One of the ubiquitous sights seen by anyone walking alongside the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest town of Astoria are the many vertical wooden pilings (also sometimes called dolphins) rising from the water from a few to a few dozen meters distant from the riverbank. These are the remains of long-decayed piers that once […]
Much like scents, flavors can have remarkable powers over our minds. Even a small taste of just the right flavor can, as Proust so eloquently described – at length – in his À la recherche du temps perdu, unlock a veritable treasure chest of memories. For myself, it’s the flavors from my childhood that seem […]
Just what would you do for a pet fish? Would you pay $100 for one? $1000? $10,000? Would you lie? Cheat? Steal? Would you kidnap another person? Would you kill for one? While this may seem hyperbolic, when it comes to the Asian Arowana, the subject of Emily Voigt’s The Dragon Behind the Glass; A […]
Unless you’re a scuba diver or have access to a diving bell, the only in-the-wild view you’re likely to get of the world’s oceans is from above their respective surfaces. Consequently, views of the free living creatures in those oceans will also only be from above the surface of the waters. So when it comes […]