The Last Word

This week Cameron ponders the color, shape and purpose of eggs. It sounds like an odd thing to think about until you realize it’s a pretty big deal for the one who laid it. Helen shares a cartoon to commemorate her 20-year anniversary with a very special partner – her sunglasses. Rebecca says that an […]

Worshipping the Sun

  My boys and I have gone to the sun and back. Not literally, of course. We’ve been on the curve of the Earth the whole time. But we’ve been on a mission, 20 nights on the road traveling north toward the longest day of the year. Our trip started in Colorado near the 40th […]

Redux: Not all stories are words, not all maps are pictures

This post originally appeared June 14, 2017 You know those sounds that slip across the senses until they settle, in the brain, on an association entirely unrelated to their maker? Those sounds that seem to almost synesthetically transform one thing into another? The way noise can be brilliant, or color evokes flavor, or a smell […]

Save the Main-Street Forest

The Arbor Day Foundation, which I have supported since I became a taxpayer at age 16, has a wonderful program called Tree City USA. To become a Tree City USA, all you have to do is have a tree board, have some kind of community tree ordinance, spend at least $2 per capita on forestry, […]

My Two-Decade Sunglasses

I’ve been telling myself for a couple of years now that, when my sunglasses turned 20, they were getting their own blog post. Well, that’s sometime around now–my records aren’t too good, but it was definitely 1998 and almost definitely June–so here you go, cheap sunglasses. Thank you for your service. Let’s make it 20 […]

Egg Drop

This weekend my oldest son held two brown eggs in his hand. He cradled them gently. Then he threw one on the ground. It bounced, and he laughed. This one was rubber. The other egg he held was a real one. I’ve never gotten used to the fake egg. Sometimes it appears in egg cartons. […]

The Last Word

June 18-22, 2018 This week, Emma writes an Amazon review of her half-dome tent. That is, a review of how it fares through multiple trips through the Amazon—and everywhere else. Christie reminds herself to apply the base rate principle the next time she sees an ambiguous animal in her motion-triggered game camera. Michelle transports us […]

How Did I Not Know About the Hippo Bill?

Louisiana wetlands, as many places, are the inadvertent home to some ecosystem-altering invasive species, like fast-spreading aquatic plants called water hyacinth and giant salvinia. But hippos, no. There aren’t any hippos down there. Oh, what might have been. I’m not sure how I didn’t discover this earlier, considering how much I’ve been writing about invasive […]