“I think I’m going to write a humorous essay,” I said to my husband recently. “What should I write about?”
“Write about how everyone always wants to punch you in the head,” he said.
“What should I call it?” I asked him.
“Call it ‘Everyone always wants to punch me in the head’,” he suggested.
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Since it’s Fashion Week, I have a confession to make: I’m kind of a dressaholic.
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Last night I happened to be watching David Letterman, and John Malkovich was a guest. Malkovich was actually really funny, and he told several stories about his family, including his daughter inviting scads of her teenage friends to his house in France. Then he told a story about how his mom saw a picture of his nephew’s dog, and she said, “Is that Bob Dylan? No, it’s Sting.” Needless to say, I nearly fell over.
Oddly enough, this is pretty close to what originally started the whole idea of “Temple of Sting” many years ago: my friend kept randomly insisting everyone was Sting. I then suddenly began to see the actual Sting everywhere, and would point out, “Now, that is Sting!” Then I began to wonder why Sting seemed to be ubiquitous, then I became obsessed with bees, and you know the rest. Maybe Malkovich’s mom is actually a Temple of Sting reader?! That would be a logical explanation for her comment.
For those of you not familiar with all those acronyms, that means that the National Resources Defense Council (a non-profit environmental advocacy organization) has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding a possible (at this point, highly probable) cause of Colony Collapse Disorder. The most recent CCD theory involves strong evidence that many pesticides, particularly a class known as neonicotinoids, have been affecting honeybee colonies.
According to the website Celsius, “Clothianidin, made by German chemical company Bayer, was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2003 as a seed treatment. This, despite the fact that the EPA’s own report acknowledges clothianidin is highly toxic to honeybees.” In 2003, the EPA called for additional studies on this chemical’s affect on honeybees, but it isn’t clear if these studies were ever completed. The NRDC requested this information and did not receive it, so they have now filed a lawsuit. They believe that the EPA has been willfully hiding information from the public about the connection between neonicotionoids and CCD.
In related news, I started reading a wonderful book called A Spring Without Bees by Michael Schacker, which is all about Colony Collapse Disorder. I saw it in the window of my favorite bookstore and ran in and bought it immediately. Right now I happen to be reading the chapter about neonicitonoids, and I will post more about this book when I’m finished reading it.