The Naming of the Shrew In the beginning was the word, and it’s a good thing, because above all else we are creatures of language. Adam’s first act was to name the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, and in so defining the things of the world he made it come […]

THE HUMAN PAGEANT Who is not fascinated with the variety of people in the world? For years I’ve collected literary celebrations of the human pageant — a bookish variation on watching people on the street. Here are a few of my favorites: Virginia Woolf, from Orlando: “At the carnival in the Royal enclosure in London: […]

SHAKESPEARE’S BIRDS The European Starling We meddle. Apparently we can’t resist. Consider Eugene Schieffelin, the amiable lunatic I mentioned yesterday who is so often accused of trying to bring all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare to America. Although there’s some question about his Shakespearean connection, there’s no doubt that he kidnapped his share of birds […]

Flocking Starlings I was driving along  I-75 north of Bay City, Michigan, in an area of open fields in the flatlands of the Saginaw Valley, when I saw what I thought was a distant swirl of black smoke. I looked more closely and realized that it was a single flock of thousands or maybe tens […]

How I got this far, so far…and Hooke’s Micrographia A toast to plenty! To variety and diversity! To the astonishing multiplicity of things in the universe! To Cornucopia, our ancient symbol of abundance and all our dreams of wealth! To relief at last from the tyrannies of want and hunger and… what? Our eventual annihilation? […]