One of the great joys of living outside of a densely populated area is the dark skies at night, and because of those dark skies the myriad star that can be seen when those skies are not veiled by clouds. Of course, not all those “stars” are stars – some are planets (as well as occasionally comets, orbiting useful satellites, and – unfortunately as of late – mean Mr. Musk-stache’s phalanxes of space litter).
Sir Winston Churchill once famously remarked “Dogs look up to you, cats look down on you. Give me a pig! He looks you in the eye and treats you as an equal.” At least so said Sir Anthony Montague Browne, Sir Winston’s private secretary. And for my part, I very much hope he did – […]
Far more difficult than teaching a cat a trick or eating only one potato chip is the challenge of explaining to someone that the Brown Recluse spider he or she claimed to have recently seen was, in fact, very likely not one. There’s just something about this species that has taken hold of our imaginations; […]
When I first saw the flyer advertising Richard Vetter’s forthcoming book The Brown Recluse Spider on the Cornell University Press table at the 2014 Entomology Society of America convention I thought “Well it’s about time!” After all, I can think of no spider in North America about which there is more misunderstanding and misidentification than the Brown Recluse.