One more casualty of the SEOing of everything: witty headlines. (I differ with Jakob Neilsen on this point.) David Wheeler attends a copy editors’ workshop. I have no problem with mundane headlines for hard news stories. But for a magazine article about cooking, what’s wrong with a little kick?
Author: David Gorsline
Please give
Recent disasters, natural and man-made, in Japan, Haiti, the Gulf of Mexico call out to us: we want to give time and money to alleviate suffering and mitigate environmental damage. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But several columnists have pointed out that the need for charitable giving is a 24/7/365 thing (among them Holden Karnofsky at GiveWell). The earthquake victims are still under duress even after their tour through the news cycle. Often, what’s needed most at a disaster scene isn’t what’s easiest to fit in an envelope. Donated funds that are earmarked for relief of a particular calamity hamper organizations’ ability to deploy resources where they are most needed.
The best way to help is to establish a long-term relationship with a few select organizations, and to make unrestricted gifts. There is a handful of groups that I have helped for ten years or more, through thick and mostly through thin: there’s been maybe a year following a layoff when I wasn’t able to give. But when times are flush, I try to give more, and to more organizations.
To the extent that a particular sharp event cracks open your wallet, keep the relationship going. I made my first contribution to the American Red Cross in the aftermath of 9/11, and I’ve been giving slowly but steadily since.
Annoying Habit #92
Mom (seeing me making slides): “Again?”
Me: “So?”
Mom: “Why not try writing for a change?”
Me: “Excuse me, this is my slide journal.”
Mom: “I mean writing a paper.”
Me: “Ugh! Who even uses that word?”
Mom: “I see a lot of white. Where does the writing come in?”
—Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, ch. 12
At the park: 43
Dave and M. K. have installed new nestboxes for Prothonotary Warblers (Protonotoria citrea) in clusters near some of our duck boxes, in some cases sharing the same pole. Today was out first check of boxes in four weeks. Since that time in April, five boxes have hatched out, two boxes have new clutches, and, alas, one nest has failed (in addition to a failed nest that we cleaned out last month).
General bird life was a little quiet, although we did see several Great Egrets (Ardea alba) stalking the shallows, and White-eyed Vireos (Vireo griseus) made themselves heard. In the openish woods by box #13 and the observation tower, I found a couple patches of Quaker Ladies (Houstonia caerulea).
On the walk back along the boardwalk, Richard ID’d this pair of Northern Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon sipedon).
Thompson WMA
We set off down the Trillium Trail on the western edge of the Thompson Wildlife Management Aera, and we indeed did find trilliums. In abundance. Heck, you don’t even need to leave the parking lot, if that’s your thing. The species found here is Trillium grandiflorum, which blooms white and fades to pink and purple as it sets seed. Formerly, a patch of Nodding Trillium (T. cernuum) could be found on the property, but no more, it would seem.
Thompson is on the Blue Ridge, southwest of Sky Meadows SP; farther to the southwest, across Interstate 66 and Manassas Gap, is Shenandoah National Park.
Karyn showed us the way to two orchids, the Larger Yellow Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium calceolus var. pubescens), with its penchant for growing at the end of pipestem trails off the fire road, and the Showy Orchis (Orchis spectabilis), which is showy in comparison only to other members of the genus.
I’m beginning to understand the Avenses (Geum sp.), but these members of the Rose family are still perplexing. One clue that seems to work is that the basal leaves are a darker green, almost like wintergreen. We looked at Carrion Flower (Smilax herbacea), the smilax without thorns. Lots of Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum), a mystery boneset not yet in flower, bellworts, two ragworts, Eupatoriums in past and future fruit. Newcomb says that the leaves of Horse Balm (Collinsonia canadensis) smell of citronella when crushed, but Bella noted the even stronger smell of agaric mushrooms.
I tried to avoid the distractions of warbler song. I heard my first Wood Thrush of the year.
When is a violet not violet? When it’s green. And, in fact, the Green Violet (Hybanthum concolor) is not in the same genus with the other violets. Down the fire road where it meets a stream that eventually feeds Goose Creek, we also found Viola trilobata and V. cucullata.
Better view desired
Dale Tucker goes birding in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of the museum’s Connections series of narrated slideshows.
Shade-grown everything
Utne Reader digests an article in the current (Fall-Winter 2010) number of Upstream Journal about the resurgence of agroforestry in the developing world. According to the brief notice, even the World Bank is devoting more resources to the traditional practice of planting multiple crop species among the trees and shrubs of a sheltering forest.
Primary virtues
“Hem Stitch Hemi Stichs,” a masterful poem by Judith Baumel. Lovely alliteration and springy rhythms.
Closing in on Vermont
As of the 2010 Census:
- State of Wyoming
- Resident men, women, and children: 563,626
- Voting representatives in the U. S. Senate and U. S. House of Representatives: 3
- District of Columbia
- Resident men, women, and children: 601,723
- Voting representatives in the U. S. Senate and U. S. House of Representatives: 0
That is just gol dang wrong.
What’s cooking?
The New York Public Library has launched another crowdsourced digital transcription project of analog source materials, similar to the North American Bird Phenology Program. The NYPL is seeking volunteers to extract information from its store of historical restaurant menus. So far, data on more than 170,000 food items offered for sale has been pulled from more than 2,800 menus. There is lots of work yet to do:
With approximately 40,000 menus dating from the 1840s to the present, The New York Public Library’s restaurant menu collection is one of the largest in the world, used by historians, chefs, novelists and everyday food enthusiasts…. The New York Public Library’s menu collection, housed in the Rare Book Division, originated through the energetic efforts of Miss Frank E. Buttolph (1850-1924), who, in 1900, began to collect menus on the Library’s behalf. Miss Buttolph added more than 25,000 menus to the collection, before leaving the Library in 1924. The collection has continued to grow through additional gifts of graphic, gastronomic, topical, or sociological interest, especially but not exclusively New York-related.
Violette’s Lock
The river was running high and fast at Violette’s Lock, so we did most of our botanizing along the tow path. Great Crested Flycatchers (Myiarchus crinitus) breeped their presence.
I captured some out-of-focus images of Field Chickweed (Cerastium arvense) and Corn Salad (Valerianella locusta) (found in the disturbed patch near the parking lot). I’m developing a fondness for the delicate chickweeds. We found Bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia) and Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) trees in flower—these are both species that we studied in winter woody plant ID two winters ago. I made some notes on separating Glechoma from Lamium, but I still need more practice with these common weedy plants. More Field Pansies (Viola bicolor), with their crazy stipules to match the specific epithet of the European species, (V. kitaibeliana).
I find that I always come back with a new favorite flower. This week it’s Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea). The ragwort (perhaps named for its ragged leaves) is often found with Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata), a color combination that Karyn dotes on.
Karyn recommends the USDA PLANTS database as the authoritative answer on species synonyms. I am finding quite a few differences between USDA and our field guide, Lawrence Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. It’s hard to keep track of the nomenclature changes: I am sure that I have made some errors.
Hard to keep up
When I hear on the radio the voice of an artist that I haven’t heard in a long time, it’s rarely happy news. And so it is with the passing of Phoebe Snow, who died last week after a long illness, as Tom Cole and Neda Ulaby report. “No Regrets,” from the Second Childhood album (1976) is a shimmering three minutes of new swing that will always be with me.
Some lists: 10
Five (and five more) obsolete common names for birds, taken from the index to Richard H. Pough, Audubon Bird Guide: Small Land Birds of Eastern & Central North America from Southern Texas to Central Greenland, 1946 and 1949, and their modern synonyms.
- Lichtenstein’s Oriole
- Altamira Oriole (Icterus gularis). M. Heinrich Lichtenstein (1780-1857) was honored by Johann Wagler by naming the oriole for him.
- Bandit Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas). The old name has a lot more mojo.
- Batchelder’s Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens). Another eponym that perhaps was a casualty of lumping species together, in this case Gairdner’s Woodpecker, Nelson’s, and Willow.
- Cham-chack
- Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus). I’d say, “like it sounds,” but the bird doesn’t sound like that at all.
- Forest Chippy
- Worm-eating Warbler (Helmitheros vermivora). Described in the field guides as having voice like a Chipping Sparrow.
- Grease Bird
- Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis). Along with several other equally uncomplimentary names.
- Huckleberry Bird
- Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla). Apparently a preferred nesting substrate.
- John-chew-it
- Black-whiskered Vireo (Vireo altiloquus). This name-sayer name actually works. It’s also known as Whip-Tom-Kelly. Poor Tom.
- Pork and Beans
- Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor). Yet again, supposedly onomatopoetic. I don’t hear it.
- Flame-crest
- Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa). Another case where the old name is short, descriptive, and to the point, while the new one reads like a committee report. Sort of like the difference between the original Metro station names and the hyphenated jawbreakers we have today.
Too bad Reagan didn’t listen in ’81
David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s first budget director, speaks out amidst the clangor of the fiscal and monetary policy debate in Washington. Ever a deficit hawk, these days he starts to sound reasonable:
In attacking the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent of taxpayers, the president is only incidentally addressing the deficit. The larger purpose is to assure the vast bulk of Americans left behind that they will be spared higher taxes — even though entitlements make a tax increase unavoidable. Mr. Obama is thus playing the class-war card more aggressively than any Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt….
On the other side, Representative [Paul D.] Ryan fails to recognize that we are not in an era of old-time enterprise capitalism in which the gospel of low tax rates and incentives to create wealth might have had relevance. A quasi-bankrupt nation saddled with rampant casino capitalism on Wall Street and a disemboweled, offshored economy on Main Street requires practical and equitable ways to pay its bills.
His op ed piece relies a bit too much on the the thesaurus (the spirit of William Safire is about). But the message that we will all have to give up something to get along is spot on.
It is obvious that the nation’s desperate fiscal condition requires higher taxes on the middle class, not just the richest 2 percent.
Governor Bridge Natural Area
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) has begun blooming, or at least it has at Governor Bridge Natural Area in Prince George’s County, south of Bowie. I made the acquaintance of two exquisitely tiny blue flowers, the five-petalled Smaller Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis laxa) and the four-petalled Bluets (Houstonia caerulea), also known as Quaker Ladies.
Down along the river trail, we had side-by-side looks at Solomon’s Seal (left) and Solomon’s Plume (right). Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum sp.) has a gently arching stem, smoothly curved, while the stem of Solomon’s Plume (Maianthemum racemosum) shows sort of a zigzag effect.
A bedraggled Common Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) and Canada Pussytoes (Antennaria howellii Greene ssp. canadensis) with is bicolored leaves were our introduction to the Aster family.
Bonus birds for the trip: we heard the first Ovenbirds and Common Yellowthroats, and a few of us got brief looks at Louisiana Waterthrush (Seiurus motacilla).