the poppies

The California poppies are out. For a brief few weeks the hills are green. And orange. And blue, from the sprinklings of some kind of blue wildflower.

Years ago I was sitting at SFO waiting for a friend to arrive from Europe, and next to me sat two English women doing the same. One of them said she was glad her mother came to visit while the hills were green, because the yellow and brown of all other seasons is so sad.

I don’t think the yellow and brown of the burnt grass is sad at all, I think it’s pretty in a whole other way. But the green hills, the blue skies, and the flowers. That’s the beauty of April.

never ever read the comments if you want to keep your lunch

I read this story about the aftermath to the hate crime last fall at San Jose State University, and I think how hard can it be to get it right at a campus that is predominantly non-white, in a city, and a county, and a state, that is predominantly non-white. But then I read the comments, and I realize exactly why. Grown-ups are racist, and why would college age kids be any different?

not about don draper

So, the current season of Mad Men, season 7, takes place in 1969. When a character in the second episode turns out to be racist, people (present day viewers, I mean) are surprised, plastering exclamation points all over twitter. Really? I wonder if today’s smartypants have forgotten that racism may include actual face-to-face discrimination in the workplace. I also wonder if they think the Civil Rights Movement was some abstract thing, that naturally just made sense to everybody. Of course it didn’t. Both Dr. King and Robert Kennedy were shot in 1968, just a year before the events of season 7.