Ron Charles writes about books in The Washington Post. In today’s post, he lauds my good friend Marlene. Enjoy!

Ron Charles:

Back in February, I mentioned how entranced I was by the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalogue. Alas, my excitement was never made manifest in an actual garden. But at least I inspired Book Club reader Marlene Buono to order a variety of heirloom seeds from Baker Creek. 

Marlene writes:

“Though you can’t tell from the photo, the cucumbers have the best sense of humor. They are the tricksters of the summer garden as they let you harvest three or four of them in the morning, then by nightfall, there are five more to pick, none of the which were there eight hours ago. The tomatoes yell out, ‘Subterfuge!’ to the cucumbers (with whom they share a raised bed), but the cucumbers are too caught up in their game of hide-and-seek to listen, let alone figure out what the word ‘subterfuge’ means. The tomatoes prefer to be seen and plucked when ripe, and do not consider keeping mum about their location even mildly funny.”

I would definitely read a seed catalogue written by Marlene.

For next year’s tomatoes, she says, “I may try the Abe Lincoln Original and the Paul Robeson, since I’m feeling patriotic having filled out my ballot with the hopes of putting a woman in charge.” 

Today I walked Tennessee Valley to the beach after reading this from Lisa Friedman, the climate reporter for the NY Times:

During his presidency, Donald Trump dissolved more than 100 environmental regulations. If elected again, he would kill any federal effort to study and fight climate change, encourage oil and gas companies to “Drill, Baby, Drill” and restrict the government agency that protects air and water.

I returned home to learn that a quarter-million Washington Post readers canceled their subscriptions after Jeff Bezos declined to allow the paper to endorse Kamala Harris, a figure first reported by NPR and then by The Post itself. That is about 10 percent of the total circulation. 

While walking, I remembered being on Monhegan Island almost 30 years ago.  A man had fallen down a cliff and rescuers rappelled down to bring him up on ropes.  There were no roads or cars so a group of us alternated, three on each side,  one in front, and one in back, carrying the stretcher along the paths to the dock where he could be put on a boat. On an island, it’s clear we’re in this together, but this earth is also an island,  a fragile environment we share.  We’re interdependent.  We care.  

My vote has already been counted and I’ve been clear on who I support, not saying she is perfect, or that I agree with everything that’s going on, but come on. Here’s Bernie stressing what’s at stake in this election. Thank you Bernie!

My husband sent me this video as a great campaign song for Kamala Harris. I can’t embed it but you can go to YouTube and type in Keb’Mo’ Put a Woman in Charge.

This morning, after reading these sobering words from Heather Cox Richardson’s substack, I went for a walk along the marsh.

She wrote:  

Tonight, speaking to Christians at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump made his plans to become a strongman clear: “Get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what: it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians…. Get out, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

This chilling statement comes after Trump praised autocratic Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán in his speech at the Republican National Convention last week and then publicly praised China’s president Xi Jinping for being “brilliant” because he “controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.” It should also be read against the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s decision in Donald J. Trump v. United States that a president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his “official duties.” 

I watched President Biden give his address on his decision to withdraw from the presidential race.  We may ask ourselves if it is the man or the time period that makes a man great.  In our president, we see both in action, a man who has devoted 52 years to political office who looks at this time in history and knows what to do.  And he’s doing it with the message that the Supreme Court needs reform.  He saw it when Reagan’s choice, Scalia, was approved, and we’ve been seeing it, and now we want to once again have three branches of government that balance each other to continue our democracy.  It’s time.