Pic(k) of the Week: (Almost) Halloween Guest

A spider —and her meals— at dusk. She may have been a week premature for a Halloween visit, but who's checking?

24 October 2021.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Proper topper on St. Patrick's Day

He sports a proper topper for the day.

As seen at Friday Jazz at the High Museum of Art, in Atlanta, Georgia, on 17 March 2017.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

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Pic(k) of the Week: New Year's Poinsettia

For the final Pic(k) of the Week of 2017, no beer. Instead, it's a 'macro' of a house-cut poinsettia, 'filmed' with a 16-millimeter extension tube.

I pronounce the plant as it is spelled: "poin SET tee uh." If you say it otherwise, ignoring that final 'i,' I say you're wrong.

Did you know that you can preserve a poinsettEEa well past the winter holidays? I guessed at that last year, and replanted it outdoors, under a tree, in the spring. Here are tips about that from Gardening Know How:

In spring, return the plant to a sunny area and water well. Cut back all canes (branches) to about 6 inches from the pot’s rim. It may also be a good idea to repot the poinsettia using the same type of soil. While poinsettias can be kept indoors throughout summer, many people choose to move them outdoors in a sunny, but protected, area of the flower garden by sinking the pot into the ground. Either way is fine. After new growth has reached between 6 to 10 inches, pinch out the tips to encourage branching. This can be done once a month until the middle of August. Once nights become longer in fall, bring the poinsettia indoors. From about September through November light becomes crucial in poinsettia plant care. In order to encourage blooming, poinsettia plants require long periods of darkness at night (about 12 hours). Therefore, move the poinsettia to a location where it will not receive any nighttime light or cover it with a box. Allow plenty of light during the day so the plant can absorb enough energy for flowering. Warmer days (65-70 F./18-21 C.) and cooler nights (55-60 F./13-16 C.) are also recommended. Provide semi-cool, humid locations in bright, indirect light with plenty of moisture once blooming occurs.

Mine fared well. But, did you notice that line about the fall? "Bring the poinsettia indoors." I ignored that advice. That's when this happened.

So pretty, but, then, a couple days after that, this happened.



Oh, well. Back to another store-cut poinsettia. Green (red?) thumbs are not my cups of beer.

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Happy Labor Day!

The U.S. beer industry provides jobs to nearly 2.23 million Americans, contributes over $350 billion to America’s economy, and pays $63.5 billion in annual taxes.

• Brewers and importers directly employ 64,745 Americans.
• Suppliers to the brewing industry employ more than 491,800 Americans.
• Beer wholesalers directly employ more than 134,240 Americans.
• Beer retailers employ 915,700 Americans.

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And 'craft' beer?

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Labor Day

Of the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Christmas, Memorial Day, and Labor Day ... more beer is sold in the United States for Labor Day libations (off-the-premises, more than sixty million cases) than for any other holiday.

Yeast never sleeps. Your local brewster is probably hard at work today, doing her part. Support the American worker. Do your part. Drink a beer (or two). Honor Labor Day.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Flags in window.

In 1776, John Adams —Constitutional Convention delegate from Massachusetts and future American President— believed that the 2nd of July should and would be celebrated as American Independence Day.

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Why 2 July?

Because it was on 2 July, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress actually voted for independence. It would not be until two days later, on 4 July, 1776, that the body would approve a Declaration of Independence. And, it would not be until 2 August, 1776, that the delegates would actually sign the Declaration.

In 1855, a few years before he would become the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln wrote this:

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to that I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

Two days from now, on the 4th of July, 2016, the United States of America will celebrate the 240th anniversary of its independence. Despite efforts of latter-day nativists, the U.S. flag —the Star-Spangled Banner— "yet waves o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave," if unfurled on too frequent occasion with a mere breeze, rather than a strong wind.

Americans are expected to purchase $1 billion worth of beer over the Independence Day holiday. Economic stimulus; quantitative drinking. Over their 'craft' IPAs and industrial lagers, how many of them will be reflecting upon the implications of the 4th of July: in 1776, in 2016, and for the future?

John Trumbull: The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, as today (except for an allusion in the final paragraph), with a good fermentable as the subject. Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


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On Memorial Day Weekend: beer belongs, but, first, respect.

This can happen... ¹

...because this has happened. ²

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