We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
The first tomatoes were introduced to Europe from Mexico via the conquistadores. They were mainly viewed as ornamental plants. The fruit was the size of cherry tomatoes, and yellow-green when ripe. I guess that was the real "heritage tomato".
Italian food before the tomato. He is wrong about one thing - peppers came to Europe and to the world via Central America too. Same as polenta (maize meal), beans, and so much else.
Progress is a funny word. There is no doubt that Homo sapiens is remarkable in the ability to change and control the planet to meet its own needs and wants, with a population boom as a result.
All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That's why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.
Not really. Before sunrise this morning we were after legal Stripers and Fluke. Legal stripers are in a narrow slot - not too big and not too small. You need a ruler.
Thing is, Bluefish can sometimes be all around. Big ones too. They are delicious on the grill, coated with some mayo, mustard, and soy sauce. Many people feel they are "too fishy" - but they are fish. Best if cooked the day you catch them.
If you get into a school of Blues, at some point you get annoyed and throw them back. A good-sized Blue is supper for six people or more .They will bite you though. Gotta be careful removing the hook.
12:49 "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
12:50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!
12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
12:52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;
12:53 they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
12:54 He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens.
12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens.
12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Unless you have served in the Navy or the Merchant Marine, it is worth doing a trans-Atlantic crossing. It is a vacation in itself, and all ships have excellent gyms these days. If lucky, you can get a day or so of heavy weather.
There is always something to do on a ship (lectures, music, dining, socializing), but watching the ocean and the ocean critters is the best part for me.
Not an expensive trip either. I recommend heading for Southampton (London's ship harbor), but Le Havre also. Below are two links for Atlantic crossings, but I would avoid Norwegian Cruise Lines. Another note: Don't get an inside cabin. Those are places to put your kids.
Virtually every major medical organization—from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) to the American Association of Pediatrics—has embraced the idea that medicine is an inequity-producing enterprise. The AMA’s 2021 Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Advance Health Equity is virtually indistinguishable from a black studies department’s mission statement. The plan’s anonymous authors seem aware of how radically its rhetoric differs from medicine’s traditional concerns. The preamble notes that “just as the general parlance of a business document varies from that of a physics document, so too is the case for an equity document.” (Such shaky command of usage and grammar characterizes the entire 86-page tome, making the preamble’s boast that “the field of equity has developed a parlance which conveys both [sic] authenticity, precision, and meaning” particularly ironic.)
August/September is tomato season in the northeast and central US. 
Photo: 
On Rich Friends and Poor Friends
What do Americans
"Trash fish"? No. Sea Robins are 