The political process breaks down, things fall apart, doom hangs heavy in the air… and the NYTimes, ever sensitive to changes in the zeitgeist, moves from sharing tips on “stem-to-root cooking” (That’s Not Trash, That’s Dinner) to a primer on permaculture:
As a way to save the world, digging a ditch next to a hillock of sheep dung would seem to be a modest start. Granted, the ditch was not just a ditch. It was meant to be a “swale,” an earthwork for slowing the flow of water down a slope on a hobby farm in western Wisconsin.
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And the trenchers, far from being day laborers, had paid $1,300 to $1,500 for the privilege of working their spades on a cement-skied Tuesday morning in late June.
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Fourteen of us had assembled to learn permaculture, a simple system for designing sustainable human settlements, restoring soil, planting year-round food landscapes, conserving water, redirecting the waste stream, forming more companionable communities and, if everything went according to plan, turning the earth’s looming resource crisis into a new age of happiness.
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It was going to have to be a pretty awesome ditch…
(Garden Chat and awesome reader pics later this evening; just wanted to share this as a virtual palate-cleanser.)
scav
il faut cultiver notre jardin
evidement in designer gear and the properly chic company.
henqiguai
Sounds achingly similar to the mission of the old New Alchemy Institute. Shuttered it’s doors within a couple of years after I found out about them after moving here to New England. I really miss NAI.
eataTREE
If there is one thing I cannot freakin’ stand about the New York Times, it is its relentlessly privileged point of view. Ditch-digging, how charming! What a quaint, yet socially meaningful way to spend an evening. It’s as if they don’t know that there exists a substantial fraction of the human race who necessarily have a different relationship towards ditch-digging and don’t engage in it as a form of edu-tainment.
Violet
I’m hoping to take a course on permaculture soon. Trying to incorporate it into my garden.
Bender
It’s official: The White House has lost the debt debate:
That’s the Fonz in waterskis…
trollhattan
In which Betty Cracker finds what might be the most poetic fail video evah.
http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/the_wile_e._coyote_of_burglars/
Watch the whoooole thing.
4jkb4ia
I noticed, too.
It could be a slow process of realization for them–they have noticed that food and gardening are about localism, survival, and reinventing lifestyles for the people who are getting into it now.
wonkie
What does “cement-skied” mean?
jl
I guess the NY Times has snoot up everything and make it seem all so tasteful and overly appropriate in fashion for the not quite rich enough.
The Yahoo news box gets down to basics
Foods With the Longest Expiration Dates, Seth Fiegerman
http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-113184-10421-3-foods-with-the-longest-expiration-dates
America’s Dirtiest Hotels, Jane Levere
(I guess they figure you can get discounts there, no link, ’cause who wants it?)
jl
Alert Cole. There is hope for the His Tunchness.
Twenty-nine-pound cat goes on diet
http://tv.yahoo.com/daytime
I watched the clip, and the title’s wrong. Should be 35 pound cat goes on diet, and is now 29 pounds.
brettvk
I love the ideas and techniques of permaculture. But charging over a thousand dollars for the course rather dilutes the message. As I sink further down in the “working” class, I’m mustering less patience with the privileges of the wealthy-to-stinking-rich.
Steeplejack
* DVR Alert *
TCM is showing Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966) at 1:00 a.m. EDT tonight.
Really good movie on a lot of levels. It has a “ripped from the headlines” cinema verité look, the script is excellent, and it’s a tight, tight thriller. And, oh, yeah, lots of political relevance. Shouldn’t forget that.
Col. Mathieu: “Should France remain in Algeria? If your answer is yes, you must accept the consequences.”
Watch a trailer here.
Steeplejack
@wonkie:
“The sky is gray and I am a bad writer.”
opie jeanne
Dear Annie Laurie,
I really look forward to the garden threads; thanks for going to the trouble.
How much in advance do you want photos?
LanceThruster
I still find it mind-boggling that in CA it is illegal to harvest rainwater. The claim is that it is taking it from the water company’s aquifers, when in fact when used to keep soil moisure up, it helps maintain the aquifer (unlike in the Great Lakes where bottled water companies pull it pretty much forever out of the local watercycle (see: “Waterlife”), a simply stunning site and documentary.
opie jeanne
LanceThruster, is this something new? Because people in California have rain barrels and cisterns to do just that.
chopper
i love reading articles in papers like the times about permaculture. they always butcher it.
chopper
@Bender:
sounds like good news for mccain. amirite?
Paul in KY
jl, saw that story. Felt sorry for that cat to have such sucky owners. He made up 2 Tunches (well, maybe 1 and a half).
The cat could stand to lose 10 more pounds.