Everyone loves a good murder mystery. Well, a lot of us do, anyway. The evidence of this is found in the staying power of such authors as Agatha Christie and the board game CLUE, as well as a continued stream of shows and films such as the BBC series Sherlock, the US series Law and Order, and the 2017 version of Murder on the Orient Express and the film Knives Out, debuting at the end of this very month. But when we think of many of the tropes of the genre, from red herrings to strangers locked in at a dinner party, we get them from a certain time period, which has been dubbed 'The Golden Age of Detective Fiction'. Let's see what that era was, the origins of murder mysteries in general, and why so many of us, to this day, consider them ... super cool. 

This Saturday, November 9th, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of an indescribably important event - the fall of the Berlin Wall. But why was Berlin cut in two, what was life like in the time the wall was up, and why does it matter that it came down? It's a Cold War classic, and it's super cool. 

Ghosts and goblins and ghouls, oh my! Halloween has grown rapidly in the last few decades in its cultural reach and the passion of those of us that consider it our favorite holiday means that its not going anywhere anytime soon. But why do we whip out fake tombstones to place in our yards and ask for candy from strangers each October 31st? What does it have to do with ancient views of the natural world, and what forces have combined together to create this mysterious and alluring time of the year? It's that time again, for Spooky Season. 

Behind the stunning and wondrous halls of Castle Neuschwanstein, the famous Bavarian fortress that has become a world icon of Romanticism, lies the sad and interesting tale of its builder, King Ludwig the II - The Fairy Tale King.