Wait wait, that's not funny

It must be hard for Peter Sagal to maintain a neutral yet funny tone about the health care debate, when someone he loves is and going broke while suffering from cancer because of the American system. Frankly I don't know how anyone reasonable can oppose reforming the system. Yup, it's going to cost money. That's kind of the point, the U.S. is a rich country, it can afford to provide health care for all its citizens--we already pay more than all the other rich countries, and we don't even have universal health care.

What Sagal is asking for, that lots of people chip in a little so his friend's very expensive treatments are covered, hints at the only way health care reform can work. Everyone must be taxed a little more, so that everyone, including poor people and self-employed people and UNemployed people, EVERYONE can get adequate health care. Again, why anyone is against this, why a "single-payer" (socialist) system is thought to be somehow un-American, is completely beyond me.

Edited to Add: I can remember going to countless benefit rock and roll shows, like the one for Brian Wright of Slughog, where somehow a bunch of underemployed rock fans paying twelve bucks a pop were going to defray the cost of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This should be the content of the health care debate: should sick people rely on charity to receive the treatment they need? What is this, the 18th century?

Would you like to make a trade?

It's been a while since I've seen the image of a product and felt a visceral desire to own it. Someone just posted a link mentioning The Sibley Guide to Trees and I felt that desire grab my chest.



The Sibley Guide to Birds upended the status quo in bird guides by simply being better than anything else out there. It meticulously depicted all the North American bird species, the plumage of both sexes and that of juveniles, as well as regional and unusual variations. It included how postures and temperature can change the silhouette of a bird, and detailed the anatomical terms of different plumage areas. There was a huge one for both coasts and field-sized east and west coast editions.

The fact that it was also a labor of love of one self-taught birder crossing the country for a decade in a van full of paint and canvases made me feel great to buy it. I met David Sibley at the Audubon Shop in Lincoln, and found that he was humble and personable, and living in Concord, practically a neighbor.

I have an ugly void in my field guides where a great tree guide belongs. I have an ancient golden guide, which has sufficed, and a guide to urban trees which helps fill out the commonly planted exotics. The fact that Sibley has now applied his "formidable skills of identification and illustration to the trees of North America" is the best news I've read in a long time.

I am loathe to add more possessions to my life, but I am willing to trade. If you have an extra copy of this book, I will gladly exchange a huge amount of used CDs--in excess of double the value of the book--for it. I know it's a long shot, and that I'll probably just buy myself a copy at the Audubon Shop when I go to Drumlin Farm September 27th to teach a mushroom class. But if you want a huge amount of used CDs, this would be a great opportunity for you.

I hope he's working on a shrubs and herbaceous perennials book!

Muddy River 09/16/09, 6:30 p.m.