Visiopoetics

Wikipedia terms Mentha Piperita, a.k.a. M. balsamea Willd, invasive. I term it delicious. Pictured: possessed peppermint, taking over the thyme, basil, parsley, and marigolds.

Intrepid readers will recall the monster cilantro of yestermonth in the heyday of its youth. This is what happens when you live fast and furious, kids: you get husky (but in the corn way, not the Midwestern way), and grow little silver pearls. Stay in school.

Is it another baby pepper noumenally, or just a phenomenal production of my disoriented brain?

“it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever.” - Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”

“… when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact, that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.” - Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”

Wait, no, those are ants. It’s important to be clear on this because, like all professional chefs, I charge extra for protein.

On Slate this week, Christopher Beam asked: “What if political scientists wrote the news?”

The tagline (lowconcept) says it’s a spoof, but I find it quite chilling. Mostly because I read the piece without laughing once — I kept thinking these are great empirical points and basic questions the media should be routinely making/asking. I know the best comedy is true, but… Isn’t the punchline here really the unasked question of why the hell mainstream media doesn’t ask this stuff? That was the premise to be mocked by highlighting what the actual foci are instead of this. It’s the aberrant distance between logical and actual, far larger than the necessary distance between our minds and hearts, that’s so terrible and thus potentially hilarious.

Or maybe I’m a political scientist. Technically, that is what they pay me for. (Suckers.)

In completely related news, my herb garden is flowering. The entire bed, all at once. Party in the lavender.

It’s alive! But probably soon it will go to seed.

What used to be a symbol of hard times — eating what you grow — has become a luxury. Salad days mean surplus time and space, not hunger and its fear.

Oh, and also salmonella. What’s that? It’s like citronella, but with a different smell.

My coffee grinds are growing strawberries and mushrooms at the same time, in the same space. I believe this may (1) violate the laws of physics, and (2) be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. [Caveat: since I cannot break out the oil paints for approximately 2.5 more weeks on accounta everything semesterly is due now, there seem to be a great many most beautiful things I have ever seen around here.]