Another good resource for unusual reads… The Conversation boasts “academic rigor, journalistic flair.” So far, I’ve read some great stories there. This one is from something called Curious Kids and is a question submitted by a 6-year old child: “How do people make paper out of trees, and why not use something else?”  I must say I find it very humbling because I certainly wasn’t asking questions like that at that age!

The answer is a thoughtful survey of writing (and drawing) and materials to write on (and paint on) beginning 73,000 years ago. It ends with speculations on the future of paper from trees.

An interesting and quick read.

I’m reading The Story of Corn right now. It’s the current selection for our book club. Right at the beginning of the book, the author, Betty Fussell, mentions the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. A quick online search will bring up thousands of videos – it seems to be a popular vacation spot for those who have Youtube channels. It is most famous for the many murals that grace both the inside and the outside of the building. And they are certainly amazing from what I’ve seen on the videos. Made out of ears of corn, the muralists have 12 colors of corn they use to create the surprisingly realistic and artistic images. But maybe best of all, is that they have a Corn Cam. Pretty boring at the moment but I imagine it must be something to watch when they’re putting up the new murals.

Dendrochronology is a way to mark time when you run out of fingers. Everyone knows that a tree puts on a new ring each year so when you cut one down, or more politically correct these days, take a core, you come to understand the wealth of information embedded in the rings of a tree. A recent article in Wildflower, the print and digital magazine of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (Austin, Texas) is the perfect place to go to learn more.