New in Grist:

Where's the Beef?
Roni Neff explains how the media miss the story on food's connection to climate change

Ask most people about the causes of climate change, and they shoot a stern glance at gas-guzzling cars and SUVs. But while Hummers do plenty of damage, hamburgers may be even more at fault. Recent research concludes that agriculture -- especially meat production -- spews more greenhouse gases than the transportation sector. Why don't people more readily consider food when they're thinking about climate change? Johns Hopkins researcher Roni Neff has been studying just that very question. Her conclusion: The media have largely failed to cover food's connection to climate change. Anna Lappé recently caught up with Neff to discuss her just-released study on media coverage of the food/climate connection.

19 Things That It Took Me 50 Years To Learn

By Dave Barry


1. Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings”.
3. There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.”
4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
5. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.
6. You should not confuse your career with your life.
7. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.
8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
9. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
10. Never lick a steak knife.
11. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.
12. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.
13. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
14. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
15. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.
16. “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
17. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.
18. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.
19. Your friends love you anyway.

R.I.P.

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition. There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

George Carlin
1937 - 2008

He will be missed.

Some people are like Slinkies - not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

Who cooks for you?

So, for the past couple of weeks, John and I have intermittently heard an interesting owl-y noise in the woods surrounding our house.

I am quite excited to learn that this:


























is our new neighbor. He's a Barred Owl (strix varia)!!! You can hear a sample of his call here, go to the Barred Owl (I tried linking to the wav file directly but it just bounces you to the list).

For numerous reasons, this has me incredibly psyched. Suffice it to say - I'm very happy to hear him.

DM & the DL... Phenomenal!

So the Seattle weekend was unbelievably perfect! Here's the blow-by-blow:

We arrived Seattle Thursday night at around 7:30pm local time, picked up from Sea-Tac by our friend Travis* and headed back to Travis, Mary and Camille's uber-cute house in Tacoma.

Friday was phenomenal, kicking around with Travis, taking the ferry, seeing the panorama of Seattle from the top of the building Mary works in (the tallest west of the Missisippi or some such!!). A nice meal at our fav Seattle brew pub, the Elysian in Capitol Hill (discovered on our 1st trip to Seattle in '06). John swears by The Immortal IPA... Personally I'm a Perseus Porter or Dragonstooth Stout person.

Then off to the Dalai Lama show, saw the Dalai Lama which was... there are no words. The format was a bit awkward, Dave was nervous (and adorable!) and if you've read the Dalai Lama books then what he said basically reiterated those messages... but to see him? To be in the same room with him (OK, granted, a BIG room...)? To take part in a little piece of history? Well, that was the thing. Another life moment engraved on my heart.

The Dave & Tim concert was nothing short of magical. Dave was unusually lucid (I think he parties his ass off at the Gorge!!!) and his banter in between sets was one of the best parts. Tim Reynolds? I'd never heard of him (other than in the context that he occasionally does shows with Dave), had sort of "who is this guy?" attitude in the back of my mind. And then I heard him play. Yep, he can hold his own - both with and without Dave Matthews... which is pretty cool.

Saturday was ridiculous. I decided on Saturday that all the folks in Seattle just lie to everyone else and tell them that Seattle is rainy all the time, cause I tell you, I just haven't seen it!!! It was high 70's and perfect. We did the Seattle tourist thing and kicked around Pike Place Market for a couple of hours, had some lunch, picked up the most amazing spread for dinner. The resultant meal was lavish and delectable - my mouth is watering thinking about it. The appetizer consisted of an artisan cheese tray with pears, dried apricots, smoked almonds, handmade cracker/toast/thin-cut biscotti like (?) thingies with dates & walnuts in them and two gorgeous heirloom tomatoes sliced thin and served with a sprinkle of sea salt and balsamic. The meal for the meat-eaters was salmon steaks, I had a portobello cap filled with artisan goat cheese with dill and chopped pine nuts (YUM!). The side was some rather average (by comparison to all the other goodies) asparagus from the market.

The afternoon began with the meal around the umbrella-topped table and ended with the chairs circled around a fire pit in the brisk clear evening.

The entire experience, touch down to take off, was phenomenal.**



* We met Travis, Mary, and Mary's daughter Camille (then 3) at the Gorge in 2006 when our tent wound up pitched next to theirs at the Wild Horse Campground. We all enjoyed each other so much that we connected and camped in parallel again in 2007, and plan to execute a complex year three plan involving a caravan and way too much camping gear (can you say kiddie inflatable pool?!) in August.

** You may wonder at my overuse of this word in describing the weekend. Not only is it a perfect descriptor, but on Saturday night I realized I had been overusing this word the whole weekend, in a singsong tone, "pheNO-meNOL." Like a gay decorator, describing the perfect accent piece... Think in terms of that accentuation and tone (!). We all laughed heartily at the way I had expressed it, but it does quite naturally sum up the weekend in a word.