Althea Grant

Imagine if every time you heard someone mention “the internet,” you cringed a little inside because it reminded you of “the Information Superhighway.” I know, it sounds like something cooked up by a committee that tried too hard to seem futuristic back in the early ’90s. But here’s the thing: that phrase was almost the … Read more

Imagine if William Shakespeare had never penned a single word. Scary thought, right? The Bard, whose works have shaped English literature for over four centuries, almost didn’t make it to the starting line. It sounds dramatic, and it’s true: Shakespeare nearly died before he ever wrote anything. That brush with death wasn’t the result of … Read more

Bananas are such a familiar staple that it’s hard to imagine anyone ever questioning whether they’re a fruit. We peel them, eat them, mash them into baby food, blend them into smoothies, and yet—if you had told someone a century ago that bananas might not even be fruits, they’d have blinked hard and asked for … Read more

Imagine standing in Paris today and being told that the Eiffel Tower, that iron giant gracing the skyline, was almost torn down—not because it was unsafe or outdated, but purely because people just didn’t like it. It’s almost laughable, isn’t it? This icon, with its swooping lattice arms and unmistakable silhouette, was nearly lost to … Read more