biography - Louche Leaves

A Portrait of Uncommon Beauty

Beauty need not announce itself to be profound

Image of a page with the illustration of a plant stem with leaves and berries.

In the Pursuit of Privet

Russians saying hello in my backyard, the curious link between cilantro haters and privet, and the intrepid Elizabeth Blackwell.

A photograph of the tall stump of a tree in a suburban backyard.

The Shady History of Our Family Tree: Our Norway Maple

Connecting George Washington, Jung, Micro-bursts, Fungal Tar Spots, Slavery, and Germanic Folklore

A portrait photo of an older woman in a long dark dress sitting at a table.

Maria do Espirito Santo Ferreira Rezendes (1895–1963)

An Azorean Life Remembered

Emalyn Smith Burney: An Endling

can’t go on. I’ll go on. — Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air Emalyn first came to my attention in a sensational newspaper article from the Berlin News Records, April 26, 1913 (now Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada): He Died Again but Shock Killed his Grandmother Butte, California, April 26, 1913

A photograph of the end of a roll of paper towels.

When AI is Wrong: An Absorbing History of Paper Towels

There are a few things I would like to cover in this essay: * How alarmingly wrong AI can be * The actual history of the paper towel * Perhaps an unsung and hitherto unknown heroine in the story * Paper towels in the United States vs the rest of the world * Environmental impact