Laura Helmuth

@laurahelmuth

Freelance writer, editor, columnist & consultant. Formerly at Scientific American, Washington Post, National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian & Science. Past president of National Association of Science Writers. Birder.

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Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

Finally, a tower of award-winning pickles and preserves.

A backlit tower of jars of pickles, jams, jellies , relishes & other preserves.

Closeup of jarred pickles and preserves.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

Corn dogs!

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

It includes Black and Indigenous state fairs

Quilts from 4-h and mannequins wearing ceremonial state fair dresses from Native fairs.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

And a cow made of butter!

A life size cow in a glass cooler, made of butter over a frame.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

A dress made of butter cartons.

Dress made of cardboard squares from butter cartons.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

The quilts are amazing.

Quilt depicting the high and low temperatures for every day of a year.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

It’s woke AF.

Picture of a state fair pavilion celebrating trans love & joy

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

It has celebrities’ portraits made out of grasses and seeds.

Seed portraits of Dolly Parton, Prince, Willie Nelson & more

Seed portraits of Lucille Ball, Elvis, Johnny Carson

Seed portraits of Nixon , Obama, Lin-Manuel & more

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

Friends, if you are in the DC area this summer, I urge you to visit the Renwick’s exhibit on state fairs. americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/...

A neon sign from a state fair that says “HOWDY FOLKS”

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 20d

Who should lead the investigation: the kerning police or the apostrophe police?

A yard sign for a property rental company called Noahs. The name is spelled in a slanting font with too much space between the N, O, and A, and the apostrophe is after the S.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· 28d

Is the reason for having a garden to share stuff with friends, or is the reason for having friends to share stuff from the garden? I wish I could give you pocket friends some tomatoes.

Three large bowls on a table overflowing with tomatoes

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Jun 19

Olympic National Park’s newspaper is called the “Bugler” and that’s perfect. (There are elk in the park and elks bugle.)

The Olympic NP newspaper, which has a photo of the Olympic mountain range with tall evergreens in the foreground.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Jun 18

If you get lost in a forest, just look at the trees because moss grows on the north side oh hell…

Moss covered trees in Olympic national park on all sides of the trees

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Jun 5

Mr. McGregor in the Peter Rabbit books is the most misunderstood character in English literature.

Photo of a well-camouflaged baby rabbit next to a head of lettuce in my garden, the little monster.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· May 27

I've been using the No AI version of DuckDuckGo and am impressed with the results. It seems to favor reliable sites and has a clean interface: noai.duckduckgo.com

Screen shot of DuckDuckGo's "NO AI" search homepage, with orange type and cheerful duck in a green bow tie.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· May 21

I love @merriam-webster.com, but they've started adding automated examples of words in sentences and it's not going well.

Screenshot of part of Merriam-Webster's definition of "chowder" showing how it's supposedly used as a verb in the following sentences:
"Most people want to know how Baker manages to eat without ending up with marinara sauce or clam chowder all over his face."
"It's creamy, really close to clam chowder without the clams."

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· May 17

I’m testing out backpacking gear ahead of a trip this summer & the irregular Therm-a-rest I bought at a steep discount at an REI co-op in 1991 still holds air.

The edge of an orange blow-up camping mattress showing the classic Therm-a-rest slogan, an “irregular” stamp & “Laura” written in sharpie.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· May 8

I finally figured out what these Mar-a-Lago faces remind me of. It's marionettes. They look like marionettes. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Lauren Sánchez Bezos wearing a diamond necklace and a strapless black dress. Her mouth looks elongated and her cheeks more prominent than when she was younger. Like a marionette.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· May 7

Does anybody have favorite mushroom recipes?

A large colander overflowing with fresh-picked winecap mushrooms, with a mug for scale.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· May 4

Every tourist town in West Virginia has a gift shop, cafe, or bar called Almost Heaven.

A sign in Harpers Ferry for the Almost Heaven Pub & Grill

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Apr 24

Spent the night at a lock house on the C&O Canal. Highly recommend!

A white-washed brick building with green shutters in a forest along the Potomac River

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Apr 22

If you're still using Facebook (no shame, people have Reasons), turn off all the automatically enabled AI titles and summaries they just rolled out.

Screen shot of a "settings" page in Facebook showing that it now automatically allows AI-generated titles unless you turn that option off. The text is: "Allow AI-generated titles on your posts. Titles are generated by AI from Meta to make your posts easier to discover on search engines. Not all posts will have AI-generated titles, and posts in public groups may still show them. Learn more about AI-generated titles"

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Apr 14

Those of you in the DC area who work during the week and get to parks only on the weekends have probably never witnessed such a miracle. This is the observation platform on the Maryland side of Great Falls on a beautiful spring day, and it is EMPTY.

Photo of an empty wooden platform built around a rock outcrop overlooking the Potomac River. During the weekends, it is elbow-to-elbow with people.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Apr 10

I get a kick out of how often North American publishers illustrate an article or book with a European robin when the relevant bird is an American robin (1/n)

Book cover of The Correspondent, by Virginia Evan’s, showing two European robins

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Apr 6

I’m not sure if this is the best product for clarifying pond water, but it is definitely the best named.

Photo of a container of pellets that reduce algae and sludge in backyard ponds. It’s called “Muck Off”

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Mar 30

I don’t see an American Woodcock sitting on a nest. Do you see an American Woodcock sitting on a nest?

A very well camouflaged American Woodcock sitting on a nest, looking like a pile of leaves.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Mar 30

The lost & found box at a donut shop near a playground and elementary school is full of little hats & coats & mittens

A plastic bin labeled Lost & Found full of little-kid coats and winter gear.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Mar 22

"Our data show that declines in institutional autonomy are widespread among (former) democracies, and the decline in institutional autonomy in the United States stands out as a case of fast and steep deterioration that warrants comparative analysis." (1/2) academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

Graph from a V-Dem report on academic freedom showing a stark decline in academic freedom in the United States and similar trajectories for Hungary, India, and Türkiye

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Feb 23

If you want to keep your toast from getting soggy on the bottom, balance it on skewers or chopsticks.

A plate with chopsticks across it, with several pieces of toast balanced on top.

Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth· Jan 25

Drive safely if you gotta. This is a screenshot of Google Maps traffic view at 7:30 on a Sunday.