Circle Time // 8.13.26

My first jalapeño harvest came at a good time apparently, because now there’s salmonella in the damn jalapeños (from Taylor Farms, of course)!

The luteal phase scaries have been real over here, and it’s been a bit of a blur of a week— onward with this week’s Circle Time!

• It’s been week of tougher logistical management, between managing Benny’s back flare-up, our car is in the repair shop right now because a garage in NYC treated it like a bumper car, and a lot of admin between bills, insurance, doctors appointments, so mostly been focused on decompression and taking lots of breaks in the garden:

  • Our first black swallowtail caterpillar on my dill plant weeks ago sadly didn’t make it past its cocoon phase (it’s still on my cucumber trellis but just seems husky and dried out), probably because we had several crazy thunderstorms and bad heat. But now there’s another little guy I spotted this morning, munching along on the dill flowers, so fingers crossed it makes it!

  • My second attempt at cucumbers are off to a much better start than my first ones of the season that for some reason really struggled. Benny will soon be thrilled, I swear half my garden is just for him.

• 6 states had primaries on Tuesday. Here is a good roundup, and highlights below:

  • Wisconsin: David Crowley narrowly beat out Francesca Hong by just over 3000 votes for the Democratic nomination for Governor. He will now go on to face off with Republican Tom Tiffany for the gubernatorial general. Tom Tiffany is an election denier (2020) and a Trump loyalist.

  • Minnesota:

    • Current LT. Governor Peggy Flanagan won over Rep. Angie Craig for the Democratic nomination for Senate. Flanagan will be up against Republican former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya for the general.

    • Senator Amy Klobuchar will be the Dem nominee for Governor. She will face off with Republican Lisa Demuth, who won the GOP nom against Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy endorsed by Trump.

• ICYMI: they’re watching you. Flock cameras are tracking every car in America in a surveillance state that none of us ever consented to, but our towns and cities found it appropriate to install and implement without letting anyone know about it. Now, there’s backlash everywhere and Robin Hood’ing.

• Trump issued an executive order to change the childhood vaccine schedule to revise the MMR vaccine to be separated into individual shots, claiming without evidence that it would increase safety. The problem? The MMR doesn’t come in individual vaccines, because there is zero evidence that there would be benefit to that, so manufacturers…don’t make it.

  • Pediatricians and practicing doctors everywhere strongly condemned the announcement and the executive order that will not actually have effect, as the ACIP is the only one with the ability to actually revise the childhood vaccine schedule.

• More terrible food news and recalls:

  • Taylor Farms is recalling about 20 different types of products (dips, prepped veg, salsas, guac) that have jalapeno in it for salmonella contamination.

  • 3200lbs of pastrami and corned beef have been recalled for listeria.

  • 30,000lbs of raw beef has been recalled from Florida and Texas.

• Another big L for Trump: Judge (again) bars this administration from implementing order that sought to limit mail voting.

• They are spending $900 million on renovations the White House. As if it doesn’t already look like a 2000 Embassy Suites ballroom with the sundowning man gilding it in Kremlin gold.

• The Lakers sold to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner for $12 billion.