CABLE NEWS

A great day for cable news.

A shooting event at a baseball field in Washington provides non-stop, repetitive fodder, exhaustive coverage for at least two days.

Meantime, it is fortunate that nothing else worth noting  is taking place on Planet Earth. 

THE HUNTERS

Such a probing,

a hunger, to discover

whether skeletons rest

in crevices on Mars,

or diamonds crust upon

the shores of planets

far too distant to perceive.

Then there's the race

to find the smallest bit

"The God Particle,"

they call it, 

or more prosaically,

"Higg's Boson,"

supposed to tie

all things together.

What a kick for humanity

if it turns out to be 

the same as love.

-e. hujsak

CORN -ON - THE - COB

Summer is approaching. Memories of the farm - the old swimming hole, boiled new potatoes, corn-on-the-cob.

It reminds me that  my brother Alex was something of an expert on corn-on-the-cob, having figured out how to get freshly picked corn into boiling water in the shortest possible time to avoid starch onset. He advised planting corn as close to the kitchen as possible. When the corn is ripe you set the water to boiling in a pot on the stove. Then you pick the corn and run, don't walk, back to the kitchen, shucking the leafy covers on the go, the object being to get the corn cooking immediately.

Boiled new potatoes got me thinking. History records that Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland and England in the sixteenth century. after Conquistadors discovered them  in Peru. I doubt though, that I will be remembered for having introduced corn-on-the-cob to Poland, but for the record, I can relate how it happened.

One summer day, around twenty five years ago, nephew -in-law Slav appeared at our doorstep accompanied by his sister Ula and her daughter, who were visiting from Poland. After visiting for a spell, we invited them to lunch with us. The table was set with a variety of garden goods, including a plate at each setting with a freshly boiled ear of sweet corn on it. I remember a slight frown on Ula's face and a wrinkling of her nose. She said to Slav, in a soft, melodious voice, "In Poland , we feed this to pigs!"

Slav replied with a smile, "You smear butter on it, then salt it. It's very good."

They did find it good and remembered it upon returning to  Poland. There they introduced it to friends, who introduced it to friends and, well, you know.

COAL ANYONE?

Ab opinion piece by Michael Bloomberg in the May 2 Washington post is titled:

TRUMP'S PROMISE TO BRING BACK COAL IS WORSE THAN A CON'

Knowledgable energy people will fully agree. Coal cannot compete with natural gas, which is available in prodigious amounts, worldwide. Some, possibly much of it, is theorized to be not of fossil origin, but came from a component of the atmosphere in early days of Earth's formation. It got trapped in underground fissures as did carbon dioxide and other gases, and methane also got dissolved in hot brine deposits in huge amounts. Coal plants are rapidly being retired from service and are being replaced by  natural gas and renewable sources. In the latter, there are a lot more jobs than coal mining. Ten times more.

SPACE TRAVELERS ALL

Long before any human sets foot on Mars, you will be able to explore Mars and the moon virtually, in your living room, or perhaps, at lesser expense, in a Starbuck's type venue, as there are opportunities for big bucks to be made. 

You will don a helmet with a view screen and delve into, and navigate google maps, just as though you were there. You will be alone, though the worlds will be swarming with other explorers. Eventually other planets, Saturn's moons, will be open for exploration. Would-be astronauts won't leave a mark behind, nor any other residue from the visit. 

This is one of the next big technological developments, and will probably quell all desire and expense of space travel and promote better care of unique Earth, maybe the only place humans can call home.

NEW AGE

I wonder, what with forty-one dictatorships around the world, and a wannabe in the White House, whether one day historians will look upon this time as THE ERA OF THE ASCENDANCY OF THE PASKUDNYAKS.

SECOND COMING

Author’s note: Trill is a fictional female acquaintance who makes it possible towrite in a style that is comfortable for me’

My Dear Trill,

This day, the celebration of a specfic resurrection that is written to have occurred in biblical times - a return to life after death  -  often takes on a broader meaning. “Coming back to life” can be a  renewal in any number of ways. We live in a time when ten disparate nations are in possession of over  sixteen thousand nuclear bombs. Some of the governments are headed by lunatics. Somehow, if civilization is to survive, things must change.
I cannot blame you for being apprehensive about the future, much less be sanguine. Historically there have been other times of stressed relations, misunderstandings, rise of empire building despots, and consequent wars. I am reminded today of the famous work, written in 1919 (following WWI) by William Butler Yeats

THE SECOND COMING 

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, 
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; 
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity. 

Surely some revelation is at hand; 
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi 
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   
The darkness drops again; but now I know   
That twenty centuries of stony sleep 
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?