The Tin Lizard

Our Disappearing Topsoil

Finally taking a good look around the garden for the first time this spring, I found a young sweetgum tree I planted two years ago totally flattened on the ground.  It's planted on a slope; maybe our winter snows and spring rains washed out the soil on the downhill side.  But it had buds popping out, and it seemed to be still at least tenuously attached to its roots, so whatever the cause of its supine state, I figured it could still be saved. 

It needed to have a flatter soil surface around its roots; I carved a flat space out of the slope surrounding the trunk, placed a few rocks on the downslope side, and then... well, that's when I went out and bought this:

The tree is propped up, and has even survived one pretty heavy rainstorm since then, so I hope it has a long life ahead of it.  But I got to wondering:

With all the topsoil that gets sold for use in our gardens, are we in danger of running out?  Where, really, does topsoil come from?  I was sure no real topsoil could be "harvested" anywhere within 50 miles of here, it's too developed; and sure enough this bag is identified as coming from West Virginia.  How much topsoil can we use up before every square inch of land is denuded of its fertile top layer? 

This is a resource that's renewable, to be sure, but not inexhaustible.  A thin layer of topsoil in many areas can take years to create - according to Wikipedia, an inch takes 100 years, so that's far, far slower than the rate at which we're using it up.  Moreover, gardeners aren't the biggest problem; it's estimated that 25 billion tons of topsoil are lost every year around the world, through erosion, some of it unavoidable, but much of it due to bad agricultural practices. 

So, I've decided that topsoil is another of those things we all could work harder to conserve.  For example, I don't use it as I've seen it used far and wide -- just to sprinkle on a lawn to enrich the soil.  If you've got a lawn (I've got a small one of about 1,000 square feet), consider what experts recommend: don't collect your clippings, just let them lie.  And, for enriching soil, composting is a great tool, too, so I also compost - all of last fall's leaves are already decomposed down to a layer only an inch or two thick in the bin you see below but a loose pile will do as well.

 

Eisenhower Monument

It was with some considerable surprise that I learned from my local paper that a national monument to Dwight D. Eisenhower is in the works.  According to this report, the monument was approved in 2006, yet I don't remember hearing anything about it at the time.

This one must have been slipped through the decision-making process (which includes a national commission and Congress) in the dead of night.  And that's not surprising.  Eisenhower, being equated with the likes of FDR, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington?  Quick, name one achievement of the Eisenhower years.  Ending the Korean War hardly seems to qualify, as the country was overripe to have it ended.  Most people, if they think of anything, would probably recall the creation of the Interstate Highway System, which still bears Eisenhower's name and which, it seems to me, ought to be enough.  Shouldn't "monumental" status - such as the 80-foot-high columns described here - be reserved for the real giants among us?  Sorry, Eisenhower is not one of those. 

It's a local matter, too.  Some of us who live in the DC area get a little fed up with the constant sprouting of monuments in every available patch of land.  Wouldn't it be possible to just have a little park here or there without a statue of some politician?  Between the monuments, the government buildings, and the museums, you can go for blocks and blocks in some parts of DC to find a simple drugstore, a restaurant, or any sign of liveliness or vibrancy.  It makes the city a desert at night, and reduces its livability. 

The proliferation of monuments continues nonetheless.  The Martin Luther King memorial was said to occupy the last good section of land available for monuments; space was said to be running out.  I predict they'll find room for more in the future, both for entities and nonentities.  Stand by for the James Buchanan monument soon.

The Wonders Of Sandwichdom

Looking for a little something interesting as a light snack a few days ago, I decided on a sandwich, but I wanted something a little different.

What I came up with has real promise - the nation's next food fad, so you can be among the first to try this: 

On a couple of slices of lightly toasted chili cheese bread, I spread some mayonnaise on one side, mustard on the other.  In the middle, a couple of thin slices of smoked beef brisket; of course a slice of cheese, in this case, a nice morbier au lait cru.  So far, still just a plain old meat and cheese. 

What could make it stand out?  Ah!  A head of cabbage (I like the crinkly Savoy)... make a thin slice through the raw head; add that.  Add some horseradish too.  Still something missing ... the finishing touch proved to be... peanut butter! (Chunky, of course).  Warm the whole thing for about 20 seconds in the microwave until the cheese melts just a bit.

And there you have it. Try it, you'll like it.  It builds on an old favorite of mine, the peanut butter/mayo/horseradish sandwich.  Escoffier is probably rolling over in his grade, but that's only because the French failed to invent peanut butter.  

Corporate Democracy

Did you hear the joke about the company that decided to take the Supreme Court's recent opinion about corporations having the rights of individuals to its logical conclusion, and ran (as a company) for Congress?   Trick question...it's NOT a joke.  Read about it here.

Elsewhere in the corporate world, however, democracy is not usually the theme of the day.  I think that's entirely legitimate where it concerns a company and its employees; a business should, and does, have the right to dismiss/fire/lay off employees and the employees don't generally get to vote on it. 

It's a different matter in relations between the corporation and its stockholders and investors, however.  Those people have an ownership stake in the company; they have money at risk.  The proof of that pudding used to be in the voting at the annual meeting that each company holds. 

But this process has changed immensely since I first started trading stocks nearly fifty years ago.  Back then, small stockholders got to vote via proxy on a whole range of matters of company policy; their measly few-hundred shares each couldn't normally change a decision, but they were asked nonetheless. 

Now, however, companies (and to be fair, probably also their big stockholders, who are often mutual funds) seem to find it inconvenient to seek those stockholder opinions.  If you're not attending the meeting, your proxy decisions are in most cases limited to the election of Directors (each listed separately to give an illusion of choice), to approve the accounting firm that will inadequately audit the books, plus the ominous phrase "such other business as may come before the board" - and that's where the real decisions get made.

What? Reelect the board and pick an accountant, then designate a proxy to vote on "other issues?"  If they don't have any other issues than that, or don't know of them at this point, it makes you wonder why they would hold a meeting at all.  Occasionally, stockholder proposals appear (invariably, management recommends a vote against these - Big Daddy knows best!); and rarely, a real issue that regulations require to be brought before all equity owners (e.g., a proposed merger or buyout). 

All of which is just to say, the world has changed.  Does the small stockholder have any less power than ever?  Perhaps not, except that now he isn't even told what the issues are, so he'd have a tough time deciding whether to attend the meeting.  In fact, many stock owners may look on the current practice as a favor that saves them reading those reams of explanation on seemingly arcane issues of company management, performance, or finance.

Eat "Healthy"! And Eat, And Eat...

Eating healthfully is a hot trend these days, even if good grammar isn't.  There's no harm at all in cutting down on fats and meats and salt, and turning more toward some of the stuff that's good for you, like fish, vegetables, and whole grains.  Even I'm doing that (but I don't go so far as to pass up the drippings in the roasting pan after the chicken is done).

But if you look at some of the advice on eating being handed out, it really starts to look a bit ridiculous, if not impossible.  I subscribe to one of those biweekly newsletters that bundles brief bits of content from a variety of fields -- investments, health, household hints, self-help, security, etc.  So yesterday I scanned a couple of random issues for their healthful eating tips, and found that if you take every suggestion they offer, your diet every day would include:

• Two ounces of pistachios (about 100 nuts)
• A half-cup of garbanzos (chickpeas)
• A half-cup of black beans
• Seventeen ounces of skim-milk cocoa
• One orange
• Some sage (see below)*
• And if you feel a sore throat coming on, you can add 2-4 cloves of garlic.

That's just a couple of weeks' worth of advice.  In no time at all, if you follow all the suggestions (dark chocolate? cranberries? green tea? broccoli?) I'm pretty sure you'll be bloated (if not overweight) from all the things you have to eat "every day," crazy from trying to keep track of it all (did I have my second handful of pistachios yet, or not?) and probably just wishing for a couple of foods that might go together in a pleasant way. 

Such is the life of the dedicated health-focused eater, I guess.  But the benefits of many of these foods aren't necessarily significant in the quantities that a person normally might eat.  In that respect, it's a lot like some of those medical studies that find, say, that ketchup causes cancer in rats -- then you read the fine print and find that the rats are fed a half-quart of ketchup a day, and nothing else.  (And no matter how desperate you may be for a job I suggest you avoid signing up to be the clean-up guy at that lab!)

But seriously, the better approach is probably to know what's good for you and try to get those items into your diet as opportunity arises. 

Which takes me back to * sage (above).  That tipster recommends a couple of spoons of sage-infused olive oil every day, but if you want to get your sage fix, I commend to you sage tea, something I was introduced to in Turkey. Take a cup of hot water and steep a few dried sage leaves in it, or even the whole stem of the plant, just as you would regular tea, for maybe 3-4 minutes.  In Turkey they take it with sugar and lemon, but you can do without those. It's a very pretty pale green color.

Keeping Up With The Tin Lizard

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Nonnuclear Fallout: Record Snows

By all prognostications, spring is arriving in the Washington DC area today.  It's supposed to be sunny, with temperatures reaching into the 60s.  With that kind of weather, the record snowstorms of a month ago, and the rainy deluge of a few days ago that finally washed away most of the snow, will soon be forgotten, even as some low-lying areas have been flooded.

Now, however, we deal with some of the quirky unexpected consequences.

We got a credit card bill yesterday stating that the previous month's payment was overdue.  What previous month's payment?  We hadn't received any bill.  We don's use this card a lot, so we hadn't thought to check online, in fact we haven't even set up online connection to this account.  Thinking back, we recalled the time of the snowstorms, when USPS did not make delivery in our neighborhood for five days running.  That was almost exactly a month ago, so presumably, our bill would have come during that period.  The thing is, though, it still hasn't shown up!  When service finally did resume after the snow, there was no big batch of accumulated mail, just the normal allotment of a few catalogs and other bulk mailings.  So I have to wonder, where did all that accumulated mail go, and will it ever turn up?

Also in the mail yesterday was the quarterly water and sewage bill.  The water is the last of the utility meters that's still read by an actual person walking around to each meter, and after the snow, the meter-reader wouldn't have been able to find the meter.  So, they estimated.  A reasonable approach, except that the cold weather must have caused a brain freeze somewhere -- instead of estimating based on last winter, their billing was based on the autumn quarter, when people were still watering gardens and such, so the amount is three times what it ought to be.  The difference is about $250, so at my request, they're coming today to do a real reading.

A snowstorm isn't a hurricane or earthquake, and its consequences are far less catastrophic and tragic.  Even so, beyond the obvious fallout like collapsed roofs, broken trees, and reduced sales for almost all retail establishments, it's interesting to see how the last little ripples still wash up unexpectedly into our daily lives.

Nonnuclear Fallout: Toyota

There's always someone around (often several someones) ready to try to derive personal benefit from the misfortunes of others.  Huh?  What did you say? ...something about the uninsured millions in the U.S. and the Republican Party and the "healthcare industry?"  Well, yes, that IS a good example, but it's not what I'm talking about just now.

Closer to home, for many people, is the ability to have confidence in their car.  And that's been a little problematic lately for Toyota owners.  It seems there are people with legitimate cause for complaint:  Real malfunctions over a number of years, that have now forced Toyota to do recalls, launch an investigation, and even apologize.  Definitely, that should be dealt with seriously.

Now, we begin to see evidence of imitators and fakers who would like to get on the bandwagon of what they hope could be a big settlement.  Was the guy in California who was rescued by the highway patrol, under circumstances that now seem questionable, the first of these?  I don't know.  Maybe not.  His lawyer has appeared in public to argue that, because his client had told him (the lawyer) that he wasn't looking to make money out of the incident, he has no reason to lie and must be telling the truth.  Possibly.  My question:  If that's so, why did he need a lawyer?

There's other evidence as well; a second case today in which someone drove into a stone wall (was it New York?) and is blaming their Toyota. Well, of course nothing can be ruled out, but it just seems that there's a sudden rash of these cases now, after the problem has become widely known.  It seems a lot like those people who read the list of possible side effects of some medicine, and then proceed to develop every one of them.

An acquaintance was involved in an accident a few days ago.  While sitting at a stoplight, she was rearended at 45-50 mph, her car totaled, by a driver she could see coming in her rearview mirror and who had her head down.   This driver, too, after the accident, was quick to claim that her vehicle had accelerated uncontrollably and without warning.  She happened to be driving a Jeep, not a Toyota, but never mind, a good excuse is a good excuse.

Incidentally, speaking of driving while distracted, what about the idiot in Tennessee who plowed into a large rockslide over the highway today while he was looking at the police who were trying to warn him to stop?  Well, at least he didn't get out and claim that his car ran away with him.  

Spring Back

Tis the season -- the season when once again, meteorologists and others exhort us to "spring forward" by turning our clocks ahead an hour to get on Daylight Saving Time. In the fall, we'll be told to "fall back" to help us remember once again which way to adjust the hour hand on our timekeeping devices.

Too bad the mnemonic is the opposite of what it means in real terms.  To go on DST is a step backward, a needless and not altogether harmless mass drill for a Nation of Sheep, something like those public displays on holidays in North Korea.  Needless, because it saves us nothing - not any measurable amount of energy, and certainly not any daylight.

Also, not harmless, because it disturbs our biorhythms, our circadian patterns, in measurable ways.  One concrete example of the harm is the statistics on the increased number of people who suffer heart attacks on the morning after our "spring forward," thanks (it is thought) to the hour's less sleep people get.

In short:  Let's put an end to this silliness.  In commonsense terms, our watchword should be "Spring Back, Fall Forward," and not the other way around. 

Failing To See The Light In The Piazza

The Light In the Piazza originated as a novel, was done in the 1960's as a film, and has had a fairly active life as a musical, one that was nominated for and won Tony awards.  I haven't seen other productions, nor the movie, nor read the book, but based on the version I saw at Arena Stage in Washington DC this week, I'd have to give it about a C- or worse.

Part of my disappointment with the piece is purely personal; musical comedy as a genre is OK, but I'm no fan of opera, and this is one of those vehicles that takes the operatic approach -- sung dialogue, rather than any catchy tunes (or any tunes at all).  So if you happen to like that kind of thing, maybe you'll like it.  I just fail to see the point of singing (caterwauling?) lines of dialogue when dialogue would do as well.  It usually suggests that the dialogue itself is pretty vacuous. 

That's definitely the case here.  Most musical theater requires the audience to suspend disbelief to some extent or other, but LitP carries this to an extreme, and an unsatisfying one at that.  As Wikipedia's synopsis (link above) quaintly puts it, Clara, the young lady at the center of the play, has "the mentality of a child" because she was kicked in the head by a horse during her childhood.  Her mother (Margaret) knows this, which is the reason for her initial reluctance to let Clara get involved with the young Italian fellow (Fabrizio) who falls in love with her.

And there's the rub, for eventually, Margaret decides to let the two marry, in fact, she pushes for it actively, putting up bribe money for the boy's family (who have learned, or guessed at, the truth), and persuading Fabrizio's father by "taking a walk" with him!  (This sort of euphemism seems seriously anachronistic for the 1960's, when this thing was originally produced.)  All that is still in the best tradition of the musical comedy:  Love conquers all, happily ever after, etc.  But the outcome depends on a cruel, amoral hoax:  Poor Fabrizio, "blinded by love," does not realize despite occasional hints from Clara's childish behavior, that her development is arrested.  Nor is he ever told! 

Here's a clear recipe for a happily-ever-after marriage that is not going to work out.  Poor Fabrizio will learn the truth eventually (unless he remains twelve years old too); won't he feel cheated and deceived?  Is it OK with Margaret because her American daughter needs a little joy in her life, and Fab is just a no-count Italian?  Or is she that desperate to get Clara off her hands?   I suppose the optimist scenario is that the marriage works miracles on Clara's mind and she assumes "the mentality of an adult," but for me, disbelief can't be suspended quite that long.