February 2nd, 2010

Hemingway cats

I had the good fortune to enjoy a vacation in the Caribbean this past week, on which the first stop was Key West.  Though the weather drove me away from the beach, I was able to tour the Ernest Hemingway House and take in the considerable population of semi-domestic cats who have free reign of [...]

April 17th, 2008

Fun with Arthropods: The Bees of Summer

As much fear as they may inspire, carpenter bees are in fact quite harmless. That hover-and-stare we all interpret as confrontational is in fact the bee asking, “Hey! Wanna screw?”

May 8th, 2007

The demons within the walls

Is there any invertebrate creepier than the house centipede (AKA “thousand-legger”)? I grew up in Upstate New York, and had never encountered one of these until I first moved to southeastern PA around 1993. The first time I saw one skitter across the living room while I was watching TV, I [...]