Culture vulture

We like explosions
There are many sights that one doesn’t see every day. A tall, fiendishly grinning British mechanic leaping off of a tall pile of orchard prunings in a Union Jack barbecue apron with a shower of sparks from a fireworks fountain exploding around him is just such a sight. Include a rag-stuffed human effigy upon the grinning head of which the firework is fastened, an audience of cheering children and adults, and further embellish the tableau with in a tiny crescent moon floating amogst the bare-limbed trees silhouetted behind the fireworks, and you have a scene the like of which Culture Vulture has never previously laid eyes.

And now, having seen such a vision and participated most enthusiastically in the cheering that accompanied it, I raise a toast to Guy Fawkes, to fireworks, to autumn festivals, to the Larkin family, and to friends who celebrate the arrival of cold weather with a defiant bonfire and a harvest feast.

Cheers.

The fruits of fall
In high autumn the really luscious bounty is brought forth at the Saturday Farmers’ Market. We refer not only to crisp and flavorful Fuji and Gala apples, which provide a tasty fanfare early in the season, but also to firm and spicy pumpkin-colored fuyu persimmons, the flavor and texture of which reach their peak in November. And most of all we celebrate the arrival of pomegranate season.

The rich pink globes, taut with polished garnet seeds filled with wine-dark juice, are, in Culture Vulture’s long-held opinion, the most wonderous of all fruits. Whether one puts one’s faith in the scientific labyrinth of evolution or the theological briar patch of intelligent design or simply considers the world a figment of one’s overactive imagination, the pomegranate is a pinnacle of nutritious, delicious fertility.

And, if the gustatory aesthetics of this marvelous fruit aren’t enough to convince you, a February 2005 article in Better Nutrition magazine states that, “Scientists in Haifa Israel, … found, back in the year 2000, that drinking a glass of pomegranate juice daily can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Compounds in pomegranates were found to reduce the retention of LDL—or ‘bad’ cholesterol—and to cut oxidation of cholesterol by half.”

So support your local pomegranate grower. We’ll all benefit.

And further more …
Reading the news about the protests at the South American trade summit, I couldn’t help but wonder how the frack capitalism became synonymous with democracy. The end result of capitalism is plutocracy—rule by the rich for benefit of the rich. We’re seeing the results of that political philosophy in the current wretched state of affairs of both a national and state politics. I can’t wait to see what will happen when a government elected by a well-informed working class to serve the needs of a well-informed working class is voted into power.