“Waterblogged”
The People issue of LA Weekly, online tonight, on stands tomorrow, includes Chance of Rain’s Emily Green, photo left. The surrounding garden, including the photo detail with native sages and a Mediterranean olive, are part of an 8,700 square foot lot with a small house in central Los Angeles where water consumption has been reduced largely through landscape changes from 150 gallons per day to 50. Lushness is achieved through use of mediterranean climate plants and aggressive rainwater harvesting. All but the vegetable garden and fruit trees will go dormant — and unwatered — in the summer. Emily Green’s column on water conservation in the landscape, The Dry Garden, appears every Friday online in the Los Angeles Times.…
Miss Emily regrets
… that she will not be logging onto Facebook today. MoveOn.org has an interesting drive aimed at improving Facebook’s privacy policy. I upgraded my privacy guarantee independently by today deleting my account. Those interested in this site’s updates, largely from the worlds of water and gardening, may elect to follow links on Twitter, or not. To those Facebook friends who found themselves deleted, it was nothing personal, which was precisely the problem. UPDATE: For MoveOn.org’s latest Facebook statement, click here.…
TV water
You may have heard of the illusory quality of paper water. Well, for fantasy value, the rights system that allocates Western water far beyond the volume of actual H2O has been briefly and deliriously topped. Last night on the ABC show “Brothers & Sisters,” a network TV family discovered water (in an aquifer!).
Admitting to having watched it is embarrassing. This show puts most right wing vanilla treacle in the savory category. But it’s always interesting to see California’s water supply on TV. “You’ve heard about California’s water problems!” cried the babbling idiot characters. “We’re rich!”
I can’t wait to see how they develop the water. They’d have a hit if next season Stewart Resnick showed up. Casting would be a no-brainer: Larry Hagman.
PS: If you have a TV, don’t watch this crap. It’s evil. Instead, watch Treme on HBO, set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Now there’s a show …
The week that was, 5/9-15/2010
Image source: NASA. Click on the Maryland blue crab for an Earth Observatory article about habitat loss, water quality problems and the state of the fisheries of the Chesapeake Bay. Or click on the President's executive order, or hyper link to the plan summary (right), to read about last week's unveiling of a 15-year-long restoration program for America's largest estuary
“The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure.” — Barack Obama, Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration, Executive Order, May 12, 2010
The plan is both ambitious and vague … –– “Obama administration announces Chesapeake Bay strategy,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, May 13, 2010
This time … the EPA is legally obligated to achieve the goals established in the settlement. —“Chesapeake Bay settlement has EPA agreeing to enforce pollution reduction goals,” Washington Post, May 12, 2010
…Callie Angell
I don’t know if I remember rightly that Callie’s cat was called Clara back in the 1970s, when Callie and I were closest, but I do know that Clara had an unusual meow.
“What’s your favorite kind of computer?” Callie would ask.
“Wang,” Clara would say.
The news of Callie’s death by suicide has brought much comment about her dedication to avant garde film, Warhol in particular, the most beautiful by Jim Hoberman in the Village Voice. But the Callie I knew had a life outside of screening rooms.
This born New Yorker loved a small lake and family lakehouse just outside the city. There were snapping turtles, which she would watch snare unaware birds. Sitting on the porch on humid evenings was never dull. Lightning storms could cast freakish bolts that would come in through the porch and zizzle through the house until they raced out of a door. …
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