08/18/2011

“It’s Just Death”

It’s August and blight is upon us.  The tomatoes have early blight, which is bad, but can be controlled by cutting away the blighted parts of the plant and not (!) composting them.  We put them in plastic bags and send them to the landfill.

Late blight is worse, usually taking out the whole plant and while it’s not as bad as it was last year, it’s around Vermont and coming closer to our yard.

Potatoes are a different story.  Late blight wiped them out.  Adrienne had to get rid of the plants and the bags they grew in.  Late blight on potatoes is scary.  One day the plants are healthy, the next they are dissolving into pools of goo.  “It’s just death,” Adrienne said.

It reminded me of June 1977, when I was in the village of Feakle in County Clare in the west of Ireland.  I was staying at a guesthouse with whitewashed walls and flagstone floors.  A small peat fire burned in the hearth in the pub to keep off the chill of a midsummer evening.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Economy | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
08/11/2011

Buy Honey Now

If you just want the bottom line, you can stop reading.  The headline said it all.  If you like honey and want to keep eating it, buy it now before the price goes up.

I attended the summer meeting of the Vermont Beekeepers Association Saturday and the main topic of conversation: no honey.  No one’s really sure why, but spring was soaking wet and the bees couldn’t fly.  The constant rain and warm temperatures melted our large snow pack all at once and Lake Champlain suffered the worst flooding in recorded history (which goes back about 180 years around here).

We all prayed for the rain to stop and it did in late June and it might be starting again now, or it might not.  We went from “’too wet to fly” to “too dry for nectar,” or at least that’s what everyone is guessing.

My bees made some honey in the spring but have been eating it themselves in recent weeks.  I thought it was a failure on my part.  (I’ve been having other bee issues this summer that I won’t go into here, other than to say there’s an adage that holds that every beekeeper will make every mistake eventually and I’ve been busy checking off boxes on the list.)
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Economy | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
08/04/2011

Drowned in a Bathtub

The heat has broken in Vermont; it’s perfect summer day.  Maybe I should be outside, instead of merely sitting near the window, but I’m supposed to be working.  I’m not working either.

I was working, but then I kept seeing the news about the stock market.  I was going to write about something else today, in fact had it half written, but it seems superficial compared to what’s happening, so I’m subjecting you to this swirl of thoughts which cannot seem to cohere.

At this point, the Dow is off 350 points in mid-day trading, which is nothing compared to the 777 point drop we had one day in 2008, but this time Italy and Spain are getting sucked down the drain in Europe.  It’s one of those days when you just want the markets to close so the bleeding can stop, except that the Asian markets open a few hours later and the whole thing continues.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Economy | Tagged , | Comments (0)
07/28/2011

Two Australians

Two Australians in England in trouble.  One’s all over the recent news, one was all over the news six months ago, now keeping a low profile.  Neither man’s issues have been resolved.

Guessing?  Rupert Murdoch, of course, and Julian Assange.  The Australians (Mr. Murdoch is now a US citizen) both left their homeland far behind to become global actors and both are in hot water for accessing information in… um, unconventional ways and then making that information public.

Is that it for similarities?  Former colleagues have accused both men of megalomania, but I’m not in a position to evaluate those claims.  Both have used their manipulation of information for political ends, no doubt about that, although each would argue that his ends differ, and are superior, to his counterpart’s.

How should we evaluate?
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By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)
07/21/2011

HD5

Last Wednesday, 13 July 2011, was HD5 or Hansen Day Five.  It marked the fifth anniversary of James Hansen’s 2006 essay in the New York Review of Books, in which he wrote: “…we have at most ten years—not ten years to decide upon action, but ten years to alter fundamentally the trajectory of global greenhouse emissions. Our previous decade of inaction has made the task more difficult, since emissions in the developing world are accelerating.” (The entire article is worth reading, or re-reading.)

Who cares what James Hansen thinks?  Aside from the unfortunate fact that Dr. Hansen looks like Homer Simpson come to life, he’s NASA’s top expert on global warming.  Sure, there are any number of people on the payroll of Charles and David Koch who will tell you Dr. Hansen is a scare monger, but when the data comes in (and it piles up, day by day, year by year), it shows Dr. Hansen’s predictions about climate change are right and the deniers are wrong.

Is it worth mentioning that I type this in a bath of my own sweat?  It’s July in Vermont, after all, the farmers are haying, the temperature’s in the 90s and the insects are droning in the trees.  Is it not true that I have been heard to say at least twice a year that if we don’t get a week of 90-degree weather, I don’t feel like we’ve had a summer and if we don’t get a few weeks of below-zero weather, I don’t feel we’ve had a winter?  True, all true.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Global Warming | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)
07/15/2011

Who Lost Venezuela?

What kind of cancer do you think Hugo Chavez has?  He mysteriously disappeared into Cuba for three weeks last month, then suddenly appeared looking drawn and haggard but announcing the success of cancer surgery.  He did not say where the cancer was.  Now he’s talking about chemo and radiation.

Using the medical license bestowed by middle age (and hard experience), my friends and I made a preliminary diagnosis of colon cancer and further agree the prognosis is not good.  “It’s a death sentence,” one said as all agreed to schedule colonoscopies.

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of Mr. Chavez’s failed military coup.  (He has been an elected president since 1998.)  It’s the 10th anniversary of a failed, US-approved coup against him.  A superstitious person might expect a major event for him in 2012.

Regardless of how I feel about someone’s politics, I wish them good health and a long life.  If nothing else, it affords one an opportunity to reflect and perhaps repent one’s less-than-charitable moments.  That written, it’s not outside the bounds of propriety to consider the fate of a post-Hugo Venezuela.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Oil | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
07/07/2011

Neighborhood Giant

Last Friday was Canada Day, which commemorates the 1867 unification of three British colonies – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and “Canada” (Quebec and Ontario) – into one kingdom, as part of the United Kingdom. Canada did not achieve full separation from the UK until 1982.

I was in Washington Friday and although I vaguely knew it was Canada Day, the fact did not fully emerge into my consciousness until I saw an extremely sweaty man in the Metro with a small Canadian flag thrust into the pocket of his suit jacket. I wished him a happy Canada Day and he nodded in what I took to be appreciation that at least one goddamned American was aware of his national holiday, but in all, he looked as if he’d much rather be in Toronto.

I have lived most of my life within 100 miles of the US-Canada border, a fact I share with a majority of Canadians. I’ve had Canadian friends all my life and I admit I tease them more than I should. (In my defense, I only tease people and nationalities I like.)

My neighbor Rob is Canadian. I conveyed belated Canada Day greetings when I saw him Saturday and couldn’t resist the jibe. “So Canada Day is like Canadian Thanksgiving, right? It falls earlier in the calendar than the American version and is a pale imitation?”
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By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , | Comments (0)