Color Commentary

I'm trying to improve my mood by wresting my attention away from the dreary spectacle of politics. This is proving difficult. For example, the subject of Yosemite Sam came up last night in a conversation, so I looked him up today, and what do you know—there's people who see similarities between him and John McCain. This damned election is a black hole, and we're all within the event horizon. So! I mean to change the subject.

And the new subject is firethorn, or pyracantha if you want to get all Latiney on people. The arriving autumn brings a variety of pleasures, and one of them is the way formerly nondescript bushes and hedges that sat mutely on the sidelines now blaze with clutches of orangeish-red fruit called, I discover, "pomes." Much is made of the flowers of spring and the leaves of fall, but I'd like to chime in with this appreciation of the firethorn. My name is Matt, and I approved this message.