TheLindsayist

Sometimes I can be pedantic.

Last evening, when news of the water disruption spread rapidly across Twitter, a song [for many, the song] by the Standells came to the mind of many, the one about the dirty water and such. Then, we learned not to brush our teeth with the tap water – others remembered that pop star Ke$ha recommends brushing those pearly whites with a brown liquor. As if there were no such thing as Twitter search, once every few moments, someone would blurt out one reference or the other, asking if anyone had thought to do so yet. Which they had. But that’s okay. Let’s make it a contest. Which pop culture reference more effective infiltrated the collective tweeting of those east of Weston?

The results of my lazy, unscientific polling across mostly the #aquapocalypse & #h2omg hashtags return the following, as of 3 PM Sunday:

Number of Boston-area tweeple loving that dirty water: 60
Number who follow Ke$ha’s advice to brush using a bottle of Jack: 44

Congratulations, Standells.

Red Fire Farm Vegetable Freak Show

After a season of vegetables from the crate, a recent trip to the supermarket seemed like the real freak show: waxed, symmetrical, genetically modified perfect produce. Last weekend’s tomato festival hosted their own version, where eggplants had sprouted arms and squashes sported tentacles. I’d like to imagine this is the product of the hottest, rainiest part of summer, but this is probably just what happens when your vegetables aren’t fertilized with Rogaine or whatever they are using these days.

Careful not to get vertigo; I took this with my phone.

Tomatina West

Red Fire Farm’s Tomato Festival was Saturday. No splashing in pureed tomatoes, but the intermittent downpours made certain it was still a sloppy time. Rusty Belle from Amherst covered “Cry to Me” by Solomon Burke, one of my favorite songs, just as the sky opened up and the crowd rushed under the tent with them. Tim and I huddled under our umbrella with a slice of grilled pizza.

On pseudonyms.

“If you didn’t sign it,” said the King, “that only makes the matter worse. You must have meant some mischief, or else you’d have signed your name like an honest man.”

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland