Re: Creating A World Without Poverty

The poor will always be with you is the saying. History is a long testament to the truth of that. When someone claims to have a way to put an end to poverty, the first impulse is to challenge that notion. Show me! In Creating a World Without Poverty, Muhammed Yunus does an interesting job […]

Why a bread like a peony?

Today’s bread came out all pretty and plush. It’s as plump as a peony.

Re: On A Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy

Ever since I stumbled on “Wikihistory” I’ve had my eye open for more stories by Desmond Warzel. This time, I’m in the middle of reading the Hugo nominees, and I’m feeling the same sense of relief just getting a good laugh out of stumbling on “On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way […]

Low-lying fruit

Berry-picking time is coming!

Re: The Moment

“The Moment,” by Lawrence M. Schoen is told in a series of moments, a comic-tragic succession of galactic entities all drawn to a footprint on the Moon. The prose is filled with cerulean imagery and technophilic vocabulary; to a large degree the wordplay carries me along in reading it. And yet, this story bugs me.

Low Hanging Fruit

When you plant semi-dwarf trees, everything is low-hanging fruit.

Bees in the buttercups

As spring warms up, the buttercups open, in dense patches of bright yellow flowers. The flowers have bright, glossy petals that can look almost white. Even when they’re not flowering, their leaves have an interesting mottley spottleness. That’s how you know these particular buttercups are Ranunculus repens. It’s not native here, but I like the […]

Hawks!

So I’m about to make a turn from the Fresh Pond Mall onto Alewife Parkway, when I notice a cluster of people across the street. They’re all looking up at something, some with binoculars. One has a telescope. Are they birding? I look up.

Bees in the strawberries

I’m seeing tiny bees everywhere, on the columbines, on the buttercups, on the strawberry flowers. Some are definitely bees when I look closer. One had long antennae and a striped abdomen. One was carrying bright yellow saddlebags of pollen. Some turn out to be flies or beetles or syrphid flies, but none of them stay […]

May sprouts

In the sunny patch where the tulips and daffodils live, all the bulbs have laid down their leaves in a slowly, yellowing mess. I’m of the school that believes in letting the leaves ripen and dry up, so the bulbs can store up food for next year, which means it’s a mess right now. That […]