Jon Anderson

According to historians, prehistoric people inhabited the area now known as Nebraska as early as 8000 B.C., but many settlers date their ancestry to a more recent period, when Horace...

For those who seek spiritual well-being through buying things, goods with an English flavor always carry special solace. As Paul Fussell, a University of Pennsylvania professor, author of ''Class'' (Summit...

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes, as Ben Franklin noted, forgetting about laundry, a subject of concern in Iowa these days during celebrations of the 80th...

Some years ago, comedian Woody Allen complained that his household appliances were turning against him. His sunlamp produced rain. Every time he talked into his tape recorder, it moaned, ''I...

What becomes a legend most? Probably a newspaper column. At least, that`s what has befallen Jan Harold Brunvand. An expert on ''urban myths'' and author of three books on the...

If surfing movies are hot again, with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello heading ''Back To the Beach,'' could it also be time for some rainy- day fun from the past?...

In great literature, opening lines set a confident tone, as Gertrude Stein pointed out to a young American writer timidly pouring tea for guests one day in her salon. ''When...

News for somebody, from the nation`s special-interest press: -- Tanning, the magazine of ''tanning trends,'' describes new products for summer, among them a ''tan-thru suit'' that offers a ''perfect tan...

As the crow flies, or by any other standard of measurement, Hollywood, Calif., is a long way from Hicksville, an Ohio farming community that is 25 miles northeast of Ft....

Munsey`s Magazine, describing Chicago in the 1890s, called it the ''City of the Big Idea.'' An English tourist of the time noted, ''If it is not the biggest thing of...