I did not know that tulips were useless, that insects shun them, or that they provide no benefit besides being pretty. I did not know that but it seems appropriate since this is the flower that caused the speculative market crash in Holland in the 17th century, a time when huge fortunes were lost during the "tulip mania." Among minerals, the one that is famously the object of speculative greed is gold. How many lives have been ruined by a lust for gold? Gold among the common metals is probably the most useless. Nothing particularly useful is made of gold. No tools or weapons or machines or any utilitarian object I can think of is made of gold. It's useless but it's pretty, it's molded into jewelry or it's used as a decorative coating on things made of base metals or wood. So it's interesting, and it makes weird kind of sense, that very valuable things need to be useless. This may be true of people as well.
Yes, gold is utterly useless. At least tulips grow and change and feed deer and rodents. That's something. Gold isn't even that pretty and literally does nothing, and I've never understood its power over people. But when I look at tulip petals I can understand tulip mania and how one might be driven mad by the beauty.
Thank you! 80 degrees isn't that uncommon in mid-April. If it happened every day that would be concerning, but it will most likely be up and down until well into May.
I think in my last comment on your substack I mentioned the wolverine that was just sighted in Oregon. In the couple of months since then, two more have been photographed...one at the beach, and the other inside the city limits of Eugene (population over 176,000). It seems they're not getting the message that they are supposed to be going extinct due to snow pack issues associated with "climate change". It is now becoming abundantly clear that hunting/trapping is the main driver behind species loss, and that simply giving an animal a break from that for about 40/50 years, we see amazing come-backs ...like the American crocodile in Florida.
I did not know that tulips were useless, that insects shun them, or that they provide no benefit besides being pretty. I did not know that but it seems appropriate since this is the flower that caused the speculative market crash in Holland in the 17th century, a time when huge fortunes were lost during the "tulip mania." Among minerals, the one that is famously the object of speculative greed is gold. How many lives have been ruined by a lust for gold? Gold among the common metals is probably the most useless. Nothing particularly useful is made of gold. No tools or weapons or machines or any utilitarian object I can think of is made of gold. It's useless but it's pretty, it's molded into jewelry or it's used as a decorative coating on things made of base metals or wood. So it's interesting, and it makes weird kind of sense, that very valuable things need to be useless. This may be true of people as well.
Yes, gold is utterly useless. At least tulips grow and change and feed deer and rodents. That's something. Gold isn't even that pretty and literally does nothing, and I've never understood its power over people. But when I look at tulip petals I can understand tulip mania and how one might be driven mad by the beauty.
Wow...80 degrees in mid-April in Ohio? That surprised me. I love tulips. Lovely photos.
Thank you! 80 degrees isn't that uncommon in mid-April. If it happened every day that would be concerning, but it will most likely be up and down until well into May.
I think in my last comment on your substack I mentioned the wolverine that was just sighted in Oregon. In the couple of months since then, two more have been photographed...one at the beach, and the other inside the city limits of Eugene (population over 176,000). It seems they're not getting the message that they are supposed to be going extinct due to snow pack issues associated with "climate change". It is now becoming abundantly clear that hunting/trapping is the main driver behind species loss, and that simply giving an animal a break from that for about 40/50 years, we see amazing come-backs ...like the American crocodile in Florida.