Steve warned of more to come. And here is more: A story like this one has “pending legislation” written all over it: Postpone Family Dog Until Kids Are School-Age: Experts: [Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay Reporter] Kids and dogs may seem like a perfect match, but a new study finds the family pooch is best introduced after …
Author: Matt Mullenix
How Others See Us, cont.
I’ve meant to post this for several months and never got around to it. It links to a remarkable (I think) research paper by a high school student named Arthur Wilderson on the topic of falconry. I have read quite a few of these things over the years, and wrote a few myself in school. …
Art of Fine Printing and The Duck Creek Martini
My wife asked as I cleared the table last night: “Aren’t you going to a thing?“ I’d forgotten. And having pulled on a t-shirt and sweatpants almost immediately after work, I said, “I’m already in my jammies,” and walked the dishes to the sink. But I stared at those dishes just a moment before changing …
Leaping To Conclusions
As reported by Reuters today, scientists claim, “Cane toads in Australia have developed longer legs to enable them to invade more territory.” That’s quite a leap. I am always interested to see this line of reasoning suggested in the findings of biological studies: Animals evolved Trait X in order to achieve Goal Y. I don’t …
Assassin Spiders and Science Writers
In a story dovetailing with recent collecting expeditions into New Guinea and into caves closer to home, biologists report the discovery of nine new species of assassin spiders from Madagascar. Unfortunately no photos are provided in the story, but journalist Alicia Chang (AP Science Writer!) offers some colorful descriptions of the spiders, as, variously, “grotesque-looking,” …
Good Press!
Just when I thought to expect the worst from press coverage of our strange and wonderful old sports, Anne Hocker sends this good story from outdoor writer Joe Doggett of the Houston Chronicle. Here’s a sample: “Peregrines are intelligent yet easily ‘manned’ to accept proximity to people. Regardless of raptor, manning is perhaps the most …
California Wildfire: ABC News “Discovers” Coursing
In defense of all good things old-fashioned, we present this recent story by ABC News: a pitifully slanted piece of writing that “exposes” open field coursing (in this case, rabbit hunting with sighthounds) in California and—tiresomely, predictably, maddeningly—its presumed “cruelty” to animals. At least one state legislator, having seen video of rabbits killed by sighthounds, …
New Orleans Musicians
One easy way to know if you’ve found a place with culture—an un-manufactured place, breathing on its own—is to listen for its music. There has been a lot of music played in New Orleans, some of it entirely the product of the place and found in its true form nowhere else. The rauccus neighborhood brass …
Great Proulx Quote
I just finished Annie Proulx’s collection of short stories, Close Range. This one includes the good story, now very well known, “Brokeback Mountain.” (It’s a Western!) The quote I’d like to share comes from a different story, entitled “The Governors of Wyoming.” Here the misguided but earnest anti-ranching activist Wade Walls (I don’t think “eco-terrorist” …
Andre Codrescu On New Orleans Public Libraries
Southeast Louisiana’s favorite in-house ex-pat social critic, Andre Codrescu, wrote this piece recently on the state of N.O. libraries, on books, reading and the general state of these institutions. Good thoughts, miserable situation.