It’s hot in Vermont. It’s been in the 90s and humid for weeks. This is great for cherries and plums, grapes and apples. My neighbor’s been making cherry jam for days (add a hot stove to the equation) and she’s had to prop up the boughs of her plum tree, so heavy [...]
“Well, you know what they say about paybacks….” That’s not the kind of payback I have in mind, the payback that line refers to is more appropriately called revenge and is a dish best served cold.
I’ve been thinking about other paybacks this week. Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have [...]
You may have seen the headlines about riots in Lebanon in recent days. They can be easy to gloss over. We’re used to riots in the Middle East.
These riots, however are not about Hezbollah or Israel - they’re about electricity. Five people died protesting that their power was cut off.
Surely, if Lebanon [...]
Last week, I noted a December story from the New York Times regarding the shrinking global supply of food. That story was buried in section C.
Today’s Times carries a more prominent piece on the global shortage of food oil, palm oil particularly. Like the earlier piece, this story highlights the competition between the [...]
I should have known and checked on Saturday. The Bush administration, top to bottom, releases bad news on Friday. This rule even applies to fairly obscure agencies like the Energy Information Administration, which updated its world oil supply and demand numbers Friday.
The news is bad once again. (To see the numbers, click [...]
The Watershed
Come gather ‘round people wherever you roam
As we prepare to bury the life we have known
And accept that from now there’ll be no going home
Your money’s no longer worth saving
The meat is all gone, we’re left nothing but bones
For the times, they are a changin’
Apologies to Bob Dylan, but my mind has been rewriting the [...]