Jim Beckerman

Everyone knows "A Christmas Carol." What everyone doesn't know, now, is that Dickens' 1843 tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts was just the first in a series of annual holiday books.

Clicking on the "Reject All" Button retains the default setting of only strictly necessary cookies.

Some people need six hours to tell a story. For instance, the director of the new, two-part, "Wicked." Some people need six years.

Every holiday, nurseries and flower stores advertise grave blankets. What are they? And where did they come from?

Show Caption It's the New Year — the time of auld acquaintance.

North Jersey should get only a dusting, but areas farther south may get much more as a significant winter storm barrels into the region Monday.

An asteroid the size of Manhattan is making a rare near-Earth approach. Here's how to view it

How did Martin Luther King's message get across to America? Partly through pop culture. Music, movies, TV helped spread his message in the '60s

USA TODAY NETWORK It was Martin Luther King Jr. who had the dream. But it was the pop songwriters of the 1960s who set it to music.

3-minute read There won't be a homecoming band next month when The Isley Brothers make their big return to Englewood — the city where they got their start, more than 60 years ago.