Ron the Yarnspinner

  Left to Our Own Devices: A Modern Christmas Story   O ur Christmas holidays are increasingly interrupted by our devices—phones checked between conversations, tablets balanced on laps, televisions murmuring in the background. We sit together, but mentally we are miles apart. Silence feels as uncomfortable as an itchy wool sweater, and sitting still feels unproductive. Some salivate like Pavlov’s dogs, waiting impatiently for the next text or email. They cradle their devices—not because they need them, but because they no longer know what to do without them. We’ve lost the ability to be bored without panic. The ability to sit in a room without filling it with noise. The patience to follow one story without interruption. We’ve traded depth for stimulation—and called it connection. Perhaps it’s time to ask Santa for something else: a new Christmas tradition, like in Iceland.   In Iceland, Christmas Eve revolves around books. Not as novelty gi...

  ChapStick: From the   Kitchen to   Kosmonaut     Y ou’ve seen it in purses, pockets, backpacks, and glove compartments. ChapStick, the iconic lip balm, and staple in households worldwidel started humbly in a mom’s kitchen.   The Invention of ChapStick   ChapStick was created in the late 1890s in Lynchburg, Virginia, by Dr. Charles Browne Fleet, a licensed pharmacist known for “cooking up new stuff” to make life a little easier. While Dr. Fleet developed several healthcare products still used today, his most famous invention—ChapStick—initially failed to gain traction. Sold locally, wrapped in tin foil, and lacking proper marketing, it barely caught anyone’s attention. (It looked like a piece of candy someone had sat on.)   Americans now spend more than $200 million a year on lip balm—far more than Dr. Fleet could have imagined.   Unable to sell enough ChapStick to justify production, Fleet offered...