Jesse Singer articles

Starting Domino’s Pizza would be a pretty decent lifetime accomplishment for most people. Tom Monaghan apparently wasn't done. After turning one Michigan pizza shop into an empire, he eventually headed to Florida and helped start something considerably larger: a brand-new town. And yes, people actually live there.

Even people who haven't opened a Bible in years probably know the basics. A catastrophic flood. One man warned beforehand. A gigantic vessel. Animals brought aboard. Eventually, dry land returns. It is one of the most recognizable stories ever told. But then archaeologists started digging up something strange.

Every state has at least one place that was left behind. The people are gone, but the buildings, belongings and unanswered questions remain. Some were abandoned almost overnight. Others emptied slowly. Either way, what happened inside these places is often far stranger—and darker—than the ruins suggest. Did you know any of these places existed?

Texas and California are two of the biggest, loudest and most recognizable states in America. They also seem to disagree on just about everything. So when Texans head west for a California vacation, certain differences don't exactly take long to reveal themselves. Starting with one that hurts almost immediately.

Americans love arguing about which places in their own country don't get nearly enough attention. And after digging through traveler discussions, underrated-destination lists, and plenty of “how is this place not more famous?” conversations, we started noticing something about many of the places that kept coming up. A lot of these places seem to have one thing working against them. The forecast.

There was a time when pulling off the highway for the night meant seeing names that were absolutely everywhere. Then, somehow, many of them just disappeared.

Most hotel guests believe they are perfectly reasonable. But hotel employees notice things guests seem to never think twice about—and these seemingly harmless habits can make an entire shift needlessly harder. Are you doing any of these?

Flying in the 60s wasn't completely without rules. And yes, not every item here was as “routinely” carried onto a plane as the others. But these were legit ordinary belongings people could bring along without someone telling them no. Such as...

Americans have no problem telling you what they hate about another state. But ask them to name the best thing about it and suddenly the answers get a lot more interesting. Do you agree?