Ancient Beer Is Craft’s New Frontier By Sara Toth Stub This work first appeared on SAPIENS under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here. One morning in May 2019, a crowd of journalists gathered around the Biratenu bar in Jerusalem, snapping photos as a bartender poured golden, frothy beer into plastic cups. The... Continue Reading →
Psychedelics Are Booming—but Who’s Being Left Out?
Three researchers discuss the possibilities and problems arising as psychedelic plant medicines, held sacred by many Indigenous communities, move into the global mental health and tourism industries. from SAPIENS, May 17, 2023 by Keridwen Cornelius Artwork in Mexico likely depicts María Sabina, a Mazatec shaman who preserved traditional knowledge of psilocybin mushrooms for healing. Artur... Continue Reading →
Tree Sex
[Sex is in the air at this time of the year. Birds are twittering, frogs are singing, and the doe is emerging from the woods with fawns, the result of last fall's rut. As the great primates that we are, we might as well get in the swing of things. SB SM] https://chasingnature.substack.com/ by Bryan... Continue Reading →
Silverbelle Tina Leaves Us
[Could anyone command a stage as well as Silverbelle Tina? Not in this Silverback's lifetime. SB SM] https://deadline.com/2023/05/tina-turner-dead-obituary-rock-soul-singer-was-83-1235378614/ by Greg Evans, from Deadline.com, May 24, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smGG7L_JjSM Tina Turner, known as the Queen of Rock’n Roll for her blistering performances and powerfully gritty vocals, died today after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht... Continue Reading →
Blindboy Busts Loose
[This is the way things go. Silverback Digest discovered the Blindboy several years ago and made his "What's the craic?" a regular feature. Now he's touted by the New York Times as the next big thing. Will the predictable follow, i.e. that so many others will hop on to the media bandwagon that Blindboy will... Continue Reading →
Jimmy Piersall
[For several years Jimmy Piersall was my favorite baseball player, even if these were years when the Red Sox's left fielder was a guy named Ted. In 1957, when I was 9 years old, the movie version of his life story, called Fear Strikes Out was released. My Dad, knowing what I fan I was,... Continue Reading →
“It’s Going to be a Shitstorm”
[Silverback Ron (Muskegon SBs) writes: "I’ve been reading the SB digest and the recent articles about AI. I’m pretty ignorant about the whole thing which is probably true for a lot of people older than 50. I think people will line up in one of 2 camps; it’s just another tool or machines will take... Continue Reading →
How Much Is a Smidgen?
The history of measuring a dollop or a pinch. By Claire Cock-Starkey Published in Lapham's Quarterly, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2023 Below: Cooking: The Cook, by Edouard Vuillard, 1934. The Cleveland Museum of Art. In evidence given to Parliament’s 1862 Select Committee on Weights and Measures, a Mr. Greenall remarked on the extraordinary number of different historical weights and... Continue Reading →
Clover: Flower or Weed?
By Laurie D. Morrissey Call it a flower or call it a weed – clover is a plant everyone knows. Who hasn’t idled away an hour hunting for a four-leaf clover, hoping for good luck? A member of the legume family, clover is common in lawns and fields, in disturbed sites, and along roadsides. Of... Continue Reading →
Queen of the Bumbles
Love live the Queen! Queen Season: Bumble Bees in Spring By Kenrick Vezina Hear ye, hear ye! The queens have emerged! We’re talking about bumble bees (genus Bombus). For several weeks each spring, any bumble bee you see is a queen – and very hard at work. She must construct her kingdom. Her mother (the... Continue Reading →