A Doll Comes To Visit

You are a fifth-grade girl who comes home from school to find a doll on your front porch. The doll looks like you, is dressed like you, and there is something about the eyes. Who left it? Why is it here? And what makes this doll so special?

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With a Little Help From My Friend

Jim Jenkins is an ace detective who solves the most difficult crimes. Yet he always works alone. Or does he?

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The Boy Who Could Wiggle His Ears

Learning how to wiggle your ears is really hard. But you can do it if you keep trying. And if you learn to keep trying, no problem is too big. So if you can wiggle your ears, you can do anything!

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Life on a Moon-less Earth?

What would the Earth be like without its moon?  Songwriters and poets would have one less subject, and you probably would never have heard of King Canute since there would be smaller tides (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide).  As the website EarthSky points out, most planets have small moons relative to their size, so in most cases it would

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Remembering the Dark Side of History

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana As a history nerd, I’ve always been interested in one of our past’s most scholarly dilemmas — how do you remember the dark side of history without glorifying it?  Setting aside the issue of Confederate monuments, I have three examples of

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Animals and Their Personalities

Any pet owner can tell you that animals have personalities.  Now there’s a book that takes this one step further.  Mousy Cats and Sheepish Coyotes: The Science of Animal Personalities is by John Shivik, a wildlife expert in the development, testing, and application of non-lethal techniques for predator management. This project traces back to when

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Can Your Dog Help You Live Longer?

We all know there can be a special bond between dog owners and their pets.  But can there be health benefits, too? A study from Sweden, published November 7, 2017 in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests a correlation between dog ownership and a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and other causes. Research like this

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The Language of Songbirds and Us

Remember the song “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing”?  There may be some truth to it. Could there be a link between human speech and music, and birdsongs?  Is there a connecting biological process?  Recently published research provides evidence that there is a common hardwiring in how songbirds and humans produce and understand sounds. 

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Original Poetry — Communication

Here’s a quick poem while I try to think of something better to write about.   The Art of Communication We don‘t always say what we mean and language is our co-conspirator. “It’s all good” usually isn’t. “Yeah, right” is usually wrong. A double negative is positive. “I’m okay” means you’re not. “Nothing’s wrong” is

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Celebrating Failure

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. ” — Sir Winston Churchill Do you remember the Sony Betamax?  (I still have one.)  How about coffee-flavored Coca-Cola? These are obvious failures most people would like to forget.  But according to an article in the December 2017 issue

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