinking to 6 1/8 inches by 2 5/8 inches in 1929.

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Confederate Notes

Of course, the Confederacy also needed to fund its own economy and war efforts, resulting in paper currency that predated the Union version by a few months. Printed in denominations ranging from 10 cents to $1,000, these notes featured Southern figures such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and South Carolina First Lady Lucy Holcombe Pickens, as well as allegorical symbols of industry, commerce, and the South defeating the North.

However, there was a lack of uniform size and design across the printings, and many of these "greybacks," as they were known, went into circulation with nothing printed on the reverse side. What's more, these low-quality notes faced the double whammy of being easily counterfeited and lacking the backing of government reserves, rendering them virtually worthless by the end of the Civil War.

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Silver Certificates

Along with reintroducing silver into circulation, the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 led to a form of paper currency that was redeemable in silver dollars on demand. These silver certificates resembled the greenbacks that were already in widespread distribution, although certain sets are highly coveted by collectors for their ornate designs.

Chief among these are the 1896 "educational series," which notably featured the allegorical image of "History Instructing Youth" on the $1 certificate, and "Electricity as the Dominant Force in the World" on the $5 denomination. The $1 silver certificate, which debuted in 1886, is also celebrated for being the first and only U.S. paper currency to date to feature a woman on the front: Martha Washington.

How the Postal Service Created the ZIP Code

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Author Timothy Ott

August 13, 2026

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Even with the decline of letter writing in the digital age, the ZIP code remains an American institution, a neat five-digit number that caps an address and, like an area code, can serve as a point of pride and prestige.

Given the ZIP code’s place as an oft-used and universally recognized symbol, it may come as a surprise that the ZIP, short for “Zone Improvement Plan,” isn’t all that old. The system was enacted on July 1, 1963, within many of our lifetimes and just a few months before another famous entity, the Beatles, also arrived in the United States.

But unlike the mop-topped quartet, the five-digit zoning plan wasn’t immediately welcomed by Americans. Here’s a look at how the ZIP code came to be, and ultimately overcame a bumpy start to emerge as a signature accomplishment of the United States Postal Service.

An Early Zoning System Came Out of World War II

Like many innovations, the ZIP code’s origins can be traced back to World War II. At the time, the Post Office Department, as the U.S. Postal Service was then called, was dealing with the loss of personnel to military duty, specifically the departure of experienced sorters who could properly funnel letters and parcels marked with incomplete addresses.

As a result, in 1943, the department assigned one- to two-digit zone numbers to more than 100 high-density urban areas across the country to help make sorting for these areas more efficient. The numbers were to be written on the address of the recipient after the city name, such as “Indianapolis 24, Indiana.”

Although the zone numbers provided some organizational relief, they only papered over the problem of keeping up with the ever-growing volume of mail. Fueled by the country’s postwar population and economic boom, the number of individual pieces of mail jumped from 33 billion in 1943 to 66.5 billion in 1962. By the latter date, a letter was handled by an average of eight to 10 postal employees, increasing the possibility of human error.

The issue wasn’t going unnoticed by the department’s employees. In 1944, a prescient postal instructor named Robert Moon sought to get ahead of the volume problem with his proposal of splitting the country into a network of regional processing centers, each marked by a three-digit code. Nine years later, another inspector, H. Bentley Hahn, completed a six-year study of the department’s outdated operations with a report titled “Proposed Reorganization of the Field Postal Service.”

But despite the modernization efforts of Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, who introduced the country’s first automated post office in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1960, the department was still struggling to meaningfully address its problems as it faced down a new decade.

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The Zone Improvement Plan Is Born

The tide turned in the early 1960s with the appointment of Postmaster General J. Edward Day, who saw in Moon's long-overlooked proposal and the newly implemented West German postal code system a solution for improving delivery speed and eliminating backlog.

Under the new regime, the department devised a five-digit code that built on Moon's idea of regional processing centers to create a national network of delivery zones. The first digit of the new code denoted one of 10 large geographical regions of the country, in most cases encompassing several states. The second digit signified a smaller division within each region, which included either multiple states, one state, or a portion of a heavily populated state.

The third digit represented either a large city post office or a designated regional center within reach of urban centers and more remote outposts. The final two digits, which incorporated the 20-year-old zone numbers already in place, marked either a division of a big city post office or a smaller one directly served from a regional center.

Hahn, who helped devise the numerical system, was also tasked with helping to explain the finer details of the process in late 1962, before the plan’s official launch. Meanwhile, it was another executive, D. Jamison Cain, who conceived the acronym-friendly name of Zone Improvement Plan, as well as the ideal mascot to deliver the message to the public.

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A Mascot Named "Mr. ZIP" Promoted the New System

In the 1950s, the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency designed a smiling cartoon mailman for a Chase Manhattan Bank mail campaign. The logo was acquired by AT&T and then the Post Office Department, where it was rechristened as "Mr. ZIP" and designated as the face of the department's new promotional push.

With the arrival of the ZIP code on July 1, 1963, the image of Mr. ZIP was plastered across post offices, mail trucks, brochures, and buttons worn by mail carriers as part of efforts to urge the public to include the five digits on all outgoing mail. He also appeared in a commercial that featured the voice of Broadway star Ethel Merman singing about the joys of the ZIP code to the tune of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah."

Despite the ubiquitous presence of the friendly mascot, there was some built-in resistance to adopting the new code. This was in part due to other recent widespread changes foisted on the public, including Social Security numbers being required for individual tax returns and phone numbers changing from the old alphanumeric system to all numerals. Bulk mailers also objected to ZIP code implementation, which required the investment of time and money to update their Automatic Data Processing equipment.

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The ZIP Code Was Widely Accepted by the End of the 1960s

The bulk mailers were forced to go with the flow via congressional enforcement, and the rest of the public soon got used to writing out the five-digit code thanks to persistent reminders from Mr. ZIP. According to a 1969 survey, some 83% of Americans were using ZIP codes by that time, while 90% believed the system to be a good idea.

Additionally, the ZIP code’s reach was already extending beyond the Post Office Department. The five digits became a focus of marketing companies, insurance firms, and the U.S. Census Bureau, all of which found the system beneficial to supplying more targeted data.

The Beatles had broken up by the time the Post Office Department reconfigured itself as the USPS in 1971, but the ZIP code was still going strong, the formidable five-digit system outlasting even the Fab Four as an enduring and thriving symbol of 1960s ingenuity.

What Did Ancient People Dream About?

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Author Bess Lovejoy

August 6, 2026

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For the ancient Greeks, Romans, and folks in other cultures, dreams were far more than idle nighttime fancies. They were powerful, often sacred experiences that shaped lives, politics, religious practices, and art.

While ancient people likely dreamed about many of the same themes we do today — love, fear, death, power, the divine — their dreams were widely seen as significant messages, often believed to come directly from gods or supernatural forces. Ancient dreamers sought meaning in their visions, often finding answers to illness, moral dilemmas, or matters of state, and they acted on their dreams with great seriousness. Here’s a look at what people in ancient times likely dreamed about, and what they believed those visions meant.

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Divine Messengers and Prophecy

One of the most common types of dreams in antiquity featured divine or semidivine figures delivering a message — what later Roman thinkers such as the scholar Macrobius classified as “oracles,” and later scholars have called “epiphany dreams.” These dreams usually involved a god, ancestor, or venerable figure announcing future events or prescribing actions to take.

A prominent example is Penelope’s dream in Homer’s Odyssey, where she sees an eagle slay her flock of geese. The eagle speaks, revealing himself as Odysseus and foretelling his return and vengeance. In another example, from ancient Sumer, King Eanatum I dreamed that Ning̃irsu — the Sumerian god of thunderstorms and floods — told him he would triumph in a war. And in Egypt during the 15th century BCE, a deity told Prince Thutmose IV that he would become pharaoh if only he freed the Sphinx from the sand engulfing its body.

In some early Christian writing, dreams offered opportunities for moral instruction, although it can be hard to distinguish between sleeping dreams and what we’d now be more likely to call visions. But it wasn’t unusual for dreams to influence early religion: Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, had a dream of a giant statue that led him to found the cult of Serapis.

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Healing and Transformation

For many ancient people, especially those in the Greco-Roman world, dreams were not only forecasts but also instructions for therapy. The prominent Greek physician Galen reported that he had performed surgery based on instructions received in a dream. (In fact, Galen owed his entire career to a dream his father had.)

In Roman times, the orator Aelius Aristides kept extensive dream journals detailing his interactions with the god Asclepius, the god of healing. In his first such dream, the deity directed him to walk barefoot in cold weather. Aristides also wrote of being instructed to plunge into a freezing river in winter. Despite the bitter cold, he followed the divine command and emerged feeling renewed, with a “certain inexplicable contentment” that lasted through the day and night.

The temple of Asclepius in Pergamum, where Aristides spent years undergoing dream-based treatments, was a center of “incubation” — a practice in which patients slept in the temple in hopes of receiving a healing dream, or simply being healed by the god while they slept. Aristides believed his ailments were not only healed through these dreams, but that the dreams themselves revealed a deeper layer of his identity.

Symbol and Allegory

Not all dreams in the ancient world were seen as straightforward. Some were symbolic puzzles requiring interpretation. The second-century dream theorist Artemidorus, in his book Oneirocritica (or The Interpretation of Dreams), distinguished between direct (“theorematic”) and allegorical dreams. The former might show you exactly what was coming (for instance, dreaming of a shipwreck and waking up to discover it coming true), but the latter cloaked meaning in metaphor.

In symbolic dreams, one thing signified another — an eagle could mean a king; a journey, an impending change; a flood, internal unrest. Interestingly, interpretation relied not on fixed meanings but on context, such as who the dreamer was as well as their emotional state, social status, health, and personal concerns.

Dreams and Literature

Dreams also fed ancient literature and drama. The playwright Aristarchus of Tegea reportedly wrote a tragedy at the command of the god Asclepius, who appeared in a dream after the playwright’s recovery from illness.

Homer’s famous epics are also infused with dream logic and imagery. In the Iliad Book 2, Zeus sends a deceitful dream to Agamemnon in the form of a person urging him to attack Troy. It’s an example of dreams as political tools used by gods to shape human affairs.

The Importance of Ancient Dreams

Of course, not everyone in the ancient world took dreams so seriously. In the fourth century CE, the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic had this to say about people who got worked up about dreams: “They did not regard what they do while they are awake, but make a great fuss about what they fancy they see while they are asleep.”

Yet as with most things, Diogenes was an outlier. For many in the ancient world, dreams were seen as legitimate and often essential tools for navigating illness, ethics, and divine will. Ancient people dreamed of gods and ghosts, rivers and birds, death and healing, fear and redemption. And whether interpreted as prophecy, therapy, or metaphor, those dreams were treated with reverence and awe.

Why Babies in Medieval Paintings Look So Weird

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Author Bess Lovejoy

August 6, 2026

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Spend any time gazing at medieval European paintings, and one question tends to emerge: What is going on with those babies? Far from the sweet, chubby cherubs we might expect to see, these infants often resemble balding middle-aged men, complete with wrinkled foreheads and dour expressions. What could possibly explain this bizarre artistic choice? To understand, we have to dive into how European art — and the perception of children — evolved from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

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Religion Influenced Art

The unsettling “man-baby” of medieval art wasn’t a mistake or the result of a lack of skill. These depictions were intentional, shaped by artistic and religious ideas of the Middle Ages (roughly defined as between the fifth century and 13th century). Chief among these ideas was the concept of the homunculus, Latin for “little man,” which influenced how artists portrayed Jesus Christ as an infant. In many medieval works, baby Jesus appears with a full adult face, sometimes even showing signs of male-pattern baldness. The idea was that Jesus, being divine, was fully formed and unchanged from birth (a notion referred to as “the homuncular Jesus”). This theological concept seeped into broader portrayals of children, especially since the majority of child depictions in medieval art were religious commissions — portraits of Jesus or the occasional saintly infant.

As a result, artistic conventions leaned heavily toward depicting children as miniature adults. There was little interest in anatomical accuracy or realism. Instead, medieval artists followed established norms that prioritized symbolic meaning and spiritual messaging over lifelike representation. These conventions flattened individuality; adults and children often looked similarly stylized.

It also didn’t help that painters in this period lacked full artistic freedom. Many were working within strict church guidelines or copying earlier models, so even if they had wanted to create more accurate depictions, they weren’t supposed to do so. This lack of realism means that children in medieval paintings are often difficult to recognize as such. Some appeared disproportionately large or small, while others simply looked like shrunken grown-ups.

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