There is a plague on starfish. You may read about it here. Basically, starfish are dying of this wasting disease where their arms fall off, and because I don’t want to be the only one having these nightmares, I am going to add that sometimes in the course of this disease their arms fall off and crawl away. 

Scientists are hoping they can figure it out ASAP. I will keep you posted.

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These exist and I do not need them because I own several of them already, do not like a couple of them, have not read several others, and would not exchange my current copy of In This House of Brede for anything. But these concerns are subsidiary to the very strong part of my brain that’s whining, “But they ma-atch.” If they came in a slipcase I’d have already ordered a set. Because I’m weak.

Not to point fingers, but it is ALWAYS ENGLAND who pulls this shit on me. England is also the reason I’ve spent weeks trying to kid myself that I’m not going to eventually buy the new copies of the Casson family series. They match and I love the cover art. My current copies do not match and I do not love the cover art. I am always on the lookout for the One Best Copy of every book I love. You know those new Casson books are going to be mine someday. If I decide I truly want to own more than, let’s say, three of those Rumer Godden books  (Thursday’s Children and Listen to the Nightingale don’t count because I don’t like the covers on those ones), those will probably be mine too. I have no self-control in my perpetual search for the One Best Copy.

ALSO. Hawkeye #8 is out today. David Aja is back drawing. Go to your local comics store, if you have one, and buy it!

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Here’s what this means to me. When all the other fish have died out, and the plagues and natural disasters have come, and the pitifully reduced human race is struggling to survive, we will be surviving by eating jellyfish. FOREVER. If that doesn’t convince you to take ecological issues seriously, I don’t know what will.

(I feel like this theory is going to make me into a crazy person. I’ll see someone throwing a water bottle into a trash can and I’ll grab them and be like DO YOU WANT TO BE EATING JELLYFISH FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? THEIR MOUTHS ARE THEIR ASSES! RECYCLE YOUR WATER BOTTLE!)

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In this post we are going to worry about how eating quinoa is harming people in South America. Because apparently when we eat quinoa and other things including, goddammit, asparagus which I love, the prices of these things goes way way up in their countries of origin. People in South America used to be able to get quinoa really cheap, and that was awesome for them because it has lots of protein, calcium, and fiber, and it can go in a whole bunch of different dishes.

Then America decided that was awesome for us too, and we were like, Yummy! Send us the quinoa! And now quinoa commands much higher prices, and the very poor Bolivian and Peruvian populations that have historically depended on quinoa as a cheap food staple can’t afford it any more. It costs as much as chicken now. Same problem arises with, I’m sorry but the Guardian says it’s true, asparagus and soy.

(Not sure why the Guardian is singling out vegans. Lots of people eat quinoa. I have been intending to start eating quinoa but now I won’t.)

So, okay. I do not eat that many soy products, and I have never eaten quinoa, but I do love asparagus. But now I will just have to stop buying those things. Unless I can get them at the farmers’ market, where everything is locally grown. Being a good person is hard but it is easier when you live somewhere like New York where you have easy access to a lot of choices. Also when you do not have dietary restrictions.

ETA: Y’all and also Slate.com make it sound like I do not need to worry about quinoa as much as that Guardian article said I did. Phew. But also, hmph, now I need to return to thinking about finding quinoa recipes and becoming familiar with quinoa in my cooking.

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