Charles Waterton was just another typical eccentric. In his 80s the eminent country squire was to be seen clambering around the upper branches of an oak tree with what was aptly described as the agility of an "adolescent gorilla." The beloved 27th lord of Walton Hall also devoted his distinguished old age to scratching the back part of his head with his right big toe. Such displays of animal high spirits were not, however, confined to the gentleman's later years. ...

The world got the shock it had been waiting for. But to the U.S. the shock was cushioned by the dead of night; the news came in the hours when the soberest of men are drunken with sleep. Perhaps never was such big news heard by so few. When the nation woke up, the great fact was hours old. Over the quiet American cities and the somnolent farms a bombers' moon shone through the cool June night. At 12:37 a.m. ...

When you think about skiing over the holidays, the holiday that comes to mind is Christmas. But Christmas at major ski resorts, while festive enough, also means peak prices for hotel rooms and condos, long lift lines, and the same crowd trying to get overpriced lunches at the mountaintop lodges at the same time. And besides, it's the dead of winter, the absolute worst time to ski — freezing temperatures, nasty winds, and the potential for frostbite. ...

Have economic times gotten so bad that some of the dead are going unburied? Several large counties across the country are experiencing unprecedented increases in the number of unclaimed deceased — not only because the dead people could not be identified, were indigent or were estranged from their family, but also apparently because more people simply cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones. The phenomenon has increased costs for local governments, which have to dispose of the ...

Porn icon Marilyn Chambers was found dead in her Los Angeles home Sunday night, but investigators do not suspect foul play, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman. Chambers began her career in 1970 as a model for Ivory Snow soap, and starred two years later in the porn classic "Behind the Green Door." "She was a really nice girl," said actor Ron Jeremy, who co-starred with Chambers in adult films starting in the 1970s. Chambers' death was a "total shock," ...

Biblical scholars have long argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic and celibate Jewish community known as the Essenes, which flourished in the 1st century A.D. in the scorching desert canyons near the Dead Sea. Now a prominent Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, disputes that the Essenes ever existed at all — a claim that has shaken the bedrock of biblical scholarship. Elior, who teaches Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, claims that the Essenes ...