News and Notes from the Field

We bought our Christmas tree last weekend, and it’s been standing around in its altogether ever since, as Tech Support was out of town. But Alfie’s about to get dressed up in his best, and so we’re blasting this ... Read More  

…you have this conversation in texting: Me: How are things? Sister of the Traveling Chocolate: Sitting in the pediatrician’s office with the kidlet. Since when is Elliot a girl’s name? Me: Um. Elliot is a dragon’s name, actually. STC: ... Read More  

I live on a forested lot on the edge of a swamp wetland, and a few days back, Tech Support ran into my office in full-on muppet flail shouting, “There’s a beaver swimming up the creek!” So we put our rubber ... Read More  

There are certain types of shops that I’m not allowed to enter unsupervised. Bookstores, of course – I have absolutely no resistance to shiny new books, despite the fact that I’ve got a year’s worth of unread tomes already ... Read More  

If you’re in the Halifax area, it’s a PD day for the schools, so bring your kids! There will be snacks and a special guest dog to help me do communication demos. Should be a blast. Read More  

The Week of Mayhem is back for round 2, so for this Mad Scientist Monday, I direct you to Sci/Why, a group blog written by an amazing team of Canadian children’s science writers. There’s a really diverse range of ... Read More  

So I’ve been re-watching Friends on DVD, which is a thing I do every couple years. I went to high school and university in the 1990s, after all, and I still catch myself using Chandlerisms like “That is so ... Read More  

I’m on the 18th day of a 19th day work week, and there is very little brain left for blogging. Therefore, cute animals! Enjoy. :) Read More  

In Fox Talk, I describe experiments done on wolves and dogs and domestic foxes, to test their ability to understand human pointing gestures. Comparisons showed that dogs and foxes are better at using human body language, even without prior ... Read More  

There are a lot of contenders for world’s cutest mammal. My cats, to begin with, who not only know they are cute, but who will periodically do something cute, then glance over at me to see if I’ve noticed, ... Read More  

Thanks so much to Crystal Garrett and the Global Morning News for inviting me to talk about foxes on the show! It was a lot of fun and over so quickly I didn’t have time to get nervous, which ... Read More  

Science stuff will return for next week’s Mad Scientist Monday – today, in honour of Remembrance Day, I want to talk about my grandpa. This is him – Stan Carmichael, who served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry ... Read More  

As if Sharknado weren’t bad enough, the actual, real life sharks are headed this way. A great white was caught in the Bay of Fundy in 2011, and a white tagged in Florida was just tracked to the coast ... Read More  

INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup corn syrup dash of vanilla pinch of salt 3/4 tsp baking soda DIRECTIONS: Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar and corn syrup, stir well. ... Read More  

Are you old enough to remember when Jurassic Park first came out? I’ll never forget seeing it for the first time. It was the summer after 10th grade, and Kelsey and Julie-Ann and I (three of the four Sisters ... Read More  

If we’re lucky, we make a friend we can say anything to. A friend who’s seen us at our worst and inexplicably loves us still. A friend who knows where the bodies are buried, because she picked the spot ... Read More  

You win digital candy if you can figure out: – what I’m dressed as – why I think it’s so hilarious, when in fact it’s mostly just sad Bonus points if you can answer the second one in a ... Read More  

Domestic foxes would probably argue that in fact, they get free lunches all the time, but their cousins in the wild don’t have it so easy. Foxes in the wild not only have to find their own food, but ... Read More