Trees are more than just trees. Take, for example, a single mature oak tree. If you take a close look, you will find that it is a million different things. Throughout its lifetime, one oak can do a whole heck of a lot. It supports hundreds of different species of insects, birds, mammals, fungi, lichens,

Here is something good. Every atom in your body has been on an incredible journey. You see, we are made of stuff from the Universe. The iron in our blood was forged in the heart of a massive star billions of years before the Sun existed. The calcium in our bones and the oxygen we

Most of us have heard this by now.Bananas are technically berries.Strawberries are not berries. But whenever I read this little fact, I have to think: How can this possibly make sense? Well. It is a science thing. It all comes down to how botanists classify fruit. Before we go any further, I wanted to know

Let’s face it. We were pretty darn dumb when we were born.  It took us a while to get the hang of things.  It is true. Every human being who has ever lived has been born knowing almost nothing.Zip. Zero. Nadda. That is the fact. We arrive in the world without understanding language, history, mathematics,

The Shame By Linda Stowe I don’t remember the first time I felt shame, but I remember the feeling clearly. As a child, it probably came when I was caught in a lie or doing something I knew was wrong. As a student, I felt shame as a white person when I read about slavery

Here are three things about my life. Parrots. Bowlers. Giraffes.  One. My name is Polly, as most of you know. The title of the blog gives that away every day. Anyway, there are a lot of phrases around the name. And also associations. One of the most common is Polly the Parrot. Polly want a

I absolutely abhor violence. We see it every day in our country, in some form or another. But. There is nothing new about crime in America. Most recently, another terrible school shooting in Oregon. When will it stop?  Not ever. I don’t suppose.  But it has been happening for a long time now.In the early

Did you hear about the guy who invented Lifesavers? He made a mint. LOL.  He made a mint. While that is funny, it is only half-true. The guy really did make a mint candy.But he didn’t make a mint in cash. Here is how it went. The Life Savers candy was invented in 1912 by