Yemeni Coffee

 

I just tore through this book about a hero's journey revitalizing coffee production in Yemen.

Like Ethiopia, its neighbor across the Red Sea, Yemen has long fascinated me as a place of human origins and natural beauty.

Like Afghanistan, Yemen has captured my imagination since childhood-- a nation of fabled history yet currently out of reach, ravaged by the interplay of tribal conflicts and political ambitions beyond its borders.

Wow Factor

 

Evan found this stunning new series:

And it was worth braving a movie theater in the era of COVID to see this gripping gem:

It is amazing how stories can be told these days. 

Muse

 

I have been taken of late by the portraiture of Alice Neel and Glyn Philpot...

(Rainbow) Pride

...and Prejudice, bitches!

Thank you, world, for Fire Island-- the gay version of Pride and Prejudice I didn't know I needed.

Also fabulously gay:

Hottie

 

Grateful to be living my life with this partner.

Epigenetics (Is Not Eugenics)

 I have been reading about ways inheritance travels along the limbs of family trees-- how ancestral trauma expresses itself in the genome. 

Every symptom makes perfect sense if you know the whole story. And yet we rarely know the whole story. 

This takes Oprah's "what happened to you?" and expands it to include, "what happened to your ancestors?"

What A Race

As a child, I was obsessed with watching the Kentucky Derby each year. 

My claim to fame was I chose Alysheba to win in 1987 and if my mom had allowed me to bet two dollars (she didn't), I would have gotten a $109.60 return. 

So when Evan told me I needed to put eyes on the 2022 Kentucky Derby, I was all in...

I have watched this multiple times now and it never ceases to astonish. 

Simply amazing! 

Longest odds to ever win the race at 80 to 1. Worst starting position in a field of 21 horses. 

The moment when Venezuelan jockey, Sonny Leon, asks Rich Strike to give it everything he's got-- my god, they ran a masterful race together.