Anthony Comstock

“Zombie” Anthony Comstock Walks Among US (Again)

There are Friday news dumps, and then there are days like April 7, 2023, when, in less than an hour, two contradictory US District Court decisions on the use of...
Cordyceps militaris

“There’s Gold in Them Thar Fungi”: Cordyceps as Cash Crop

HBO’s series The Last of Us may have been the first time many viewers encountered the nightmare-inducing fungus of the genus Cordyceps. Or perhaps it was in that spectacular sequence...
Lyndon B. Johnson addresses the Nation March 31, 1968

Lyndon B. Johnson’s Decision Speech: Annotated

Fifty-five years ago today, on March 31, 1968, US President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the country for almost forty-one minutes during Sunday prime time, in an era when there were...
American Army Entering the City of Mexico, Filippo Constaggini, 1885

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Annotated

On February 2, 1848, representatives of the governments of the United States and Mexico met in the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo to sign a treaty that would end Mexican-American War,...
An orangutan attacks a woman and pulls her hair in an illustration for the murder scene in Edgar Allan Poe's short story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' early 1840s. A victim lies on the floor, and a witness watches through a window.

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe: Annotated

Edgar Allan Poe, born on January 19, 1809, was a remarkably versatile writer who ventured across many fields of interest. His prolific output encompassed poetry, short stories, literary criticism, and...
Illustration of two house sparrows

Words for Birds

...evidence of existence. Puffins Seen Using Tools, Breaking Dumb-Puffin Stereotypes Liz Tracey February 2, 2020 Reputed to be a less intelligent bird species, puffins have been observed scratching themselves with...
A street dog in Varanasi city, India

Our Most Popular Stories of 2022

...have wondered if it was backed by scientific research. Beware the Ides of March. (But Why?) Liz Tracey March 15, 2022 Everybody remembers that the Ides of March was the...
Close-up Vintage Wooden Hourglass on Wooden Background, Sand running through the bulbs for measuring the passing time

Editors’ Picks of 2022

...about this clavier, and what’s a “clavier,” anyway? Harvey Milk’s Gay Freedom Day Speech: Annotated Liz Tracey June 13, 2022 Five months before his assassination in 1978, Harvey Milk called...
A Hundred Years Peace: The Signature of the Treaty of Ghent (Belgium), 1814

The Treaty of Ghent: Annotated

On December 24, 1814, representatives of the United States and the British Empire met to sign the Treaty of Ghent that, once ratified, would end another war between them. The...
Mothers' Crusade for Victory over Communism

Moral Panics: A Syllabus

...(The Briggs Initiative): Annotated Liz Tracey October 28, 2022 Proposition 6, better known as the Briggs Initiative, was the first attempt to restrict the rights of lesbian and gay Americans...