Posts
Friday, July 03, 2026
Morsicatio Buccarum
Morsicatio Buccarum. My new stage name.
Morsicatio Buccarum is the name for cheek biting.
Chronic cheek biting is most commonly related to feelings of stress or anxiety.
In New England, the town of Rutland, Massachusetts completely canceled its parade, fireworks, and concert due to staffing and severe police/fire shortages. Several other communities, including Scituate, Massachusetts and Block Island, Rhode Island, were forced to postpone or alter some of their plans due to severe weather. Aside from Rutland, most traditional town parades and fireworks across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont are proceeding as planned. However, oppressive, record-breaking heat and dangerous temperatures have prompted municipalities to either shorten parade routes, move outdoor activities indoors, or push back event start times to the evening. Because exact scheduling changes can vary heavily by municipality: Would you like to check if specific town parades in your area (near Bellingham or across New England) have been modified or delayed due to the heat? Tell me the town names, and I can help look up their status. Scituate and Block Island have postponed their fireworks ... Jul 1, 2026 — Scituate and Block Island have postponed their fireworks displays for weather-related reasons. See an updated list of local events... Facebook·WPRI 12 Two communities in Massachusetts have canceled their ... May 28, 2026 — Two communities in Massachusetts have canceled their Fourth of July festivities for reasons that include staffing shortages, offic... Related video thumbnail 1:55 Instagram·WBZ News | CBS News Boston Rhode Islanders and tourists alike will line the streets of Bristol to ... Jul 2, 2026 — Rhode Islanders and tourists alike will line the streets of Bristol to catch a glimpse of the town's 241st parade, which will step... Facebook·WPRI 12 Show more Finding freedom from the heat on July 4th will be a ... WCAX https://www.wcax.com › 2026/07/02 › finding-freedom... 18 hours ago — In Norristown, Pennsylvania, officials canceled a parade set for Saturday, citing the safety of residents, participants and first responders, Summer 2026 Traffic Advisory Boston.gov https://www.boston.gov › news › summer-2026-traffic-... Events such as parades, road races, and street fairs may require road closures to accommodate the activities. Missing: england | Show results with: england Scituate and Block Island have postponed their fireworks ... Facebook · WPRI 12 100+ reactions · 1 day ago Scituate and Block Island have postponed their fireworks displays for weather-related reasons. July 4 📍 Bristol – America's Oldest Parade, 10: ... Northeast US heat wave causes July 4th cancellations 95.5 WSB https://www.wsbradio.com › health › finding-freedom-heat 11 hours ago — In Norristown, Pennsylvania, officials canceled a parade set for Saturday, citing the safety of residents, participants and first responders, Parade Road Closures for July 3rd, 2026. Facebook · Jay Police Department 10+ reactions · 1 day ago Parade Road Closures for July 3rd, 2026. Perry Highway closed July 3rd. Congress Park – No Parking July 4th (6am -11pm) from New England Road ... Missing: cancellations | Show results with: cancellations Northeast US heat wave causes July 4th cancellations WFTV https://www.wftv.com › health › finding-freedom-heat 17 hours ago — In Philadelphia, officials shortened the route of a Thursday morning parade, canceled an afternoon all-American Block Party, and pushed back the ...
Gazpacho
I just put green olives and homemade sofrit, sauerkraut and dried plums and chopped roasted chicken in my gaspacho.
Thursday, July 02, 2026
Extreme Heat Deserves Extreme Caution
Air Quality Alert: Unhealthy Ozone for Sensitive Groups Expected Friday in Southern RI
Published on Thursday, July 02, 2026
PROVIDENCE, RI – The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) forecasts that air quality will reach UNHEALTHY levels for sensitive groups due to elevated ground-level ozone on Friday, July 3. The alert is being issued for southern parts of the state in Washington, Newport, and Kent Counties only.
Key Details:
- UNHEALHTY ozone levels for sensitive groups are expected in the southern parts of the state.
- Peak levels begin early afternoon, continuing into the evening.
- Fine particles are also expected to be elevated, reaching MODERATE.
Health Impacts: Unhealthy ozone levels may cause:
- Throat irritation, coughing, and chest pain.
- Shortness of breath and increased risk of respiratory infections.
- Worsening of asthma and other lung conditions- particularly for children, the elderly, and others with pre-existing respiratory issues.
Recommended Actions:
- Reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion.
- Take frequent breaks and choose less strenuous activities.
- Monitor for symptoms like coughing or shortness of breath.
- People with asthma or lung conditions should follow their action plans and carry quick-relief medications.
- Schedule outdoor activities in the morning when ozone levels are lowest and typically GOOD on the Air Quality index.
Air quality can change throughout the day. To stay informed, download the AirNOW app or visit www.airnow.gov for real-time updates and forecasts.
Additional information is also available on DEM’s air quality forecast page at www.dem.ri.gov/airquality.
For more information on DEM programs and initiatives, visit www.dem.ri.gov. Follow DEM on Facebook, Twitter/X (@RhodeIslandDEM), or Instagram (@rhodeisland.dem) for timely updates. Sign up here to receive the latest press releases, news, and events from DEM's Public Affairs Office to your inbox.
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: Governor's Office <communications-governor.ri.gov@shared1.ccsend.com>
To: emilylisker@juno.com
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: McKee Administration Reminds Rhode Islanders About Safety Precautions During Extreme Heat
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2026 12:38:58 -0400 (EDT)
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An unusual ‘cold blob’ in the Atlantic is a warning sign for our future weather, researchers say
Recent studies are showing the weakening of a key Atlantic Ocean current system that helps regulate the planet’s climate.Recent studies are showing the weakening of a key Atlantic Ocean current system that helps regulate the planet’s climate.Bob Edme/Associated PressWhen most of us think about climate change, we picture rising temperatures and sea levels, stronger storms, and melting glaciers. But deep beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, another major climate story is unfolding — one that scientists say could have far-reaching consequences for weather patterns around the globe, including right here in New England.
The concern focuses on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, better known as the AMOC, a vast system of ocean currents. Think of it as a massive ocean conveyor belt that transports warm, salty tropical water toward the North Atlantic. The water cools when it reaches the northern latitudes, becomes dense and sinks, eventually flowing back south at deeper depths. This process helps regulate climate on both sides of the Atlantic and plays a critical role in distributing heat around the planet.The AMOC is a system of ocean currents that overturns (cools and sinks) when reaching the ocean near Iceland and Greenland.NOAA
Scientists have known for years that the AMOC is weakening; this isn’t new. But new research suggests an earlier and more dramatic deceleration or slowdown of the system than many climate models had previously projected.
The authors of the study call it a “very concerning result,” noting that they feel more confident than ever that we may reach the tipping point for a shuttering AMOC maybe by the middle of the century, and a collapse or shutdown by 2100.
“The AMOC shutdown is not a low-probability event anymore,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a physical oceanographer at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who led the research team. During his 30-year career studying these critical ocean influences, Rahmstorf said he had always considered the “AMOC tipping risk” to be fairly low. And now? “It starts to look likely, maybe even very likely,” he said. By combining real-world ocean observations with climate simulations, researchers have found that the models showing the greatest decline are more accurate and significant.
“And even though a shutdown isn’t reached fully until after 2100 (according to the latest research), the impacts are already going to be felt pretty soon in the next few decades unless the (carbon) emissions are reduced very fast,” Rahmstorf noted. Models show a ”cooling starting in the late 2030s, 2040s," he said, “and that actually is a big concern.”
Another study published in April supports these findings, indicating a sharp AMOC decline (roughly 50 percent) by the end of the century.
The ‘cold blob’
One
clue that the AMOC is already weakening can be found in a curious patch
of ocean just south of Greenland and Iceland. While much of the world’s
oceans have been warming, this region has actually cooled over the last
century. Scientists often refer to this unusual swath of ocean as the
Atlantic “cold blob” or “warming hole.”=1440 240w" id="img-GBOEOOHWEFHQZKF5AMJH45QMZM-image" src="https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/GBOEOOHWEFHQZKF5AMJH45QMZM.png?auth=13669870148c12faf6e726519f3e0a2b0c57a104fef47ae911ab26b22b24301d&width=1440" />
This latest research suggests that this cooling is not simply the result of sea surface heat loss or changing winds or cloud patterns, but a declining or weakening AMOC. Climate change is the main driver, as warming seas, melting ice, and increased rainfall have disrupted the temperature and salt balance of the North Atlantic.
Other researchers have also explored the cold blob’s connection to the sweltering heat wave overtaking Europe, finding that it could alter atmospheric circulation and create conditions for heat domes. “That cold isn’t a kind of a get-out-of-jail-free card in terms of global warming. Some of the hot extremes can actually be exacerbated by this cold blob in the Atlantic,” Gerard McCarthy, an oceanographer at Ireland’s Maynooth University, told AFP.
But what does all this mean for the Northeast US?
First, it’s important to note that a weakening AMOC is not the same thing as a complete collapse. However, a continued slowdown could have major consequences.
Along the East Coast, a weaker AMOC will contribute to already rising sea levels. That is especially important for Boston and other coastal communities in New England, where even modest increases in sea level can worsen tidal flooding, coastal erosion, and storm surge impacts. In places like Boston and along the Maine coast, higher water levels can turn routine high tides into more frequent flooding.
There is another possible effect that may seem counterintuitive — cooler conditions. Because the AMOC helps transport warm water northward, a weaker current could mean less ocean heat reaching the North Atlantic. That could influence sea surface temperatures and, over time, help keep parts of New England cooler than they otherwise would be in a warming world. It would not cancel out climate change, but it could alter regional patterns in ways that affect marine ecosystems, fisheries, and even seasonal weather.
The AMOC remains one of the most important — and closely watched — components of Earth’s climate system. This latest research serves as another reminder that changes happening far out in the ocean can eventually ripple across the globe, reaching all the way to New England’s shores.
“The strong evidence for a weakening AMOC is a serious concern for society and policy,” Rahmstorf said, “...that requires urgent attention.”
Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.
I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall
I have noticed that when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing – their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling – their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses. To sit alone without any electric light is curiously creative. I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall, but not if I switch on the lights – then I start thinking about projects, deadlines, demands, and the shadows and shapes of the house become objects, not suggestions, things that need to done, not a background to thought.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
Ice balls, Sourdough Rye Corn Oat bread, Sliced and Salted Eggplant, Sofrito made from Scratch, and Chicken Breasts Marinated in Buttermilk
Having fun in the kitchen after a big swim.
Etiquette
The French word étiquette means “ticket”; its direct French ancestor also referred to a label attached to something for description or identification. Spaniards of the 16th-century adopted the French word (altering it to etiqueta), and used it to refer to the written protocols describing the behavior demanded of those who appeared at court. Eventually, etiqueta came to be applied to the court ceremonies themselves as well as to the documents which outlined their requirements. Word of this linguistic development got back to the French, who then expanded their word’s meaning to include “proper court behavior” along with its “label” sense. By the middle of the 18th century English speakers had taken on etiquette as their own, applying it to the rules that indicate the proper and polite way to behave, whether in the presence or royalty or not.
Sofrito
- Puerto Rico: Often called recaíto, this bright green version features recao (culantro), cilantro, cubanelle peppers, bell peppers, onions, and garlic. [1, 2, 3]
- Dominican Republic: Similar to the Puerto Rican version, but often includes tomatoes, tomato paste, and a splash of vinegar or citrus juice. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- Cuba: This variation relies heavily on Spanish onions, garlic, green or red bell peppers, and often includes a tomato base, cooking wine, and spices like cumin. [1]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofrito
Why do we like to watch controlled explosions while sitting on a blanket eating potato salad?
Jon Winokur
Something in us responds to fireworks. The Chinese, who invented fireworks in the ninth century by packing gunpowder into bamboo stalks, originally used them to scare away evil spirits. Fire, noise, and light deployed against an invisible threat? The formula hasn’t changed in a thousand years.
July 4th fireworks are the most contradictory of traditions. They distress veterans, terrorize family dogs, start wildfires, and send thousands of people, mostly children, to the emergency room every year. Fireworks closely mimic combat sounds. The irony is palpable: We honor military service by recreating the sounds of war. The VA acknowledges fireworks as a significant PTSD trigger. Veterans’ groups have lobbied for “quiet zones” and advance notice of displays.
For dogs, July 4th is a horror movie in which the monster arrives on schedule, every year. An estimated forty to fifty percent of dogs show significant fear responses to fireworks. A dog’s hearing is roughly four times more sensitive than a human’s, which means what we experience as a festive boom registers to them as something closer to a detonation. They have no framework for fireworks, no way to contextualize the noise, no access to the concept of patriotism. They experience it as pure, inexplicable terror. They cower in bathtubs, escape through gates, doors, and windows. Because they’re utterly terrified, they run as fast as they can until they are lost.
Fireworks cause hundreds of wildfires annually. Consumer fireworks are illegal in most of California, where drought conditions can turn a sparkler into a firestorm. Fireworks release heavy metals including barium, strontium, copper, and lead. Studies show particulate levels increasing from 40 to 100 percent on July 4th, and air quality near fireworks displays briefly exceeding levels associated with serious health risk.
Of the twelve thousand ER visits annually from fireworks injuries, most involve children under 15. Hands and eyes are the most common injury sites. Fireworks also damage hearing. The sustained noise of a professional display — 150 decibels at close range — exceeds the threshold for immediate acoustic injury.
Why do we like to watch controlled explosions while sitting on a blanket eating potato salad? Maybe it’s the thrill of danger without (we think) the danger. Or maybe what we celebrate on the Fourth is not simply independence. Repeated surveys show that most Americans cannot accurately say what happened on July 4th, 1776. Maybe what we celebrate is the bang itself: the flash, the boom, the short, collective gasp of a crowd ooh-ing and ah-ing at the spectacle.
If the bang itself is the real attraction, then criticizing it is un-American. Zoë Heller reveals the unwritten rule: You may hate the circus; you may not hate fireworks. To confess boredom or indifference in the presence of an exploding sky is to mark yourself as a person deficient in wonder, in patriotism, in joy itself — a pariah, as she says, standing apart from the communal gasp while everyone else tilts their faces upward and registers the requisite amazement. But why is the contract so binding? Why fireworks, and not, say, parades, or marching bands, or any of the other things by which child-like delight in life is supposedly measured? Maybe because fireworks are the only one of these rituals built on real, if remote, danger. The thrill is not the spectacle but the faint possibility that something could go wrong. That’s what makes the silence about its costs so hard to break.
The backlash is already underway. More than a dozen states now ban or significantly restrict consumer fireworks, and the list grows each year. Cities that once anchored their Fourth of July identity in professional displays are quietly replacing them with drone shows, synchronized fleets of lighted drones that trace shapes in the sky in silence. While drones don’t provide the same experience, they’re precise where fireworks are chaotic, silent where fireworks are deafening, orderly where fireworks are momentarily spectacular.
It’s time for the rest of the country to catch up. Not because fireworks aren’t beautiful, but because the calculation has changed. We know more than we did about PTSD, about wildfire risk, about particulate matter, about what a dog hears when a shell goes off blocks away. We know that the annual injury toll is predictable, preventable, and concentrated in children. We know that the communal experience that fireworks provide can be approximated, if not replicated, by other means.
The Fourth will survive the transition. The republic has outlasted larger adjustments to its rituals. What we claim to celebrate—liberty, independence, resilience—doesn’t need a detonator. It merely requires that we acknowledge who is not celebrating with us: the veteran in the basement, the dog under the bed, the child in the emergency room, and the family watching their neighborhood burn. Jon Winokur
Wednesday, July 01, 2026
It’s the birthday of French novelist George Sand, born Lucile Aurore Dupin in Paris (1804). She was raised by her grandmother at the family’s estate in rural Berry in central France, and was sent to an English convent in Paris to be educated. Although she started out as a troublemaker, Aurore underwent a spiritual conversion and decided to become a nun. She was an enthusiastic convert, and the other girls called her “Saint Aurore.” When her grandmother discovered her granddaughter’s intentions, she promptly removed her from the convent and brought her home.
Back in Berry, she abandoned her dreams of the convent and did whatever she pleased. She loved to ride horseback, and her tutor at the time encouraged her to wear men’s clothing since it was more comfortable, so she rode all over the countryside in pants and a loose shirt. She smoked tobacco, learned to shoot, and flirted outrageously with all the local men. When her grandmother died, she inherited her money and estate.
She briefly went to Paris to live with her mother, then got married and had two children. But her marriage soon deteriorated — her husband drank too much and was unfaithful. She fell in love with other men, including the novelist Jules Sandeau. Her relationship with Sandeau was short-lived, but while they were together, they co-wrote a novel, Rose et Blanche (1831). It was published under Sandeau’s pseudonym, J. Sand. When the publisher asked for another book, she had one written entirely by her, but Sandeau did not want it under his pen name. As a compromise, she published her new novel, Indiana (1832), under the name George Sand. It was a big success.
She was a prolific writer; she wrote more than 90 novels, 35 plays, and a multivolume autobiography.
Sand was one of the most famous women of her time, not just for her writing but for her scandalous behavior — everything from her men’s clothing and cigars to her sexual exploits were in the public eye. She had a long string of lovers, including Frédéric Chopin, and her many friends included Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Eugène Delacroix, Ivan Turgenev, and Gustave Flaubert. Sand and Flaubert were especially close, although the two novelists disagreed on just about everything from politics to the role of women to the purpose of art. They spent long hours together, smoking and discussing literature and humanity; they exchanged frequent letters, and read each other’s unpublished work. Sand was 17 years older than Flaubert; he addressed his letters to her “dear master,” while she addressed hers “friend of my heart.”
She said: “The world will know and understand me someday. But if that day does not arrive, it does not greatly matter. I shall have opened the way for other women.”