The Last Word On Nothing

See those little round plants? The flat ones? They’re ferns. Ferns! Did you even know ferns came like that? Not a frond in sight? Little flat discs? Well, they do! They grow in many, many wet places in Japan, often among the wee mosses and lichens, which means I’d seen them for a long time […] The post Snapshot: Funny little ferns appeared first on The Last Word On Nothing .

Hey Alexa, how long can a beaver hold its breath? I’m asking because I was kayaking last night at Totier Creek off the James River and I spotted a beaver swimming from one bank to another, his little head sticking up like a thumb and his body and paddle of a tail cutting a V […] The post Standing at the Shoreline appeared first on The Last Word On Nothing .

The Friday before spring break, the handful of students who haven’t cut out early or taken off for Eid are sharing some of their favorite new words gleaned from their independent reading: black hole, sound barrier, bookies, puppets, dime, wrist, Wyoming, information. We talk about what each of these mean, write sentences, consider what new […] The post Guest Post: Chemistry & the Students from El…

For years, we’d been trying to entice two kiwi vines to create some shade over the picnic table in the backyard. We gave them questionable water during a drought, fenced them off from predatory puppies and toddlers. As the years passed, they just looked sadder and sadder. Finally, we dug them up and put in […] The post Passion Fruit Diplomacy appeared first on The Last Word On Nothing .

Last post, I wrote about fish crows, a bird of very few words. A pair of them will be flying along and one says, “krokk;” and after a bit, the other says “krokk” and maybe adds another “krokk” or not; and that’s it, end of conversation. Fish crows are, like all crows, famously social. And […] The post Low Info appeared first on The Last Word On Nothing .

On a spring day three years ago, the river climbed out of its banks. Unseasonable heat and heavy rain had hit the snowpack high in the mountains, sending a winter’s worth of meltwater in a pulse down the tributaries, into the mainstem, and spilling across the valley floor. Work seemed unlikely under these circumstances, so […] The post Watch the grass grow appeared first on The Last Word On Nothi…

Caribou collar compilation provided by the National Park Service. Last week I traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska, for work. Though the melt had begun, plenty of snow still blanketed the ground and thick rafts of ice clotted the rivers. It had been a big winter in the area, the coldest on record, with 31 days at […] The post Migrations appeared first on The Last Word On Nothing .

This post originally ran in 2015. A commenter at the time had an intriguing suggestion for the solution, which I have added below! Investigative journalists seem awfully glamorous – delving into mysteries and catching those liars at their game. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the aptitudes involved, so I steer clear of it. But […] The post A Baffling Curio appeared first on The Last Word On No…

Like many of you, I’m guessing, I’d rather read a good book than go to a party. A room full of other people? Some of them strangers? That you have to talk to? Shudder.  But after the initial awkwardness of making sure you’re at the right location (do I knock or just walk in?), finding […] The post Messy Hospitality, Party Ideas, and Icebreakers appeared first on The Last Word On Nothing .

Look at this worm. Behold it! Is it not the most spectacular worm you have ever seen? If you’re a loyal reader of this space, you saw this exact worm a week or so ago, in my post about Japanese botanist Tomitaro Makino and some of the plants he grew up around. That was the […] The post What a spectacular worm appeared first on The Last Word On Nothing .

My family spent this spring break in Costa Rica. We went, of course, for the wildlife. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. Manuel Antonio National Park, on the Pacific coast, is one of the prime spots for seeing biodiversity. I had been there before nearly two decades ago, but friends warned me that it had changed. […] The post The tiniest frogs . . . eeee! appeared first on The Last Word On Not…

We went back to the Moon. People were just there again, going around it and then coming home. And other people will land there again soon, maybe in the next two years, assuming all goes well and as planned at the beloved, beleaguered American space agency. Four humans were at the Moon on Monday, the Moon’s day, lunes, lunedi, lundi, Montag, 星期一(Zhouyī). This timing is a coincidence. It happened o…

This week, I’m in Albuquerque celebrating Dad’s birthday, just as I did in 2021 and every year since. I didn’t know that our birthday bike ride in 2021 would be our last, but I’m grateful that it wasn’t his last birthday or our last chance to spend quality time together. What I’ve learned in the past five years is that the liminal spaces between one stage of life and another don’t have to be scar…

I’m currently on a walking trip in Japan that has turned into more of a walking-plus-bus-and-train trip. (Walking is great! Walking with all of your stuff on your back…is great for some people.) I’m on a pilgrimage that circles the island of Shikoku, visiting 88 temples along the way. Because I’m a nerd, I’ve stopped along the way by some interesting-sounding local museums. One of these, the muse…

When I’m thinking about the evolution of animal forms, as one does, mostly I’m considering animals that exist, or that previously existed, and wondering what conditions and adaptations led to their rise and persistence. Which beak shape gave that bird an advantage where seeds were like stones? Which wing length made sense for a bird that needed to soar, not hop? What combination of traits meant f…

When I was a kid, I pretended I was a bird, and I did it in front of anyone in early elementary school, winging around with my arms outstretched. Around fourth grade I started learning modesty and only soared when no one was watching. The ground, I imagined, was far away, ants the size of people, and above it I made languid turns, sensing the change of air on my outspread fingers. On the younger …

Many years ago, I wrote the following post after encountering the incredible amount of snails in our garden. In the intervening years, the snails have vanished. Now, my youngest son and I look forward to a particular patch of succulents on the walk to school that, when spring comes, turns into Snail City. It’s been dry for months, and then suddenly, this week, we came around the corner on a misty…

It’s spring, I think it’s spring, yes really, it’s spring, and I have to stop myself from writing about juiced-up kids and hormonal robins and the flourishing minor bulbs, all sproinging all over the place like little fireworks. It’s true that they’re the incarnation of spring but I’ve written and written about them and you don’t need to hear it all again. I was thinking about what else to write …

If you liked this post, I hope you’ll consider becoming a subscriber to Terra Affirma, the weeklyish newsletter where I publish my comics poems and illustrated essays in hopes of building a new home for the illustrated column of the same name that I used to write and paint for YES! Magazine. Paid subscribers help make these interdisciplinary creations possible, and receive exclusive early access …

I. One autumn evening several years ago I was driving—I should admit it, I was flying—north on New York state’s Taconic Parkway when I spotted a white tailed deer at the side of the road. It isn’t unusual to see them along the Taconic, especially in the fall, when the rut makes them a little crazy, and a lot more likely to nose into human zones like backyards, ballfields, highways. My family and …