ART AND SCIENCE OF STREET REPAIRS IN PUERTO RICO

MOST people demand freedom, equality and cheaper costs of utilities, no crime or less from this government or the next, red or blue isle political parties.

My happiness, that one lasting as long as a match,  would be complete, or a little bit more enjoyable if the constant noise from  Universdad Sagrado Corazon illegal FAAD cafeteteria, next door,  the constant security four tracks, the air conditioning feeders and the hundreds of trucks and automobiles and their CO2, were ameliorated or eliminated.

The lack of systematic repairs, with efficient workers and supervisors of road, highways, and streets, electricity and water would increase significantly our quality of life.

The video shows traditional patch and pray repairs, with the supervisor reading the newspapers, too many employees, inefficient use of time and waste of resources.

Out of the ten or more men working, including the apparently, two squat engineers that dropped by in the afternoon to check on their native cheap labor, perhaps half worked all the time.

In terms of men/hours, the whole crew worked perhaps four, instead of the eight they get paid for. This is a good example why Puerto Rico is bankrupt morally and financially, a total lack of self respect collectively and individually.


No respect for work, a constant lackadaisical mood, joking, a bunch of charlatans is what essentially constitute this concrete/asphalt space, with plenty of alegria boricua, wrapped in the flag, plus the mandatory,  insormountable pride for any Miss Universe or gold medal in some regional basketball tournament.


Just give me some quiet, quality of life, that would suffice. Keep your flag, the trophies and that sick useless pride!

. 

Ibrahim Ferrer & Omara Portuondo (Buena Vista Social Club) - Silencio.avi

POLIANTHES TUBEROSA FIRST BLOOM

IN the past I decided not to present flowers in me blog,  after visiting at least thirty over there, (here is nothing to look), except one, besides this one,  mostly about veggies.  In those blogs, once in a while, a rare, unique flower was shared.  Often it was the same, over and over, since most gardeners in template countries like, USA, buy in similar nurseries.

There are two blogs that would have to be excluded, both based in arid/dry/cold conditions practically in the center of that country,  not only with know how but excellent photos and information. The rest in the north east and Florida, are lame and bland, in me classical intercontinental humble opinion.

At any rate. Polianthes tuberosa has been present in me life since childhood. Never seen planted on the ground , but in cut stems, in glass jars.  Sold in some street markets or by  'door to door' fellows with a bunch under the armpit. 


I saw the first one planted in a relative's garden five years or so ago. The second, six houses down in me street, where I got mine as a present from Ramonita. Considering the garden as a whole, one plant many not seem like much, particularly if one consider the foliage.  Polianthes looks like any other weed, aesthetics is not their thing.


Rengui my plant exchange partner, in law and collaborator, has informed yours truly that Azucenas are perceived as a good luck charm. This  explains noticing them for such a long period.

For this same reason Azucenas are present and sold in botanicas. If you do not know the term go search under Santeria religion for a better glimpse on the issues.

Now,  Azucenas are mentioned in One Hundred Years of Solitude, the masterpiece from Garcia Marques a Colombian for the globe.  These fragrant flowers are also mentioned in Silencio, a composition from a fellow islander from Aguadilla City, Rafael Hernandez, one of the first to have his music featured in Hollywood films from moons ago.

http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Ornamentales/Azucenas,_Nardo_o_tuberosa/hat 

For some DK reason Azucenas are always mentioned along Nardos, according to the information in the link above Nardos and Azucenas are synonyms. The information presents all you need to know in terms of commercial  cultivating and selling.

In one of my previous posts: The Nardos and Azucenas Mystery Solved, I found they are not the same. If you want to know, you know the drill.

that is that.

THE GLOBAL GULLIBLES

ONCE in  blue moon, I wonder about this restless anger within.. and I look around.  No wonder.  I am not here to follow, believe,  but to inquire, not with the academician, useless, theoretical spirit,  but   to keep the flow, what else?... flowing.

The  trigger was this character I knew in my younger years. A woman with a pretty face once upon a time, no butt no projection in the chest if you know what I mean, besides
a weakness for social status and money.  Not that there is anything wrong with that. And a nice smile, without much gray matter.

Well, she was sharing her life adventures with this good friend of your humbleness, during the last 37 years.  Taking the name of the husband, delivering children, following the husband anywhere his job required with all the monetary benefits of such contract.  She seems so happy! I almost puke.


The gullible have no introspection. They follow whom and whatever no matter if they are lead to the abyss. Check the Wall St. financial scams some months ago, the Standard and Poors degrading  debt of countries at random for their benefit and those of speculators recently.  Who is paying and for how long, all that speculation...The USA use and custom way of life. Buy and sell, credit on credit imaginary or with collateral....


How much is the cost of a pepper, a lettuce in your country?  Well, since everyjuan keeps looking for the cheapest way to buy, one of this days produce will arrive from far away lands without any, or not much phytosanitary controls.


Or with echoli bacteria as it happened recently in Germany, killing some people and making  thousands sick.  The fear afterwards and the urge to put some blame caused Spain great loss of money and reputation.  Farming, harvesting can not follow the ways of manufacture: high volume/low price.  When will people understand that?  The variables are not under control as in tool and dye shop.


What about fishing? Same principle, every country in the world decided to fish and fish filling the refrigerators to the brim, as in a bottom less barrel.  That is why there are pirates in Somalia, not much fish anywhere else. Them pirates will be around for five more years, until there is no more fish. Anchovies and cod are a good example of the irrationality of economics without control...Later....unemployment, tears and whining about this or that.




Housing and highway developers operate under the same principles, with the exact same results as if soil and space were infinite.


Environmentalists, the globa majority SUCK. There is no WAY the earth can be saved with the  brutal increase of population in the third world.  The last resources available, are destroyed by multi nationals and the wretched of the earth.


Only some level of ZERO population growth by any means necessary will help the effort of those with guts and imagination to create a world for now, not a 'better future' and/or stupid 'generations to come'.


Emigration? Well those looking 'for a better future" and their 50 relatives in Spain or USA, for example, will better become entrepeneurs in their own country. There is no more room. tolerance, or 'better futures' and/or political asylum.


All the above reminds me of a slogan in the hearse in Once Upon a Time in America, that film masterpiece with James Woods and Robert de Niro, the one  with a naked hoa in a coffin, to pick him up after serving his sentence for murder: 

Why keep on living?

We can bury you for $59.50.

that is that

g.

T

LONELY GUERRILLA SURVIVOR AND UPDATES

  Hace un tiempo sembre varias cosas que ya no importan, pues solo ha quedado este Pandanus utilis, al otro dia ya habia comenzado mi contra ataque.

Algunos/as piensan que la vegetation que existia era horrible, yo discrepo, pues cualquier vegetacion es preferible al concreto/asfalto, por el calor que generan....su inutilidad. 

Los enlaces  que siguen, dejan ver la belleza verde i util, previa a la limpieza o masacre indiscriminada que se acostumbra en la isla de mierda esta.

http://youtu.be/Wkoi6hSu2DQ i su gemelo:

http://youtu.be/govA08GdmWw

That is that 

Added after the destruction

Turnera ulmiforme

Agave

Cosmos sulphureous

Mirabilis siciliana

Ipomoea aegyptia

Clitorea ternatea
Bryophyllum

USA AND VIETNAM ON WEEDS AND WAR

SINCE  I was twelve, I have lived under the impression that war and conflict have dominated the world. The most absurd, perhaps are those fought for principles of this or that..Religion, freedom, democracy, dictatorships, communism and nationalism, take your pick.

Once in a blue moon, I wondered about the effect of war on flora and fauna.  It is not that simple. Not many people write on the subject, on the contrary, I always see some article or news about the millions of personal mines still active in the whole world where brutal, useless and expensive wars have been fought.

Richard Mabey

WEEDS

 Harpers College Publishers

2010

The world and life of weeds if deep and wide. I have yet to find a book, as the one above, covering the whole spectrum.

Readers unwilling to familiarize themselves with botanical names will have a feast. Only the common names are used throughout the text, even though a botanical index and solid references are provided.

Below an excerpt on Vietnam. It provides a glimpse on the subject of weeds and war, considering the constant daily news  clips of bombs dropping in that country and its neighbors are still somewhat fresh on me mind after four decades. 

In the real world, the superweed is already here, not as the result of extra-terrestrial invasion but of our own reckless assaults on the natural world.  Sometimes a plant is turned into a weed and then into a multinational villain because humans have exterminated all the other wild plants with which it once lived in some sort of equilibrium.

Between 1964 and 1971 the United States sprayed 12 million tons of Agent Orange in Vietnam. This infamous mixture of phenoxyacetic herbicides, free dioxins, and turpentine was used as defoliant, to lay bare entire rainforests so that the Vietcong had nowhere to hide. It laid low large numbers of Vietnamese people,too, and is now banned under the Geneva Convention.  But this outlawing was too late for the forest, which has still not recovered four decades on.  In its place is a tough grass called cogon.


Cogon is a natural component of the ground vegetation of south-east Asian forest. If flourishes briefly when the canopy closes again. When the trees were permanently obliterated in Vietnam, it rampaged across the landscape. It is repeatedly burned off, but this seems to encourage it more, and it has overwhelmed all attempts to overplant it with teak, pineapple, even the formidable bamboo.
Unsurprisingly it picked up the local tag of "American weed".  There is some poetic justice in the fact that cogon recently infiltrated the USA in the packaging of imported Asian house-plants, and is now advancing through the southern states.
  
Back in the studio, I must add that some females among  the concrete asphalt isle population was used as guinea pigs for birth control pills in the beginning, and apparently our flora and fauna in El Yunque was also used to experiment with Agent Orange moons ago.

Perhaps the statehooders should add this fact to their arguments/demands that WE should be EQUALS, voting for a president, become a state and such  when they go begging to the US Congress for such aberration/dream.

This may soften their kind, humanitarian sense of history, sovereignty and respect of the  free will of the people other than themselves, eloquently demonstrated in the whole wild world during their existence.

That is That 

 

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE BOTANICAL INVENTORY l

O ne of those memorable books in Spanish,( universal may write the average arrogant academician), when half the population on earth does not read/write nor has water/electricity or sanitary service.

In many novels authors create worlds with rules and customs of their own, often similar to reality.  I have never read anything closer to nature, except some of Horacio Quiroga's short stories. Men/women working with it, trying to tame it or just living along nature,  integral part of it.


The items  appear in the order  they do in the novel,  Spanish edition. If you think Harry Potter is cool, you should  check the Gregory Rabassa translation, as fun as the original, believe it or not, in my humble opinion. 

The first is a bird, Paces domesticus or gorrion. As a result of this research, I know for sure what this bird is and look like, finally. In the future, I will probably include birds plus plants in the same post. Now, let the vegetation be.

BOTANICAL INVENTORY

One Hundred Years of Solitude

by 

Gabriel Garcia Marques

Editorial La Oveja Negra Ltda

1978

Solanum melongena

Musa paradisiaca

Xanthosoma Saggitifolium

Manhihot Esculenta

Dioscorea spp

Cucurbita maxima

Occimun basilicum

All the above are in the edible department.

Now one has to be careful with common names in the Americas given to all things in nature from the conquerors. One example will do.

What is named castanho in the novel is not, Castanea sativa Miller but Aesculus hippocastanum.  

If you go to search with these names you will see why, one of the two, does not grow over here in the tropics. That is one of the problems of using common names...However, let the record show the novel is not a botanical treatise. 

 

That is that.

I have had lots of fun with this project, just started.

331 TAPIA STREET

A while ago I wrote a few words on this subject.  The place is 3 buildings on the same sidewalk before  La Casita Blanca an ugly, not so hot  gastronomically, at sky rocket prices for gullible tourists and natives.

The cultural/historical/anthropological importance of 331 Tapia St. is that it is owned by native islanders, in an area mostly invaded, crowded by originals from La Espanhola.

The music is mostly from Radio Voz la Emisora de la Salsa. The walls have some of the folk crafts done by Crispin Rivera, or juatever his last name is, bartender, chef and administrator of this timbiriche with good prices and air conditioned.  

I had the chance to take some photos on the paintings on the wall. The distortion and vivid colors, called my attention. Primitive, not schooled/trained or any other art defining concept come to mind.  These paintings violate the principles of proportion, perspective, and composition. 

But who cares? Van Gohg did it with his bedroom, that is the charm of distortion. I could not help but to enjoy them as I had my shots of Medalla/Palo Viejo...however, the virtue I enjoy the most at 331 Tapia St, is the wide possibilities of conversation.

They cover the whole ground. Politics, economics mostly international, there is not much to discuss about the concrete/asphalt except that it is bankrupt, morally, economically, socially and culturally.

Crispin and your humble servant have exchanged all sorts of plants, seeds and produce.  What I like the best is our conversations about gastronomy, recipes, procedures, agriculture, insects, birds in our urban context and his original, the rural. Always stimulating, and believe me, down here a good conversation is like one of those black pearls..

that is that 

REFLECTIONS FROM A SEE SAW

Yesterday, while waiting for the order in the best, (probably), Chinese resttaurant in the SJ Metro area, with  Condado Lagoon behind and the Atlantic ocean across, I noticed what seemed a pain in the arse child, perhaps six of age, hiding under the sushi bar counter top between the stools. I was odd.

A few minutes later, the little bastard ran away towards his parents by the exit door, since he had broken some metal part in the mentioned counter, left hanging on a stool.

The action took about six or seven minutes to develop. Not until the metal part fell, I made the connection, the hidden message still unclear.

Five decades plus 24 months ago, in a nice art deco bar, El Cebucan, in Caguas Country, where a Doble Seis pub stands now I had a similar experience .

My dad was sitting to my left. Your humble servant started, as many children do, to feel under the counter, unlike the bastard above, I could not see.   I kept testing until I felt a cool, smooth surface.  I pulled gently and it broke falling on my dads lap...It was a long neon light I had dismembered.  


I never forget that evening. Well, I do not think of it often after all the time elapsed, however, an argument started between me dad and the owner about the cost and paying of the repair.


I was sent home, scared as hell knowing me dad will certainly whip me violently as he did once in a while, unlike me mother, who did it almost daily for any excuse, being hyperactive and all, plus the little genius in me, most people living in negation five decades plus two later, refused then, branding me as problematic,  to accept or acknowledge.  Adding injury to insult as a figure of speech, the same ones, not only expect, but DEMAND humility!


The see saw in the tittle does not require a thesis. People of merit, those with integrity, character, criterion are like that cliche of  a needle in a haystack.  I judge people and every situation I can put my fingers on. If I do not understand, I research, until I get a grasp.


One thing I have learned or remembered during the last couple of days while receiving an exceptional number of congratulations in my six decades anniversary, is that most people take one for what one is.   Abrasive or soft as a granite kitchen counter.


The see saw, like waves, high and low tide remind me of  life as it often feels/seems from inside out. It is never  the same according to the focus, perspective, position...Like a garden at eye, ground or above eye level. The same thing with a different perspective changes accordingly.  Beauty, good will, good people are there, needles in the haystack.

that is that

Thanks to all who have demonstrated

some affection for your grouchy servant.

I do apprecite it. 

Good luck in your projects...

WHERE HAVE ALL THE HONEYBEES GONE?

About a year ago I noticed a remarkable decrease in the amount of bees visiting me garden, particularly in the mornings.  I knew there was a world collapse and did not worry since there is nothing I can do. I found this excellent article in Fine Gardening, August 1999, page 58.

Honeybee populations worldwide are  being threatened, and the varroa mite (Varroa jacobsoni) is to blame. These bloodsucking mites cause honeybees to become deformed, lose weight and disease resistance, and have difficulty mating.  Mite infestations weaken colonies and if left untreated, the colonies eventually die.

The loss of honeybees as pollinators is not only a concern to agriculturalists and professional beekeepers, but also to honeybee lobbyists, honey producers, and home gardeners. 

In the USA varroa mites have appeared in 35 states, from South Dakota to Maine and south to Florida, and their spread continues.  In states where mites have been detected, nearly all wild honeybee colonies have been severally impacted.  The populations of commercial colonies have been reduced by as much as 50 percent.

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution. While current control measures effectively manage captive, commercial colonies, they are impossible to implement in the wild. Consequently, gardeners are forced to rely on other pollinators, such as bumblebees and wasps, to pick up the slack.   Gardening to attract and feed these beneficial insects can only help increase visitation rates and successful polination.

by 

Jaret Daniels

Manager 

Boender Laboratory 

for Endangered Species

Gainesville, Fla. 

that is that 

H

QUARTERLY GARDEN REPORT

OR

Bouret Horticultural Society

FLORA AND FAUNA

CARIBBEAN PATRIMONY

FOR THE INITIATED

REPORT

THE Pandanus utilis is now in a rather big fiberglass pot, while its former resident an edemic Zamia is now into a much smaller residence.

The reason is simple. While it looks healthy the Zamia, slow by nature, seemed more so.. When I pulled it out, the root system was underdeveloped. The only solution was relocation.

This variety, an impressive plant, in terms of beauty and architecture, is not abused, or used in most instances in Puerto Rico. I do not know or care about it much. I have decided to pretend I am blind in this department. There are too many hogs, very few pearls to dispense with on this pasture.

The grafted lemon is on its third crop, there were two on the first year.  In the same pot there are Capsicum florescens our endemic hot chiles*. These plants healthier, stronger and most productive than previous ones are pest free. Promiscuity is the term used when more than one plant is cultivated to enhance production, in Spanish. Agricultural promiscuity.

American Indians, for example, would plant 3, corn, beans and something else I do not remember (pumpkins?) to create a community of plants helping each other. The beans provided nitrogen in the ground the stalks, support.

The hanging passions, shady passion, or Passiflora has increased the production by three, even when attacked by scales. As you know these insects are a pain in the arse in ANY plant, very difficult to eradicate. I am not going to spray, I decided to cut of the infected vines. If you wonder why...research...

* Chef Cajan experimented with mango hot chile jam with excellent results. One pound mango, one cup and half of water, 3 aji picantes, teaspoon of ginger, a dash of vinegar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar...The texture is perfect. After the boiling, get rid of some of the liquid to get the right consistency. Use as you would any other jam, but remember that it is great to marinate also.

I want to thank every reader fan/foe that drops by....into gardening or not...After all, the stats of ghost commentators, knowing where they come from, shows that a majority of non commentators do not seem to practice horticulture. 

Even when I am not looking for recognition, friends or disciples, I appreciate the response indicated by cluster maps...Again...thanks to all.

If you live in Puerto Rico or not, if you have what it takes, you are invited to visit me premises or the most documented garden in the Caribbean. No children please. Leave a message.

that is that.

THE PIG HEADED PATRIOT FAN MAIL

ONCE a time upon, people used to write letters in paper and other available cellulose material. Some Juan, left the following in the mail box.  

Dear Antigonum Cajan,

I hope in God you and your family are doing fine. From my part,  I can say/write, all is quiet on the eastern front. Considering people do not use paper to write letters any more to protect trees, I did the contrary.

I have been following your harsh, bitter, bullying, burning bridges, unforgiven, angry, not humble at all,  botanical and literary career during the last five, since the endemismotrasnochado era.  Why do I get the feeling that, friends or followers is something you are not striving for?

In truth, this is a portrait in words. inspired by Spanish masters from medieval times.  I believe, judging from your trajectory, word usage, intention and meaning that you may enjoy it since you  have written similar vignettes about people, alive or dead.  If you do not publish it will not take my sleep away. 

the pigheaded patriot

as told to 

antigonum cajan

by

Some Juan

Mr. Pighead, had some dubious hair, if you get my drift,being a result of miscegenation, however he appeared white or pale, except when looking at his ordinary lips, nose and small ears.

Mr. Cajan, do not be offended, it is not a request, but a mandate. I am not at all a  Caribbean white supremacist, nor do I admire Goethe or Nietsche, even though, Thus Spoke Zarathustra with the Berlin Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, is one of my favorites.

You may wonder if there is anything else about the patriot. Well, his jowls reminds one a bull dog.  The head, lacking a proper neck,  appears to be attached to the torso as if some islander frankistein.

When you observe my subject at some distance, he walks  swaggering, not like negroes, but simians and apes. No reason to wonder, his arms are about two inches below the knees.

He smiles often, showing that peculiar urge to make friends, to be cool and accepted. A master of chit chat. Liking the sound of his voice, could talk your ears off on beisbol, boxing, horse racing, Cuba, Fidel,Hector Lavoe and El Jibaro.

Sorry about architecture, literature, Jazz, Regue, British rock,

classical or baroque music, bossa nova, wines and other spirits not much to say, actually, nothing.

He could chit chat about food and soft drinks, in a superficial way, a result of one of his capital sins, gluttony. KFC, Mickey Dee, BK, Churche's, Domino's and the gastronomy from local timbiriches are ingested until bloating. The other deadly sin, one is avarice. This scum bag always spends more money more than he should, just like some people chew more they could swallow.  Never keeps his word, offering this or that, with some authority that days later becomes water and salt.

Has committed sins against our Flora and Fauna, can not fix a light bulb or do the lawn, yet perceives himself as someone useful, helpful, and so does society in general. In addition, can not play checkers, chess, backgammon, pool, black jack or poker.

Mr. Cajan, I hope you have meditated about this message, I almost wrote (enjoyed) considering your views, tendencies, perspective and focus.

My apologies for entering your property, I know you used to write long letters frequently, getting very angry when the populace answered six months later in the eighties......

Kind regards,

Some Juan

PD The pighead belongs to the flagwrappers  flaunting subculture. Every time some islander does something relevant for humanity,  like becoming Miss Universe, most of times in sports, perceived as useful, patriotic, enhancing a culture with regueton rivets they dress with pueltorican flag themes or carry made in China patriotic emblems.

Dear Some Juan,

I am afraid I caught between lines  social and cultural layers, evident when looking quietly at peace.  It is not juat it seems.  What you have described is close to yours truly, in a wider scheme of things. 

If I am not mistaken, this fictional character, totally useless for the collectivity, The Pigheaded Patriot represents six out of ten of the Puerto Rico, USA islanders. The Enchanted Isle or Paradise as the majority of retards still refer to it.  Considering the Pighead as a  portrait, the idiosyncratic ways of the island, its people and culture are perfectly clear.  And so are their possibilities and dreams of freedom...Literally and virtually.

Thanks for sharing it.  

Cordially yours...

AC the humble one

  

STILL HANDSOME WITTY AND AGILE AFTER SIX DECADES

Did I forget something? Certainly, humble, but it goes without saying. I had the chance to check the pictures of me classmates in the 1969  yearbook.  It was the first time since that date.

Before I go there let the record show I have lost 17 pounds. Exercise and smaller portions are the clue.  As a result I have more energy, sleeping somewhat better.  In October, I will probably be 15 pounds heavier than  four decades ago when I was in my prime.  That was the time I was a freedom fighter in the USA army.

No. I will not go on television carrying the 37 pounds of pig fat as Opera, better known as Opprah did showboating, returning to the original self not much time later.  My intention is to remain handsome, and wear again a collection of shorts and belts in storage since I lost my 36" waist.

The story behind the yearbook is as follows.  The board presided by Domingo Casillas (RIP), went on a cruise with the class money. This rumor has not been confirmed or denied by any surviving members. Twenty five years later, a group of civic mates  put the yearbook together.  It looks like piece of crap if you ask me.  Details available in  puertorrikenhadasinmostaza one of the branches of the eveningpost,  on isle issues and idiosyncratic takes on life.  

In terms of gardening and  comments from fans and foes, Titania, from the isle continent, once again hit the nail on the head, an appropriate cliche for the situation.  She mentioned her chili jams after I wrote about chiles and or aji  picante.

Chile jams, chutney, salsas and whatever hot or mild, are not processed, manufactured here.  Nojuan has thought about it, is not part of our culinary tradition. Your humble servant did. If you have an edible garden, the excess produce becomes a problem what to do with it?

I have tried to share and exchange without any luck. People are more willing to receive it in their laps if possible. No problem with that, anyjuan will gladly accept anything gratis, even if they have no use for it.

I did what had to be done. A little research based on a simple fact, sweets and deserts.  I found recipes for jam/jelly in the following books:

Cocine Conmigo 

Dora R Romano

La Cocina de Giovanna

Giovanna Huyke

Cocine a Gusto

Cabanillas/Ginorio/Mercado

Editorial UPR

1951

Out of Print

Another way to research is checking youtube under hot chile jams. The problem with them recipes is that you will have to reduce the proportions significantly, but many ideas, procedures are available.

I decided to use apples and sugar for the base. I like the light color, but guava, apricot, tamarind and/or you name it can be used. You can scrape most of the seeds of the chiles/aji leaving some for color and contrast.

In my case the result is not jelly or jam but an applesauce texture. I have been using it with meats and quesadillas. It adds a mildly hot quality to any recipe, changing the common place for something new and exciting.  I will not get in depth into the subject since this is not a blog on gastronomy...

Back to the studio...Some gentleman  moved by chivalry,  and no profile, dropped by to defend an obscure, unknown until I wrote about their cult. She an Annie Hall, look alike to whom I wrote 3/4 emails requesting the botanical inventory of  Flora and Fauna.  He defended both, with some lame attempted insults to your humble servant. Thanks for the feedback.

To them I say/write: Foreigners should not come down here with Albert Shweitzer's in Africa  missionary attitudes. I should have received some response, ANY,  12 months ago.  The inventory should have been available from the beginning of your humanitarian good will enterprise. not an after thought.

To her I say/write, you do need to go inch by inch in the one thousand acres for any botanical inventory. You go by segments based on topography, rain precipitation, soil texture and composition, and so forth. At any rate, do you have the know how?  That is what arboriculture, entomology, botany and agronomy is for or not?

Any one would have made inquiries about what I do, have collected and so forth...That missionary position of  superiority is not worthy a hog's fart. On the other hand I have an equal opportunity blog here. You are no exception!

In terms of respect, you nor any of your coworkers is a Nobel or Pulitzer prize winner. The lesson is simple. When ANY native islander send an email, be a professional and respond in 24 hours. Respect is a two way road, not a right. Not in my league.

that is that.