That is to say, it's the most popular week during every week except the actual week itself. At any time of year other than during National Library Week, any patron informed of fines on his or her card will invariably respond (after a moment of affected surprise), "Hey when are y'all doing the can goods?" Sometimes he or she will even complain that "doing the can goods" only one week out of the year, and especially not during the specific week when the inquiry is placed, indicates some sort of failure of commitment on our part. Many patrons return to this point as they visit throughout the year informing us at each non-payment-of-fines transaction that they are saving up for the food drive. Thus nearly every reminder of fines in any amount is met with subtle hints at our inadequacy combined with a testimony to the magnificence of their good intentions.
Here's how such these good intentions are typically manifested. They are manifested in ramen noodles. Because ramen noodles purchased at the Sam's Club in big 24 packs offer the best value per in fines waived per item donated, they're typically the product most frequently contributed during the week. This becomes more true in proportion to the number of times the donor has proclaimed his or her intentions throughout the year. You may think that the people donating multiple 24 packs of ramen noodles are perhaps not fully apprehending the spirit of the food drive in the first place, but you have to at least give them some credit for showing up. Because aside from the ramen noodles, this week, mostly what we've gotten is crickets.
Oh and there have been other insects too. This morning, as we were accepting a box of ramen noodles, we were momentarily startled by the appearance of a very large cockroach. My old roommate Consuela used to call these "soldier roaches" because they're larger, more aggressive, and tend to fly more readily than regular household roaches do. Typically they live outside. I'm guessing this one just hitched a ride in with the food box. Efforts to smack it into submission using the Gambit Spring Restaurant Guide were unsuccessful which only reaffirms our belief that the alphabetical list of local eateries is the least useful of the fifty dining guides the Gambit publishes each year.
Anyway so there's a large angry insect hiding somewhere in the building creeping everyone out right now. Which, I suppose, is as appropriate a state of mind as any for sharing this week's BP-related links:
- American Zombie: More Cries for Help
Last Saturday I spent the day at Dr. Michael Robichaux's farm in Raceland talking with well over 60 offshore workers, fisherman, and family members who are experiencing extreme health effects from the BP oil spill. Many of the workers who came into direct contact with the oil and the dispersant, Corexit, are experiencing similar health problems ranging from mild sypmptoms to life threatening conditions. It's not only the men who were out on the Gulf during the spill that are sick, family members are experiencing health problems as well. Even people who swam in the ocean are stricken.
- MSNBC: 1 arrest as BP bars door to Gulf Coast protesters
LONDON — Police arrested one person who traveled from the Gulf Coast to attend a BP shareholder meeting in London and four others were refused entry Thursday, according to an msnbc.com editor at the scene.
The five were among a group from the U.S. who went to the meeting to tell the company's shareholders about the ongoing plight of people in the area following theDeepwater Horizon disaster last year.
They were acting as proxies for people who have BP stock, but nonetheless were prevented from entering the hall where the meeting was taking place at the vast ExCel center in London's Docklands district.
"They're scared of us, that's why they didn't let us in," one of those refused entry, Tracy Kuhns, told msnbc.com. Barataria Bay, La. resident Kuhns, 57, runs a family fishery business with her husband. - NYT: Gulf’s Complexity and Resilience Seen in Studies of Oil Spill
For all this effort, it will take time for some of the consequences to manifest themselves. It was three years after the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska, for example, that the herring fishery suddenly collapsed.
During the Deepwater Horizon disaster, as the slick was spreading, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service moved about 28,000 eggs from turtles’ nests on at-risk beaches in Alabama to the coast of Florida. While 51 percent of the eggs hatched — roughly consistent with normal survival rates— it will be another two decades or so before the hatchlings that survive come back to Florida as adults to lay eggs. Only then will anyone know how successful the rescue effort really was. - ProPublica: ‘Spillionaires’: Profiteering and Mismanagement in the Wake of the BP Oil Spill
Some people profiteered from the spill by charging BP outrageous rates for cleanup. Others profited from BP claims money, handed out in arbitrary ways. So many people cashed in that they earned nicknames -- "spillionaires" or "BP rich." Meanwhile, others hurt by the spill ended up getting comparatively little.
In the end, BP's attempt to make things right -- spending more than $16 billion so far, mostly on claims of damage and cleanup -- created new divisions and even new wrongs. Because the federal government ceded control over spill cleanup spending to BP, it's impossible to know for certain what that money accomplished, or what exactly was done.
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