Revving Up for a Cape Cod Valentine ...

Valentine's Day is only five days away. Have you gotten your sweetie something sweet yet? Flowers also make a great gift, although at this time of the year, one does have to worry about their being imported and pesticide-grown. Here's what I hope to receive: Love Letter Cookies from Dancing Deer.

Valentine's used to be a favorite of mine before moving to France. People simply don't celebrate the same way over there. As an American teenager, I used to create messages that expressed love. For my parents, I wrote poems. One of my more memorable ideas was a love letter containing hundreds of tiny red hearts that all fell out and fluttered into the air, when my boyfriend opened the envelope, unfortunately for him, in a crowded elevator. If you live on the Outer Cape, how about a more sensible gift, like chocolates from the Wellfleet Candy Company, available at Wellfleet Marketplace? Or, tickets to Wellfleet Harbor Actors' Theater? Or, dinner for two at Wicked Oyster?

What's the most unusual V-Day gift you have ever received?

Thank you, Martin Nerber!

Recently a Wellfleetian died and left $200,000 to the Wellfleet Public Library. This generous soul’s name was Martin Nerber. Wellfleet does have a great library, but $200,000-great? What is our librarian going to do with that much money? $200,000 buys a whole lot of books and DVDs. With this bequest, the Friends of the Library can surely take a few years off. No more fund-raising needed for the time being. This gift is the perfect second act to becoming a five-star establishment. It takes the recommendation to LOVE THY LIBRARY to a whole new level.

Mr. Nerber also left $75,000 to the Wellfleet Senior Center. $100,000 more went to the Nauset School Committee. The Haiti Club got $50,000. Let’s see, that’s $200,000 + 100,000 + 75,000 + $50,000 = $425,000. Wow! I was going to write about the ice-skaters on Long Pond, but this story is way more interesting. Mr. Nerber stands front and center, holding a book. He died November 9 at age 60. I may have passed Martin on his way in or out of the library, but did not know him. The obit says he studied ballet and photography. His father was a writer/editor and Martin loved to read. Music also was important. After moving back to Wellfleet, where his mother runs a gallery, Martin, of course, visited our library at least once a week. When not reading, he was out flyfishing on pond or beach, a pretty lonely life from the sound of it. Such a story makes me think of the amazing Beatles track, “All the Lonely People,” the one that mentions the woman who kept her face in a jar by the door. Martin might have fit right into that song. I think the reason he left $200,000 to Wellfleet’s Public Library is because our librarians don’t let anyone feel the need to wear a mask. They know everyone by name. They treat people with respect and kindness. Now that policy has really paid off. On behalf of the readers of Wellfleet, thank you, Martin Nerber!

In Honor of Howard Zinn … To the Barricades!

Wellfleet lost one of its most worthwhile part-time citizens, just as I was gearing up to ask his advice on how to approach activism against corporations that pollute the environment. Can you guess whom I am referring to? Gentle Howard Zinn, an activism giant and well-regarded historian, capable of applying his historical knowledge to current events so effectively. Sven and I ran into Howard once in the Newcomb Hollow Beach parking lot. I wanted to say how much my husband has always admired his work, but we were in a hurry, and so was he. Words were left unspoken, and now it’s too late. Roz Zinn passed away shortly thereafter. Someone at town hall told me it was Howard who had died, so I wrote a note of condolence to son Jeff, responsible for Wellfleet’s theater. Jeff informed me of the mistake, that the loss was of his mother. Now both his parents are gone. I saw Howard a last time this past summer, at Hatch’s, buying organic produce. How do I know? I cannot imagine him buying conventional fruit, with pesticide residue. An attractive young woman was on his arm. Daughter? Granddaughter? Friend? Who cares. All I know is that she made him happy. I wanted to say something but again hesitated to break the celebrity-barrier. This winter Sven and I watched Howard on Bill Moyers’ Journal, then applauded The People Speak, broadcast on The History Channel and now available on DVD. You can read one of Howard Zinn’s final interviews here. I will never know what advice he would have given me. But I can imagine: Go for it! Grass-roots movements make all the difference.

Call to Action: French Film on Pesticides Needs YOU!

Doesn’t it make you angry that citizens have to fight for safe food, water, and air? Never would I have thought of myself as an activist. Oh, not me. Activists are slightly loony, in-your-face, a fringe element of society. That’s what I used to believe. No longer. I've joined their ranks. Yes, little old innkeeper me. Corporations have become so powerful that individual citizens must step up to the plate and indicate their willingness to oppose the status quo. Yesterday, it was water. In my opinion, spraying herbicides on the Outer Cape is total lunacy since most of us drink well water from a single source aquifer. (Please go here for information from the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition on how to protest NStar’s plan to spray toxic chemicals under the power lines, two months earlier than the utility company's executives promised the Select Board of Eastham.) Today, I received an email from a reader in France, requesting support of a similar worthwhile cause. A certain number of people must view the trailer below if Jean-Paul Jaud’s film on pesticides (and their probable link to cancer) is to be screened in French movie theaters. Help put Nos Enfants Nous Accuseront before an audience and perhaps one day we will be allowed to see this important documentary in the USA. While you're at it, please go to the Environmental Working Group Web site to read how the EWG president recently testified before Congress, and sign this petition in favor of the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act…

Call to Action: Keep Wellfleet Pure!

Thank you to Anonymous for the kind words in the comment he/she left yesterday. I am not a professional photographer by any means, but I do enjoy taking photos of beautiful Wellfleet. Above, for instance, a shot of Newcomb Hollow Beach, visited last week. The air was crisp and pure. How marvelous nature can be when humans do not get involved with their polluting ways! In today's world, we have all kinds of toxic substances to worry about. If it's not the air, or the food, it's the water. Please join me and the MA Breast Cancer Coalition in telling NStar we do NOT want herbicides sprayed under the power lines, since traces of these synthetic chemicals will filter down into our single source aquifer, flow into private wells, and be consumed by you, my fellow Cape Codders, as well as by our summer visitors. If you have friends who will help KEEP WELLFLEET PURE, refer them to this blog post. Over two thousand people have signed Green Cape's petition, but NStar still doesn't get it. So, your favorite blogger urges you to take a stand. Click through here to obtain Jeffrey Luce's email and protest NStar's plan, now advanced in date to March. Other methods of vegetation control are possible, but NStar insists on toxic chemicals. Please see the right-hand column in the latest MBCC Newsletter for more information. Thank you, thank you!

Deadline for Dune Shack Lottery Draws Near

Are you an artist or a writer? Have you been looking for an unusual experience for 2010? How about staying in a dune shack at the tip of Cape Cod? Yes, the National Seashore, through the Provincetown Community Compact, is making residencies available again this summer. They run April through November. Read all about it here. The initial choice of candidates will be made by lottery. Yup, you heard me. Names will be drawn from a hat.

Imagine living in a dune shack! What an experience. Accommodations are quite rustic, but how undeniably beautiful the view. Not sure what to bring? No sweat. Here’s a list of suggestions.

Susanne Lewis was fortunate enough to be chosen in 2008 and kept a photo journal, which she turned into a splendid book, called Dune Shack Summer. If you don’t win the lottery, you can buy yourself a copy instead ...

How Do You Like Being a Guinea Pig?

Last month a reader sent me a link to a report on how exposure to PBDEs (flame retardants) diminishes a woman’s fertility. Another reader alerted me to a NPR piece on GMO corn and farmers, forced to use GMO seed. If you read this blog January 15th or watched Food Inc., you already know farmers have no choice and risk a lawsuit if they SAVE SEED – what sensible farmers used to do in the past, before huge corporations like Monsanto took over. The Huffington Post brought news of a study published by the International Journal of Biological Sciences. This study found liver, kidney and heart damage in rats that were fed GMO corn. (Read the following excerpt, or skip to next paragraph: "Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity....These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods, are currently unknown.")

We have all become guinea pigs as we use products that contain synthetic chemicals, presumed non-toxic, or eat foods with GMO content, unlisted on labels. From the movie Food Inc., I learned even farmers who manage to grow GMO-free crops risk cross contamination of those crops. Here is yet another issue that needs grass roots support to change the frightening status quo.

Above, a photo of Dyer Pond, frozen and serene. Today it is snowing again here in Wellfleet, tiny flakes of acid-rain snow. How tragic we humans have managed to corrupt our precious environment this way! You can protest Monsanto’s monopoly and their dangerous Round-Up Ready seeds by contacting the FDA, a branch of government that should be protecting us.

No, wait. Here's another means of protest. Into my in-box popped an email from Food & Water Watch. Please take a minute to respond to their request for support against Monsanto's plans for alfalfa and suggest similar action on corn.