One photograph taken before World War II shows what was at stake — It’s the stuff of cloak and dagger cliffhangers and bestseller suspense novels. It’s also part of the historical record of the twentieth century, a snapshot from a perilous time that carries with it to this day some unsettling ‘what if?’ ramifications. The year is 1933 and the setting is a…

Take heart, writers, even the Greats have had their moments of torturous self-doubt — “I am not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people.”- Author John Steinbeck writing in his private journal in 1938 — two years before he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath. It’s called The Impostor Syndrome and it’s been a registered term in…

The Story of Joe Hauser — the Unknown Home Run King of Baseball Even his nickname was obscure and hard to decipher. But when it came to the baseball career of Joe “Unser Choe” Hauser, it may have been the perfect moniker after all. …

How One Woman Came Close to Breaking Into Baseball in 1952 In June of 1952, what Eleanor Engle wanted to do more than anything was play baseball. Professional baseball. Of course, such thinking for a woman was pure fantasy. Until the day the General Manager of the Harrisburg (Pa.) …

A Ghostly Tale In the end, it all comes down to how you look at things. As soon as I laid eyes on that place the words wisped out of my mouth without my even thinking. “What the hell…?” It was the last thing I expected to find hiking through…

A Quiet, Wonderful Lesson in Defeat It happened a long time ago, but like all worthy memories it still flashes like a piece of glass in the sun once in a while. I was playing Little League baseball — third base, otherwise known as the ‘Hot Corner’ in baseball parlance — and the game was on…

War Stories and Love Letters from the Front — - “Taken together, these messages make for a powerful look at the eternal mystery of man’s impulse to reach for arms rather than the wisdom of the Golden Rule.” -author and historian David Brinkley Want to know what war is all about, what it’s really like? Try reading hundreds of…

The world’s first female detective helped save President-elect Abraham Lincoln — and the Nation — in 1861 — No one could have been more surprised than Detective Allen Pinkerton was when the petite woman wearing a fashionable dress stepped into his Chicago office, looked him straight in the eye, and revealed the purpose of her visit. …

I like to think the old man did it for a reason, a good reason. That he moved on from that place of his own free will, leaving behind no regrets and no explanations. Owing nothing to nobody. …