Editor exorcises demons

Atlas Obscura has a weirdly fun piece about "witch cakes," a popular baked good from the 1600s. As it turns out, the Salem Witch Trials were not, uhhh, taking the piss: The origins of the tragic trials lay within Reverend Samuel Parris's own home. In January 1692, his daughter, Betty, and his niece, Abigail Williams,… READ THE REST

The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming is a new exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts that aims to re-examine and re-contextualize the whole idea of "witches". From the website: More than 300 years after the Salem witch trials, the personal tragedies and grievous wrongs that occurred still provoke reflection as we continue… READ THE REST

My in-laws have a place in Vermont, with a neat little treehouse in the back. It had fallen into rot and disuse over the years, but now that I have a kid, my father-in-law and brother-in-law decided to fix it up. But while it is technically safer now, there's something about the second floor (seen… READ THE REST

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. In a day and age where we always have hand sanitizer on standby and have normalized the use of no-touch door openers, the same standard of cleanliness should follow you home,… READ THE REST

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. From getting through the slew of work emails you've been putting off answering to making sure you're place is stocked with all the goodies necessary to feed all your holiday visitors… READ THE REST

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Listen, long gone are the days of being able to fix everything just by plugging it back in again (otherwise we would have done that with the completely nuts country already).… READ THE REST