It was one of those rare, once or twice-in-a-lifetime epiphanies, a flash of insight that was – I would learn later – to become a hinge on which my adult life would turn. I was in my mid-thirties, and had been in the ministry or preparing for it since I was 16. I was the Senior Pastor of a robus ...

Happily DisillusionedBy Billy Riggs, the World's Only Dis-IllusionistYou and I have something in common: we're both illusionists. There are differences, of course. I perform my classic illusions on stage, cutting your executive assistant in three pieces, floating your company's bookkeeper in the air ...

 I’ll never forget it.  The meeting that day in the summer of 1997 was a disaster.  Being generally accustomed to attentive audiences, gales of laughter, and standing ovations, I was thoroughly demoralized as I reflected on what had gone so terribly wrong.  It was not my fault, I ...

In the middle of the 19th century the obstetrics ward of Krakenhaus Hospital in Vienna, Austria was supervised by Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis.  In his role there he watched fully 10% of his patients die of “childbed fever” after giving birth.  Women in that hospital f ...

One of the most renowned pianists of the first half of the 20th century was the elegant, mysterious Olga Samaroff.  She was the first pianist from her country to receive a scholarship to the prestigious Paris Conservatoire in France.  She would perform with the New York Symphony Orchestra and the ...

Harlan was a loser.  He’d lost his Dad at the age of 5, and for the next 6 decades things only seemed to get worse.  He dropped out of school at 12, and hit the road at 14.  He worked as a streetcar conductor and farm hand and hated both.  At age 16 he lied about his age and joined the army an ...

Steven Van Rensselaer was a go-getter by anyone's definition. Elected to the New York legislature at the tender age of 25, he was upwardly mobile, it seemed, from the womb. He served in his state's legislature, then the senate, then as Lieutenant Governor, and finally the U.S. House of Representativ ...

Look at the two photos below.  The one on your left appears to be snarling and angry, while the one on the right seems serene.  Now, slowly back away from your computer screen while staring the photos. When you get a few feet away from the screen, the photos will switch places ...