The Last Word On Nothing | I Am the Eggdog
Ben no longer writes for us but he left us this post to remember him by....
The Last Word On Nothing | One Last Sweep
This winter and late spring, when we all had mono and a variety of flus and...
The Last Word On Nothing | How I Became A Bird Spy
Don’t read too much into this, but I have become an obsessive bird spy. I blame...
The Last Word On Nothing | Snapshot: The best thing on my phone
What’s the best thing on my phone? The Merlin Bird ID app. It listens and tells...
The Last Word On Nothing | Inhale. Exhale. Hopefully, Repeat.
I was sipping my second cup of coffee the other morning when I got this call:...
The Last Word On Nothing | Under an Old Growth Sky
This coming Monday is the new moon, which means by tonight we are in the soup....
The Last Word On Nothing | Feel the Burn
When I need to get out of my head, I go to Ellwood. This stretch of...
The Last Word On Nothing | I am a hand turkey
Both text and original art by the author
The Last Word On Nothing | Garwin Died
Richard L. Garwin died this week on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. He was born April 19,...
The Last Word On Nothing | We Need to Remember Problems We Solved
I need your help. I’m trying to find a phrase to describe an important phenomenon and...
The Last Word On Nothing | Another New Person of LWON: Laura Helmuth
I am honored to introduce a new Person of LWON, Laura Helmuth, who probably doesn’t need...
The Last Word On Nothing | The Personalities of Jumping Spiders
This is Diego. He is a Phidippus johnsoni jumping spider, and he lives on a jade...
The Last Word On Nothing | New Person of LWON: Betsy Mason
It’s my pleasure to welcome Betsy Mason as the newest person of LWON. Betsy is an...
The Last Word On Nothing | Desperately Seeking the Unforseen
When I pull into the boat ramp parking lot, it’s just after midnight. It should be...
The Last Word On Nothing | The Other Side of Silence
One morning a few years ago, I woke to find I had lost most of the...
The Last Word On Nothing | Sinking Feelings
I have never fallen into quicksand, but like most people, I have been anxious about it...
The Last Word On Nothing | Ice Skating: an Overanalysis
This first ran January 3, 2019. I don’t know if Emily ever bought disability insurance or...
The Last Word On Nothing | Spring: The Season of Hope
Oh Spring! It’s a season of contrast. Winter has ended (unless you live in Colorado, as...
The Last Word On Nothing | Wait, is life just hard?
In the last two years I’ve had a number of stressful experiences. And every time I’ve...
The Last Word On Nothing | Gen-X-istential Dread
Can I just say this? Those of us born in the 1960s and ‘70s are in...
The Last Word On Nothing | Escape from the Wonder Killer
Going into nature, how long does it take till you feel like you’re there? There meaning...
The Last Word On Nothing | Guest Post: A golden rule for publicity seeking aliens
My phone buzzed just as I was finishing filming with the BBC Sky at Night crew...
The Last Word On Nothing | Brittany and the Beavers
Ben has had to leave LWON but has kindly left us these memories, these posts which...
The Last Word On Nothing | Arrivals and Departures
In a few weeks, the back fence by the elementary school with be a place where...
The Last Word On Nothing | In Praise of Minor Bulbs (Updated)
The repetition of this post, which first ran on April 5, 2021, and then again almost...
The Last Word On Nothing | The Mental Load of Packing Lunches
At first blush, the request from my son’s preschool seemed reasonable. “As spring time approaches we...
The Last Word On Nothing | Redux: Rare Birds
This post first ran in March 2022. A few days ago, a friend texted me that...
The Last Word On Nothing | Consider The Rocks, and You Might Feel Better
My preschooler is awed by many things, some of them more generally relatable than others. A...
The Last Word On Nothing | Science Poem: Farewell Transmission
What follows is a poem about the Voyager spacecraft I wrote a long time ago, when...
The Last Word On Nothing | A taxonomy of internet demons
“Whether we like it or not, there are things out there, not alive, that think about...
The Last Word On Nothing | Stop and Experience A Moment Of Wonder
I’m in my office. It is snowing lightly outside, and suddenly I hear them — a...
The Last Word On Nothing | Snapshot: Flower season
Spring seems to come every year. The apple tree in front yard has leaves. The season...
The Last Word On Nothing | Sky Squirrels
I always knew flying squirrels lived among us, probably of the southern variety, in the trees...
The Last Word On Nothing | Every Small Action Magnifies
Decades ago when I was hoping to become a scientist, I got a master’s degree dealing...
The Last Word On Nothing | A Voice in the Sandstorm
When civilizations fall into barbarism, the arising culture fetishizes strength. So it has always been. It...
The Last Word On Nothing | By the Spoonful
There is always one section in our utensil drawer that is emptier than the others. Spoons...
The Last Word On Nothing | The Fallacy of the Last Move HA!
Well this story is just a pure delight. In 2017, the Chinese said that by 2030,...
The Last Word On Nothing | Leaving / Imprints
Mom spreads maps over the dining room table. They’re oldish, not ancient, but the home I...
The Last Word On Nothing | Redux: Fear the Deer: A Comprehensive Ranking of Cinematic Roadkill
By the time you finish reading this paragraph, somewhere in America, someone — a long-haul trucker...
The Last Word On Nothing | Winter Stupid
The forecast for Friday above five thousand feet called for more than a foot of snow,...
The Last Word On Nothing | Deer Cheyenne Mountain
I write to tell you that I am always surrounded by animals. The woods are thick...
The Last Word On Nothing | Science Poem: Volvox Minuet
“The spherical alga Volvox swims by means of flagella on thousands of surface somatic cells. This...
The Last Word On Nothing | Where the Streets Have Two Names
I wrote this post in 2018, and I’m happy to still be leaving on the same...
The Last Word On Nothing | Experiencing Joy While the World Burns
Hello friends, how are you holding up? Can I give you a hug? The world is...
The Last Word On Nothing | History is Long and Things Change
I’m not actually much of a doomscroller, but my default choice when I want a moment...
The Last Word On Nothing | Guest Post: Why Ice Speaks Slowly
The first time I landed on the Siple Coast of West Antarctica, I immediately felt disoriented....
The Last Word On Nothing | Animal Love
I’ve been following a wild animal sightings page for a couple years and it started with...
The Last Word On Nothing | The Youth Singularity
This post originally appeared in 2011, when apparently I had the sensation of technology accelerating into...
The Last Word On Nothing | Something Nice and Small
Anyone else having trouble focusing? Me, too. This week, while trying to write this blog post,...
