From Washington
Forgive me a few moments of happiness at the news from Washington. The one bit of uniting not dividing to come out of the White House in six years…Karl Rove is resigning.
One of the few good quotes I’ve seen about the resignation of Karl Rove…
“Buh-bye, Karl Rove. On your way out of the White House, don’t let the screen door hit you where the dog should have bit you.” – Eugene Robinson
From the same column we get this…
“I’ll be on the road behind you here in a little bit,” Bush said to Rove as the two men faced reporters yesterday.
I am assuming that George Bush just has a different sense of time than I do. ‘Cause a year and a half is still a long time to me. But, if he is offering a little hope…His and Chaney’s resignations would be gratefully accepted. Though, I imagine a Presidential pardon for the two of them might be a while in coming.
Eugene Robinson – Goodbye, ‘Boy Genius’ – washingtonpost.com
I won’t bore you with Robert Novak’s thoughts on Rove’s Legacy or Grover Norquist’s thoughts about the “Architect”. If you want their views of their buddy Karl go read them…
From the farm
One of the emails I always look forward to reading each week is the Ladybug Letter from Andy Griffin & Julia Wiley at Mariquita Farm. Their words are always a pleasure to read and make me wish I lived in the neighborhood so I could add them to my “local food” supply. Here is how Andy started his last email gift of words…
In The Shade Of The Ghost Pine
Classic pesto is an emulsion of basil, pignoli, or pine nuts, olive oil, and Pecorino cheese. Opinions differ as to whether the olive oil can be augmented (or adulterated ) with butter for added creaminess, whether the sharpness of the sheep-milk cheese ought to be moderated (or cut ) with a mellower cow- milk cheese, like Parmesan, and whether there ought to be parsley and garlic in the blend. Nobody worth listening to disputes the necessity of the pine nuts for the best pesto.
Pesto is called “pesto,” not “blendo,” because it was traditionally made by hand in a mortar and pestle. Like most people these days, my wife, Julia, makes pesto in a food processor, and I eat it without complaint. I’ve been known to gripe about cleaning all the various paddles, blades and rubber rings that fall out of the food processor, but Julia doesn’t take me seriously. She knows my objections to electric blenders are irrational.
It’s not posted at the website yet but I am sure it will be soon, so go and check out their site and read some of Andy’s past musings from the farm…
There seem to be a growing number of food culturalists who are using a skill with words to reach out to the community around them to market their offerings. Reading the words these skilled storytellers have offered up is becoming an appreciated respite in my weekly schedule. Occasionally I will offer up a link for you to try out and enjoy the stories. I would suggest you not rely on memory to bring you back but subscribe to their newsletters and enjoy them delivered to your mailbox…postage free.
If you have any favorites of this type, pop down to the comments and add a link. It’s not easy to stumble upon this type of writing on the world wide net…
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Local v. Imported–How Do We Decide?
Conventional wisdom says that we should seek out food that is seasonal, minimally processed, and produced within our local foodshed. (The 100-Mile Dieters, or locavores, take this as close to its logical extreme as you can get without raising all your food in your own backyard.) The reasons to keep it local are intuitive and many: buying local supports nearby farmers, increases the visibility of local farms, improves the local economy, promotes urban agriculture, preserves rural farmland and prevents sprawl, and minimizes the air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions created when transporting our food from farm to table.
The above paragraph opens Erica Barnett’s piece at WorldChanging. As much as I agree with all of the mentioned reasons, I put “food security” at the top of the list. It’s the proverbial eggs and the basket story…When most of a nation’s supply of a food commodity comes from one region/supplier, how safe can that supply be? It doesn’t take bad intentions, bad luck or bad weather can kill a lot of people in a hurry when they are all eating from the same bowl. Add to that equation profit margins and you are just asking for trouble.
Looks like an other morning muse is done (intentional play on words, go check out An Other Cup
