Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Art Culture Politics

  • The Wagner Free Institute

    There are so many life forms here on Earth that it is impossible to comprehend the sheer variety and diversity of them all. Sure, there are Internet projects attempting to catalog all the planet’s species, perhaps a Sisyphean task, but for any one individual, it is all surely far too much. Mind-boggling; a good word,…

    mthew

  • Forever

    A taxidermy representation of a Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis), a species hunted to extinction by the mid-19th century. This was the largest Alcid, up to a three feet tall and weighing some 11 lbs. They were flightless but excellent swimmers in the cold, fish rich waters of the north. The bird’s scientific name was later…

    mthew

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  • Road Killers

    Surely the most frightening thing on the roads tonight will be the automobiles, especially the single occupancy vehicles which clog the life-blood of the city like a diseased vampire. The number of traffic deaths in NYC up to the end of 9/13 was 203, while the number of homicides was 242 (the NYPD rarely considers…

    mthew

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  • Dioramas

    Or costume ideas. These live at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, in Philadelphia.

    mthew

  • Acorn

    This time of year, I enjoy the satisfying “PA-TUNK” of acorns hitting the metal drums of car roofs. This bronze finial, noted on the Block of Perpetual Renovation, would probably dent the roof…. Its twin on the other side of the stoop is missing.

    mthew

  • Petition to Restore Science at the BBG

    A petition has been launched by Chris Kruessling, the Flatbush Gardener, addressing the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in an effort to restore the science and research mission at that institution. If you care about science, botany, Brooklyn, transparency, and a venerable institution gone astray, please sign. Background: Chris has been reporting…

    mthew

  • Rusty Owl

    mthew

  • Cast Bees

    Bees for Sunset Park, by Christopher Russell, fabricated at the Modern Art Foundry. Two formal, that is, unused, gates at the 9th Avenue D station.

    mthew

  • Chemical Warfare

    After the First World War, when chemical weapons were used for the first time on a large scale, humans by and large decided such things were an abomination. But, as is our way, we finessed moral revulsion and never actually stopped manufacturing them, or using them (Zyclon-B, Agent Orange, sarin, etc.). Yet, considering the opportunities…

    mthew

  • Whose Botanic Garden?

    The NY State Legislature reserved 39 acres for a botanical garden in Brooklyn in 1897, on land that had originally been part of the proposed site of Prospect Park. The triangle northwest of Flatbush Avenue became instead Institute Park, home to the Brooklyn Museum, Mount Prospect Park, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden…

    mthew

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