PreCambrian Ephemera, Satan’s Snares, and Horse Dung

Writer John Scalzi recently visited the Creation Museum.    He  has written his report, assessed his impressions, and concluded...well, you should read his conclusions for yourself, here. I do  not have Mr. Scalzi's flare for describing expensive nonsense in such finely satirical, subversive, and somewhat detached a manner.  There is also a…

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A Poet Laureate For Missouri

The state of Missouri has never had an official poet laureate.  Like many people, I didn't know that, although unlike many of those many people, I should have.  One of the hats I wear (besides the one in the cool profile photo above) is the president of the Missouri Center…

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What’s Worse?

Here's a heartwarming story  about some of the insanity that followed in the wake of 9/11.  We see this kind of thing all the time, in the news, on tv shows, in movies.  A mistake compounded into tragedy by the utter fear and panic induced under extreme conditions.  One could…

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Update on Clive Wearing

The New Yorker recently published an article by Oliver Sacks, the famous neurologist and author, with an update on an equally famous patient: Clive Wearing, a British musician who suffered an attack of viral encephalitis in 1985. Although Wearing recovered, the infection destroyed the areas of his brain associated with…

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Feminism, Aliens, and James Tiptree jr.

One of the things that sends me straight up a wall to paw helplessly and violently at ceilings comprised of crushed glass, old nails, and asbestos fibers is when I hear a young woman blithely claim that she isn’t a Feminist and, in fact, “wouldn’t want to be one.” They…

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