Southern dewberry

 

The southern dewberries (Rubus trivialis) were budding and flowering in the northeast quadrant of Mopac and US 183 on February 26th. Mostly I did close portraits using natural light and relatively broad apertures, like the flower below photographed at f/5.6. In some cases I went for flash and a small aperture to increase the depth of field, as in the portrait above of an opening bud at f/18. The pink and the prickles remind us that dewberries are in the same botanical family as roses.

 

 

 

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The chocolate wars

 

Hershey, the company famous for chocolate, has come up in conjunction with two controversies in the past couple of years. The first time was merely as part of an analogy. When comedian Jon Stewart appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in 2021, the following dialogue ensued:

 

Stewart: “Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science.”

Colbert: “Do you mean perhaps there’s a chance that this was created in a lab? If there’s evidence, I’d love to hear it, I just don’t know.”

Stewart: “A chance? Oh my God! There’s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab.

Then came Stewart’s analogy: “Oh my God, there’s been an outbreak of chocolatey goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania. What do you think happened?’ Like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, maybe a steam shovel mated with a cocoa bean?’ Or it’s the f—ing chocolate factory.”

That caused consternation among many ideologues because in 2021 even reputable scientists who merely wanted to discuss the possibility of a Wuhan lab leak were getting banned from social media and attacked by many in the “news” media. As a reminder of those oppressive times, you can read a New York Post article.

 

The second controversy is current, and it arose from what the Hershey company has actually done. As The Hill reported on March 3rd:

Hershey has responded to backlash over the decision to highlight the work of a trans activist as part of its International Women’s Day promotion, saying that the inclusive campaign “recognize[s] the strength in diversity.”

Critics first began calling for a Hershey boycott over the last week, after Hershey Canada announced the release of limited-edition chocolate bars featuring the likenesses of “five Canadian women working to build a better future through their passion, activism, and work in their communities.”

Among the five is Fae Johnstone, a trans woman and 2SLGBTQ+ activist (“2S” standing for “two spirit” or “two-spirited,” referring to a non-binary gender designation associated with some indigenous North American peoples).

The chocolate bars in question come in wrappers with the prominent words “HER for SHE,” a clever (if not quite grammatical) play on the word Hershey.

One equally clever response came from Jeremy Boreing, who proved anything but boring when he started selling razors in 2022 after Harry’s, a razor company, pulled its ads from the conservative website The Daily Wire, in which Boreing holds a high position (whimsically called god-king).

Reacting to Hershey’s release of its gender-agenda chocolate bars, the Daily Wire quickly responded by offering two chocolate bars of its own, once again under the Jeremy’s brand. As Boreing wrote in a tweet on Twitter: “Introducing Jeremy’s Chocolate. Yes, it’s real. We have two kinds: HeHim and SheHer. One of them has nuts. If you need me to tell you which one, keep buying Hershey[‘]s.”

Touché.

On March 4th The Daily Wire reported that customers had placed more than 200,000 orders for Jeremy’s chocolate bars in the first 24 hours after they were offered for sale. The website for Jeremy’s Chocolate indicates an estimated delivery date of April 21, from which I infer that the company is still arranging for production of those chocolate bars.

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman