But first . . .
WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST
Seventy percent of the folks who voted to reelect George W. Bush believed Iraq was complicit in the 9/11 attack — even though it was not. Some large percentage believed that “by far the vast majority” of Bush’s proposed tax cuts would go to “people at the bottom of the ladder” — a multi-trillion-dollar lie — yet disbelieved Al Gore’s warning about climate change, even though virutally the entire scientific community shared his concern. And some percentage believe today that — in the words of Mitch McConnell — “by any standard, Barack Obama has been a disaster for our country” even though, by almost any standard — the strength of the dollar, the deficit, the housing market, gas prices, the stock market, unemployment, the availability of affordable health insurance, the number of troops dying each month — things have improved dramatically on his watch.
And so I suppose I should not be surprised that Monday’s post — “Worst Forecasters Ever” — was simply dismissed by some readers. Like Jared Day, whose Facebook page identifies him as having “studied at Central New Mexico Community College,” who writes: “What a worthless article. Just more ignorance and blind belief in made up numbers, sad.”
That’s it. End of analysis. How can you argue with that?
EATING LIKE AN APHID
I was already a fan of beets and radishes but now find you can also eat the leaves! Seriously! I just ate a few radish leaves. No need to cook or prepare them in any way: just ate ’em. Yum. (Well, yum-ish.) Which got me to wondering what other kinds of leaves are okay to eat. Should we start drinking pine-needle tea? One leaf to avoid, I’m guessing: hemlock. But poinsettia? Those poisonous Christmas plants? A myth, apparently. Eat up. (Well, don’t; but at least you won’t die.) And the poison flora that killed poor Chris McCandless when he trekked Into the Wild? A myth as well, though a compelling mystery. My point is: if you buy bunches of raw beets or radishes, don;t waste the leaves.
