address this!

I've picked up packages addressed to me at the wrong address more than once.

Once, my dad sent a package to my neighbors; same house number, wrong street. Funny how we figured that out. The contents of the package were gifts from his international travels. It was also a gift to meet new neighbors when I recovered the goods.

Tonight's journey is from a smaller world. I creaked open my red metal mail box today wondering when I'd get that package from Switzerland. It had been almost a month since Corrine had emailed letting me know she was sending photos from our time together in the Galapagos. Still, it wasn't there.

Instead, a curious email came just an hour later to my work email with the subject: Package from Switzerland. I recognized Dan's name, but couldn't place his face. Small world that he works for the same school district I do. We exchanged a few emails, mainly him directing me down the street a few blocks to connect tonight.

I arrived at an unmarked door and knocked. When the gentleman came to the door I asked for Dan. Sure enough, this was Dan, but despite his warm smile, hand shake and familiarity, I immediately felt that I had something wrong. "I'm the lawyer Dan; the teacher Dan is next door. But yes, we've skiied together on the street during those snow days," lawyer Dan reminded me and as his young daughter came running to the door I totally remembered! I briefly explained my mission, bid him good night, and went next door.

I knocked. Dan opened the door and handed me my package, saying, "It does look like it is addressed to me." "Perhaps, but if you were in Switzerland, that sure looks like a 9," I replied noting the 9 that started our zip code. "How did you find me?"

Dan told me he immediately recognized my name from the Green Team list serve in the district. Then he asked if I had taken kids to Japan a few years ago. I nodded. "We met in the back of the plane when I was coming home from Tibet."

I run by his house regularly. Once, when walking over a year ago with Jenn, we talked with him and picked up a set of rugs he was giving away.

It's a small small world.

More geeky Darwin delectables

In my preparation for my journey to the Galapagos I did quite a bit of reading. I read about Henry Walter Bates.

Naturally, I was delighted to find him, and Darwin, in the most recent Tuesday's Science times. I think you'll enjoy this article too.

a little white envelope

My mother clipped NYTimes articles. She clipped them and sent them off to friends and relatives. Once my sister bought her a special coupon cutting tool to use on the coupon-free NYTimes.

I received hundreds of white envelopes stuffed with articles she'd discover. The envelopes were stuffed with articles and surprisingly nothing else. No note. No letter. No sticky note, or ink marks at the top of the headlined paper. I rarely knew why she chose to send me this article over hundreds of others that week.

I craved to know why. It appears that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania also want to know why people send articles to each other.

So, in the spirit of my mother, I "forward" this article to you.

"And if you want to share that feeling with anyone, you know what to do next."

Galapagos: Fearless

Olivia Judson may be one of my favorite science writers.
Here she talks about my recent destination.
My photos of the "imps of darkness" and the "antediluvian" tortoises coming soon.

Avitar: Biology and the Amazon

I recently visited the Cofan village of Zabalo in the heart of the Ecuadorian jungle. I was visiting Hugo Lucitante, a former Evergreen school student of mine, who has returned from Seattle to his people.

Just days after I returned from Ecuador, I saw the jungle again on the screen, in 3-D! James Cameron's Avitar was stunning. This article describes some of my awe for the movie.

I was was curious about the connections to indigenous cultures, like the one I'd just visited. This movie shows some of their feelings about the film.