The Neolithics of Stony Run

The path I take in the mornings has a stream, Stony Run, running along one side.  The path and the stream are in a tiny wooded floodplain you could throw a rock across.  The floodplain and stream are more or less maintained by Baltimore city and by the surrounding community associations – “maintained” as in, […]

Science Metaphors (cont.): Isostatic Rebound

Science, every now and then, interrupts its usual flow of thick, painful jargon to speak in metaphors that reveal the poetry at its soul and lay out a clear path to meaning in life.  I’m serious here. I twitter-follow an author named Robert Macfarlane, whom our Michelle also likes, and who posted his phrase of […]

I Have a Cold

I’m writing this to be the voice of all the people who have had this winter’s ratty cold and have not written blog posts about it.   I’ve had it twice now, so aside from worrying about what that says about my fundamentals, I feel qualified to testify.  I testified once before here but this time […]

Can’t Find It

Google is mighty, everybody says so.  Like, nobody needs a library for anything. Like, my flight was delayed and the airline’s app was informative but needed 68 clicks so I googled the airline and the flight number, and Google not only told me first click straightup what the current delay was but also the expected […]

Redux: Weapons-Grade Private Enterprise

A little while ago, I was talking casually to an old arms-controller.  “What have you been up to?” I said.  “Talking to the Russians,” he said.  The Russians he would have been talking to were probably nuclear policy experts or nuclear weapons scientists and they probably would have been talking about ways of controlling international […]

Redux: Ask Your Doctor, Much Good It Will Do You

Half the people I know are sniffling, hacking, sneezing; and the other half are getting over it. Is it colds? the flu? sinusitis? For the last two weeks, I’ve had something wicked that’s had unfortunate and not entirely related sequelae (I use that word, “sequelae” every chance I get), and when I told the nurse […]

Short, and on the Battle of Maldon

One morning in my usual small coffee shop with the usual people, a young woman walks in, long straight hair of varying colors, flannel shirt, ill-advised leggings, you know the look.  An old guy at the table of regulars – the regulars tend to have been living in the neighborhood for generations – says to […]