My Daily Smile

Life is short - begin every day with a smile!

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day – exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

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Living (and loving) Life

If you’re a student of American History you’re well aware of how Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson helped create our wonderful nation and set it on the path to freedom.

After helping form the new country known as the United States of America, Adams and Jefferson both went on to serve as its president.

The influences these great men had on American life and traditions are still evident today.

Both Adams and Jefferson lived long and consequential lives, but the date of their deaths is quite intriguing in its own right…

[Read more…]

Never Broken: The Navajo Code Talkers

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Living (and loving) Life

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 thrust the United States into the middle of World War II, and right from the start the American forces faced a major problem.

Every code the American cryptographers devised was quickly broken the Japanese, resulting in numerous casualties that could have been avoided had the Americans had a secure method for communicating on the battlefield.

After a string of failed encryption methods were tried and discarded, the Americans finally found one that the Japanese were never able to break.  [Read more…]

Video: Sierra Hull performs a beautiful rendition of “Wildwood Flower”

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Sierra Hull

If you’re a fan of Bluegrass music you’re no doubt familiar with Sierra Hull, a supremely talented musician who began wowing audiences at a very young age as a musical child prodigy.

Although Sierra is famous for her mastery of the mandolin, like most other Bluegrass “pickers” she actually plays multiple instruments.

And as you’ll see in a moment, she plays them extremely well.  [Read more…]

Video: The Man of a Thousand Voices

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Mel Blanc

Are you old enough to have grown up watching the old Warner Brothers cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny, Porky the Pig, Daffy Duck, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzalez, Yosemite Sam and the dozens of other cartoon characters that graced the Warner Brothers screens?

If so, you surely noticed how distinctive all those characters’ voices were.

Well here’s something you might not know about those voices…  [Read more…]

Video: What it was like to be a lumberjack in the 1940s

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It’s no secret that lumberjacks are some of the hardest working people on planet Earth.

Even today, with all the modern equipment at their disposal, the hearty souls who keep the world supplied with lumber have a very difficult, and extremely dangerous job.

Can you imagine what this profession must have been like back in the first half of the 20th century?  [Read more…]