Nancy Lee Grahn backpeddles as mean tweets at Viola Davis Emmys speech backfire

Soap opera star Nancy Lee Grahn is backpeddling on mean tweets at Viola Davis Emmys speech backfired. reported US Weekly on September 22. Grahn, 57, proclaims herself "heartbroken" that people read her comments on Viola Davis's 67th Emmy Awards win as racist. The Twitter crowd was more than a little angry that Grahn would undermine Davis on such a special occasion. Davis, 50, is the first black woman to win the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Nancy Lee Grahn backpeddles as mean tweets at Viola Davis Emmys speech backfire | Examiner.com

West Point pillow fight got brutal: 30 cadets injured from helmets in pillows in historic annual pillow fight

Someone call the common sense cops! There's been a major violation at the United States Military Academy! The annual West Point cadet pillow fight got brutal and left 30 freshmen hurt. Reuters reported September 5, that some 24 "plebes" got concussions; bones were broken and one kid was knocked out cold. Among the nation's brightest and best, you would have expected better judgement. But no one was even punished for the pajama party brawl and all the pillow pugilists, including the wounded, are back on campus.  West Point pillow fight got brutal: 30 cadets injured from helmets in pillows - Grand Rapids News | Examiner.com

Video may find $500 art heist, solve 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft - Grand Rapids News | Examiner.com

 Federal investigators might have a lead on a $500 million art heist that has eluded them for 25 years, Reuters reported August 6. The 1990 robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston is the biggest theft of art in U.S. history. A surveillance video from March 17, 1990, a day before the heist, shows a security guard admitting a man to the art museum. The quarter-century old video is grainy, but it shows a car pulling up to the museum that matches the vehicle description of one seen around the time of the crime,  Video may find $500 art heist, solve 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft - Grand Rapids News | Examiner.com

Free printable Memorial Day activities and patriotic American history printables for Remembrance Day

Memorial Day, celebrated the last Monday in May, is also called Remembrance Day and honors veterans and those lost in U.S. wars. It's also referred to as Decoration Day, when family commemorates loved ones lost by putting flowers on graves. Teachers and homeschool parents, here are free printable lesson plans, worksheets, crafts and games to teach kids about this national holiday. Free printable Memorial Day activities: Patriotic Remembrance Day printables

Holocaust Remembrance Day: Ex-Nazi Oskar Groening, Auschwitz bookkeeper charged in 300,000 murders of Jewish inmates

On Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, April 19, child survivors commemorated the slaughter of 6 million Hebrews in Nazi Germany, reported the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on April 20. In other news, ex-Nazi Oskar Groening is being charged in 300,000 murders of Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.



Groening, now 93, was the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz" the largest mass-murder site in Jewish Holocaust. A judge in Leuneburg, Germany handed down nearly a third of a million accessory-to-murder charges for Groening's part in the gas chamber deaths of Jewish deportees from Hungary.  Ex-Nazi Oskar Groening, Auschwitz bookkeeper charged in 300,000 murders - Grand Rapids News | Examiner.com

Climbers top Yosemite's El Capitan in historic free-climb on MLK Jr birthday - Grand Rapids Holidays | Examiner.com

 January 15 marks two auspicious events: the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and the climbing of Yosemite's El Capitan. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson scaled the Dawn Wall, a 3,000-foot sheer rock face with nothing but their bare hands and safety harnesses. The historic feat is the first ever "free-climb" of the treacherous rock formation, said the Associated Press Jan. 15. Climbers top Yosemite's El Capitan in historic free-climb on MLK Jr birthday

Living History Wax Museum Lesson Plans

I'm a historati. I love learning about times and peoples past. So it saddens me to hear people say they hate history. But I don't blame them. People usually dislike it because they weren't taught it properly. Their only contact was via boring textbooks, uninspiring paper and pencil lessons and rote memorization of facts. Nothing could be more antithesis to the way history should be learned.



History is about more than dead people long past. It's a medium for learning new ideas and processes. It's a vehicle for change. And the best way to learn is through immersion and student-directed, hands-on activities. When students should experience history through senses and actions, they begin to see the big picture. Here's a cross-curricular activity that teaches reading, writing, speaking, research, art and drama: a Living History Wax Museum. Interactive Social Studies Lesson Plans: Living History Wax Museum - Bubblews

Free Printable Marco Polo, Kublai Khan, Silk Road Lesson Plans

Marco Polo is probably the most curious and exciting of world travelers. He set out in an age when travel within a small radius alone was perilous. The medieval Polo expedition went far beyond Europe to the Mongol Empire (where we get the term Mongolian) to meet the fabled mongol leader Kublai Khan (son of Ghengis Khan).



He brought back exotic spices, jade, silk and strange beasts (elephants) to the western world. His travels ushered in the Silk Road and Spice Road trade systems. Polo wrote about his travels in "Il Milione" or "The Travels of Marco Polo." Here are free printable lesson plans on Marco Polo, Kublai Khan and the Mongol Empire. Free Printable Marco Polo, Kublai Khan, Silk Road Lesson Plans

Best Fourth of July American History Movies

America's Revolutionary War had many facets and issues. Sometimes, over-zealous patriotism blinds us the real stories behind the propaganda. Here are American history and Revolutionary War film that provide a more multidimensional view of United States history.  Watch them for 4th of July. Best American History Movies to Watch for 4th of July

Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, Historic Fort Wayne--Father's Day Fun and History too!

Metro Detroit is a hoppin', happenin' and historical town. Looking for a way to celebrate Father's Day in the Motor City? Here's a "something for everyone" list for families young and old all: a trip to Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, followed by a pilgrimage to Historic Fort Wayne rounded out with a stop-off to Southwest for a Father's Day feast, Mexican style (or visit Salvadorena Pupuseria on Bagley for El Salvadorian pupusas--our dad thought he'd died and gone to heaven when sampled them! Cheap too--under $3 each!  Father's Day festivities in Metro Detroit: Something for every dad