Those who know me will recall I’ve had a long avocation of playing banjo and guitar, and I was smitten at the time by a tune I had recently learned called Beasties in the Sugar,\u00a0<\/em> so I borrowed heavily, and titled my fledgling column\u00a0Beasties on the Blossoms<\/em>.<\/p>\n Unlike this blog,\u00a0Beasties on the Blossoms<\/em>\u00a0had a real deadline, so I was honestly pretty good about getting it written on a timely basis, and kept at it from 1980 until I left Cornell for a job in industry in 1982.<\/p>\n So\u00a0Beast<\/em>ies on the Blossoms\u00a0<\/em>continued for another few years. I was also approached to write columns for\u00a0Greenhouse Manager<\/em> magazine and later for\u00a0Florists’ Review,<\/em> which was–and apparently still is–the premier publication for the floricultural industry. My association with the former was very brief, owing to artistic differences: I didn’t want my photo used with my column, Beasties Under Glass<\/em>, and they insisted, so we parted company. My column for the latter, My Favorite Pests<\/em>, had a photo at their insistence that all their columnists had photos and a signature, and they would make no exceptions. As the pay was good, and I didn’t want to turn down what was a major publication in the industry, I had a photo taken of me and one of my pets:<\/p>\n So what brings this all up? As I found a bunch of original pages and photocopies of most of my my columns, I have set about digitizing them for my family. Because, you know, Google just doesn’t find them!\u00a0 Isn’t that amazing?\u00a0 And, since I’m scanning them, I figured I might be able to use some here. After all, I had fun with them, made a (very) little bit of money, and enough people enjoyed them that I was not only encouraged to continue, but got a bunch of speaking engagements from them!<\/p>\n Herewith, my inaugural\u00a0Beasties on the Blossoms\u00a0<\/em>column (click to enlarge):<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First off, that title well describes me, but that’s not what I mean. No, I just found the columns that I wrote for publication almost 40 years ago. Back then, I was on the Cornell Entomology faculty, having responsibilities for … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zeppmusic.com\/Arthroblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Beasties_logo.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>About a year after my leaving, I was approached by the editor of Floral & Nursery Times <\/em>to see if I would be willing to write a similar column for that publication. I agreed (especially as I was to be paid this time!), and some phone calls resulted in my getting permission from Cornell and the\u00a0N.Y.S.F.I. to continue use of the\u00a0Beasties on the Blossoms <\/em>title, as well as this graphic that Cornell had designed for my use, as I hated the thought of having my picture on every column I wrote.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n