Why was Darwin so obsessed with pigeons?
Did you know that Darwin was an avid breeder of fancy pigeons? No really. Breeding fancy pigeons was a thing respectable people did in the 1850s. But why pigeons, and not, say dogs?
“So, Mommyo, what are you going to do about Caterpickles, now that I’m in middle school?”
Years ago, when I started this blog, neither my daughter nor her friends read on their own. They were never online, which gave me considerable freedom when it came to posting funny stuff my daughter said. But now that my daughter is 11, the potential fallout from telling funny stories from her day is much greater. What’s a curious mommy blogger to do?
Look what I learned to do this fall!
This fall I’ve been volunteering in my daughter’s middle school library. Mostly the job involves shelving books kids have already read and helping kids find the books they’d like to read next. But a few weeks ago, I was promoted to Apprentice Book Repair Person. My first mission? Make Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins readable again.
50 States of Public Art: San Francisco buses power Ned Kahn’s Bus Jet Fountain
It’s election season and that means that I’ve been hearing a lot of press about all the things that are going wrong in Northern California. So it was a pleasant change to see this story in the New York Times yesterday about artist Ned Kahn’s plan to use San Francisco’s public transit system to create an interactive piece of public art.
50 States of Public Art: Chicago’s quest to become America’s street art capital
Having a Picasso in downtown is so 1967. For its next trick, #Chicago is looking to become America’s street art capital.
“Do fish have tongues?”
When @kristadb1 tweeted that she was going to take a suitcase full of cod tongues home with her from Newfoundland, I had some trouble wrapping my mind around the concept. Cod tongues? Surely that was a secret code word for steak. Fish don’t have tongues. Do they?
So I sat down today to do a bit of blogging for the first time in almost a month…
And then this happened. Man, it’s hard to type this way. But to bring you up quickly to date… blogging has been light in part because…
“Snow White was filmed in 1937? Did they even have TVs back then?”
One of the wonderful things about having both Netflix and a child is that you get to introduce her to all of your favorite childhood movies in the comfort of your own living room. This week’s movie was the 1937 edition of Snow White, and as usual, my daughter had questions about it. “This Snow White was filmed in 1937? Did they even have TVs back then?”
50 States of Public Art: ArtsCheyenne’s monthly Artwalk through downtown Cheyenne, Wyoming
Public art is everywhere, and this is the season for getting out and viewing it. This week I’ve been reading Michael Crichton’s Dragon Teeth. The book is partially set in 1876 Wyoming — the Wild West at the height of the golden age of fossil hunting. So naturally, I was curious to see what the public art scene looked like in Cheyenne, Wyoming today.
Wait? What happened to my Caterpickles?
You may have noticed that Caterpickles looks a little different today. After seven years of using the same WordPress theme, I decided it was time to…
CATERPICKLES 