Things We Learned Today

And you thought your family station wagon logged a lot of miles. Arctic terns fly 44,000 miles every year—that’s three trips to the moon and back over one tern’s lifetime...

As far as relationship studies go, it’s an oldie but goodie: the 2008 study that found “handsome men make bad husbands”... 
 

It’s like Cuba but with modern cars and no Castro. It’s the place Andy Warhol came to escape. And it’s where a strange monster once washed up on shore. We’re talking about Montauk...

Consider this a gardening intervention. Our friend Andrew was wondering how to repot his jade plant and considered heading out to Prospect Park to collect some “dirt.” We steered him clear of this idea because we didn’t want to have to bail him out of jail...

Maybe he dumped you. Maybe you dumped him. Maybe you’re not exactly sure why it all went down the way it did. But there may be something of a scientific reason for why things don’t work out...

Urban birding may at first sound like an oxymoronic endeavor, but, as we discovered, cities are welcoming hosts to a variety of bird populations—thankfully, more than just pigeons and sparrows...

When you hear the word "urban," you hardly expect it to be paired with "garden." Urban landscapes typically invoke images of cold, barren wastelands of glass and steel, and vacant lots filled with trash and weeds, right? Not necessarily...

 
We've all seen it. It happens with friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances... Those people who seem to live and relive the same relationship, over and over again...

Every now and then a really great—or even halfway decent—birding article appears in the mainstream press. There was one back in the 1990s about a man who went birding with his father that was so interesting it wasn’t until the end that you realized you were even reading a story about birdwatching...

When it comes to growing herbs indoors, we have good news and bad news. First, the good news: Starting an indoor herb garden is easy if you're in an apartment with good southern or western exposure, which allows for about five hours of daylight to help herbs grow. And, the bad news...

Note to those with relationships on shaky ground: you might be able to predict when your beau might pull the plug—or beat him to it. Such foresight is now thanks to Facebook...

Yes, the bees. Specifically, urban bees. And even more specifically, kept urban bees. Like Moon Boots, swing dancing and Uggs before it, urban beekeeping has become something of a thing...

We always thought “hydroponics” was just a euphemism for “growing pot.” Apparently, it’s not—not always, anyway. It just turns out there’s no better way for urban gardeners to grow vegetables at home...

We have good news for your last one-night stand. According to a recent University of Iowa study, relationships that start as hook-ups aren’t necessarily doomed...

There was no resisting this headline from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Research shows female cardinals are being deceived by urban males.” Aside from sounding startlingly like the New York bar scene, this is a very real phenomenon in the bird world...

A friend with a foliage-rich studio space once told us her trick to looking like she knew how to take care of plants: when one plant dies, buy another. While a brilliant and most likely universal strategy of denial, it made us reminisce on plants we’ve lost... 

It looks like we need to start making a break-up kit for young men. Apparently, when it comes to rocky relationships and break-ups, young men actually suffer more than their female counterparts...

The inside flap of Simon Barnes’ book How to Be a (Bad) Birdwatcher says it all: “Look out the window. See a bird. Enjoy it. Congratulations! You are now a bad birdwatcher.” Although we prefer “lazy” to “bad,” we endorse the sentiment...

Like Steven Seagal in the classic-ish 1990 movie, here are ten hard-to-kill plants for sun and shade. From million bells to bush violets to begonias, when it comes to flowers and fire escapes, there will be no more killing...

From epic classics to easy online bits, here are our picks for the best post-break-up beach reads...

Now that we’ve made a crack about some aspects of birds being creepy, we want to redeem ourselves with a gushing blog entry about one of the cuddliest-looking flyers—the kookaburra...

Here’s where urban gardening gets tricky. Not only do we urban gardeners need to plant according to level of shade versus sun as well as amount of space, but we also need to plant according to zone... 

You’ve had a break-up. Maybe several. The term “old maid” is beginning to run through your head. Nonsense, we say. Here, we take some derogatory euphemisms for aging single women down a notch...

Would it be sacrilegious of us to say that a lot of birds are sort of, well, creepy-looking? Sometimes they just look a little too bird-like. And let’s just remind you of the classic Hitchcock film The Birds...

We “borrowed” this gardening advice from an About.com story called "10 Common Container Gardening Mistakes," and then we edited it for urban import. Now, please borrow it from us...