Category Archives: Uncategorized

“The projected rate of climate change based on IPCC-style gradualism outstrips the adaptive response of vertebrates by a factor of 10,000 times. Closer to Homo sapiens, mammals cannot evolve fast enough to escape the current extinction crisis. Humans are vertebrate mammals. To believe that our species can avoid extinction, even as non-human vertebrates and non-human […]

“When I had fallen asleep, I could not tell, but sometime in the hush of darkness, coyote came. His glowing eyes staring at me through the glass woke me, their silent intensity captivating. I sat up slowly, not wanting to frighten him away. He remained very still, examining me intently. We gazed at each other […]

“Because I paid for Ouzo, I claimed naming rights and, though he had no ‘papers,’ we knew he had a pedigree. Ouzo was a pure-bred dalmatian, with all the havoc such breeding (such over-breeding) entails, and so I gave him a name with some history, some weight. Because he was both sweet and strong, he […]

“I grieve to think of a world where the tiger’s tread is felt no more, where the elephant’s trumpeting is only a faint echo. The wholesale loss of wildlife doesn’t mean fewer National Geographic specials. It will further fray the slender lifeline that tethers us to our spiritual home.”—Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel  By Burt Kempner Fierce […]

“Elephants have been known to remain standing after death until the herd’s matriarch gently tips them over for waiting scavengers. When the bones are chalk white, the herd returns to conclude its rites and purge its storied memories. Unlike humans, elephants do not mummify their dead; they respectfully roll the bones under their feet and […]

Out of Santorini By Doris Athanassakis Editor’s Note: This column first appeared in the May 2014 issue of Weekly Hubris. IMEROVIGLI, Santorini, Greece—(Weekly Hubris)—February 2020— Strongyli Kittens XI Strongyli Kittens XII Strongyli Kittens XIII Strongyli Kittens XIV Strongyli Kittens XV Strongyli Kittens XVI Strongyli Kittens XVII Strongyli Kittens XVIII Strongyli Kittens XIX Strongyli Kittens XX Strongyli […]

“I knew that I would get the car back on the road. What I did not know was that,  for this good deed, I would be closely watched by an unexpected observer.”—Tim Bayer Won Over By Reality By Tim Bayer BRIGHTON New York—(Weekly Hubris)—February 2020—Though there were a number of other vehicles in the turn-out, […]

“Naturally, this entire incident was deemed supernatural, the symbolic final good-bye from Mother, despite her somewhat graceless departure. The owl story became an instant family classic, one to be recounted every Mother’s Day in a loving tribute to the old bird (the owl, not Mother).”—Ross Konikoff West Side Stories  By Ross Konikoff “Sign Language with […]

“Our masters and almost friends,/in lab coats and white Cossack smocks,/floated like ghosts across the hillside,/holding our leashes, staring blindly/at the lens./Sniffing, loafing, eager, and at ease,/everything excited us!”—By Richard St. John Speculative Friction By Claire Bateman GREENVILLE South Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—February 2020—Richard St. John is the author of Each Perfected Name (Truman State University Press, 2015), The Pure Inconstancy of […]

“I did the thing one should not do, and anthropomorphized them, but only until I understood that it was a rare human being who displayed the brand of determination, which we call ‘heart,’ common to the thoroughbred. At the age of eight, therefore, I had already decided it was much wiser to judge people as […]