Two years ago I decided to get up off my butt and stand at attention while working. But while my DIY standing desk helped my posture and attention span a bit, it didn’t make up for the fact that as someone who works from home, there’s a lot of inactivity in my routine. It’s just […]
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Garlic scapes, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries
The strawberries came, and they’ve almost gone. While most popular strawberry varieties are called “June bearing,” most of our crop matured in May. There are still a few stragglers here and there, but it looks like we’re done with the big juicy strawberries. That’s okay, because I’ve developed a taste for smaller berries… but at […]
The year of the strawberries
Last spring I planted 4 strawberry plants in containers in the rooftop garden. As the weather got warmer and the plants took root, small flowers started to appear. But following the advice of pretty much everybody who talks about growing strawberries, I resisted the urge to let those flowers bloom and pinched them off in […]
Shada: the Douglas Adams script for Doctor Who finally feels complete
Before writing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams was a writer and script editor for Doctor Who. But he’s only credited with having written a few episodes — one of them was never broadcast. That’s because production of Shada was interrupted by a BBC strike and parts of the episode were never filmed. […]
The Casual Vacancy review: JK Rowling’s follow-up to Harry Potter isn’t magical, but it’s a page-turner
J. K. Rowling has a way of creating fictional worlds that feel reel and filling them with characters that seem to take on a life of their own. The plot is almost beside the point… but by the time The Casual Vacancy comes to a close, it’s hard not to feel something for the cast […]
Jury Duty
Monday – Jury Selection The prosecutor had a story to tell: One night, two years ago, Joe S was at home when his friend John M came over for a little bit. Joe’s wife Deanna S was at a family picnic with their 2 year old son. She called when she was pulling the car […]
Book review: The Day The World Discovered the Sun
The Day the World Discovered the Sun: An Extraordinary Story of Scientific Adventure and the Race to Track the Transit of Venus by Mark Anderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars In the early 18th century astronomer Edmond Halley determined that the Transit of Venus represented the best opportunity to calculate the distance from the […]
Pandora’s Seed Book review: It all started going horribly wrong about 10,000 years ago
Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization by T. Spencer Wells My rating: 3 of 5 stars Back in the dark ages I studied communication in college, but I also minored in anthropology. I was fascinated by the one class in archaeology I took, and even subscribed to Archaeology Magazine briefly before I realized that I never get around […]
2030 book review: The future looks a lot like today, but older
2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the fourth book I’ve read recently which depicts a world which seems entirely plausible when you look at today’s trends in society and technology. That means you don’t get flying cars, jetpacks, or colonization of […]
How the garlic grows (or doesn’t)
Garlic is an interesting vegetable. In some ways it’s incredibly easy to grow. Just grab a clove of the stuff you get at a supermarket or a farmers market, stick it in the ground, and see what happens. You may or may not want to peel away the papery covering first. You’ll probably want to […]
Embassytown book review
Embassytown by China Miéville My rating: 4 of 5 stars Embassytown is told as a sort of memoir of a woman who grew up in a small colony on the edge of nowhere. She lives in a small human-populated area of a city formed by aliens she (and most humans) know little about. Like many […]
Tomatoes, green beans, and basil
It’s been hot on the east coast. Like really, really hot. A week or two ago I started to see blossoms on my cherry tomato plants. Then I saw the flowers fall off leaving nothing in their wake. Blossom drop is apparently associated with a few different things, including excessive heat or overwatering. I’m pretty […]
The Long Earth
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett My rating: 4 of 5 stars The basic conceit behind The Long Earth is simple: There are parallel universes and one day human beings discover they can “step” from one to the next quite easily. But while most parallel universe stories would use this as a stepping stone to […]
Turn of the season: Out with the snow peas, in with the beans
It’s late May and the temperatures have been unseasonably warm in Philadelphia for this time of year. There’s also been a lot of rain. In the rooftop garden that’s meant the snow peas came in a little earlier this year than last, and the plants offered up a lot of peas. But over the past few […]
Garbology
America is full of junk. Like, a lot of junk. Like we generate more trash per capita than any other nation in the world… an average of 102 tons per person over the course of a lifetime. When Edward Humes started out to write a book about America’s trash legacy he thought the number was […]
Harvesting peas
It’s official. I’m not going to be buying snow peas from the farmers market again this spring. Last weekend I was a bit annoyed to notice that one of my favorite farm stands had boxes and boxes of snow peas to sell while I only had two pods growing in my garden. A few days […]