FUTURES TRADING

Snail, St. Bertrand de Comminges, France

And you thought the Welsh snails were pretty. France's got the best snails in the world! My theory is that they're preserving species diversity to provide premium escargot for future generations, while the rest of us are killing them so they won't eat our swiss chard. It all comes down to food preferences, really.

So, anyway, I was gonna post this series of pictures of animals in the French Pyrenees, without comment, because I hadn't gotten around to writing anything for it. But of course, as soon as I started uploading them, I also started writing commentary and even some tangents. So, I'll keep working on that post, and leave you hanging for another day or two. (I gave you the snail above to keep you from feeling too teased.)

Instead, I give you .... the tangent:

In college, my friend Jenny and I had this elaborate plan wherein her brother would have a sheep farm in New Zealand, Jenny would be an environmental activist and live in the Pacific Northwest wildnerness and I would have an awesomely cool loft and direct theatre in New York City (yeah right, I know). The plan was we would just trade lives every now and then. You know, because we wanted all three lives but in our youthful wisdom figured we'd never have time to do all three. I think we were right, mostly.

I don't think her brother ever even knew he was a key part of our life plans, so I'm assuming he hasn't fulfilled his part of them. As far as I know, Jenny still lives in Charlottesville, sans sheep or environmental activism, though I think she did work for PIRG at some point. I've given up theatre for the time being, but I do live in the Pacific Northwest and I am working on getting a career related to farms and the environment, so I've done my part better than any of us would have guessed! I mean, I've been to New York and I did theatre for years, though mostly as a dramaturg and only rarely as a director. And, yeah, I lived in Wales, which is in many ways like living on a sheep farm. If you see Jenny tell her its her responsibility to fit New Zealand in somehow.