But Wait!!! I Wasn't Done Yet.

Since starting or ending a post here is no one's decision but my own, I unfortunately have to take the blame when I forget/omit/overlook/ignore something planned on for enclosure. Oh, I could blame the 'other' MJ, or I could blame Cheryl, a friend on St. Thomas who blames me for the same sort of things. A Blame Friend is a friend indeed! It doesn't matter that you don't know Cheryl (and if you do, all the better for you), it just matters that you understand that my faux pas are not my fault, they are Cheryl's fault. Of course, that only goes so far and I think right now it's gone far enough.

What I left out:

LuminAid. Great name. Great product. This is a get/give set-up and what could be better than to give actual light?? If you want to get that really awesome feeling about good being done on a grassroots scale, read this news link as well. These people are rockin' it.

Segue moment. Light. Sun. Food. Climate change. Are you with me? Am I going to fast or too slow? Okay. I know I bring this up once a year or so, but each year it gets more important as far as the 'what can I do? I'm not a freakin' magical make all the bad stuff go away wizard scientist now, am I?' department.

Here's one thing you can do. You can purchase or build a solar oven for some of your cooking, saving fuel use. And/or you can donate at the same time to various organizations that are providing solar ovens to countries all over the world without sufficient fuel or where the fuel itself is a cause of health issues, including lung failure. Lung failure means you die, just in case that wasn't clear, usually from breathing in charcoal fumes indoors or even outdoors. This is just one example of a group doing just that, but you can google for many more.

This isn't all third world, there probably aren't too many people in the Caribbean who don't know someone or of someone who died because of this (of course, I do consider a lot of the Caribbean third world with a gloss, so maybe that's not quite true)

There is a lot of variety in oven choices, including some you can make yourself. The one I am most familiar with is the Sport solar oven, as it's what Lucy John used on his boat to make everything from fabulous breads to delicate fish dinners.

Best to read comparisons yourself though, and you can do that here.

This article is full of photos of every kind of solar cooker imaginable, in every price range, most of them in use. Except this one, but it's so awesome, I had to show it to you.

Villager Sun Oven can reach 500 degrees F. it can cook 1200 meals a day. Villager Sun Ovens are currently in use in 55 countries around the world.

1200 meals a day! Just using the light and heat of the sun. That's power full. Oh, you might say, what a hassle, I want my food when I want it, the easy way. But that's how we got into this mess in the first place...

And last but not least. I'm really enjoying a new web page/site I found called Head Butler. Of course, I have always wanted a butler, so that was the first draw. My grandfather had a man around who was sort of like a butler but he wasn't called a butler and he didn't dress like a butler, but that was probably because he was from Cuba. We all loved him - he's the one who taught me all about plantains and lechon and he was a great buffer between a bunch of rowdy cousins and a grandfather who could be...well, stern would be a good word.

Anyway, this site is nothing like Pompeio, except that it is as multi-faceted as the giant version Swiss Army knife...and he was too. Movies, books, products, all get their turn, including one of my favorites, the one that covered Moleskine notebooks.  Did you know they make Moleskine notebooks for different cities around the globe? How cool is that??? Oh...you can do that on your little electronic device, how silly of me. Of course, there are so many kinds now, it's sort of out of control, as everything is...I remember once when there was only one black Moleskine notebook and now, well ok, they still provoke lust in me.

But back to Head Butler...did I digress...again?

The latest post, a review of the book Patisserie: Mastering the Fundamentals of French Pastry by Christophe Felder is written by Wendy Burden: 'Guest Butler Wendy Burden is the author of Dead End Gene Pool, a memoir of her absurd childhood as the great-great-great granddaughter of the richest man in America. She is currently writing “Machinery of Love + Death,” a memoir about love, death, and airplanes, set in Portland, Oregon.'

This is what happens to me on semi-cloudy not rainy enough days on Culebra.

Have a work out your wonkiness with willingness Wednesday. Do something well-read with something well-written.