Simone Butler's Blog, page 5

There’s no place so identified with car culture as California.  Once the fourth-largest crude oil producer in the U.S., my home state’s abundant fossil fuels and balmy weather helped birth a culture of iconic cars, highways, drive-in theaters and restaurants.…

Martha Graham’s provocative dance, Errand into the Maze

In the mid-1940s, legendary dance choreographer Martha Graham was on a flight to Iran that got caught in a brutal snowstorm. As the plane was tossed about, everyone onboard went into a panic – terrified that they were going to die.  …

“Relax” is my word for 2024. At first I was annoyed when I drew this rune from a bag. What do you mean, relax? That’s all I’ve been doing in 2023!…

When Time Magazine asked Taylor Swift to pose for the cover as their Person of the Year, her response was, “Can I bring my cat?”

That’s how Swift and Benjamin Button (one of her three cats), ended up on the Dec.…

When legendary photographer Sebastião Salgado took over family land in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, instead of the tropical paradise that he remembered as a child, he found a barren landscape devoid of wildlife.…

Last weekend, as the Sun ganged up with combustible Mars in Scorpio, the second SpaceX Starship test flight took place in Texas. Unlike that of its predecessor in April, this iteration’s liftoff was perfect.…

Mary Moody Emerson was an original. The eccentric aunt of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she had a great influence on the man often considered to be the greatest thinker of his time.…

A few years back, I built an altar for Dia de Los Muertos to honor my parents. We have no Aztec or Spanish blood in our lineage, but I’ve always loved the tradition.…

An inspirational tale for the “ring of fire” solar eclipse! Composite image by April Elliott Kent.

One cold day in 1936 a stray tabby cat crept inside St. Augustine’s Cathedral in London, seeking food and warmth.…

On a sweltering May afternoon in 2015, D’Arcy Downs-Vollbracht heard an unearthly scream. She ran out of her Bullhead City, AZ ranch house and saw three neighboring dogs viciously attacking her pet goats.…