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About 100 years ago, the Old-guard Geologists were confronted with an uncomfortable question: How could horses have crossed the Atlantic Ocean? Turns out some fossil-diggers had discovered matching fossils of a horse species on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Similar matching fossils were found across the Atlantic and other oceans, too. I imagine the O-gGs shuffling nervously and scratching their heads until they c

November 28 (Thanksgiving Day,) 2024 Science fiction does an excellent job of naming alien races. Klingons, Ewoks, Sontarans, Terileptils, the list goes on. But for many years, the challenge for the genre was to find the right word for its more familiar characters: the members of our own species. Homo sapiens just won’t cut it outside of biology journals. In at least one episode of 1960s Star Trek, we were call

On vacation in Ireland (or possibly England, but I think it was Ireland) my father tripped over a trailer hitch and badly broke his ankle. He came home in an impressive cast—knee to foot—that well-wishers had extensively decorated. He pointed out one of the signatures to me. It was Arnold Palmer. The famous golfer was a fellow passenger on the airplane back to the U.S, and he signed the cast. At the donut

November 7th, 2024 A famous quote has been lodged in my mind all day, and I will present it at the end of this essay (Hey, always keep your reader engaged!) Just before the election, a parade of would-be experts was repeating the same encouraging prediction. Political celebs like Michael Moore and James Carville, former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, various columnists for the liberal media that I gobbled up beca

November 3, 2024 The weekend has brought a few glimmers of encouraging news about the upcoming election. Several reports claim that undecided voters are breaking for Kamala Harris. A poll out of Iowa—until now considered a safe state for all Republicans—shows Harris up by 3 points. Pennsylvania might be swinging her way, too. Yet oddly enough, the moment that lifted my spirits the most was Harris’ appearance on

I can explain away Donald Trump (borderline psychopath) and his various minions (cowardly sycophants, gullible idiots.) But the bloc of six on the Supreme Court, and their brethren in the Federalist Society, what do we make of them? Their rock-ribbed conviction looks like religious zealotry, albeit their justification comes not from a conventional bible but from Project 2025, or perhaps some related but secret manife

UPDATE 9/4: Thank you all who visited the installation. Below are photos. End of August, 2024. You stand resolutely on the evaporated bed of Lake Lahontan in northern Nevada, staring across the trash fence. You observe the local sun, inexhaustible and insufferable, and the reason why sensible living things skedaddle to points elsewhere. You observe the wind whip up dust clouds that will anoint you on their arrival, a

We meet Mr. Conspiracy (which, um, is not his real name) in the motel lobby. I speak with him only briefly, while my wife soldiers onward for well over an hour. Mr. C. is likely my age but looks a lot older, with a ring of white puffy hair circling a chrome dome and a pasty face and lively eyes. He speaks quickly and enthusiastically with many hand gestures. We learn that he hails from New Jersey by way of northern V

I am the sixth man on the six-person chairlift. The other riders are a family of five. To my right is Mom, to her right are the three young children, with Dad on the end. Ms. Mom is chipper and talkative. She asks me where I am from and how I am enjoying my day. Mr. Dad is focused on the children, directing their attention to the trail map, conveniently printed on the safety bar in front of us. He wants them to ident