The Sagacious Plant August 17, 2005 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy

Sage Today is, for me, the best day, weather-wise of the summer. It rained last night and everything has this crisp, earthy, almost autumn smell to the air. I have a bunch of plants growing on my fire escape, and there’s something immensely satisfying about growing your own. (No, nothing illegal here. I tried that in college without success.) Currently I have growing oregano, sage, basil, creeping tyme, coleus, dieffenbachia (i.e mother-in-law’s tongue), morning glory, jade, aloe, spider plants, a plumeria, a dracena, a haworthia, a bird of paradise plant, and a succulent of which I don’t know the name. And this is all on my fire escape. Whenever I make pasta sauce I head over to my window, lean outside and pick some fresh herbs. This morning I picked some sage which, besides adding a kick to foods, makes a really nice incense. Legend has it that sage smoke can clear the air of evil spirits. I don’t know about that, but it might help with the smell of cat urine in the corner. My cat, Lucy, has decided that some of the plants in my bedroom make nice litterboxes. I suppose I can’t blame her too much, after all, it is dirt.

Sybil's Garage Tonight I am going to KGB to see Mary Anne Mohanraj read. I’ve actually never read any of her stuff, but she did come see our AlteredFluid group a while back. According to her she can read a three hundred page novel in about two hours. That’s an impressive feat, especially for one who used to be the editor of Strange Horizons. Anyway, I plan to hand out Sybil’s Garage flyers (seen at left) while I’m there. It’s basically the magazine cover, but printed on brown paper. Being that I have less than a dozen print copies left, maybe you should get yours now before they’re gone forever. (wink wink, nudge nudge).

Finally, Mercurio Rivera sent me this MP3 today, “Mr. President, Stop this War,” a 60s style folk song imploring the President to, well, stop the war. I’m not sure how much good a song will do, but it seems that Cindy Sheehan is certainly doing something right.