Sunday, June 20, 2010

Weekend Updates

It seems a good time for some blog updates, from oldest to most recent.

In response to my March 24 post, a couple salvaged some metal from their basement, turned it in at Alderman-Dow, and now have $24 they didn’t have before.

The Cove, the Academy Award winning documentary about the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, discussed on this blog on April 30, was deemed too controversial for showing by many theaters in Japan. It was banned on a U.S. military base in Japan as well. On June 9, over 600 people crammed into a public hall in Tokyo for the first public showing of the film in Japan since the Tokyo International Film Festival, sparking a nationwide debate over free speech.

It is now two months since the explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig off the Louisiana Coast. On May 6, I first posted the link for the Google Crisis Response to the oil spill in the Gulf. Matter of Trust is still collecting hair, but clearly no amount of hair boom by itself will get us out of this mess. There are widely differing points of views about who is to blame and how much progress is being made. You can check out the facts at PolitiFact.com, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning site of the St. Petersburg Times. The first dead whale has been reported in the Gulf, and concern about how far the spill will spread mounts in light of the May 27 prediction by NOAA of an “active to extremely active” hurricane season. In an article entitled “Gulf Oil Spill: A Hole in the World,” which appeared in yesterday’s Guardian, Naomi Klein compares the disaster to a violent wound inflicted upon the Earth. In this compelling piece, the author, trained in economics, writes, “It's one thing to be told by an incomprehensible chaos theorist that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas. It's another to watch chaos theory unfold before your eyes.”

On a happier note, the trees planted on State Street (May 17) are being well cared for. I saw a water truck there today.

The wind turbine at Phoenix Press (June 5 blog) now has a name. Gus(t) was selected as the winning entry in a contest for New Haven schoolchildren. Runners-up include: Win(d)ston, MELVIN (Manufacturing Energy with a Large & Valuable Impact Now), PEG (Produces Greener Energy), Kilowally, and Urban Blossom.

My post on Marshmallow Fluff (June 8) resulted in a flurry of e-mails from native New Englanders who thanked me for the happy memories it evoked. I was told of readers who had to sneak the treat at the home of a friend since their mothers refused to buy it. I was also reminded that Fluff was an excellent topping for hot cocoa and was outstanding in a sundae when placed under the hot fudge. Those born outside the Northeast didn’t get the post at all.

Which brings me to the Woodchuck Wednesday post (June 16). The last I heard, Woody’s widow and children were still alive and well in Beaver Hills. There have been no woodchuck sightings in my yard. But we did have a very dirty non-avian bather in our birdbath one recent steamy evening. The prints it left behind lead me to think that it was a raccoon, but feel free to draw your own conclusion.

1 comment:

  1. I do like the updates, Elaine. As every one of these blogs is ongoing, it's great to read another chapter of the story. As an aside, the Woodies have been sighted climbing my front steps to check out my flowerpots. Apparently, these particular flowers (nemesis) are not to their liking. Last night, I was walking out to the compost pile behind the shed where the Woodies congregate and along came a black and white friend (my nose should've alerted me that he was near) and he disappeared under the shed, too. They must be having quite a soiree there.

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