The other day I walked out of my room to find a miniature ruckus happening upon the wall just outside of my door. I first heard a buzzing noise and looked around to find a small fly trapped in a spider’s web. I paused to watch the fly in its struggle, and eventually a small, grey-brown spider trickled down its web to meet its catch of the hour. Across from this spider web was yet another different-looking spider, waiting patiently for a fly as well. And then just further down, a third even larger spider web hung from the corner below the ceiling. Each web with a number of flies preserved in the corner for later consumption.
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Being currently between school and work, I’ve had a lot of time to do two things I like: travel and play stupid phone games. One game I’ve been playing with friends is a military strategy game (similar to Risk), which has put me in a decidedly tactical mood. And recently, while traveling, this mood has caused me to return to Dan Carlin’s history podcast: Hardcore History Carlin subscribes to a “great people and great moments” view of history, that, while not necessarily coinciding with my own, certainly makes for entertaining listening.
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Over the course of this last week, I spent a lot of time driving. I helped a friend move from Chicago to Eugene, Oregon, and we drove his car through Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho—stopping to camp and climb rocks along the way. Although we tried to take as many scenic routes as we could, we still managed the whole trip in under a week, spending many of our days barreling down asphalt-paved roads at break-neck speeds in a Nissan Juke.
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From our human perspective, orcas get off easy. We behold their majesty as graceful creatures of the sea and reinforce their position in the animal kingdom as organisms of great intelligence, seated comfortably atop the food chain, worthy of our respect and awe. Indeed, these attributions are appropriate, but I think we would hold different opinions if we shared the ocean with these “killer whales”. Perhaps if we were a herd of seal, or a pod of dolphin, maybe even a fearsome school of sharks… If someone mentioned an orca in conversation the first thing on our minds would be: “Screw orcas, man. Those guys are jerks.” Allow me to explain.
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Now that summer is fully underway in North America, you can be sure to find garage sales (or “yard sales,” as some Americans call them) in your neighborhood on most Friday and Saturday mornings. From their initial popularization in the ‘60s, their rise to cultural ubiquity in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and up until today, garage sales have shown themselves to be fruitful objects of study for anthropologists and ethnographers interested in the social interactions and relationships formed between American neighbors.
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I’ve been a lifelong–yet mostly casual–fan of motorsports. From NASCAR to off-terrain rally racing, from MotoGP on two-wheels to drag racing on the strip…Anything with a big engine and any number of wheels has always made me want to go outside and drive, fly, run as fast as I can and test the limits of my surroundings. When I was a little kid, I’d mostly watch these events for the spectacle. The engines were loud, dust flew through the air, sometimes there would be a crash, and still, the drivers remained stoic as they soared around the track or blasted forward with incredible speed. Recently, I’ve become interested in the more technical and physical aspects of a particular style of road racing, Formula One.
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