How many letters do you handwrite and mail in a year? If you're like most people, the answer is probably zero. Email, texting, and social media have essentially rendered the practice of writing letters by hand obsolete. Despite their being old school, a person might still write one when they want to add a personal touch that doesn't carry over digitally  -- say, a child writing to his pen pal, a foreign exchange student reaching out to family from the other side of the world, or a hopeless romantic who wishes to spill his guts via pen and paper. Can you guess how many letters Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, wrote in his lifetime? Mind you, there was no Yahoo, Facebook, or Twitter in the 1700s and 1800s. Even the telephone wasn't invented until 1876, and Jefferson died in 1826. That means people in Jefferson's time had to make do with communicating through correspondence. And, evidently, Jefferson was nothing short of a pro. He...

Tis the season to be jolly! Here are a few fun facts regarding the holiday season in the U.S. that you may not know: 1. Nine in 10 Americans say they celebrate Christmas while 32% view it as more of a cultural holiday than a religious one. 2. USPS will deliver 16 billion holiday letters, packages, and cards. 3. Over 100 million Americans will travel for the holidays this year. 4. 86% of Americans say they buy holiday gifts for family or friends. 5. Americans aim to spend an average of $935.58 each during the holiday shopping season this year. 6. Total holiday sales are expected to be over $655 billion. 7. 85% of Americans say they will probably give someone candy as a gift. 8. Americans eat about 3,000 calories worth of food during a typical holiday dinner. 9. 22 million turkeys are eaten for Christmas. 10. Americans bought nearly 26 million real Christmas trees last year and more than 13 billion fake ones. The facts I found most surprising were #7 and #8 abov...

The other day, a friend of mine stumbled upon the expression "living vicariously" while reading a book and asked me what it meant. It wasn't the first time someone I had fielded this very question. Vicariously simply means that you're experiencing something indirectly, like when your friend's vacation feels like your own. Vicariously is the adverb form of the word vicarious, which also signifies experiencing something through another person. An avid reader, I'll be the first person to admit that I often live vicariously through the people I read about in books. I'm an avid American history buff and am always reading books that center on the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. There are two I enjoy reading more about than the rest, though: Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Not only did they found the nascent republic's first two political parties -- the Federalist party and Democ...

Back in the old days, people would communicate exclusively via written letters that often took weeks, if not months, to arrive. While letters are still used today -- mostly by companies wanting us to sign up for credit cards or enroll in some form of membership with them -- it's become somewhat outdated as far as communications between friends and family are concerned. And the same can be said for making phone calls. That's thanks largely to the advent and ubiquity of texting and social media. If you're like me, you probably receive congratulations for promotions and other achievements -- not to mention holiday and birthday wishes, condolences, and so forth -via text or Facebook, even from your closest friends. Sure, we all know a couple of people who might still call or pay a visit -- the "old school" set -- but it's become increasingly rare. There's no question that texting and social media are convenient (and fairly cheap) methods of staying...