BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Walking through the park at dusk the other night, I saw a single spark. Then another. Soon there were too many to count, hovering in the airspace between my chin and my ankles, lighting my way past the lake, the band stand, and the Park House....
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Picasso was feeling low. Following the suicide of his friend and occasional roommate, the painter Carles Casagemas, Pablo plunged into a rock-bottom depression that lasted more than 3 years. During this time (1901 to 1904), the vividly...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD When the annual cicadas emerge each summer their tymbals vibrate at arboreal drumming circles all over town. The beats bounce and reverberate against hard city surfaces; during a crescendo, I swear I can feel the buildings and sidewalks pulsing...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Happiness is a shy little bird. Hiding from sight in life’s nooks and crannies, impossible to find if you look but then it darts out and lands on your shoulder just when you least expect it. It sidles up beside you like a pickpocket on a crowded...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD I’ve been called a treehugger more than once in my life, and while I know the comments weren’t intended as such, I always take them as compliments. As a sobriquet it’s both true and false: true, because I do spontaneously hug exceptionally...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Sometimes you just need to shut out the world for a while, you know? If you can’t relate, I know the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) certainly can. Whether the threat is carnivores or a demanding career or even an infinite to-do...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Is there any non-human skill people covet more passionately than the ability to fly? Understandably, early aviation experiments centered around mimicry of birds, complete with flapping arms that were usually covered in feathers. The Greek legend...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Ever notice how many of the colloquialisms we use for comparisons aren’t all that apropos, or even true? Like… – graceful as a swan (have you ever seen one on land?) – dull as ditchwater (believe me, that liquid is lively at the...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD On your mark…. Get set… HOP! This morning, just in time for Easter, I saw my first Eastern Cottontail of the year. An article I read while eating breakfast had me thinking about track meets, and I’m sure that’s why I noticed, for the first time,...
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD “But never met this Fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter Breathing, and Zero at the Bone.” Unlike Emily Dickinson, ophiophobia (fear of snakes) isn’t an issue for me. I like snakes and know them to be upstanding ecosystem citizens… um,...