LightGrams January 21, 2021 Volume 25, Number 3 You may be familiar with the idiom, “I’ve got a tiger by the tail.” It’s not hard to figure out what it means: if you happen to latch onto a tiger’s tail, what do you do next? If you let go, it will turn on you and…
LightGrams January 14, 2021 Volume 25, Number 2 A bow hunter in Jackson County, Kansas came upon a dilemma last week: two male deer had their antlers locked together, and could not free themselves. It was a sad sight, and the hunter knew a painful drawn-out death was the ultimate outcome without outside assistance. He…
LightGrams December 31, 2020 Volume 24, Number 47 Over the last several days I’ve noticed ads on television showing scenes of abused and neglected animals. The purpose is to reach people who are looking to make end-of-year tax deductible gifts. I’ll have to admit that the sight of a shivering or chained do tweaks my…
LightGrams December 17, 2020 Volume 24, Number 46 Sunday, December 13, 2020 was a long-anticipated day. Truckloads of COVID-19 vaccines rolled out of the Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, headed for various destinations throughout the country. Overseeing the transport of these cases of vials were agents of the U.S. Marshals Service. It’s not hard to…
LightGrams December 10, 2020 Volume 24, Number 45 The hopes of hundreds of millions of people was lifted a few days ago when two different pharmaceutical companies announced they were ready to submit their vaccines for approval. The COVID-19 pandemic has dropped a heavy fog on our lives all year, and we so much want…
LightGrams December 3, 2020 Volume 24, Number 44 A piece of technology history is scheduled to be auctioned next week. An Apple-1 computer, one of only 200 that was produced in 1976, will have a starting bid of $50,000, and who knows how high the bidding will go? Making this item especially valuable is that…
LightGrams November 19, 2020 Volume 24, Number 42 Eleven years ago Anthony Capuano could have decided to take the path of least resistance. It was then that he was struck by a train, losing a leg in the accident. Fitted with a prosthetic leg, he might have given in to self-pity and settled for a…
LightGrams November 12, 2020 Volume 24, Number 41 A couple hiking near Ingersheim, a town in the Alsace region of France, recently found a small metal cylinder partially buried. They opened it and found a thin piece of paper with handwriting. It was dated 1910, but they couldn’t read the writing. A nearby museum consulted…
LightGrams October 29, 2020 Volume 24, Number 39 To see the longest bridge in the world you’ll need to visit China. The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge serves a high-speed railway, and was completed in 2010. The length of the bridge is 102.4 miles, and is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. Perhaps just as…
LightGrams October 22, 2020 Volume 24, Number 38 I remember going to carnivals in my growing-up years. I rode some of the classic rides: the Tilt-A-Whirl, Rock-O-Plane, Ferris Wheel, and others, and was thrilled on them – for a time. My limit was reached fairly soon, though, and I would think, “How much longer? Why…