The Birds of Prey That Stand Guard Over California’s Vineyards, Atlas Obscura, Shoshi Parks, June 23, 2022

Trained falcons are expensive, but Napa Valley grapes are even more expensive.

The destruction of wine crops by nuisance birds is an ongoing problem not just in Napa Valley, but at vineyards all over the world. Growers have devised a number of techniques to fight the flocks. Some hang strips of light-reflecting mylar in the vines or float falcon-shaped balloons above them. Others drape the vines in netting or shoot bird cannons, propane-fueled devices which frighten and disorient smaller birds with regular 125 decibel blasts. None of these methods are particularly effective….

What does seem to work is having trained birds of prey—different species trigger different behaviors in the small birds—to ward them off. The birds of prey don’t hunt or eat the small birds; they just stand guard and frighten them off.

This is a really fascinating, detailed article on a natural, quirky agricultural practice. Read the whole thing.

The story of white sauce, Virginia’s unique contribution to Mexican American cuisine, The Virginian-Pilot, Matthew Korfhage, May 3, 2019

The sauce is a little like ranch dressing, except fuming with garlic and spice. And it is delicious — in the way that onion dip is delicious.

But if you travel much more than 100 miles from Norfolk, it becomes rare. Aside from a few pockets of the Midwest and mid-Atlantic, it’s served almost nowhere else in North America except Virginia and northern North Carolina.

You could think of this as “inauthentic” Mexican food—or, correctly in my view, you could see it as a piece of a new cuisine, something that happens when people and cultures mix. Apparently, a restaurant owner in the Hampton Roads area named Willie Jenkins—not Mexican—first served it back in the 1970s. But decades later, Mexican cooks and restaurant owners started opening up shop in the area, found that the local customers expected white sauce, and tweaked it with their own culinary sensibilities. So in a sense it became truly Mexican-American long after it was first served in a Mexican restaurant.

It’s so cool that a truly local food with such a neat history still survives today. There are lots of these stories out there, and while some of these foods get “noticed” and become trendy, many just stay in their hometowns, as it were.

A look back at Prince George’s County’s library building spree, Greater Greater Washington, DW Rowlands, November 30, 2020

Although the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System (PGCMLS), founded in 1946, is more than 70 years old, more than half of its branches were built in a span of just 16 years. 10 of its 19 current branches opened between 1964 and 1980, and another two (Hyattsville and Laurel) built during that period have been replaced with new buildings on the same sites.

The county’s library building spree was unique, and hasn’t been replicated since. Although the county’s population has increased by almost fifty percent in the 40 years since 1980, only six libraries were built in that period, and three of them (Spauldings, Upper Marlboro, and Accokeek) were built to replace libraries that opened before 1964.

There’s a lot of detailed local history here. The big takeaway for me is that this is local government actually doing things. Could we do this today? Maybe not, and that’s concerning.

Houses as Transportation Systems, What Are Streets For, November 23, 2020

If short trips can be counted as transportation, then houses and other buildings are transportation systems. Stairways allow us to walk from one floor to another. For those who cannot use stairways, there are chair lifts and elevators. Of course, the floor plan is itself a transportation plan: it defines how rooms and building uses are located relative to each other.

This reminds me of something I’ve already mentioned a couple of times here. At a event I spoke at, my fellow speaker was an interior designer, who spoke about floorplans as tiny examples of urban design. For example, how well does one room “flow” into the next, making unselfconscious socializing easier or harder?

The idea of urban design and home design as basically the same thing really intrigues me.

Related Reading:

New and Old #52

New and Old #53

Thank you for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekly subscribers-only post, plus full access to the archive of over 400 posts and growing. And you’ll help ensure more material like this!

Share