Tucson

We arrived yesterday after four days in Tucson to a relatively balmy smog-free Salt Lake City. It was four days without watching the news or reading a newspaper or keeping track of events on the internet. I don't think I missed anything. The Massachusetts Senate election is interesting. I think it means that nothing gets done in Washington. So be it. The great mass herd of the public is angry about their situation.

Tucson itself has become a sprawling mess, although not as bad as Phoenix. Thankfully, politicians preserved the Saguaro National Park. The plant life of the Sonoran desert is fascinating; not only the cacti but the variety of trees. The Mesquite are particulary beautiful, although the Palo Verde are a nice complement. And I discovered Desert Mistletoe on this trip, a plant parasite on trees. The forms of life on the planet are varied and astonishing.

We did a couple nice hikes, hung out with my brother, and ate some good Mexican food. Reading mostly consisted of almost finishing Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale, a marvelous opus on evolution. I think I will continue to disregard noisy public debates for a more peaceful place in the near future. Go see Avatar in 3-D with an open mind and then be amused at all the shrill public commentary. It is a visual feast and an invitation to look at biology and botany more carefully. And humans place in the planet's history.