Image credit: “Another "Neighbor” by Usonian is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 There's a Korean folktale about a young frog who never listens to his mother, always doing the opposite of what he's told. Then his mother falls ill and before she dies, knowing her son, she asks him to bury her by the river … Continue reading Welcome to Contrary Frog
Scam alert!!!
I received the following text at 8:46am on a Saturday morning. I’ve gotten similar ones every few weeks for a while. The number was from outside the U.S. Illinois Official Notice | Enforcement Warning Notice Document Number: IL-DMV-2026-0322 Your traffic fine is overdue under Section 19C-19.173 of the Illinois Administrative Enforcement Code. Statutory enforcement proceedings … Continue reading Scam alert!!!
Hamnet, or the art of letting go
[Warning: spoilers ahead!] My husband and I finally watched Hamnet, the film adaptation of the novel of the same name, and one of the last of the Oscar-nominated movies on our watchlist. I’d read the book a couple of years ago, so I felt prepared for the tragedy at the center of the story; but … Continue reading Hamnet, or the art of letting go
The power of protest
I can’t get enough of the images of the Minnesota anti-ICE general strike that took place yesterday. Tens of thousands of ordinary people gathering in subfreezing temperatures to protest lawless state violence against citizens and noncitizens alike. The murder of Renee Good may have been the catalyzing event, but this was weeks in the making. … Continue reading The power of protest
Some books I read this year
Recently, I decided to try to read more and doom scroll less, to squeeze in an extra book in between the monthly selections for my book club, without which I would read far fewer books. I have many unread and half read books on my shelf, titles listed on my Notes app or marked “want … Continue reading Some books I read this year
Some movies I watched over Thanksgiving break
It was a truly leisurely break. No travel, no guests, just the four of us sleeping in, eating good food, socializing a little bit. The weather turned cold, which further encouraged my indoor cat tendencies. I made good progress on my always growing pile of New Yorkers, read articles online, ate many snacks, went to … Continue reading Some movies I watched over Thanksgiving break
The exhortations of Andor
[warning: some spoilers ahead] After my family and I finished watching Season 2 of Andor, the Star Wars series about the years leading up to the Battle of Yavin as featured in the prequel movie Rogue One, I rewatched Season 1 on my own over a series of days while folding laundry. Even though I … Continue reading The exhortations of Andor
AI for effort
I don’t really want to read another article about how generative AI is changing everything. But I do read many of them out of a sense of obligation. Working in higher education, overseeing several academic programs, I feel I would not be doing my job if I wasn’t at least familiarizing myself with the discourse … Continue reading AI for effort
goodbye, friend
At first the words confused me. I had glanced at my phone as we were waiting to pay and leave the restaurant, and wondered why my friend Dave was posting about himself in the third person until the meaning of the words sank in: “great sadness,” “passing of my brother…” “Oh, no” I blurted out. … Continue reading goodbye, friend
I will always miss L.A.
After college, I spent most of the ‘90s in California, eight years in Southern California, five of them in Los Angeles. I’ve only been back a handful of times in the past 25 years since my husband and I left to come back east for jobs in 2000. The photographs and videos of the wild … Continue reading I will always miss L.A.
The language of birds and comparative death studies
What does the natural world care about elections and other human activities that feel so consequential to us? Two recent New Yorker articles about animals captivated me; they hit on similar themes that, each in their own way, remind us that we are not as special as we like to think. In “Pecking Order: Language … Continue reading The language of birds and comparative death studies
Contrary Frog 