Having trouble sleeping at night? It could be the light from a streetlight (or a neighbor’s floodlights) streaming through your bedroom window and interrupting your circadian rhythms. Intrusive artificial light at night can take several forms, and each causes its own set of problems. Here are five examples, taken from Interesting Thing of the Day […]

Lowest (People per square kilometer) Mongolia (2) Namibia (2) Australia (3) Botswana (3) Iceland (3) Surinam (3) Libya (3) Mauritania (3) Canada (3) Guyana (4) Highest (People per square kilometer) Monaco (16,205) Singapore (6,386) Malta (1,261) Maldives (1,164) Bahrain (1,035) Bangladesh (1,002) Vatican City (920) Barbados (648) Nauru (621) Mauritius (603) Source: WorldAtlas.com

Pumpkin pie is the traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but there are many other ways to incorporate pumpkin into a tasty dessert. If you are not a fan of pie, or if you just want to do something different this year, here are some other pumpkin recipes you might want to try. Baked Alaska Bread Pudding Brownies […]

This Thanksgiving, I’m sure there will be a significant number of people who will deep fry their turkeys instead of roasting them, a process that in my opinion produces a tasty end result, but does require a lot of preparation. According to a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, Martha Stewart started the whole […]

I’ve always thought it was strange that the English word for the bird commonly eaten on Thanksgiving is “turkey,” since it did not originate from the Mediterranean country of the same name, but is native to North America. Upon further research, I’ve found that the early European settlers came up with the name because of […]

As Thanksgiving draws ever closer, I’d like to offer another list excerpted from Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner. You know the old saying about too many cooks in the kitchen. As long as you have just one willing assistant and my book, you’ve got all the help you need to prepare a complete Thanksgiving meal, […]

You’ve carefully planned a full Thanksgiving menu, bought your ingredients, and arranged a lovely feast—and then, inevitably, someone asks, “What can I bring?” You have everything under control, but you also don’t want to turn away help or hurt anyone’s feelings. What do you say? Here are a few suggestions, excerpted from my book Take […]

During the recent U.S. mid-term election, the town of Jupiter, Florida was mentioned in the news because it experienced some problems with its voting process. Hearing the town’s name made me wonder if there were other towns similarly named after planets. I found out that there are many, and I’ve listed the states that have […]

The Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye (or Y Gelli in Welsh) was the starting point for the international “book towns” movement, now made up of about 20 towns around the world. Boasting 41 bookstores for only 1500 inhabitants (that’s about one bookstore for every 37 residents), Hay-on-Wye also plays host to the annual Hay Festival, a […]

Of course most of us store our music digitally on a computer or iPod these days, but some people still think having physical CDs (or even—gasp—vinyl) is a pretty neat idea. If I learned anything from reading/watching High Fidelity (book | DVD), it’s that there’s more than one way to organize one’s albums, and an […]

When I was a kid, I remember passing through the town of Vegreville, Alberta on a family trip and seeing the giant “Pysanka” that is the town’s claim to fame. I found this enormous replica of the highly decorated eggs that are a Ukrainian Easter tradition impressive not only for its size, but also for […]