Prose

Fathers Dayisode 2021: "I Saw a Turtle" by Henry I. Magee

20 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Fathers Day! Come celebrate fathers and father figures everywhere with a children's story from my own father. Let's go witness the kindness of s...

Episode 133: "Donner"

13 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, try to make it over a mountain pass with a famous pioneer family. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Support via...

Episode 132: "Hexbag for a Douchebag"

30 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, practice what most would call witchcraft on your ex's new partner. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Support vi...

Episode 131: "Dead Dick Eye" and "Collecting"

16 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, get saucy with some dead men and find out where all those wishes you placed on stars ended up. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe...

Mothers' Dayisode 2021: "To My Mother" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Rock Me to Sleep" by Elizabeth Akers Allen

09 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Mother's Day 2021!  In this short special, we'll have a reading of "To My Mother" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Rock Me to Sleep" by Elizabeth Akers ...

Episode 130: "Justice Turned Mercie", "Dart of Harkness", and "Pulling Strings"

02 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, protect a merciful sword, take another look at Heart of Darkness, and see the strings of Fate. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe...

Episode 129: "They Took My Life" and "Es Vedrà"

18 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, some freeloading fair folk take a life and we encounter a very real mythical island. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Googl...

Episode 128: "Memory Lane" by Elizabeth Peterson, "Easter Loves History: St. Ambrose and the Assyrian Empire," and the Resurrection according to the Gospel of Luke

04 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, dance with your beloved down memory lane, see what a saint has to do with the Assyrians, and read along with the resurrection story accordi...

Episode 127: ""Unrepentant Church of the Almighty Pound" and "On the Way to Yoga"

21 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, worship materialism and have a woman change your life on the subway. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Support ...

St. Patrick's Dayisode 2021: Lorica of St. Patrick

17 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This St. Patrick's Day, we'll read through the Lorica of St. Patrick, a wonderful prayer that marries the pagan with the Christian in something rather...

Episode 126: "The Menagerie" and "A Merrier Colony"

07 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, look again at the world, this time without childlike wonder, and work to stamp out happy colonists. Two quick show notes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY t...

Episode 125: "Living in the Firmament" and "In the Season of Sticks"

21 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, live with your head in the clouds and beware the sticks reaching out from the dark. *** Artists Supporting Artists Partner:Caitlin V. Photo...

"Bring 'Em Back X-20" Rerelease: Artists Supporting Artists Edition with Megan Tresca

19 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I am rereleasing our sci-fi-tastic short story "Bring 'Em Back X-20" in celebration of the newest member of the Artists Supporting Artists family - Me...

Valentine's Dayisode 2021: "Bring 'em Back X20"

14 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This Valentine's, let's rejoin a neuro-cast sponsored by the Galactic Magistery that is already in progress. For all those interested in bringing back...

Episode 124: "A Love Note to Mayari" and "Clean Dirt"

07 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, fall in love with the moon and worship some dirt. *** Artists Supporting Artists Partner: Caitlin V. Photography is, put simply, the purvey...

Artists Supporting Artists: Caitlin V. Photography

30 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

REMINDER Artists Supporting Artists Partner:Caitlin V. Photography is, put simply, the purveyor of the best boudoir and branding photography in New Yo...

Episode 123: "Esther from the Heavens" and "Bringing Honor"

24 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, our stories both follow a theme of honor and love.  We will encounter an angel come to talk the Earth and experience an orchid turn into a...

Episode 122: "The Bronzen Serpentess" and "The Golden Way"

10 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, meet the snake goddess you already worship and find a religion that work.      One major note I want to toss out is that this is actua...

New Year's Eveisode 2020- Auld Lang Syne

01 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Join Prose in our annual reading of "Auld Lang Syne," ringing in the new year together.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Pla...

Episode 121: "Palimpsest, The Damned" and "Snow Falling"

27 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, die all your life and think on the snows of winter. Though most content coming from Prose is not suited for young ones or those that are ea...

Christmas Dayisode 2020 Volume II: Thumbnail History on The Christmas Pickle

25 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the second volume of the Christmas Day special! What's all this talk about lobbing pickles into pine trees? Did the Germans really start al...

Christmas Dayisode 2020 Volume I: Thumbnail History on Twelfth Night

25 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the Christmas Day special! What are those Twelve Days of Christmas about?  Ever consider having a drunken rager to top off your Christmas ...

Christmas Eveisode 2020 Volume 2: The Christmas Story according to Luke

24 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome once again to my own family's Christmas Eve Tradition that I post every year for Prose - a reading of the Christmas story from the New Testam...

Christmas Eveisode 2020 Volume 1: "Guðrún and the Darkness"

24 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For this first Christmas Eve special, let's revisit the darker side of the yuletide. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Sup...

Episode 120: "The Cursed Word" and "A Vignette while Out and About"

13 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, get cursed for life at a Starbucks and experience humanity.          Though most content coming from Prose is not suited for young ...

Episode 119: "12/23/07" and "The Man Who Lost the Music"

29 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, simply ask why and look further into why the silence came down to blanket the house at the end of the lane. *** Subscribe via Apple Podca...

Thanksgivingisode 2020: "Thanksgiving Day" by Lydia Maria Child and "The Thanksgivings" by Harriet Maxwell Converse

26 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This Thanksgiving, enjoy two poems in the spirit of thanks - one that many mistake for a Christmas piece, one that is a translation from a traditional...

Episode 118: "The Worst Line" and "The Chaddick"

15 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, get stuck in a line for eternity and meet a terrifyingly crafty being.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Su...

UPDATE: Patron Thank You AND Fan Favorite

08 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Because I publish so far into the future, let's take the time to revisit a classic Prose tale and let me thank a new Patreon Patron! *** Subscribe...

Episode 117: "Ants of Fire: The Legend of Telo", Parts I-III

01 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we will revisit a world of intrigue and violence and discovery and wonder, fighting our way to a new world alongside some very brave ants. ...

Halloweenisode 2020 - "Guðrún and the Darkness"

31 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This Halloween, recall your sins too late on Christmas Eve…and experience the horror born of recollection. Note: Apologies for all mispronunciations...

UPDATE - Prose Official Website News!

31 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We have rebuilt it. We have the technology. We have made it better, than it was. Better, stronger, faster...and with MERCH! Go check out the improved ...

Episode 116: "Pay to Play"

18 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, spend every waking moment obsessing over time, money, and work. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Support via P...

Episode 115: "20:30" and "Weaponization"

04 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, confront an ugly man trying to deal in beauty and give into baser desires, letting go of morals and principles.             Thou...

Episode 114: "Majestic Plural" and "Oberammergau"

20 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, investigate the royal we and visit a German village spared by God from the plague for the price of a play.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podca...

Episode 113: "Losing You Again"

06 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, say goodbye to your most beloved a second time.            *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Support ...

Episode 112: "Apple Thief Charlie" and "Autumnrunner"

23 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, steal some apples and inadvertently change the world and bid farewell to summer while remembering the importance of memory.   *** Subscrib...

Episode 111: "Folie à Deux ou Plus" and "The Lord is My Light"

09 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, re-estimate the power of shared delusion and take a second look at King David's murder of Uriah the Hittite. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcas...

Episode 110: "The Afflicted" and "The Queen of California"

26 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, open your eyes to the other side of superhero-inducing catastrophes and meet a Shanghainese prostitute who becomes a Queen.           ...

Episode 109: "Just Another" and "The Inescapable"

12 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, engage with a different type of vampire and set out on a road trip that slouches toward eternity.      *** Though I'm rather late in doi...

Episode 108: "The Summer Sovereign and the Winter Wight" and "Ethel Elaine Endelle Ericson"

28 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, meet two of the four women who reign over the seasons and ease an old woman's passing. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Goo...

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech

20 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hello, Prose listeners. Because I record as much as a month in advance, I've not been able to comment on the calls for justice going on in the US righ...

Episode 107: "The 25th Hour" and "The Aged Mother" by Matsuo Basho

13 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, indulge in an extra hour every day when the rest of the world stops and experience the love of a son for his mother in 17th century Japan. ...

Episode 106: "You Can't Fear What You Don't Know" by Claire Parker and "The Blood Circle"

31 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, brave a monster's cave to find purpose and feel the loss of purpose and self while being hunted in the streets of a grand city.  Both stor...

Episode 105: "Two Ships Passing" and "Hercules"

17 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, see how the multiverse is keeping two soulmates apart and celebrate a love that will never be realized.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts...

Episode 104: "Birthdays and the Wind" by Jessica Yates and "Geodetic North"

03 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, a trip to the Holy Land defines a young woman and try again to find the truest of truth norths.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subsc...

Bedtime Stories Series: "The Wedding of Mrs. Fox"

01 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Come along for two versions with two very different endings for Mrs. Fox.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Support via...

Episode 103: "The First" and "Charlie Played His Oboe" by Henry Iverson Magee

19 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, meet a temporary savior of a doomed people and re-experience the importance of the oboe.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe vi...

Easter Part II 2020 - Luke's Telling of the Resurrection

12 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this second part of the Easter special from Prose, we have a reading from the King James Version of the Gospel of Luke telling of the Resurrection ...

Easterisode 2020: "Lady Jesus: Beyond the Magdalene"

12 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This Easter, join a young woman as she seeks to become something more Christlike.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Supp...

Bedtime Stories Series: "Jorinda and Jorindel"

10 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Come along for an adventure with a loving couple, a witch, and a great many beautiful birds.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Googl...

Bedtime Stories Series: "The Frog Prince"

05 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Come along for an adventure with a princess and her golden bauble.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Support via Patreon...

Episode 102: "Without Sleep" and "Sing Your Heart Out"

05 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, long for the walkers of dreams and have a taste of positivity and kindness in the music industry.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subs...

Episode 101: "Farewell to Home" and "All This? And, for What?"

22 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, experience Notre-Dame through a millennia old resident and make a mediocre deal with the devil.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscr...

Episode 100: "Lakshmi" and "Tomorrow Explained"

07 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, meet a goddess while waiting in for coffee and tune in for a hit podcast that forecasts the future.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Su...

Episode 99: "Notes from Woolverton Mountain Reunion, May 8, 2011" and "Summus Optimium"

23 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, go find the truth about a devil of a man protecting his pretty daughters on an Arkansas mountain and experience a world where super powers ...

Episode 98: "Riding Along" and "Yuki-Onna" by Lafcadio Hearn

09 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, seek out connection under ground and meet a foreboding woman in white in a classic Japanese ghost tale.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcast...

Episode 97: "Anywhere but Here" and Philip K. Dick's "The Eyes Have It"

26 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, confront exile from the South and bravely face down an alien invasion. *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. Suppor...

Episode 96: "The City's Graveyard" by Mina Grover and "Let All the Skies Cry for Her" by Olivia Bezerra

12 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, watch someone meet a ghost in the worst of places at the best of times and meet a cursed girl that has a blessing.   *** Subscribe via App...

New Year's Eveisode 2019

31 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Come say farewell to 2019 and hello to 2020 with the help of five masterful poems on the subject of how best to do so.    *** Subscribe via Apple Po...

The Final Episode of 2019

30 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, let's take another look at a misadventure in South America and experience a messy breakup once again.  Here's to 2019, friends!   *** S...

Christmas Eveisode 2019 Volume 2 - The Christmas Story according to Luke

24 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to my own family's Christmas Eve Tradition that I post ever year for Prose - a reading of the Christmas story from the New Testament gospel o...

Christmas Eveisode 2019 Volume 1 - "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ('Twas the Night Before Christmas)

24 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Join in on a man's delight when he encounter Santa Clause in this classic poem by Clement Clarke Moore.  Take joy in "A Visit from St. Nicholas", mor...

Episode 95: "The Statement of Randolph Carter" by HP Lovecraft and "Lebiri Meus Volume II"

15 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, explore an ancient swamp full of putrid secrets and go back to that future man's journal once again to see how we humans just never change....

Episode 94: "Lebiri Meus Volume I" and "An Exhalation of Angels" by Elizabeth Peterson

01 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, peek in on a future man's look into the boredom and intimacies of the past and experience the defeat of shadow and an ascent into Heaven. *...

Thanksgivingisode 2019: "Who Carried the Turkey" and "Blessings"

27 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating!  In this special, we will encounter a great man doing a simple act of kindness and count our blessings.  *...

Ep. 93 "The Sleepy Dragon" by Elizabeth Peterson and "The Trav'ler" by Brandon Nolan

17 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, empathize with (and sing about) a rather exhausted dragon and get a lesson in how even the broken can be pieced back together.  *** Subscr...

Ep. 92: "Across the Universe" and "Play It Again"

03 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, send a voicemail to another reality and experience the same memory twice over, thanks to the joys of time travel. *** Subscribe via Apple P...

Halloweenisode 2019

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This horrific holiday, look into the darkness and meet yourself...if you dare! *** Happy All Hallow's Eve to you all! For the holiday, we're revisit...

Episode 91: "The Kingdom" and "Dagon" by HP Lovecraft

20 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, defend a kingdom of the dead in the high places of the world and try your best not to see a...a thing, particularly "when the moon is gi...

Episode 90: "Silence" and Jessica Yates's "Leaving"

06 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week delve into two sides of a similar experience, seeking to understand the horrific power of silence and feeling the overwhelming gravity of le...

Episode 89: "The C Train" and "Noise"

22 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, ride public transportation with a vampire and all throughout life, whatever you do, don't be silent.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. ...

Episode 88: "Red Saint" by Brandon Nolan

08 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, meet an assassin in a brothel and revel in her scars.                                                          ...

Episode 87: "Mus" and "The Lights of Vegas"

25 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, become a hardened exterminator and bask in the vampiric glow of the lights of Las Vegas.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe vi...

Episode 86: "Under My Skin" and "The Brownie Children"

11 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, scratch an insatiable itch and muse on the importance of brownies to your survival.    *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via G...

Episode 85: Re-experiencing Darkness with "Take a Break" and "Lovely, Dark, and Deep"

28 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week,  at the request of some erstwhile listeners, look back into the darkness via two of the most downloaded stories in Prose's catalog. *** S...

Episode 84: "Madame Moonbeam" and Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

14 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, watch a young woman embrace her wan and luminous super powers and enjoy a bit of a formal hello to Prose's new home base with one Mr. Wal...

Episode 83: "Camera Shudders" by Shelby Arnold

30 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, shudder and celebrate at the ins and outs of a woman's life lived, often through a lens.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via...

Episode 82: "It Started With" and Nicolas Shump's "Utopia and the Search for Place"

16 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, tear your body apart to become something greater and embark on a search for Utopia.    *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via...

Episode 81: "And Then, It Started to Rain" and Claire Parker's "It is Good to Be Different, but Not Extremely Different"

02 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, a bluesman is really down on his luck in Tupelo, Mississippi and intercept a communiqué from a zealous underling of the Chief Evangelist. ...

Episode 80: "Don't Let Her Cry" and Jessica Yates's "Plants"

19 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, lay hands on two tornadoes and discover the power of plants in the South.   *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Subscribe via Google Play. ...

Episode 79: "What a Fool Believes" and "The Mattress" by Jeff Glauser

05 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we are fortunate to have two quasi-adapted scripts/screenplays from a previous guest author Jeff Glauser.  Through that medium, get on boa...

Easterisode 2019: Easter Loves History - What's in a Name?

19 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hello and welcome to the Prose Easter Special 2019!  This year, we launch back into my Thumbnail History series with this Easter's  special: "Easter...

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! Come check it out!!!

08 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Alright, supporters of Prose, the day is here. I hope that you'll all consider supporting the show via Patreon. In doing so, you help it continue eve...

Episode 78: "Lady Firehair" and "A Letter to NASA, or Dreams Deferred"

07 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, observe a goddess of love bless a tortured half-dragon and witness a dream fall from the stars.     *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. Su...

Episode 77: "How Green the Grass" and "New Traditions"

24 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, use ancient techniques to breach the new science of the multiverse and discover what happens when old traditions give way to new.   *** Su...

St. Patrick's Dayisode 2019: Éirinn go Brách!

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A very happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! (Well, it's a couple days early, but I'm betting many of you are getting some early celebrating in this wee...

Episode 76: "Falling into Bed" and "You're Going to Get It Wrong" by Claire Parker

10 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, have two stories that share the theme of love, sort of – so prepare yourself to seduce a couple and steel yourself against surviving a li...

Episode 75: "Getting Ahead" and "The Food"

24 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we return to our roots in flash fiction with a reevaluation of success and a chef's plight in Limbo.  *** Subscribe via Apple Podcasts. S...

Valentine's Dayisode 2019

14 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the Prose Valentine's Day special 2019. For this holiday, we'll be diverting from Prose's, well, prose and tackling seven, count 'em, SEVEN...

Episode 74: "The Forgetting" and "The Language of the Lesser"

10 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, both stories have a shared theme of memory.  So,let's all ponder what it means to remember and what it costs to forget, shall we? *** Subs...

Prose - Update and Re-release of "The Cypriot Empress and Her Empire"

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Just a quick belated update from Prose, along with a rerelease of an early short story based on #history -- "The Cypriot Empress and Her Empire."  ...

Episode 73: "The Stark Brick Wall," "Embraced by the Universe," and "The Fall of Eden"

13 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, see an artist come to life, dance into deification, and look to hope for the future in a burned out husk of a world. *** Subscribe via Appl...

New Years Eveisode 2018

01 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Come say goodbye to 2018 with Prose's rendition of "Auld Lang Syne."   *** Subscribe via iTunes. Subscribe via Google Play. Subscribe via Stitcher....

Episode 72: "South America" and "Dead on Arrival" by James Harrington

30 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week, go on a South American adventure down in Argentina and find out what happens to a grumpy old church-going woman after death. *** Subscribe ...

Christmas Dayisode 2018- Thumbnail History: Twelfth Night

25 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the Christmas Day special! What are those Twelve Days of Christmas about?  Ever consider having a drunken rager to top off your Christmas ...

Chistmas Eveisode 2018 - The Christmas Story according to Luke

24 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to my own family's Christmas Eve Tradition that I post ever year for Prose - a reading of the Christmas story from the New Testament gospel o...

Episode 71: "The Whimper" and "Charred"

16 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week, come visit the post-apocalypse world and let's take another foray into the world of Ash and Bone with Rowan pen Warren to see his side of t...

Episode 70: "Before the Fall" and "The Lovers Come to Town: A Tale of Πέρσης and Ἀστερία"

02 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week, let's take another foray into the world of Ash and Bone with Mynah and see what happens when a Greek city does not pay tribute to a titan o...

Thanksgivingisode 2018: "The Food" and "The World is Burning"

22 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating!  For this special, see what the food is like in Limbo and think on the thanks some might have for the Earth ...