There’s a messy corner in our home — yours too? Embarrassing power stips, blinking lights, and miles of dusty tangled cords leading to things time forgot.

Cutting cords is enticing. But you look at this mess of technology and fear unplugging the wrong cord. Everything might fall apart. So you “fix it’’ by ordering a new service. Let “the cable guy” dive into this tangled disarray.

The American Dream: One more purchase will solve your problems, make you more productive — and then? You’ll be happy.

So we “fix’’ one problem by replacing one thing or service (or person) with…

How does Robert Orlando follow his books and films about 2020, war, and Cold War? By exploring hell, of course, and the bizarre dreams of Karl Marx still messing with so many to this day.

Few know that Marx, the founding father of communism, based his seminal Das Capital on Dante’s Inferno, considered by theologians to be the best portrait and explanation of the dark fires of hell itself.

In other words, Orlando shows, Marx wasn’t just writing about economic or political history but was trying to recast Dante’s Inferno as capitalism.

In To Hell With Karl Marx: The American…

A big “Subway Subs” box arrived in the mail — it wasn’t that kind of food. My dad was shipping me new “gifts” from a grandfather who died in 1944.

Social media is abuzz about the latest “spooky AI” technology allowing us to turn old photos into videos bringing dead ancestors “back to life.” It’s shocking how well you can know someone you never met.

“The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them,” Czesław Miłosz argued.

How will you be remembered more than 75 years after you die? My latest “time…

DETROIT — The Motor City is also the Pizza City. Two of the three largest chains are based here as their main rival takes “Detroit Style Pizza” national.

Everyone is familiar with New York, Chicago, and California-style pizzas but Detroit? Oddly, even most Detroiters aren’t familiar with “Detroit Style” because Michigan is home to (or the inspiration of) so many pizza variations:

• Ann Arbor-based Domino’s Pizza is the nation’s largest pizza chain, growing up just west of Detroit, focused on delivering traditional “round” pizzas in 30 minutes. Founded in 1960, Domino’s had more than 15,914 locations in 2019, with total…

Americans love spicy food. Finally, my doctor said to cut (or minimize) basically every meal I love. Doctor’s orders: Smaller, less acidic portions.

“No wonder Americans can get so nasty,” I thought. “A lot of our food and drinks are chock full of acid.”

The doctor said I could have one cup of coffee (but no more). Alcohol, soda pop, and tea were also on the “bad” list, along with just about every spicy, fried, meaty meal I adore. So I shifted to soup, salads, and blander fare.

Within 40 days, I lost nearly 20 pounds eating “safe stuff.” Doctors…

FORT MILL, S.C. — St. John Paul the Great knew he had to visit South Carolina when he found out it was the least Catholic state in America.

‘’How is it to live with 98 percent non-Catholic people?’’ the first Polish pope asked Bishop Ernest Unterkoefler of Charleston, S.C., during a 1984 meeting.

Unterkoefler said it was “a great challenge.” And three years later, the University of South Carolina was added to John Paul’s 1987 tour of North America, the first papal visit to America’s Southern Baptist Bible Belt.

Just 2.1 percent of South Carolina’s 3.35 million residents were Catholic…

It was snowing as my bride and I got into her convertible and drove 879 miles during February’s deepest freeze. The Weather Channel called it: “Historic Winter Invasion.”

More of the United States is under winter storm advisory warnings (as I write this) than at any point over the past 10 years. Mostly warmer places like Texas, Tennessee, and Seattle are getting hit by snow and arctic chills.

During our drive from Michigan to South Carolina, we saw snow, fog, and rain before my wife saw South Carolina’s Low Country forest, declaring, “It looks like fall here.”

And finally, I…

Imagine you’re history’s most incredible author, creating a character you truly love (your baby).

Now imagine your baby (like all great characters) takes on a life of their own, rejecting and ignoring you (their author), changing their nature and the whole story. That, in a nutshell, is sin: creation rejecting its creator.

The word “author” comes from “authority” because authors are authorities on their creations. The Author of the Universe is God. We are His creations following one of two roads, both starting with:

• The Gift. Everything (except our own sin) is a gift. The Father gives every child unique…