By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Patient readers, I am struggling to finish my long delayed-by-events post on mask bans, so this is an open thread. –lambert
P.S. However, as a conversation starter, when digging into the oppo on Walz’s military record yesterday, I asked for a timeline. Here is one:
The ‘Swift Boating’ of Tim Walz has begun. What is the truth? Task & Purpose. Fun fact:
“Swiftboat” is a political short-hand for the 2004 media campaign that attacked Democrat John Kerry’s combat experience as a Navy officer aboard riverine patrol boats in Vietnam, known to their crews as Swift Boats. That campaign, run by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, was run by Chris LaCivita, who is now a co-manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Which says nothing about the merits, of course, if any. But everything old is new again!
Bird Song of the Day
Readers have been so happy with the mockingbirds I’m going to keep doing them. Now entering Day Four of Week Three!
Long-tailed Mockingbird, ACP Chaparrí–Chaparrí Ecolodge, Lambayeque, Peru; “Communal chatter from several birds at a roost area near the lodge grounds. The mockingbird ‘epicenter’ of Chaparri.”
Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From Lee:
Lee writes: “A nameless weed bursts green from a narrow crack in the pavement even with a steel stake through its heart. This one I’ll not uproot.”
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