Middens provide endless fascination for archaeologists. Middens yield information about human diet and behavior, social ranking and wealth, environment, and climate change.
Oh, “midden” is the name scientists use for old trash. It comes from the Danish word “køkkenmødding,” literally translated as kitchen mound. Middens are places where garbage was dumped, usually out of the way from normal traffic, out of sight and away from smell.
Wineries and growers in California are hedging their risk from a changing climate by purchasing vineyard land in Oregon and Washington. The Northwest states, relative newcomers to the wine business, initially were known for Pinot Noir and Riesling, varieties that struggled in cooler environments but did spectacularly well some vintages. The quality of Northwest wines, though, varied from year to year because of inconsistent weather. Wines produced in the prime regions of northern California, differentiated themselves according to micro-climates, with weather patterns predictably reliable each year.
As the planet warms, vintners see northern California wine grapes becoming more like their cousins in the dry, hot Central Valley: abundant yields producing wines lacking nuance, usually blended into inexpensive bulk-produced wines. Northwest climate is becoming what California was, growing premium wine grapes that are now thriving further north.
Military service had “probably given these men more exalted ideas of their station in life than really exists, and having these ideas they will be guilty of many acts of self-assertion, arrogance, and insolence . . . this is the right time to show them what will and what will not be permitted, and thus save them much trouble in the future.”
– newspaper editorial
The only good thing that occurred in 1919 was the birth of my mother. Otherwise, in the aftermath of the Great War, the United States was in the midst of the influenza pandemic that killed 675,000 people — more than fifty-million world-wide. Gamblers paid the Chicago White Sox to throw the 1919 World Series and ever after be known as the Black Sox. 1919 was also the Red Summer of race riots, three dozen, mostly in cities, but the most deadly in rural Elaine, Arkansas, where more than two-hundred African-Americans and five white men were killed.
“We’ve had a lot of Spanish-speaking workers. I say, ‘Thank Heaven for them.’ We’d be a lot further from recovering if it weren’t for them.”
As we’ve been told, Mexico and Central America are sending “not their best” across the border into the U.S. We are being overwhelmed by drug gangsters and rapists, according to the current occupant of the White House. Well, maybe not overwhelmed, exactly.
A new recovery-and-reconstruction work force has developed to keep pace with the more frequent and more severe weather events. (Nothing to do with climate change!) Like migrant agricultural workers following the crops, this emerging workforce is also mobile, following disasters: New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; Houston after Harvey; North Carolina after Florence; Florida after Irma and Michael. Much of the cleanup and rebuilding is the work of laborers and craftspeople who entered the country illegally.
Amazon is threatening to fill the skies with drone aircraft delivering urgent packages to doorstops. UPS has begun making deliveries to hospitals of drugs or other items that really are, in fact, urgent. What’s next, drone taxicabs?
“The associated risks and effects of climate change are relevant considerations for the Federal Reserve.”
As the current occupant of the White House has made clear — and who knows better than he — earth’s changing climate is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese… or scientists trying to stay on the research-grant dole… or liberal politicians wanting to tax us some more.
Whether climate change is a hoax or not, banks are not taking chances.
