Monday, January 20, 2025

Planting Hope

 

Rather than obsessing on what’s about to be happening in Washington, D.C., this morning, I am focusing instead on the lettuce, broccoli, artichoke, carrot, pepper and tomato plants and young fruit trees sprouting in our backyard.

Growing fruits and vegetables is one of my achievable fantasies — as opposed to world peace, climate normalization or a more equitable distribution of resources. 

I love every stage of the tree-growing process, from the dried seed cracking open, yielding a fresh new sprout, helped by soil, sun and water into a seedling, then hardening (the male phase) into a stalwart trunk supporting many branches (much as in software development), which then, in springtime, sport new buds, excited at the chance of a new life.

The buds open their tender lips to form luscious flowers with the bud still at the core (the first feminine phase), that then willingly accept the penetrating fertilizations by the bees and birds to -- wallah! -- create their children: Rounded, moist, sweet, sour, pithy apples, pears, peaches, cherries, apricots, persimmons, avocados, durian, coconuts, coffee beans, and more.

Banana trees are probably the fruit-bearing plants I know the best, from my years as a reporter investigating the uses of pesticides in tropical countries around the world. There's nothing quite like the sight of a tight cluster of bananas, yellowing, even if they may be hiding a deadly tarantula in their innermost places.

Fruits are a modern luxury. For my father, growing up in a one-room farmhouse without heat or plumbing in Canada early in the last century, the winter holiday season meant two treats from fruit trees -- an orange, from the tropics, and maple sugar candy, from the trees standing on the land around their cornfields.

When they were little, all of my children received little boxes of maple sugar candy at the holidays. 

(This one contains excerpts from a longer essay in 2009.)

HEADLINES:

  • The Inauguration of Trump’s Oligarchy (New Yorker)

  • Biden issues preemptive pardons for Milley, Fauci and Jan. 6 committee members (CNN)

  • TikTok says it’s restoring service to US users based on Trump’s promised executive order (AP)

  • 3 Israeli hostages released from Gaza (WP)

  • Ceasefire brings hope in Gaza; freed Israeli hostages reunited with mothers (Reuters)

  • Support for Trump’s Policies Exceeds Support for Trump (NYT)

  • The World Is Getting Riskier. Americans Don’t Want to Pay for It. (WSJ)

  • Trump’s family circle has a different look as he returns to the White House (AP)

  • Trump readies massive shift in U.S. economy on eve of inauguration (WP)

  • Hidden tunnel on US-Mexico border to be sealed (BBC)

  • Taliban deputy tells leader there is no excuse for education bans on Afghan women and girls (AP)

  • Voice of the Century (New Yorker)

  • Call for ‘censorship culture’ to end as Unity Mitford’s German diary is revealed (Guardian)

  • Winter Storm Expected to Bring at Least 6 Inches of Snow to the Northeast (NYT)

  • Underneath an Ancient Castle: Researchers Discover Secret Passages Linked to Leonardo da Vinci (SciTechDaily)

  • AI isn’t very good at history, new paper finds (TechCrunch)

  • When the Word Is Not Just Flesh: Reporting on A.I. in Religion (NYT)

  • Sun Unsure What It Has To Do To Get Humans To Worship It Again (The Onion)

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    Who Killed Betty Van Patter?

    (Photo courtesy of the Baltar family)

    Welcome, readers of BerkeleysideThe Oaklandside, and Richmondside who are looking for the rest of the ten-part series, “Who Killed Betty Van Patter?” Just click on the links below to read each part.

    Part One

    Part Two

    Part Three

    Part Four

    Part Five

    Part Six

    Part Seven

    Part Eight

    Part Nine

    Part Ten

    See also: Betty Van Patter, the Black Panthers’ bookkeeper, was murdered 50 years ago. Who killed her? Investigative reporter David Weir and others have spent decades searching for answers. (Berkeleyside) (Richmondside)

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