A true ghost story: The Slide Show
The McGregor Museum is a complex building with several wings surrounding an inner court yard, a multi-layered roof, balconies everywhere, and numerous trees in the court yard close in to the building....
View ArticleThe meme of honourable death
The Anglo Boer War (in what is now South Africa from October 11th, 1899 to May 31st, 1902) was a turning point in European style military history. Previously, infantry would operate in large blocks...
View ArticleFrom Fit to Fat to Fit and Back: Exercise and Weight Loss
Did you ever watch cattle? I mean, really watch them, for a few hours? Mostly they just sit or stand around munching on grass, chewing their cud, or snoozing. But every once in a while a handful of...
View ArticleSocial Justice in the Tea, Chai, Rooibos, Aardwolf … Everything is connected...
CHAI RANT!!!11!! It is time for another Chai Rant. Years ago, about the twentieth word I learned in KiSwahili was “chai” … which, if you know Kiswahili you would immediately recognize as a borrowed...
View ArticleHappy Day of Reconciliation!
Formerly known as Day of the Vow, as South African holiday, and a time of reflection on dramatic historical and cultural changes. In 1836 about 400 or so southern African farmers of European Ancestry,...
View ArticleAfrica. Some time in the early 1990s.
… Continued … I started out walking a good six feet behind her, to avoid the sand she was kicking up and the occasional thorn-lined branch that might swing back in the wake of anyone walking through...
View ArticleInto the bush
… Continued … Obsession can be a good thing. And I’m not talking about some dumb-ass perfume. Stuck in the field without a gym for three weeks was going to be tough, but I worked out two ways to stay...
View ArticleWild angry baboons on the high cliff
We three had somehow wound our way down into the canyon without experiencing any really steep slopes, but having walked for several miles in the sandy dry riverbed, Trusted Companion, Young One, and I...
View ArticleFrom Ladysmith to London: A Harrowing Escape
In late November, 1899, a British military unit which included an embedded reporter was ambushed by an Afrikaner unit in what is now Natal Province, South Africa. This was during the Anglo-Boer war,...
View ArticleUpdate Your Southern African Bird Guide Collection
When traveling and working in South Africa, I’ve always used Newman’s guide to the birds of Southern Africa, and more recently, I found the Sasol guide to be helpful as well. (I discuss both briefly...
View ArticleNelson Mandela Has Gone Home
Imagine going back in time to visit Nelson Mandela in prison and telling him this: “You will live through this and be free, you’ll lead your country and set an unattainable example of leadership,...
View ArticleHow I captured the Ghost of the McGregor Museum: A True Story
A City of Death and Misery Everything I’m about to tell you in this story is true.1 You might not want to read this story while you are alone or while sitting in the dark.2 Kimberley South Africa is...
View ArticleThe Tuluver, A New Species of Bird
People were fascinated, excited, and some were enraged, by this awareness raising campaign of BirdLife South Africa. I might have preferred this modification:
View ArticleOdd Ancient South African Human “Ancestor” Is Young
You’ve heard of Homo naledi, the strange “human ancestor” (really, a cousin) found a while back in South Africa. There were many skeletal remains in a cave, in the kind of shape you’d expect if they...
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