In which Thor continues his skull-collecting and rotting misadventures. Like typical philosopher/scientists of the 19th century, Thor and I have a curio cabinet full of specimens, travel mementos, and stories. Thor continues from last week: Plan B. It became apparent that boiling skulls in the kitchen and storing body parts in the sink was not […]
In which Thor explains his educational skull collection and his rot box Like typical philosopher/scientists of the 19th century, Thor and I have a curio cabinet full of specimens, travel mementos, and stories. Take it away, Thor: We have several skulls in our curio cabinet and bigger skulls strewn about the house, from local and
This was not a post I wanted to write. (Picture from here.) The post World War II United States—and to a large extent the world—was built on science. Not just science, mind you. The US was the Big Boss after the war as the only powerful country that wasn’t in one way or another gutted
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In which Thor finishes his tale of leading a geology field trip in remote Mexico to the amazing giant-crystal mine of Naica and the village of Mapimi, on the track of selenite and adamite crystals. (Yes, that is an actual photo, with a man standing on a giant selenite crystal in the Naica cave.) Like
The Rambling Writer: Sara and Thor’s Cabinet of Curiosities, episode 2b Read More »
In which Thor takes another turn to explore our cabinet of curiosities, this time selenite and adamite crystals gleaned on a geology adventure in remote Mexico. Thor is taking up the slack as I recover from the latest round of cancer treatments (my hero!), so here we go on one of his adventures years before we
The Rambling Writer: Sara and Thor’s Cabinet of Curiosities, episode 2a Read More »
In which Thor takes a turn to explain our cabinet of curiosities, starting with the basics: Salt. Like typical philosopher/scientists of the 19th century, we have a curio cabinet. It is filled with natural wonders, physical mementos of our travels, and weird junk we find lying around. Whenever I find a cat whisker on the rug, I put it
The Rambling Writer: Sara and Thor’s Cabinet of Curiosities, episode 1 Read More »
For some reason I decided I had to have a story where my sleuthing couple are at a cricket match and the batter gets “beaned” by the ball. Only it’s not a ball, it’s a meteorite. (The result is Meeting at the Cricket Pitch, a Regency novella.) No prob! Of course, I know nothing about
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Let’s see if I can do this without depressing myself. (Picture from here.) Neanderthals have been prominent in my fiction since the very beginning. In fact, one of my first stories, A Capella, involved Neanderthal and human interaction at the very late end of Neanderthal occupation of Europe. This came from a lecture by a
Cheese Ends, 2026-05-04 Read More »
I’m constantly researching medical history these days. No, I’m not heading for med school. I’m just writing a series of romantic mysteries set in the Regency era (early 19th C). One of the main characters is Dr. Holt, a former ship’s surgeon, a current consulting physician, and now a forensic detective. He and Lady Danford
Body Snatchers and Resurrectionists: A 19th C Necessary Evil? Read More »
I haven’t been doing these for a bit because the news is so depressing. I mean, I tried. I must have gone over sixty or seventy articles. One after another, they ranged from this is interesting technology that can have a profound effect on cancer treatment—oh, yeah. It’s been cut by NIH under direction from
Cheese Ends 2026-04-06 Read More »
Join Thor and me as we enjoy these charming introductions to some fascinating creatures. Naturalist and host of famous nature documentaries, David Attenborough is adorable and adored as a champion of protecting our fragile natural world. His warmth and delight in the animals he presents make him feel like everybody’s favorite storytelling uncle. Happy almost-100th birthday,
The Rambling Writer Review: David Attenborough’s “Natural Curiosities” Read More »
First Published: 7/16/2009 Hi, my name is Phyl and I am a diabetic. Hi, Phyl. No, Diabetes is not alcoholism. But some people treat diabetics with similar prejudices. “It’s your fault. You ate too much sugar as a child.” Sure I have a sweet tooth, but I rarely go overboard and always compensate with fewer
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The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich, came out in 1968. It predicted world famines due to uncontrolled population growth. Ehrlich took from several sources, but most of them were fundamentally based on Malthusianism, which came, unsurprisingly, from Thomas Malthus. Malthus noticed that the increasing farming production was linear because it was predicated on increasing the area
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