Bonsai at the Botanical Gardens

 

And Dinner

Photos taken June 10, 2026 © mae sander

Good and Evil

“Enshittification is when you combine the banality of evil with an internet-connected device and a federal law that criminalizes doing anything with that device that the manufacturer dislikes.” (p 141)

Why “everything” got worse — easy answer: in this book, “everything”
pretty much adds up to Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, the iPhone, and maybe Google.

Does Cory Doctorow have a life outside of the online world? He probably does. However, you wouldn’t know it from this book, despite a brief acknowledgement of the mess the US is in because of our hideous administration in Washington. The book is a weird read because it’s so devoid of what I would call real life. Does the man ever eat? Read fiction? Go for a walk? I understand that every book has to have a focus, but this book reaches a lot of conclusions based on a kind of hyper-focus that makes it seem distorted.

Here’s a summary of what he means by everything: “We are living through a Great Enshittening. Somehow, humans have unleashed the Enshittocene, in which all of our artifacts and hyperobjects are turning into piles of shit.” (p. 55)

Ok, there’s occasional mention of history:

“Never let anyone tell you that the Luddites were afraid of technology or angry about ‘progress.’ That’s a lie propagated by history’s winners, whose great fortunes required oceans of blood from child laborers, murdered protesters, and enslaved Africans in the ‘New World’ who provided the cotton for their machines.” (p. 196)

The book is a dense read: in fact, I had to read the first half of it twice. There’s a lot of real information about the very recent history of technology. But the author considerably overstates the claim that he covers everything. In fact, as I said, it’s hyperfocused.

UPDATE: Cory Doctorow’s summary of the current state of the main points of the book, in case you want the abbreviated version:

Stuff from Real Life: Good and Evil

New table and chairs in my little House at Pooh Corner.
NOTE: Of course I know that’s Paddington, not Pooh. But Pooh built a house (at Pooh Corner)
and Paddington didn’t have a house of his own. So it’s the HOUSE that I named, not the bear. 
Bears are generous and share with one another.


The house Pooh built for Eeyore.

Renewed effort to go to the fitness center.

New recipe: Len’s Shrimp Curry Dinner.

There’s always something to try at Trader Joe’s.

HEADLINES FROM RECENT NEWS

George W. Bush Celebrates No Longer Having Launched Dumbest War in U.S. History

ANDY BOROWITZ

Rubio Tells Lawmakers Trump Wants to Buy Greenland

President Trump has said since his first term that he wants to acquire Greenland, and he asked aides for an updated plan on Monday. European leaders reject the president’s assertions.

Trump administration halts more than $10bn for childcare and family assistance

Democrats condemn move in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, calling it ‘vindictive’ and ‘cruel

EDUCATION

Texas A&M blocks Plato readings on gender ideology in philosophy class

Texas A&M University blocked a philosophy professor from teaching certain Plato texts after a new rule against "advocating" gender and race ideology.

We have had some snow but not excessive!

Dreaming of Paris which is snow-covered this week.

It’s always good to think about penguins!

Blog post copyright 2025 mae sander

Good Food and Maybe A Good Bird

At the Botanical Garden

In the greenhouse at night, the atmosphere is unexpectedly spooky. 
We were invited to a reception with refreshments and a tour given by a staff expert.

Several tables with food and beverages were set up in the greenhouse.

One caterer offered Kailua pork and pineapple salsa. My favorite!

I enjoyed hearing about the vanilla plant from the tour guide. They are hard to cultivate!
He mentioned that an earlier plant had set one vanilla pod, but it died in a power failure.
Later, a visitor to the garden stole the replacement plant!!

In Our Kitchen

Cheeseburgers!

Len is baking bread again.

Thanksgiving Wrap-up

Curried chicken (from Thanksgiving leftovers).

Maybe a Good Bird?

We saw this snowy owl in 2014 when these beautiful birds spread through Michigan, outside their
usual range. This winter they again seem to be heading further south than usual. We hope they will be here!

Photos © 2025 mae sander. 

Shared with Deb at Readerbuzz and Eileen at Viewing Nature.

 

Cooking. Eating. Reading.

Cauliflower, Pea, and Coconut Curry: adapted from a NYTimes recipe (link)
I prepped the food and made the recipe up until I took this photo — then Len took over the cooking.
It was the first time in a couple of months that I have cooked, as I recover from major surgery.

The curry. I added potatoes to the recipe as it was written, and omitted the rice.
Substitutions: I used green onions instead of cilantro, and peanuts instead of cashews.

Chicken thighs with potatoes and onions, which Len cooked earlier this week.

Carol’s fruit tart.

Reading about humans and other creatures

An interesting natural history book about “mutualisms,”
that is, examples of inter-species cooperation.

Rob Dunn, the author  of The Call of the Honey Guide, explores a number of interactions of humans with other beings, from micro-organisms to beavers and many others in between. The book is full of historical examples and quotations from literature and poetry that create a very interesting and unusual reading experience.

For example, the human relationship to trees: “Globally, humans have cut down, burned, or otherwise destroyed roughly half of all the forest that once was. … Nature is never just one thing or another. Trees offer extraordinary benefits to those, like us, who partner with them; they offer their fruits, their bodies, and their services. The poet Ross Gay has written that ‘our capacity and willingness to learn the language of trees, to study the language of trees, it’s so obvious to me now, might incline us to be less brutal, less extractive. It might incline us to share, to collaborate. It might incline us to give shelter and make room.’  Like the shaman in Peru, we can learn from our trees.” (p. 48-51)

The human relationship to dogs: “So far, I’ve avoided answering whether we are actually still engaged in a mutualism with our dogs. That we once were is clear, but on average, are we today? We certainly benefit our dogs. But how should we consider whether they benefit us?” The author’s conclusion is that walking one’s dog conveys many mental and physical health benefits to the dog owner, although many of the former tasks that dogs did (such as herding flocks of sheep or cattle, participating in the hunt, or watching for intruders of whatever other species) are no longer needed by most dog owners. (p 227 ff)

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

In My Kitchen, January 2024

We started the year in Costa Rica, as I’ve said, at the birding lodge called Rancho Naturalista. I'm starting my January kitchen wrap-up with photos of the kitchen there. 

On the table beside the stove in the first photo are two trays of stuffed baked potatoes, one of the dishes we enjoyed at a couple of dinners. The main Costa Rican dish served from this kitchen was Gallo Pinto, which was offered each day at breakfast: black beans, rice, onion, and spices. Several bottles of salsa were always available to flavor the rice and the various sorts of eggs and other breakfast dishes or whatever was served at other meals. The food at lunch and dinner was good, but more North American in style, like the roast turkey dinner for New Year's Eve, or a simple grilled steak or breaded fish filet, almost always with salads and vegetable dishes. (For more about the cuisine, see "What is Costa Rican Food?" in Eater.)

Before breakfast was served, coffee and small snacks were available on the balcony 
where guests gathered to watch the early-morning bird life.

Back in Ann Arbor

Since we returned home, we’ve been trapped indoors by some of the worst weather we have ever lived through. January has been sunless, freezing cold and icy or just chilly and damp, and very depressing. We haven’t seen a ray of sunshine since our return to Michigan. So we have cooked a lot. Here are some photos from our own kitchen and dining room.

A New Sauce from Costa Rica

We bought some of the special Lizano brand sauce that we had in Costa Rica.
Also a new chili sauce from Trader Joe’s.

Soup for Cold Nights

A Costa Rican specialty is Aztec Soup — a tomato and tortilla soup. (link)
This is the only Costa Rican dish we have tried at home.

I tried this dish in Costa Rica-- it's also popular elsewhere in Central America.

Also at home: this corn chowder mainly made from leftover vegetables and a can of cream-style corn.

Weather like ours demands lots of flavors of soup! Mostly, I make soups without a recipe.

Winter Salads

Preparing broccoli salad with the new sauce. No recipe!

Champignons à la grecque: a French classic dish of mushrooms with cilantro and lemon.
We had this as a side dish with chicken legs and vegetables. 
Julia Child's recipe, which I wrote about in the past, is more complicated. (link)

Main courses with or without meat

From Fuchsia Dunlop's book Every Grain of Rice.

Crispy potatoes: we ate them as a main course with a salad. Another New York Times recipe.
I haven't given links to NYT recipes because they are behind a paywall.

Sweet Pastry

A “Pompe” — that is, a large apple turnover in flaky pastry.
Details of the two apple pastries that Len made were in yesterday’s post (link).

These cardamom buns were a nice treat on a snowy afternoon.

Tuna and Salmon for Salads

I make tuna or salmon salad often. No recipe.
Mayo and pickle relish are essential!

New Refrigerator Magnets

From our trip to Costa Rica: magnets of sloths, birds, a bat, and a folkloric painted farm cart.

That’s my kitchen for January — not much new "stuff." I’m sharing my kitchen post with Sherry’s once-a-month blog party “In My Kitchen.” All photos © 2024 mae e. sander.