Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

150-year-old fairy tales found in Germany include some old versions of current favorites.Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote some of the world's most famous and familiar fairy tales -- stories like "Hansel and Gretel," "Rapunzel," and "Snow White." Now, more than 500 other stories from the same era have been discovered in Germany, a treasure trove of magical tales and legends that haven't been read for more than 150 years.

[Related: 5 lessons I don't want my son learning from princesses]

The fairy tales, which were found in an archive in Regensburg, Germany, had been gathered by local historian Franz Xaver von Schonwerth in the mid-1800s, around the same time that the Brothers Grimm were crafting their own.

While the Grimm brothers sometimes wove fanciful stories out of local folk tales, von Schonwerth, a historian, spent his life researching the customs, history, and traditions of the local people and writing down their stories, carefully documenting what he heard without adding embellishments of his own. The Grimms knew of von Schonwerth's work; in 1885, Jacob Grimm said

By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

Jessica Simpson recently revealed that her little bundle of joy-to-be is a girl, and to celebrate she's posing au naturel on the cover of Elle Magazine. If the cover looks familiar, it's because it's nearly identical to the iconic Vanity Fair cover that Demi Moore shot while seven months pregnant in 1991. Which other celebrity mommies-to-be have struck a sexy pregnancy pose in print? Take a look:

Ann Romney wipes lipstick off her husband's face after kissing him at a campaign rally in Zanesville, Ohio, Monday, …Ann Romney wasn't doing husband Mitt Romney any favors when she told Fox News: "I don't even consider myself wealthy."

"It can be here today and gone tomorrow," she said, in a soundbite that's sure to play into the perception that the millionaire Republican presidential hopeful is out of touch with the average American.

But if you listen to the entire clip, she goes on to make some good points about what really matters in life. "How I measure riches is by the friends I have and the loved ones I have and the people I care about in my life," she explains. "That is where my values are and those are my riches."

Having struggled with both multiple sclerosis and breast cancer has changed her point of view and made her more compassionate, she says. "It has softened my heart and made me realize there are many people suffering in this country, and they are suffering from things that aren't financial -- and some people are suffering from things that are financial, as well -- but those that

The Oreo cookie was first baked one hundred years ago today!The Oreo cookie turns 100 today, and a full century of milk-dipping, creme-scraping deliciousness later, they're still they're one of the most popular treats in the world.

Originally called the Oreo biscuit, they were created in a National Biscuit Company bakery in Manhattan on March 6, 1912. Now, more than 95 million cookies are sold every day in more than 100 countries, generating $1.5 billion in revenue each year.

Becky Tousey, Kraft Foods' corporate archivist, says that the brand's message hasn't changed over the course of a century.

"The focus of advertising was on the fun of eating Oreos, the fun of the parts of the Oreo," she told ABC News. "It has that theme of the enjoyment -- the twisting, the licking, the dunking. For me, as a historian, it's fun to see that thread throughout."

Though there are plenty of iterations of the Oreo out there -- in 2011, the Triple Double was born, with two flavors of creme and three layers of wafer all stacked together, and Kraft Foods

Author Clea Simon with her cat, Musetta.Most pet-lovers know that dogs and cats communicate regularly with their human companions. But what if they could help you solve a mystery? In her latest pet noir, "Cats Can't Shoot," author Clea Simon explores the connections between pets and their owners, weaving a complex murder mystery that appeals even if you're not a die-hard animal lover.

"In truth, I have always been a storyteller," Simon told Yahoo! Shine:. "From the earliest I can remember, I loved making up stories to amuse people. But in junior high, I was also bitten by the news bug and it quickly became apparent that there was a more clear career path in journalism."

A Long Island native who has lived in and around Cambridge, Massachusetts, since the mid-1980s, Simon spent years as a magazine editor, newspaper editor, and music critic before stepping away from full-time journalism in 1999. By then, she already had one non-fiction book to her credit ("Mad House: Growing up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings") and her

Republican leaders in Laurens County, S.C., want candidates to sign 28-point pledge before they can run for of …If you're a Republican who wants to run for office in Laurens County, South Carolina, it's not enough to want to uphold the party's platform. Thanks to a resolution adopted last week, potential GOP candidates will have to submit to an interview and sign a pledge promising, among other things, that they did not have premarital sex and will not watch porn before party officials will decide whether they can be on the ballot.

The political purity pledge also requires candidates to disclose whether they've cheated on their spouse. Having done so is a deal-breaker.

"It is essential to try to protect the party's reputation," party chairman Bobby Smith told the Clinton Chronicle. "The party has been pushing for closed primaries. People feel the platform has not been adhered to. We want candidates to believe in and uphold the party's platform."

The Lauren County Republican Party -- whose Facebook slogan is "Not more power to the government. Not more power to the people. More liberty to the

A state senator in Wisconsin says being single causes child abuse and neglect.In Wisconsin, a state senator has introduced a bill aimed at penalizing single mothers by calling their unmarried status a contributing factor in child abuse and neglect.

Senate Bill 507, introduced by Republican Senator Glenn Grothman, moves to amend existing state law by "requiring the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect."

The bill would require educational and public awareness campaigns held by the board to emphasize that not being married is abusive and neglectful of children, and to underscore "the role of fathers in the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect."

Saying that people "make fun of old-fashioned families," Grothman -- who has never been married and has no children -- criticized social workers for not agreeing that children should only be raised by two married biological parents, and told a state Senate committee that he hopes the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention board,

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better-known as Dr. Seuss, shakes hands with Cat in the Hat at the New Orleans Museum of …Dr. Seuss would have been 108 today, and while people the world over are familiar with his classic children's stories, the author himself has remained a bit of a mystery. Who was the man who made up fantastical creatures like a trouble-making, hat-wearing cat, a fluffy nature lover, and a kind-hearted elephant who crawls up a tree to egg-sit for a flaky, ungrateful bird?

Theodor Seuss Geisel Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904. He took his middle name (which was also his mother's maiden name) as his pen name -- it's actually pronounced ZOI-ce, not SOO-ce -- and was known to tell people that he was saving his real last name for the Great American Novel he planned to write someday. Instead, he wrote and illustrated more than 60 books as Dr. Seuss, as well as a dozen or so more as "Theo LeSeig" and one as "Rosetta Stone." There have been countless movie and television adaptations of his work.

According to his biography, "Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel" by Judith and Neal Morgan