You write about science for 30 years
and what do you get?

A chance to freelance
for the Washington Post (70+ times)
and other newspapers and magazines
on Burning Issues
like the right way to eat corn on the cob,
finding happiness on the prune juice trail,
and questing for the perfect
crummy but good restaurant.

Newest Burning Issues

The Art of Not Talking

Sometimes an Ant Watcher Marries an Ant Stomper. But Let's Not Talk About It.

Over the years, husbands and wives develop an amazing ability to not talk. This can be bad, this can be good. With practice, it evolves into a form of super communications, like the spooky ability to finish each other's sentences.

For the rest of the story "The Art of Not Talking"

First Light And Ahead Of The Bear

First Light, And Nothing Has Gone Wrong . . . Yet

First light is my favorite part of the day. It carries the hope that today I just might get something done, sweetened by the knowledge that I don’t have to do it quite yet.

Plus, at first light I'm a step ahead of all my neighbors who are still sleeping. Kinda like that old joke about the hungry bear chasing you and another guy. You don’t have to outrun the bear, just as long as you can outrun the other guy. Shoot, at first light, I'm probably two steps ahead of the other guy.

For the rest of "First Light And Ahead Of The Bear . . . So Far"

Male Boundaries

Warning: Cabin May Contain Dangerous Day Dreams

Whose tree this is, I think I know. It’s mine. Or better, ours, a boundary tree blazed 30 years ago by a surveyor to mark where Good Neighbor Bob begins and I end. The boundary line where my weekend cabin dreams end and Bob's begin.

The surveyor blazed bright slashes on a line of trees along our boundary, but the blazing scars have dulled with time. So about a month ago, when spring wandered close but the trees remained winter bare and you could still see forever, I developed a Near Spring itch to renew the marks that separated Bob from me.

The rest of the story "Male Boundaries"

My Deck The Wilderness Area

Last weekend I formally declared our deck to be a wilderness area.

At the time, it seemed a stroke of brilliance. No more sweeping or painting the deck. Wilderness areas must, of course, be allowed to return to their natural condition. Our unpainted deck was already taking on a very natural seedy appearance. Now it's the law.

Unnamed Watering Hole, Per Federal Wilderness Regulation SPN.1.276.

I also learned that we could no longer name things, like "The Deck Chair," within the deck wilderness area. The rules say that geographic features within wilderness areas, like mountains, shall remain unspoilt by application of formal names, except when there exists an overriding need for formal place names for management or safety reasons.

Management, my long-suffering wife, had a problem with that rule.

The rest of the story "My Deck The Wilderness Area"

A Gruel Hope

Facing a Gruel, Gruel World

Although gruel is not as popular in the U.S. as it used to be,the French have come up with some exciting new recipes that have become a big hit in New York City and are expected to catch on every where. If you can make it in New York, then you can make it anywhere, even gruel.

I recommend the refried blackened Cajun gruel. Like a good New Orleans jambalaya, the spices in the blackened gruel kick in quick before you can start worrying about the little bits of strange ingredients that the French call "le mystic."