Bike Lane Blocking, An Angry Rant and Something You Can Do

...xy and often politically unpalatable work of installing bus only lanes and making the city more pedestrian and bike friendly, seems to think that the future lies in a techno-optimist future of flying cars and private tubes as peddled by Elon Musk. Instead of improvements we could have right now (all a bus lane takes is a line of paint) we’re waiting for a future that will never come. I’ve held off writing this post for years but I can’t stay silen...

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A Year after The Age of Limits: 5 Responses to the End Times

...is is it. The Crappening is not a time for valiant last stands. It’s about making due, being sensible and lending a hand to those in need. If the Crappening has a spirit animal, it would be a little burro with a heavy load on its back. The burro doesn’t think the world is ending because it has to carry a heavy load. It just keeps walking, because that is what you do. 5) There are no answers, only action. Clear thinking people can see trouble all a...

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Our new front yard: history

.... The slope looked alive, but it did not look loved. It’s hard to admit to making a mistake, particularly when its a costly mistake, or a mistake that you’ve made publicly, or a mistake that you’ve been making for a long time. This is why people keep climbing Everest even when they see a storm is rolling in. This is why we ended up with an ugly yards full of struggling trees. The cactus, however, grew exponentially. Its position was front and cent...

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2022 in Review: Cats, Mushrooms and Politics

...erings When you see a display of fake plastic corn dogs you have to take a picture. I tried and failed to get through James Joyce’s Ulysses. I think I got to the fourth chapter before getting distracted by another book. Gotta make another attempt this year. The Los Angeles Public Librarians on lower level two of the Central Library have a great sense of humor. They curated a selection of B-list celebrity cookbooks including Sammy Hagar’s Are We Ha...

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Mandrake!

...wn-market other is his emphasis on the ancient and sacred elements of beer making which used to be, he claims, the duty of women, not men. His chapter, “Psychotropic and Highly Inebriating Beers” contains a number of recipes, including one making use of the mysterious mandrake plant, a member of the nightshade family and popularized lately in a certain series of books about a wizard school (Homegrown Revolution suffered through the first film base...

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