Perhaps it's my natural pessimism, but it seems that an awfully large part of travel these days is to see things while you still can.

I come Des Moines. Somebody had to.

There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again.

English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin, a language with which it has precious little in common.

Consider the Lichen. Lichens are just about the hardiest visible organisms on Earth, but the least ambitious.

Most of what has lived on Earth has left behind no record at all.

When I awoke it was daylight. The inside of my tent was coated in a curious flaky rime, which I realized after a moment was all of my nighttime snores, condensed and frozen and pasted to the fabric, as if into a scrapbook of respiratory memories.