April 2015
-
Thomas Fairfax, a well-known nineteenth century lobster smack captain, wrote convincingly that "lobsters are very good as an article of commerce, and pretty enough to look at, after they're boiled, but, as to eating them, I prefer castoff rubber shoes." George Hoag, a down-easterner, added that "if them tourists want to come up from Boston…
-
Bats originated approximately 50 million years ago. Although warm-blooded, many have "thermostats" that allow body temperature to vary with ambient temperature; they are therefore "heterothermic." There are 1300 living bat species — about 20% of all mammal species. The Long-tongued Fruit bat has a wingspan of 1.5 centimeters; the Spectral Bat a wingspan of a…
-
Olivier Truc's Forty Days Without Shadow came highly recommended, both by the forty or so literary awards that it has garnered, and also by trusted friends. It's a murder mystery — or rather a "police procedural" — and indeed it is a very good "read." It's set in the northern reaches of Scandinavia amidst tensions between…