News of an old trickster with a few new tricks

At a time when most of the natural world is on the run, it's always intriguing to read about those characters who seem to figure out how to live just fine in the land of cars and cable TV. So it's nice to see a long article in the Washington Post about coyotes infiltrating the posh suburbs, and how the homeowners respond. In Native American lore, the smaller cousin of the wolf 's cunning is only matched by his foolishness. Wile E. Coyote is a perfect example: He builds these ingenious contraptions, yet he's unable to catch the road runner. But in the Post article, you get the idea that maybe society is the coyote here, building all these ingenious ways to stop a simple animal, and failing every time.