The Daily Bluster

The Hittites were an ancient people who built an empire that lasted for about a thousand years, from around  1340 to 1200 BCE in what is now modern Turkey and parts of northern Syria.  An Indo-European people, the Hittites were originally from around the Caspian Sea who later moved into southern Turkey around 2000 BC. Unlike other Semitic people who had lived in the area, the Hittites rode horses, and even built wagons and chariots.    Depiction of a Hittite chariot (from an Egyptian relief) Most information about the Hittites came from the royal library discovered in 1906 in the ruins of Khattushas, the ancient capital of the Hittite Empire, near Bogaz Koi in Turkey.  The library—one of the largest and oldest to be discovered—yielded 10,000 clay tablets containing a wealth of information about the empire, written in cuneiform.  Archaeologists were able to gather information from these and other documents and from the remains of their gr...

I've come across this many times in the past, this bit about a NY cab driver and a ride he gave to an anonymous elderly lady.  Since I am not dead inside (yet), this story never fails to make me tear up, every time .  Aesop was right when he said that, "No act of kindness, no matter small, is ever wasted." It is so easy to make a difference in someone's else's life. People should do this more--do at least one random act of kindness everyday. Here is the story:  I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. "Just a minute," answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat...