This post originally ran Sept. 1, 2014. After my voice lesson Sunday afternoon, I heard bells. Eight bells, ringing on and on. My voice lessons are in the bowels of Washington National Cathedral – a real live Gothic cathedral, hand-carved over the last 107 years by bearded Englishmen, or at least the group included one […]
Helen
Six years ago in July I was in London for a week, and one day a bee was banging itself against the skylight at my friend’s house, over the desk where I was working. After being annoyed by it for a while—c’mon, bug, the skylight is open—it occurred to me that this wasn’t a very […]
It’s often a surprise, coming back home. When I came home from Saudi Arabia five years ago, I was shocked by the trees. I’ve lived with trees like this most of my life, but just seeing them lining the airport road, sucking gallons of water from the ground and throwing it into the atmosphere like […]
This post originally appeared November 28, 2016. I have a tendency to worry. When I’m stressed, I can worry pretty much any time of day, but my brain’s favorite time to worry is in the middle of the night. At 3 a.m., there is no problem that can’t be mulled over, chewed on, and puffed […]
When the old mammal hall closed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, it was the end of an era at the museum. The museum’s mammal dioramas were of the old school, displaying the stuffed mammals in their environments. They were in a dark, low-ceilinged part of the museum, and I almost always walked […]
Recently I visited Japan for the first time in more than 16 years. I lived in the southwestern city of Kumamoto from 1998 to 2000, and other than a visit in December of 2002, I’d never been back. So, on April 16, there I was, finally back in Japan, and I was happy. So happy. […]
Cameron: Helen! It is I, the high school state debate champion of 2009, here to have another vicious argument with you. Although there are many things about that sentence that are not true, and even grammatically incorrect. Helen: Oooooh this is exciting. And slightly scary.
This post originally appeared March 10, 2017. Enjoy! In the summer of 2011, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History was in the process of doing some bug relocation. Specifically, they were moving some of their beetles from the museum building downtown out to a storage facility in the suburbs—specifically, the non-plant-eating scarabs. It was […]