Monday--May 22

The weather should be good for getting the rest of the plants situated and, maybe, some clean up and rearranging outside. It turned out warmer than predicted yesterday and, as I noted, the sun came out and the beds dried out enough to get some work done.

My jaw dropped when I read this. I found another site which attributed the shortage to the difficulty Pfizer has getting components for glass syringes. It still boggles the mind that a common and frequently used drug based on baking soda is in short supply.

We read about Ringling Brothers' Circus shutting with a bit of nostalgic sadness. The circus always had a week or ten day run at the local civic center each year and we went almost every year. We thoroughly enjoyed the shows. Times change and the differences are stark. I remember the news media each year covered the parade of the elephants from the train station to the arena which I haven't seen very much of in the last few years. I don't remember people picketing claiming animal abuse--a charge we were expected to accept without any proof. But how does an old fashioned entertainment compete with cgi-enhanced movies? I don't think it does--especially when the price they can charge for tickets no longer covers costs. This article, however, deals with another aspect of the closure: what happens to the entertainers? Somehow I don't think #45 will be very vigorous in efforts to preserve those jobs.

Imagine if you only had electricity intermittently--sometimes as little as one hour a day. And imagine the situation lasts day after day, week after week, year after year.