I was working in our winter vegetable garden not long ago, when l heard a deep thumping coming from one of the dead red alders nearby. I scanned the tree but did not see a woodpecker; the sound continued. A walk around the tree revealed a new hole in the trunk: The thumping heartbeat was […]
Life + Outdoors
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Not-So Incredible Shrinking Brain
“The brain is a 3-pound mass you can hold in your hand that can conceive of a universe 100 billion light-years across.” Marian Diamond, neuroscientist In 2021, a peer-reviewed scientific study made headlines in the popular press: Human brains shrunk by about 5 percent between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago. Taken at face value, this […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Olive Snail Fail
I was bitten by a radioactive rat, which gave me the superpower of transforming myself from a 225-pound man into 225 1-pound rats. I’m not interested in fighting evil or rescuing people from danger. I’m just interested in beachcombing. And it occurred to me that 225 rats could comb a lot more beach than one […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Ladies Throw Their Hats In
Participants in the 12th annual Ladies Hat Day at the Races event on Saturday offered some glamour and wild creativity in front of the recently repaired (from earthquake damage) horse-track grandstands at the 128th annual Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale. This year’s fair theme was “Ribbons, Rides & Racing,” with six days of horse racing […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Woolly Mammoths: The Lady’s Not for Cloning
When I asked self-styled “museum artist” Beth Zaiken if I could use her evocative painting of a mammoth for a story, she was quick to point out that the image I attached was not just a mammoth, it was a woolly mammoth. Turns out, mammoths came in many shapes and sizes, with woolly mammoths particularly celebrated over […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Trog Wife
Like so many women struggling to find a simpler life in our frantic modern society, I perused the #tradwife content on social media, lulled by visions of gathering eggs in a calico dress and push-up bra while my unseen husband figures out how we should vote. But building a life based on black-and-white sit-coms of […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Ask Miss Birding Manners
Whether you’re new to birding or have been around the mudflats a few times, navigating the unspoken nuances of birding etiquette is probably something you’ve had to learn on the wing. If only there were a resource to guide you toward more courteous interactions with the birds you seek — and the humans you meet […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Obon Drums and Dancing
After Japanese shakuhachi flute music by Rick Kruse, the Rev. Rinban Gerald Sakamoto, minister for the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin, returned this year to bless the opening of the third annual Humboldt Obon Festival on Sunday afternoon. The program shared traditions of Obon, a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors coming to earth […]