My Version of Walden Pond.
Henry David Thoreau was about 27 years old when he moved to Walden Pond in 1845. He stayed there a little over two years. I’ve been to that spot in Massachusetts. I’ve stepped into the one room cabin on Walden Pond and have seen the view he saw, the woods he walked in. I think […]
Monarch Science and the Middle Generations.
Several years ago a friend of mine was involved in a volunteer program to help with the migration of Monarch butterflies. She was the first one to tell me that Monarch caterpillars rely solely on leaves from Milkweed plants – 20 or 30 leaves each, to be exact. What I didn’t understand back then is […]
Olivelle – and Mental Taste Testing.
There is a magical store in Bozeman, Montana called Olivelle. Olivelle was started 20 years ago by a mom and daughter who started with a love of high quality olive oil and vinegar and kept expanding from there. They now offer over 150 of their own products and every time I go there, I leave […]
The Cows Really Do Come Home.
Recently, thanks to my sister Coleen, I have completely fallen in love with a children’s book entitled I’ll Love You Till the Cows Come Home and the follow up, I’ll Love You Till the Crocodiles Smile. They are arguably two of the cutest and most clever children’s books I’ve ever read. And yes, I know […]
Todd’s Nine Tips.
A few months ago, my brilliant cousin Todd sat in on a call at my request to offer some insight to a struggling friend who was starting out in a similar line of work to his. He had so many good tips for them and I quickly jotted them all down. I revisited his suggestions […]
The Goldilocks Zone and the Trouble with “Just Right”
We’re officially in that in-between season where the thermostat keeps switching between heat and A/C. Our house lives between a small Fahrenheit temperature window of 65–70 degrees. Amazingly, because of how we can set things on our thermostat, if the house gets below 65, the heat pops on. And the A/C does the same as […]
A different way of looking.
“Early on the morning of 30 January 1990, George Cohon, president of McDonald’sCanada, left his hotel room and drove to Pushkin Square in Moscow. Nervous about the international press that would be covering the opening of the first McDonald’s in this nation and anxious to make the opening perfect, he arrived to see the streets […]
A matter of timing.
When I worked as a high school teacher and then a counselor, I sometimes helped student athletes fill out their NCAA eligibility profiles. One section always stood out to me: Have you ever been paid in any way to play your sport? Typical NCAA amateurism questions included things like: They were not kidding around. The […]
A Map of London and Modern Problem.
According to several Wikipedia articles, taken from several angles, Phyllis Pearsall (1906–1996) is often credited with creating the first comprehensive, user-friendly street atlas of London. The popular narrative suggests that in 1935, after getting lost on her way to a party due to outdated maps, she decided to map the city herself. Allegedly, she walked […]
Cortina – and the question of staying.
When the original bid for the 2026 Olympic Games was first launched by northern Italy, the venue plan included a major renovation of an abandoned track at Cesana Pariol, which was built for the Torino 2006 Olympic Games. According to Wikipedia, it was in much better condition than The Cortina Sliding Centre, also known as […]
