Molly Ivins and Kurt Vonnegut died. I have written about Vonnegut elsewhere. Here's a little bit on Molly as I knew her:
Ivins, who grew up in Houston, worked for the Star-Telegram between 1992 and 2001. I met her on the editorial pages of The Nation. It was there, in a review of The Liar's Club, written by fellow Texan Mary Karr, that Ivins introduced me to this memorable description of "southern gothic" literature, which always tells the same story about "why Bubba raped Sissy after Daddy blew his brains out on the night the hogs ate Grandma." Glen Brookshire and I shook her hand when she spoke at the Women and Children's bookstore near our house(she signed a book for Glen's wife, Renee, a big fan). She made a career out of mocking Republicans.
In April, the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping estimated that more than a quarter of the country's 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost. A third of the food supply in the United States - and actually the world - is directly related to the honey bee (fruits, vegetables, nuts) and another third is indirectly related to the honey bee (cows need hay, clover and alfalfa to produce milk). Apparently, part of the mystery is that beekeepers aren't finding millions of dead bees in the hives and on the ground; they are flying away from the hive and not returning. The image at left is taken from the Book of Hours. It was published in the 14th century, so the fellow with bee-catching bag should not be on the list of suspects.
Playing without Oscar, the Panthers go into halftime with a 1-0 lead, which they extend to 2-0 lead in the 2nd half. But the Blues score 2 late to tie the game, and that ends up being the final score. So after losing the first game of the season, we win six straight and remain undefeated the rest of the way.
