Lafcadio Hearn (1850)

Born in Greece and educated in Ireland, Hearn immigrated to the US at age 19 and lived in poverty for a time until he found employment as a journalist. He was a colorful but morbidly discontented man, admired for his highly polished tales of the macabre. In 1890, a magazine sent him to Japan, where he married a Japanese woman, took a Japanese name, and became a citizen. His subsequent books offered the West its first thoughtful view of Japanese culture. What partial disability did he have? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Four Heavenly Kings

The Four Heavenly Kings are Buddhist deities tasked with watching over the world’s four cardinal directions. As guardians of the world and fighters of evil, they have vowed to shield the Buddha’s followers from danger and possess the power to command a legion of supernatural creatures to protect the Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings. Thrice monthly, the kings send messengers or go themselves to see how virtue and morality are faring in the world of men. To whom do they report their findings? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Why Are Some Eggs Round and Others Pointy? It May Have to Do with How Well a Bird Flies

It’s a mystery that goes back to the days of Aristotle, flummoxing biologists and mathematicians for centuries: Why do bird’s eggs come in so many different shapes and sizes? Why are owl eggs almost perfectly round, while hummingbird eggs look like … Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” Is Published (1948)

Published by the The New Yorker the same month it was written, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” instantly became one of the most controversial stories ever run by the esteemed magazine. Hundreds of outraged readers cancelled their subscriptions or wrote letters expressing their confusion and anger over the story’s meaning. Now considered a classic, the chilling story matter-of-factly describes an annual lottery in a bucolic American town in which one person is selected for what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Abner Doubleday (1819)

Doubleday was a US Army officer who distinguished himself in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter and saw action at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. He also served in the Mexican and Seminole Wars. He retired from the army in 1873 and wrote many articles, including two accounts of his war experiences, drawing on his 67 volumes of diaries. For years, accounts persisted that he invented the game of baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. Did he? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Pilates Method

Often simply called Pilates, the Pilates Method is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates, who believed that mental and physical health are essential to one another. Pilates developed the method during WWI to help hospitalized veterans condition their bodies by strengthening, stretching, and stabilizing key muscles. The program focuses on the core postural muscles, spinal alignment, and breathing technique. What did Pilates originally call his method? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary