What the Kids Are Doing

The kids aren’t doing this any more. I miss it. I still have random people asking me about the kid arrangements, so apparently other people miss it too. But kids grow, that’s what they do; they move on. In this case, they’ve moved on to jumping rope, blowing conch shells, and digging bunkers — like […]

The Evidence of the Senses

Bear with me on this, please and thank you, I’m trying to think something through. Amy Maxmen, colleague and notable public health writer, was telling me about a medical researcher who runs big studies on vaccines and who says that vaccines work, they don’t hurt you, they’re good, and Amy quoted him saying he can […]

Beth Willman Really Does Have a Galaxy

Since this was first published in August 17, 2012, Beth Willman’s galaxy has probably been identified as an ultra faint dwarf galaxy; it possibly has been found to hold a entity violent enough to send out xrays, which may or many not be a “low mass xray binary,” which may or may not be an […]

Baltimore in August

I continue to have nothing good to say about Baltimore in August. In fact, if anything it’s getting worse though it’s incrementally-worse from already-bad. Like, the recent run of feels-like temps from 105 to 110 and I don’t even look at the numbers after that. And then once the temps get that high, afternoon storms […]

Spotted Lanternfly Epiphany

Y’all know about spotted lanternflies, right? I don’t have to explain them? (invaders, hordes over-running the landscape, even government officials say to just kill ’em?) Last summer I had a lot of them and I killed every one I was able to kill, given that they’re fast and cunning. This summer, the tree guy inspected […]

The Kind of People Who Make Neighbors Sad When They Move Away

This is from April 17, 2017. Since then other irreplaceable neighbors have moved away, in particular, two who were my age, a little older, who moved into retirement places. I miss them because of their own lively, interesting, lovely selves but also because I felt they were a protection, that as long as I could […]

GRANDMOTHER? Really? and Subsequent Thoughts

Since I wrote this, October 11, 2017, I’ve had time to thoroughly understand that yes, I’m definitely grandmother age; and yes, I’m used to it; and what I’m used to is the idea that while I’m increasingly someone who needs to be protected, I’m also increasingly a protector. Not that I go around protecting things […]