A friend of mine died unexpectedly earlier this week and I find I have run out of words. So I’m just going to post pictures of…

What’s The Nine-Year-Old reading this week?

Our mostly-weekly survey of the tidbits that cross The Nine-Year-Old’s desk. This week, The Nine-Year-Old spends some time painting and exploring grassy meadows with Oliver, the tuxedo cat and his kangaroo buddy Jumpy.

“Why did Jeeves describe an orange tabby as a ‘lemon-colored animal?'”

Did you know that orange tabby cats are ranked according to the color of their coats? The darker the shade, the theory goes, the better bred the cat. Is your cat a marmalade or a lemon?

A Random Act of Poetry, by e.e. cummings

I’m still buried in a forest of tax documents — I’ve reached the “Where is that one last form I need?” phase. Sadly, that one last…

What’s The (now) Nine-Year-Old reading this week?

Our mostly-weekly survey of the tidbits that cross The (now) Nine-Year-Old’s desk (Happy birthday, The Nine-Year-Old!). This week, The Nine-Year-Old picks her favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder story, reviews the entire history of Snoopy’s wars with the Red Baron, and takes steps to counter Bunnicula’s plans for the coming Vampire Bunny/Zombie Vegetable Apocalypse.

“How does a salamander catch a dragonfly?”

When my four-year-old daughter learned that land-based salamanders eat dragonflies (among other things), her mind had a question: “Mommyo, how do salamanders catch dragonflies?”