Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol . . inspired by political outrage? That’s the story and it makes sense when you hear what he went through and what he was seeing in London back in 1843.

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We know all about the Christmas traditions we’ve grown up with, but where did they originate? We celebrate with Christmas trees, cards, lights, visits from Santa Claus, and lots of great food. But our ancestors were more likely to celebrate with drunken dancing, weird games, and street fights. How did Santa Claus, Christmas carols, and eggnog become a thing?

And a reminder… feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover. On Facebook it’s Patty Steele, and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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It’s the winter solstice this weekend. We have a few months of frosty weather to deal with. But it’s amazing to consider how folks dealt with mountains of snow when there were no plows, nobody whose job it was to clear the streets and sidewalks . . and no central heat. Imagine giant cylinders being pulled through the streets to compact the snow!

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

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It’s the holiday season, a time that brings out our desire to please those we love, particularly the kids in our lives. There’s a red hot toy every year, but what happens when that toy puts dollar signs in the eyes of grownups? This is about one toy that caused a lot of folks financial ruin and divorce, while it made a billionaire out of the guy who created it.

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

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Every invention begins with a spark—a moment when imagination lights up with the thought of . . possibility. Problem is . . the line between that spark . . and an explosive outcome can be thinner than you think. This is about when death comes at the hands of your own invention.
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A combination of fever dreams and cocaine led to one of the greatest horror stories of all time. Robert Louis Stevenson was dying of tuberculosis when he wrote “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” He almost trashed it, but after nine days of frantic writing he had defined the gothic novel and given us a metaphor for people with split personalities: Jekyll and Hyde.

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What Happens When Your Star Doesn’t Burn as Bright as Your Passion? Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding faced that question . . and is now on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List as an international drug lord. It’s about ambition without brakes and what happens when the skills that make you great — focus, risk tolerance, hunger for status — get redirected into a market where the rules are written in blood. This is Wedding’s descent from the mountaintops to the depths of drug dealing and murder.

Do you have a story idea you’d like me to share? Just DM me! On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.

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50 years ago, Friday nights were all about going to the movie theater. Starting in the 1980s, the weekend plan involved heading to Blockbuster to pick up a movie and watching it at home. Today, we just stay home and watch Netflix. So, how did it all evolve? This is about two guys who asked . . and answered . . one simple question.

Got an idea for a story you’d like me to cover? Feel free to DM me! On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

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