“We surprise people right off the bat, standing in front of this wonderful, family-friendly ice cream shop and saying that it used to be a brothel,” says Scott Brouwer, archivist at La Crosse (Wis.) ...

A crazy idea: traveling with two young children on a lightning tour around the world to visit great libraries. I’m not sure what my wife, Fiona, and I were thinking. But, like modern-day “grand ...