Trusting the sun . . .
Wednesday, July 22, 2026. It's Odin's day . . . and moderate Northerlies bring a break in the heat to Green Country today. TulseyTown's afternoon is to be sunny in the low 90's.
Today is the birthdate of the poet Emma Lazarus. Born in 1849 New York City, she was the author of “The New Colossus,” enscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York City's harbor.
The realist painter Edward Hopper was also born on this day, in 1882 Nyack, New York.
Elon Musk is now in legal hot water. – Joyce Vance, The Week Ahead, in Civil Discourse.
Authoritarianism doesn’t run on one villain alone. It runs on a million volunteers. They are being silenced by you, me and we who refused to shut up. . .That will be the recorded history of this moment. – Miles Taylor, Defiance.
Medical advice? Why we can't trust the usual sources: Who to trust these days. – Joyce Vance in conversation with Dr. Vin Gupta (video), posted to Civil Discourse, 7.20.26. Dr. Gupta listed three independent, trustworthy sources (and none are the CDC or the AMA or the FDA): Gupta's sources : Immunize.org, lung.org , and heart.org.
The Navajo teach their children that every morning when the sun comes up, it’s a brand-new sun. It’s born each morning, it lives for the duration of one day, and in the evening it passes on, never to return again. As soon as the children are old enough to understand, the adults take them out at dawn and they say, “The sun has only one day. You must live this day in a good way, so that the sun won’t have wasted precious time.” – Pema Chödrön, in The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving-Kindness, Shambhala, 2018.
Necessary choices . . .
Tuesday, July 21, 2026. It's Tiw's day . . . In spite of moderate Northerlies, Green Country forecasts indicate record heat. Real temperatures of 102º with an index of 116º are to greet TulseyTown this afternoon. The triple digits are to extend into the late evening.
Hope isn't a mood that shows up first and convinces you to act. It's what you find growing once you’ve already stepped up. – Pete Buttigieg
Everybody wants a transformation. Nobody wants the hundred boring, thankless days it actually takes to get it. Progress feels like nothing’s happening when you're mid-journey. You only see how far you’ve come once you stop for a moment and look back. – Mark Manson.
Today is the birthdate of Nobel Prize laureate Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899, Cicero [now in Oak Park], Illinois.
Canadian television and film director and producer Norman Jewison was born today in 1926, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Among my many mentors from far, Marshall McLuhan was born on this day in 1911 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
It's also Hart Crane's birthday. The poet was born in 1899 Garrettsville, Ohio.
The novelist and poet John Gardner was born today in 1933 Batavia, New York. He was the author ofGrendel, a retelling of Beowulf from the viewpoint of the monster.
And, poet Tess Gallagher is 83 today. She was born in 1943 Port Angeles, Washington.
Choices
I go to the mountain side
of the house to cut saplings,
and clear a view to snow
on the mountain. But when I look up,
saw in hand, I see a nest clutched in
the uppermost branches.
I don’t cut that one.
I don’t cut the others either.
Suddenly, in every tree,
an unseen nest
where a mountain
would be.
– Tess Gallagher, "Choices" from Midnight Lantern: New and Selected Poems. Graywolf Press. 2011.
Cat Stevens is 78 today.
All of us made this our choice.
Hot town, Summer in the city.
Monday, July 20, 2026. It's the Moon's day . . . a near 100º day is forecasted for Green Country. Moderate Southerlies, bright sun, and for TulseyTown a heat index of 109º mid afternoon into the evening.
It was 57 years ago today that the first people landed on the Moon and walked the lunar surface.
It's also the date in 1976 when the first space craft made a successful landing on Mars.
It was on this day in 1875 that the largest recorded swarm of locusts in American history descended upon the Great Plains.
Today is the birthdate – debated but best guess – of Alexander the Great in 356 B.C. Pella, Macedonia [northwest of Thessaloníki] Greece.
It’s the birthday of the Italian humanist, scholar, and poet Petrarch, born in 1304 Arezzo, Italy.
It's also the birthday of New Zealand mountain climber and Antarctic explorer Edmund Hillary in 1919, Auckland, New Zealand. He and the Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
Carlos Santana is 79 years old today. A multi-Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee was born in 1947 Autlán de Navarro, Mexico
Sandra Oh is 55 today. The multi awarded actor was born in 1971 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Uniquely recognizable, she was the co-lead in the series “Killing Eve,” among many other roles. My fave is the sleeper support role in the small independent film “Sideways.”
The multi Academy nominated actor Natalie Wood was born in 1938 San Francisco.
And, Pulitzer prize novelist Cormac McCarthy was born today in 1933 Providence, Rhode Island.
Hot as it is, sometimes at the same time it can be cool and smooth.