We have a pomegranate tree in our front lawn, pretty close to the sidewalk. Although we live on a quiet, sheltered, cul-de-sac, that doesn’t keep people from driving by, hopping out of their car, nabbing a few poms and speeding away. Last year we woke up one morning to find half of the tree stripped – basically all pomegranates within reach.
My goddaughter Piper sings the Barney Song.
Twice.
My mom had a friend over the other day who discovered a praying mantis in our living room. She calmly asked my mom for a paper towel, and used it to pick up the critter. Mom thought her friend was going to release it outside, but instead the woman crushed it in her paper towel and threw it in the trash.
If I had been there I would have screamed.
Mom, possessing better manners than I, and still a bit stunned, said nothing. We don’t kill praying mantises here. We treasure them. If we find them around the yard, we pick them up and take them to the garden. They have a voracious appetite for the bugs that do the most garden damage. Just last week I found this gal chomping on juicy tomato worm. A worm that had already stripped 3 or 4 leaves from my one tomato plant.
Tina Seelig, Executive Directory for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program
Tina Seelig is the Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and one of the most truly brilliant and creative people I have ever met. In addition to a PHD from Stanford Medical School in Neurology, she’s written many books, educational cards for kids, and is a serial entrepreneur. I recently listened to this talk she gave at Stanford, and then played it again just to take notes. She has great advice for those legions of young women and men starting out their careers, including (my notes in italics):
Retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale passed away yesterday, July 5, 2005. He was 81 years old. Most people know of Stockdale as Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 presidential election and his flubbed debate participation against Al Gore and Dan Quayle. I remember watching this debate, head in hands, upset that not only was Stockdale completely unprepared for the televised event, but that people would walk away not knowing anything of who this man was.
Vice Admiral Stockdale was an American hero of the finest order. Shot down over Vietnam in 1965, he was captured by the North Vietnamese, severely beaten, and placed in a POW prison for seven years. Most of that time he was in solitary confinement. He was routinely tortured. While a prisoner he devised a way to communicate with other prisoners of war by a series of taps on the wall. As the most senior officer in the camp he did his best to keep moral up among the others and to keep them from going insane from the torture. He drew upon the philosophy of the Stoics, which he had studied in graduate school at Stanford, to keep himself sane.
First the spring rains brought the snails, which ultimately we were able to control with deadline. Then next came the earwigs, otherwise known as “pincer-bugs”. They were munching their way through our Swiss chard, flat-leaf parsley, and even the beet greens. They annually eat up our gardenias. The dilemma is that Earwigs are both beneficial and non-beneficial insects in the garden. They eat bugs as well as some garden vegetables. I’ve read they will help control scale on apple trees, but they are definitely not welcome around my chard and parsley!