Marketing Unplugged: Pot Pourri, Volume 2 Toothpicks I was surprised that the grocery store offered such a variety of toothpicks. I was experimenting with tater tots as a provocative appetizer at my grazing cocktail party, one of those affairs where if you stay focused and deliberate you can cobble together a decent dinner. The idea…
Read MoreI sit in the leather chair, feet outstretched on the ottoman, pillow on my stomach, book resting on top of that. I have a very limited view of myself, basically my hands and the outline of my feet inside a pair of socks. This is a welcome change from Zoom calls where the time spent…
Read More1. Egyptian Cotton Bed, Bath and Beyond wants me to believe that sheets made of “Egyptian Cotton” are the epitome of luxury and that my bed partner and I are worth the price bump. They tell me that Egyptian cotton is synonymous with “comfort, opulence and sophistication, the perfect indulgence for snuggling up, getting comfy and letting…
Read More1. Redefine Pairs Currently the International Skating Union (ISU) states that pairs and ice dancing partners must consist of a “lady” and a man, though it does not define these genders further. Why not open it up to two humans of any description? The logical place to start is ice dancing, which has its origins…
Read MoreI recently took a walk alongside a herd of big-horned sheep in the Rio Grande valley north of Santa Fe, where I couldn’t help but notice tiny fecal pellets scattered all along the trail. How could such an enormous animal produce such diminutive scat, so different from the messy pies of their ungulate cousins, horses…
Read MoreThe Nature of the Mundane. Part 2. Fruit Flies It took me decades to make the connection between the annoying insects hovering above the fruit basket and Drosophila melanogaster, the inspiration behind six Nobel prizes over the past 100 years. They are one and the same. I first heard about Drosophila in the context of…
Read MoreJohn was pleased that the woman sat next to him on the commuter train, even though it was the only open seat. She could have stood in the vestibule, he thought. The next day there was a vacant seat. She wasn’t forced to sit next to him, but she did. John trembled, his pulse quickened,…
Read MoreI stand in the empty living room, staring at the piano. The gathering cold of autumn seeps into the unheated farmhouse, the temperature penetrating and raw. After my parents died, first my mother, then my father, I have sold both their suburban home and now this weekend getaway. I had asked Phil, the caretaker who…
Read More(Artwork by Maria McNitt – www.mariamcnitt.com) The blue-winged warbler struggles as I extract him from the fine netting stretched across the underbrush. Our instructor Caleb assures us that this will only be a tiny interruption in his migration, and the information gleaned from our bird banding will contribute to stewardship efforts. I immobilize the bird between…
Read MoreT I stand on a wobbly stool in the pathology laboratory and aim an eyedropper full of cells at a glass slide on the counter below. The first two drops miss. The third hits the slide, splitting open the cells and scattering twenty-three pairs of chromosomes. I stain them with dye to produce the characteristic…
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