Normally Abnormal

It was a totally normal day:  wake up, coffee and toast, off to the Botanic Garden, home for lunch, some Sandia consulting work, 5:00 news and exercise, leftover pork tenderloin et al., and finally bake some Jamie Oliver chocolate rye cookies.  I spent the evening watching MS NOW with Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnel (the latter interviewed Sen. Warren), followed by Nat Geo episodes of digs in Egypt.  

The Nature's Notebook Gang at the BioPark

In South Carolina, Buddhist monks continue their walk for peace while their faithful dog, Aloka was surgically treated in Charleston by vets working pro bono.  We expect them to reach Charlotte on the 15th.  Perhaps my nephew can see them.  

Somewhere during all that, protesters across the nation sought to get ICE out of their communities.  Protesters in Iran were killed by the hundreds.  Courts, Congress, and NGOs fought with the current regime.  Chaos still reigns in Venezuela.  Gaza is a mess, as is most of Africa.

What's wrong with this picture?  How can ABQ be so normal while democracy is on the ropes and autocrats plot to turn the world into Hitler's 1938 Germany?  

FELON47's sycophants keep trying to gut existing conservation measures, destroy existing wildlife refuges, and sell off our public lands.  As for me, I finished my slide deck for the Nature's Notebook online conference.  What hope is there for citizen science when mainstream science is under concerted attack by TCF?  

Jamie Oliver's 5-ingredient chocolate rye cookies

In the final analysis, I can report that sous vide pork tenderloin cooked with sage, cinnamon, and lemon peel is great.  Fleischmann's recipe for Brewer's Rye Bread is also excellent.  (Note to self:  Get some deli pastrami, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut.)