The question started with a hazy memory, of being a kid in Providence, no older than age 11, and a small section of the city with a funny name: Shoo Fly. This reader remembered being a young man and ...

Above: A harmless hover fly feeding on sweaty skin. These flies appear in mid- to late-summer. The 1860s song of this title has retained some popularity through the years. Who has not been annoyed by ...

The best known Mississippi Coast’s shoo-fly was built at a wealthy New Orleans cotton businessman’s summer home on Biloxi’s East Beach in the 1800s and destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969. The tree ...