Dec 29, 2019

The modern paper bag was first produced in Watertown, N.Y. We wanted to learn more about how this bag came to be. It sounded like an easy question, but we ended up unearthing a variety of interesting tales about a variety of interesting characters.

Christina Knott and Kelly Burdick discuss how the modern paper bag came...

Dec 22, 2019

Hanging lights, decorating and baking, visits to Santa, presents and cards ... there's a lot to do during this "most wonderful time of the year." But why do we do it all?

Christina Knott and Kelly Burdick discuss the ritual of holidays and why we perform them (or why we don't). Then we drop in on how some residents of...

Dec 15, 2019

The world was supposed to end one hundred years ago on Dec. 17. Experts denied it was so. Newspapers promised it wasn't to be. And in the end, it didn't happen. But that didn't mean it was the end of such predictions. 

Kelly Burdick and Christina Knott discuss how the end of the world that never was and the reaction...

Dec 8, 2019

The city of Watertown wrestled with the idea of allowing a billboard on the side of a truck in 1919. Fears were that "Public Square will look like a flock of circus posters if all truck and automobile dealers carry out the plan.”

One hundred years later, the city is still wrestling with the signage ordinances in...

Dec 1, 2019

In the mid-1800s, Diamond Bessie was a young girl was disowned by her family, cast out from her Watertown home and left to fend for herself in a difficult world.

While forgotten in the north country, her name helped revive the  small town of Jefferson, Texas, where she was killed. There she has been remembered long...