The worst years to be alive in the 17th century
The worst years to be alive in the 17th century At about three in the morning on September 2, 1666, Samuel Pepys’s maid woke him to say a great fire was burning in the City. […]
The ’50s parenting practices we now know were terrible for kids’ brains
The ’50s parenting practices we now know were terrible for kids’ brains The 1950s promised perfect families with spotless homes and well-behaved children. Modern neuroscience reveals many beloved parenting practices from this era actually damaged […]
12 school memories every Boomer swears were “character building”
12 school memories every Boomer swears were “character building” Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, critics grew concerned with what scholar Richard Hofstadter called “the overvalued child,” referring to Baby Boomers raised with Dr. Spock’s positive […]
Infamous serial killers who were caught because of other crimes
Infamous serial killers who were caught because of other crimes At 3:15 a.m. on June 28, 1993, two New York state troopers, Deborah Spaargaren and Sean Ruane, spotted a pickup truck on Long Island’s Southern […]
Downsizing your home for retirement: A checklist
Key takeaways Most people treating a retirement home sale as a real estate decision are only looking at part of it. The tax exposure, the income-planning implications, and the emotional weight of leaving a place […]
10 slang words from the 2000s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore
10 slang words from the 2000s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore When Tina Fey sat down with neighborhood teenagers to research slang for Mean Girls, she realized something: whatever she put in […]
Macabre Victorian Halloween rituals that sound completely made up
Macabre Victorian Halloween rituals that sound completely made up In 2003, Judith Flanders published a room-by-room tour of the middle-class Victorian home, retitled in the US as Inside the Victorian Home. Halloween isn’t the point […]
10 slang words from the 2010s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore
10 slang words from the 2010s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore In 2014, Kayla Newman, known online as Peaches Monroee, posted a short Vine video of her eyebrows, and a phrase came […]
Ethical vs. living wills for retirement planning: What’s the difference?
Key takeaways A living will records medical wishes before a crisis removes the ability to express them. Families forced to make those decisions without one are guessing at what their loved one wanted. They are […]
How many of these ’80s hits do you remember?
How many of these ’80s hits do you remember? Five songs from the early to mid-’80s, and a bonus question about who directed what. No lyrics in the clues, just stories from before the songs […]