Flashlights to the Amazon

FOREVER STAMPS

Bill Spencer: ‘Don’t buy too many. You may have seen this explanation, but it is an interesting take on the value of Forever Stamps.’

☞ Yes. They are wonderful – because you’ll never have any ‘left over’ that require annoying 2-cent stamps to go with them. But there is no point buying more than usual, because as an investment, they’ll barely provide a 0% real return, if that.

BUY THIS FLASHLIGHT

This from the New York Times tells the story of 2 billion people who have no light after dark (except fire) (and maybe fireflies, but first you have to catch them, then you have to feed them, and they are really annoying to try to read by) (the part about fireflies is not in the Times story, but I’ve always loved fireflies) – and how you can change a life by buying yourself a solar-powered flashlight. What a nice gift for a young kid this summer, along with the story that goes with it.

MOST AMBIGUOUS MESSAGE OF ALL TIME

‘I’m thinking about not resigning,’ emailed a friend. But, from the context, I wondered: was he really thinking about not resigning? It sure sounded to me as though he were fed up and might resign. Turned out he meant not re-signing, as in not signing back up – the exact opposite. It’s not hard to see how wars start.

(And will someone please tell my why flammable and inflammable are the same thing? Or specify or verify for me why ‘rarefy’ and ‘liquefy’ – but only these, I have been notified -are spelled Efy? Is French this nuts?)

PINCHON

Artie Doskow: ‘What ever happened to the Pinchot Retirement Program? I’m waiting with bated breath to retire.’

☞ Well, this is embarrassing. Harlem Success Academy got me off track; the whooping over GLDD got me off track; and last night, it was a shaman from the Amazon who had traveled 25 hours by bus to Brasilia to get a long flight to Sao Paolo and from there to New York and then drove up to Westport for dinner to help us understand the important work of the Amazon Conservation Team. Doing injustice to the Pinchot Retirement Program is not something I can just toss off. I need some uninterrupted time and a sharpened scalpel. (And then I worry I have built expectations too high and . . . and . . . and just at that moment, in trots the dog to eat my homework.)