The Uneasy Past of the Veiled Prophet Organization
St. Louis’s Veiled Prophet Organization (VPO), with its historic roots in both Irish poetry and the Civil War Confederacy, is a case study in how past contexts inform present-day understanding.
Essays
Life With Rodents
I had been surprised days earlier when I found gray fur on one of the traps, from a now partially bald mouse who had a story to tell his many buddies, but here was something worse: not an uncaught rodent, but a half-caught rodent.
Lords of the Flies
Insects may be the perfect villains, but there are inherent problems with casting insects as the bad guys with whom heroes must do battle.
Animal House
Shuffling through the vaccination and microchip records, reading the myriad names, I sometimes smile with nostalgic fondness, but more often my eyes mist as I am reminded of the multitudes we have loved but lost.
Turtles All the Way Down
In a number of ancient traditions, the world is believed to rest on the back of a giant turtle, which leads to the epistemological question of what might be supporting that turtle.
Archtypes: Hook-Ups
"The Dogs' Office"
How Animals Teach Us to be Human
In some sense, animals may possess a more instinctive humanity than we do. The world is our classroom, and all its inhabitants are our teachers.
Minding Nemo
Our alienation from fishes stems from the fact that they have existed, both literally and figuratively, beneath the surface of our awareness. Gaze over a lake, a river, or an ocean, and while there may be legions of fishes carrying on with their lives within inches of the surface, we witness nothing of it.
Some Interesting Tales About Animals in the Human World
An incomplete listicle of how we think about animals.
Bulldogs, Gridirons, and Saturday Afternoons
Mascots in sports–especially animal mascots–create a vision that fans imagine as reality until it becomes tradition. A mascot is a stand-in for how we see ourselves, if only for three or four hours on a Saturday.