March 26-30
Helen and her co-conspirators created a peep show like none other to start the week. In a menagerie of fossiliferous marshmallowness, they followed the original ichthyosaurus discovery in 1810-11 by Mary Anning on the coast of Southwest England, brilliantly replacing Mary with a marshmallow peep. This will make perfect sense if you see it, and the wonderful dioramas they invented, which you must.
We were introduced to feral daffodils by Emma, who says they “thrive on neglect and abandonment.” Emma offers a notion of wilderness where there is room for species that can live without our intervention, including these spring flowers living somewhere between wild and cultivated.
The internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II is far from forgotten in Hood River, Oregon, and Michelle helps keep stories in the light. Some brave residents resisted the racism in their community, welcoming back those who were sent away, showing how it should and can be done.
Erik went back through his genealogy, from Yorkshire, England, aristocracy to dirty Norwegians, people who in their poverty had to supplement their porridge with sawdust. Seeing families pouring in and landing on different sides of the tracks, Erik concludes that immigration is the best thing to have happened to this country.
Finally, Cassandra ponders a good question, did she catch the flu because she’s been sucking snot out of her baby’s nostrils? She’s been using a device, a ‘snotsucker’. She asks, “Could I be huffing pathogens from my daughter’s nasal secretions into my lungs?” Science has an answer!