When teenager Alice Mitchell met slightly younger Freda Ward at the Higbee School for Young Ladies in Memphis, nobody was surprised that they became close. In the 1890s, it was common for “proper American women” to enjoy friendships with other women that included sleepovers and deeply affectionate gestures. In Memphis, they called it “chumming,” and it was perfectly normal. But Alice and Freda took their friendship further: They fell in love.
When an animal in the wild gets hungry, there aren’t a lot of options. It’s not like they can go to the grocery store, right? No, they have to catch their supper, and while nature’s given some of them speed and claws to do that efficiently, potential meals have a few tricks on their side, too.
For any adult who’s too young to remember Loving v. Virginia (or any child who wasn’t born then), “The Case for Loving” is a very informative, eye-opening book.
Glenn Murphy doesn’t just teach in “Evolution: The Whole Life-on-Earth Story,” “Bodies: The Whole Blood-Pumping Story” and “Disgusting Science” — he entertains, too, with a back-and-forth format that seems like a conversation between author and reader.
