Pet Rock Inventor Regrets Invention

In the mid-'70s, an unknown editor named Gary Dahl was talking with his friends, who were complaining about all the work involved in caring for pets—feeding ...

Why a Popular Cheer Often Backfires

One of today's most popular sports cheers was first chanted in 1999 during the fourth quarter of an Army-Navy football game. The six-word cheer—I ...

Mailman Hoards 2,500 Pounds of Mail

Everyone knows that a letter carrier has one job—deliver the mail. Apparently a Brooklyn mailman spent a decade avoiding his job by intentionally ...

The U.S. Government's Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure

Every few years the U.S. Department of Defense publishes a short book that contains amazing stories about real crime, cheating scientists, drug dealers, ...

The Real Story Behind the Remote Control

Eugene J. Polley lived his entire life in the Chicago area, where he worked for Zenith Electronics for 47 years. Hired as a stock boy during the Depression, ...

Abraham Lincoln Confronts His Step-brother about Debt

In 1850, Abraham Lincoln's step-brother, John D. Johnston, wrote to him and asked, yet again, for a loan so he could settle some debts. On previous ...

Summer Job as Greenskeeper Is God's Calling "for This Time"

T. David Gordon, in his book, "Vocation: Work Quietly with Your Hands," writes:

Perceiving [all] of our labor as a vocation can have a substantial ...

Research Studies on Procrastination

It's no secret that procrastination has a high price tag: it costs money, it undermines relationships, and it lowers job performance. In recent years, ...

Man Encounters Lazy Shoe Repair Shop

I read a story in the L. A. Times a long time ago. A guy goes to the house where he grew up and knocks on the door. Because he hadn't been there for ...