It’s Done
The issue is out.
A few hours ago The Naturalist’s Notebook was humming with visitors and activity, according to a phone call from our colleague Virginia. Wish I could have been there, but I’m still immersed in the London Summer Olympics. If you’re passing a newsstand, check out the preview issue we finished this week (above). Or, if you have an iPad, look at the SI preview issue on that. Or download our free Sports Illustrated Live From London app, which will constantly update throughout the Games. Such is life at a magazine these days…putting out just a magazine isn’t enough anymore.
I’ll be sending in reports from London soon—not just Olympics news but, I hope, some nature and science too. And you’ll soon be reading my lengthy Q-and-A interviews with two prominent figures who’ll be visiting the Notebook on August 21: biologist, naturalist and writer Bernd Heinrich and one of the greatest American runners in history, three-time Olympian and 1992 medalist (and devoted naturalist) Lynn Jennings.
Meanwhile, Back at the Notebook…
Our exceptional team of young, smart, creative collaborators has been keeping the exploratorium/shop rolling along in my and Pamelia’s absence. Our Tuesday and Thursday morning children’s and family art workshops with Elisa Hurley are off to a great start.
Pamelia asked artist Carolyn Heasly, who hand-makes the greatest wool animals, to create a rhinoceros. We call this one Max, in memory of the rhinoceros highlighted by Mark Carwardine and Stephen Fry in Last Chance to See (background photo).
This is a bit of digression, but when we met the aforementioned Mark Carwardine, one of Britain’s best-known naturalists, last fall in England, I happened to see this nearby on the side of a panel truck.
The Notebook’s new button-making operation is a big hit. Come in and try creating your own statement about nature, science, art…or who you think named Mount Desert Island.
Silk painting on the deck at today’s workshop.
Did you know that Winston Churchill loved to paint, and was quite good at it? While in New York I visited artist Margaret Krug, who showed me a copy of this book, which she’d just received as a gift from a friend.
Here’s the former prime minister at work.
Also while still in New York, I saw that Grizzly Bear would be performing at Radio City, across the street from my office. My favorite name of the week, even if its origin has nothing to do with bears. A founding member of the Brooklyn-based indie rock group chose that moniker because it was an ex-boyfriend’s nickname.
Bushed? I have to admit, the Olympic work-a-thon has worn me down a bit, but not as much as today’s walk seemed to bush Bashi, the puppy who’s living with us (but is Eli and Virginia’s). Being only a few months old, of course, Bashi bounced back in a matter of minutes. She’s become Notebook regular, so come by and visit her too.
Answer to the Last Puzzler
Here was the question:
Which of these is NOT considered a possible root of the name dogwood?
a) the Celtic word dag, meaning a pointed tool made of a hard wood, which dogwood is
b) the bathing of dogs in water in which dogwood bark had been boiled—a treatment for mange
c) the use of the tree’s wood in making docks (dock was slurred to dog) in the British Isles
The answer is…c. Bashi and I vote for answer b (rather than answer a) as the true explanation for the name dogwood.
