E.O. Wilson, an 80-year-old Harvard biologist, has just published his first novel, called "Anthill." One section of the work tells, in great detail, of the triumphs, the conflicts, and the downfalls of four separate ant colonies in Alabama. The other parts of the book are more autobiographical, and tell the story of a man who gives up a successful career in law to protect the particular plot of land where he learned, as a boy, to love nature -- the plot of land on which the four ant colonies are based.

Here's an excerpt from "Anthill," recently published in The New Yorker.

And here's the Globe and Mail review.

We are sitting here listening to Darren Dreger ask if Canadians should be worried that both Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo were both pulled in their most recent NHL games. Meanwhile, professional misanthrope Christopher Hitchens has an interesting take on this whole Olympics thing. Initial reaction: get a grip, Hitch! Sure, sports are not a cure-all for the ills of the world, and athletes can be unpleasant jerks, if not downright slimy (including, sometimes, Canadians). But you could make similar claims about, say, free speech: it often leads to conflict and suffering, and  people who exercise their right of free speech to the fullest often reveal themselves to be cruel, ignorant or both. (There are lots of people we'd like to see contract lockjaw.) But that's a poor argument for scorning the practice as a whole.

I can understand part of Hitchens's point, though. All the headlines about skiing, skating and sledding obscure other important stories. There is, for example, a new development in the war in Afghanistan -- involving Canadians, of course.

And finally, something totally unrelated: this, friends, is what an imaginative, top-notch piece of short fiction looks like.