Feb 02
There’s a meme that keeps coming around, a list of terms for emotions that other cultures have, but not the English-speaking world. One of them is the marvelous term Schadenfreude, from German, that means the shameful joy you feel at another’s distress — like, say, Sarah Palin contracting COVID. Unlike many of the other feelings …
Mar 25
As I demonstrated last Wednesday, it’s pretty easy to come up with a name for a novel species of carnivorous mammal. Now let’s turn to the feline world, and the naming conventions of big cat hybrids. The “big four” Panthera species (lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars) are all capable of interbreeding with each other, as …
Mar 24
Narwhals: Arctic Whales in a Melting World by Todd McLeish University of Washington Press, 2013 [Challenge # 22 : A book taking place mostly or all on water.] My first choice for this category, Blackfish City, didn’t work out, so I subbed Narwhals one after noticing I had saved it to my Seattle Public Library …
Sep 10
Unnatural Selection by Katrina van Grouw Princeton University Press, 2018 How does evolution happen? This is the behind Unnatural Selection, written by natural history curator and illustrator Katrina van Grouw. She approaches it from a direction unfashionable these days, though one that Charles Darwin received inspiration from: the selective breeding of domesticated animals. Unnatural Selection …
Jun 26
Sometimes, when you’re writing, you need to pull something out of your ass, or your gluteus maximus using the medical term. Perhaps it’s something for a game or cartoon. Or the anatomy of some newly discovered space or fantasy creature. Or perhaps it’s a different world with a different sort of anatomy altogether. If you …
May 13
Being a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz New York, Scribner, 2016 [Challenge # 9: A book with a dog on the cover.] Since I enjoyed Alexandra Horowitz’s first book, Inside a Dog, for its insights into the canines we share our lives with, I picked up Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of …
