Something you own is valuable when a person is standing in front of you, peeling off the Benjamins. That is the most accurate appraisal you will ever get. Even appraisers get fooled, as with Antiques Roadshow's $50,000 appraisal1 of a 19th century "grotesque face mug" that turned out to be a kid's high school art project from the 1970s. Accurate ...
John Washington, aged 25, sailed on a ship from England to Virginia in 1656, serving as second officer. Though the ship wrecked in the Potomac River, it was repaired and could have taken John back to England. He did not return. What he did instead, for which we are all immensely grateful, was father Lawrence Washington, who fathered Augustine Washington, ...
Harry Eastlack, through nothing he did, through no fault of his own, was born with a body he would not retain throughout his life. Eastlack donated his skeletons — yes, skeletons, plural — to Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum1, where it is on permanent display. His normal skeleton betrayed him, transforming his connective tissue into bone as well; a skeleton over a ...
Comedian Ben Bailey has a routine on odd expressions, including “Have your cake and eat it too.” You can either have your cake or you can eat it. Why would you have cake if you were not going to eat it? Getting a separation from your wife and having a girlfriend at the same time, though, is a bit like ...
Some of us of a certain age may recall the As Seen on TV world of K-Tel1. The company that brought you the Veg-O-Matic and the Miracle Grill is still in business, and its nostalgic line of fast and cheap products still has a place in our hearts and minds. One product K-Tel never produced was a “Fast and Cheap” ...
The Firm For Men has had a busy 2017, and as we gear up for an even busier 2018, we’re reminded just how fortunate we are to have the many freedoms we do—fighting for justice, protecting men’s and fathers’ rights—the list goes on. Call us saps, but hey, we get a little sentimental when we think about how great we ...
The word “quiz” has often been claimed to be a purpose-built word to win a bet. Yet we have evidence from the Online Etymology Dictionary1 that this is not the case. Quiz was once used as a noun to describe a person who was a little … off, let’s say. Anyway, we thought you might like to brush up on ...
Ever consider making your own coffin? You can choose for a straightforward and relatively inexpensive plywood casket, or a more elaborate “toe pincher” style reminiscent of the Old West. Plans are available, for free, on the internet for the do-it-yourself funeral fancier. We are not recommending this, nor do we pass judgment. We only say you can do it, not ...
We have often in these columns playfully used innuendo, double entendres and (rarely) outright sophomoric humor (okay, often) to discuss the strong connections between sexuality and Virginia divorce. This is because marriage is intimate, physical, emotional, and fragile. Many Virginia marriages end in divorce and sometimes the underlying reasons were masked because nobody wanted to talk about them. We talk ...
