I get that chickens are close personal relatives of the dinosaurs, but what about cats? Look at this picture, and consider the curve of the spine, the counterbalancing tail, the back feet preparing to eviscerate, the glowing golden eyes, the slavering pink jaws,. . .at first glance, I thought he had gotten hold of a […]
Author: Evelyn J. Willburn
My Martian vacation
Imagine Planet Mars from the surface of Earth: a bright, reddish star that sometimes appears in the early evening. Think next about the various reports that I had heard growing up: no liquid water, an entire surface bare of any plant or animal life, rocky soil composed mostly of iron oxide, also known as rust. […]
Oddball Earth
I am beyond picky when it comes to reading fiction, but recently I realized that one of my pet peeves isn’t founded in fact. I tend to get really irritated when a science fiction author describes a planet as a “desert planet” or a “jungle planet.” I was muttering about this to my husband one […]
Of elephants and paper clips
Oh my, but I do love a good sturdy paper clip, the bigger the better. Having thought about this phenomenon at some length, I have come to believe that a really skookum paper clip, keeping a stack of like-minded papers safely organized, is a visual representation of putting up firewalls in one’s brain. The human […]
A picture to tide me over
Flying between Anchorage and Fairbanks a couple of weeks ago, I got to see this, which I might caption “Denali and Friends”: Stay warm, my friends and loved ones, and share beautiful things in any way you can.
Bee-arruh-arruh
I should start by explaining that “bee-arruh-arruh” is how you spell “brr” when you are laying on your Southern accent with a trowel. This was a favorite remark of my father’s when he would come in from a cold day, or when he would head downstairs to stoke the fire. During the winter of my […]
Percussive maintenance
This morning, while checking in at the airline counter for yet another mad adventure into the hinterlands of Alaska, I noticed that the young woman helping us was having trouble getting the boarding passes and luggage tags to print. She struck the device sharply several times with her open hand, and, much chastened, it began […]
Depression cake
When you see this title, what do you think of? “Depression cake” is a recipe for cake without eggs or milk (some recipes don’t use butter either), that came into use during the Great Depression in the United States. The same goes, apparently, for such modern marvels as mock apple pie, vinegar pie, and my […]
A good steward
Some years ago, the term “janitor” was quietly upgraded to “custodian.” Being the type who gets a huge kick out of words-and-where-they-come-from, I looked first at the word “janitor.” Fascinating! The first definition uses “custodian” as a synonym, while the second digs a bit deeper into the etymology. Apparently, this word first came to us […]
A One Mile Race: Guest blog by Laura J. Graham
A One Mile Race By Laura J. Graham The day Laurel went mad dawned like any other October day: cold, crisp, beautiful. This day began a bit unusually however, in that Laurel had signed up for a one mile race, to benefit some charity or other. She rose early and after performing her […]