Yo, Man! Ambitious Brew is DIGITAL!

Can you tell that I'm excited? Yes, I am. I am, I am, I am. Ambitious Brew is now an e-book, and for the low, low, price of just $8.25. (*1)

Sometimes it pays to ask: about six weeks ago, I asked my editor if there was any chance that AB would ever go digital. And she said, sure: get the photo permissions covered for an e-book and my wish would come true.

And YOWZA! There it is.

Yowie zowie kapowie! (No, it doesn't take much to set my excitement meter in motion.)

PS: Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell the world!

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*1: And remember: You do NOT need a kindle to read a kindle book. All you need is some a digital device and the Kindle app for that device.

Drought, Weather Cycles, and the Historian's View

Today's Washington Post has a short, but juice-laden piece on this summer's weather and its connection (or not) to "climate change" and long-term weather cycles. It's definitely worth reading, if only because so many commentators have jumped to the easy conclusion that this summer's weather is the result of global climate change. (*1) The WaPo piece puts that conclusion-jumping into perspective. I mentioned my view on that in my previous post, but the historian in me (you know: the person who takes the Long View of the Big Picture) would like to add this:

Sure, this summer's weather has consists of broken records: new high temperatures; new streak of days without rain, and so forth.

But it's worth noting the obvious: records can be, and are, broken, right? Back in the 1930s, for example, people marveled at the abysmal stretch of heat/drought/whatever, as records were broken right and left, and they wondered about its causes.

So, too, back in, say, the 17th century: When people experienced "exceptional" weather --- lack of rain; too much rain, etc. --- they looked for causes. At that time, they typically blamed human sin and error for their misery: god was punishing them. In the 21st century, we simply have a different explanation for "unusual weather." (Which, by the way, usually means the bad stuff. No one ever bitches when, as has been the case for the past three, four years, we have spectacular weather.)

Nor does it follow that new records/broken records are necessarily indicative of anything other than "Oh, hey, we're having an unusually brutal summer of a sort not seen since the 1930s" (or whenever).

Is climate change a factor in this summer's weather? Perhaps. Perhaps even probably. But we would do well to recognize that climate and weather operate in long-term cycles.

Indeed, at a time when everyone chatters about "nature" and the "environment," surely one way to honor both is by respecting their complexity, in this case by recognizing that many of nature's patterns are cyclical and that those cycles typically extend for periods that extend well beyond one persons lifetime. This year's awful weather may be more than just this year's awful weather or evidence of "climate change." It could be part of a long-term cyclical shift.

Embracing a deeper understanding of nature is as important as the knee-jerk conclusion that new weather records equal "climate change." Jump to a conclusion, and you may end up missing the bigger, more important story.

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*1: Again: I'm not a climate-denier, or whatever term is being used these days. I've no doubt the scientists are on to something. But I'm also a long-time weather watcher with an enormous respect for nature and its forces, which are much bigger than me.

Drought, Heat, and The Price of Meat

In case you've not heard, the U. S. is having a dry (and, yeah, HOT) summer. Drought is one of the biggies when it comes to food prices. Grains are one obvious reason: lack of rain will harm wheat crops, for example, and so wheat will be in short supply, and the price of Wheaties will go up. Drought also affects meat prices. Why? Because cattle and hog producers rely on grasses and grain to feed their stock. (And please: let's not digress into yet another discussion about the wisdom of feedlots, okay?)

In the very short term, beef prices will drop. But over the long haul those prices will go up, up, up. To understand why, it helps to know something about livestock production.

Out in the far west (think Utah, Colorado, Wyoming), ranchers graze cattle on grasses. Those grasses are sturdy (they've evolved for an arid climate), but even they can suffer in severe drought.

When the grasses are in short supply, ranchers cull their herds: They'll sell off steers AND  cows that would otherwise produce more cattle. Why? Because they can't get enough feed for them.

BUT: even if there was plenty of rain in, say, Wyoming, those ranchers would start selling off their herds anyway. Why? Because they know they won't find buyers for them. Here's why.

Those ranchers sell their grass-fed cattle to farmers who "finish" them for market by feeding them a mixture of non-grass foods, especially corn and soybeans.  But if drought in, say, Iowa or Missouri, damages fields of corn and soybeans, the prices of those crops will soar (which is what's happening now).

So Iowa farmers who would ordinarily stock up on corn and soybeans as feed won't be buying it. It'll cost too much. And because they can't afford those feedstuffs, they also won't buy cattle from western ranchers.

Both groups of livestock producers know this. So what they'll do now is sell off their cattle as fast as they can. In the short term, the market will be glutted with cattle. Packers will have their pick of cattle,which means low prices for them and for consumers. In the SHORT TERM.

But over the next six or so years, beef prices will move up. Why? Because once ranchers/farmers cull their herds, the only way to rebuild those herds is with time -- it takes about seven years to rebuild a herd. Ain't no way to speed up the process of raising new cows who can then give birth to more cattle.

Pork prices will go up, too, because hogs eat corn. No corn equals high prices for feed equals not many hogs. But hogs don't take as long to reproduce, so the cycle for pork prices doesn't take as long to stabilize (plus hogs can and do have litters more than once a year).

So in the short run, expect bargain prices for beef, followed by higher prices over the long haul, and higher prices for damn near everything else that goes in the stomach (including things like beer, wine, and whiskey, all of which are agricultural products that are also affected by drought).

So, assuming you follow all of this, reports like this excellent piece from the New York Times should make more sense to you non-farmers. (I'm not a farmer; I only know this stuff because I just finished writing a book about meat). UPDATE: Here's another long NYT piece about the extent of the drought and its impact on foodstuffs.

And no, I have no opinion on the relationship between global warming and the Awful Summer of 2012. Not that I don't think global warming is "real." Rather it's that having lived in Iowa for nearly sixty years, I know this:

Weather is cyclical. About every seven years, we have a summer that's hotter than bejesus, and about every 15 or 20 years, we get excessive heat and drought at the same time. (Last time was in 1988, which I remember because we had just moved to a new house and it had central air. I'd never had air conditioning, and I remember being SO THANKFUL that we could shut the windows against all the dust that was blowing all day every day.)

For the past three years, we've had glorious summers, so I knew that we were due for a non-glorious summer. And -- ta dah! Here it is, in all its non-glory. I'm still glad to have air conditioning!

Smell That? It's RAIN! (Not Really. More Like "It's SCIENCE!")

Was just about to post this to Facebook and thought "NO, fool! Put it on the blog instead. Bring back that  habit!" This is SO cool. Yes, I can smell rain a'coming, and have all my life. (Out where I live, I can see, smell, feel weather all the time and that's a good thing. A necessary thing.)

But I had no idea the reason was so complex (although, doh, of course it would be!). I just figured it was the rise in humidity.

Anyway, this explanation from Scientific American is marvelous and fascinating. Enjoy!

Trying to Stay Cool? How's About Some Science Fiction History?

Maybe if I just aim for dinky stuff, I can "blog" w/out feeling guilty as I dig into the revisions of the manuscript of the meat book (folks, when a writer has a great editor, her/his edits make revising as difficult as writing the manuscript in the first place) This is utterly cool. Truly.

A  timeline of American science fiction, in the 1950s, from prose to politics to TV's view of the future. (The 1950s = a fascinating decade. For many reasons.)

"Found" this thanks to Twitter (an amazing tool for tracking ideas, events, new books, music, politics, general societal weirdness, etc etc etc....fill in the blanks as your imagination ponders the notion of a free-flowing ether of ideas!). (Specifically latched on to this via Ron Charles, a book reviewer for the Washington Post and a first-rate humorist/tweeter. Also on Facebook.)

Enjoy! (Me? I'm off in the astonishing heat of the summer of 2012 sitting at a desk staring at words, words, words.....)

In the Kitchen: “What’s in the Frig?” Pasta; aka “Ack! Time to Fix Dinner!”

I try to make dinner decisions by mid-day. I don't want to have to deal at the last minute. So today, I pulled a bratwurst from the freezer. (As usual, the meat I've bought over the last two months has piled up. We eat so little meat that I tend to forget it's there.) Beyond that decision, however, my brain did not go. I was too fixated on work, which, at the moment, is manuscript revision. So there I was, several hours later, glued to my screen, brain-deep in revision. And suddenly realized: Time to think about dinner. (Yes, in our house, I cook. He washes. My choice.) (Because the essence of "women's liberation," as we called it back in the day, is CHOICE.)

Head to the kitchen. Open the frig door. Grab what's in there and start chopping and cooking.

The result was definitely not summer food. But hey! It got the job done, and it was delicious. As always, your frig contents may vary. This is for two people.

“What’s in the Frig?” Pasta; aka “Ack! Time to Fix Dinner!”

•  four big mushrooms (more or less) sliced thick
• half a green pepper and half a red pepper (or use a whole one of one or the other)
• four or five oil-preserved sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• one garlic clove, chopped
• two or three big (and good quality) ripe olives, pitted and sliced
• a couple of cups of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4 oz. of pasta (I used Rustichelli Fusilli)
• olive oil (of course!)
• bratwurst

Boil water for the pasta and pre-heat your broiler. While you’re waiting:

Heat some oil in a large, sturdy pan. When it’s hot, add as many mushroom slices as will fit. When they’re toasty brown, turn them and brown the other side. Repeat until all the mushrooms are cooked. You may have to add a bit more oil. (Transfer them to paper towel to drain.)

Add a bit more oil to the hot pan and add the peppers. Saute. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and some of their oil. Stir and saute. Add the cherry tomatoes and stir. I took the pan off the heat for these last two steps. The pan was quite hot by that point and I didn’t want to demolish the tomatoes. Add the olives and garlic. (Again, off the heat is good if the pan is still fiery; you don’t want to burn the garlic.)

Right around now, put the brat under the broiler. In my electric oven, I cook it five minutes one side, and one minute the other and then take it out and set the brat on a plate (I don’t want the heat from the broiler pan to keep cooking the brat.)

When the pasta is cooked, add it to the pan, which you’ve put back onto a (low) burner. Add a bit of the pasta water and toss and stir to coat the pasta. Transfer to bowls and add the bratwurst (which you’ve halved). (You could slice the brat and add it to the pan before plating.)

Finito!  Thanks to the pasta water, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms, the dish has a good deal of umami. Was it "July" food? No. But it was tasty.