What a week! Is there a theme? Sort of. Something about things that have power over our behavior. Some are real, some are tricks of a sort. Some are Andy Kaufman (again). Guest poster Ann Garvin tells us that we are doomed to eat all the M&Ms because they come in so many pretty colors (the point […]
Month: March 2016
As I have occasionally mentioned on this blog, I am currently working on a book on the many ways that our own brains can deceive ourselves. Placebos, hucksters, healers, hypnotists, and con men – it’s all in there. It’s a fascinating subject and one that constantly reminds me to be careful about what I think I […]
March showed up last week, on little cat feet rather than lion paws. A gentle snow jacketed the crocuses before watering their roots. The least patient daffodils opened, heads dipped against any last-ditch icy gusts. Spring’s legs are wobbly, but she’ll find her stride soon enough. Still, at my little cabin in the Virginia woods, […]
Today’s post is the first of a two-part series on homeopathy. Look for another tomorrow by LWON’s own Sally Adee. In 460 BCE, a rebel was born. Ruggedly handsome, fluffy hair that drove younger girls crazy and a gleaming bald pate that made the older ones swoon. His buddies called him “The Father of Medicine,” “Ἱπποκράτης” or […]
The hard thing about teaching nutrition to college students is that, as far as eating healthy is concerned, they’ve heard it all before. In fact, Michael Pollen’s phrase, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”– is about the best 3-second nutrition message around. I find myself wanting to repeat this phrase to my students and […]
February 29 – March 4, 2016 This week, Helen and her friends became famous using nothing but some marshmallows and an idea. Here’s the blow-by-blow of her brush with celebrity. Craig reports from the Bering Strait where, as ever, he walks in two overlaid landscapes, separated by thousands of years. Rose has a fantasy life in […]
Blacksmith Scene (1893), thought to be the first staged narrative in film Last summer, after a decade in Canada’s Northwest Territories, I moved south to Ottawa. It is a city that holds deeper roots for me the longer I dig. Every day, I pass the park where my high school friends used to hang, and […]
Stephen Kress has studied Atlantic puffins for more than forty years, so you might think that he knows everything there is to know about them. He’d be the first to admit that he doesn’t. Until very recently, in fact, neither he nor anyone else even knew where the little rascals were most of the time. Puffins used to be […]
