one of those things

Did you ever have to do something that you knew would make a bunch of people mad while the rest of the people would be indifferent (at best) about it? But you didn't have a choice about the matter and still had to it no matter what your reservations? And even at the last minute you couldn't decide exactly how to go about it because no matter what you know you'll feel like you failed?

I've got one of those things.

BTW, I'm sorry I've been so AWOL. I guess I don't feel that I've had much to say lately. The tide will surely turn, eventually.

small town hero

Samson town comedian may have prevented more deaths

"In life, he never really got the spotlight he was seeking. But in the days
following the massacre that shattered their small Alabama community, some have
dropped the comedian label and replaced it with another: Hero."

"On Friday, witnesses and authorities said Maloy, the 10th and final
victim of Tuesday's shooting rampage by Michael McLendon, single-handedly tried
to end the violence with his beat-up old pickup."

weekend

I spent my weekend with a 48 hour migraine. That's 24 hours more than usual. I think it's the first time.

I probably don't have to tell you how I feel about that, now that Monday morning has arrived.

a new look at sustainable agriculture

Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008

"Food is not simple. To make it, you have to balance myriad variables—soil, water, and nutrients, of course, but also various social, political, and economic realities. But because our consumer culture favors fixes that are fast and easy, our approaches toward food advocacy have been built around one or two dimensions of production, such as reducing energy use or eliminating pesticides, while overlooking factors that are harder to define (and ditto to market), such as worker safety.'

"Consider our love affair with food miles. In theory, locally grown foods have traveled shorter distances and thus represent less fuel use and lower carbon emissions—their resource footprint is smaller. And yet, for all the benefits of a local diet, eating locally doesn't always translate into more sustainability. Because the typical farmers market is supplied by dozens of different farms, each transporting its crops in a separate van or truck, a 20-pound shopping basket of locally grown produce might actually represent a larger carbon footprint than the same volume of produce purchased at a chain retailer, which gets its produce en masse, via large trucks."

"And for all our focus on the cost of moving food, transportation accounts for barely one-tenth of a food product's greenhouse gas emissions. Far more significant is how the food was produced—its so-called resource intensity. Certain foods, like meat and cheese, suck up so many resources regardless of where they're produced (a pound of conventional grain-fed beef requires nearly a gallon of fuel and 5,169 gallons of water) that you can shrink your footprint far more by changing what you eat, rather than where the food came from. According to a 2008 report from Carnegie Mellon University, going meat- and dairyless one day a week is more environmentally beneficial than eating locally every single day."

There's much more worth reading.