Looking for a job on Sunday, as we unemployed are wont to do, I came across this ad in the Star want ads:

The Sunday, July 19, classifieds in the AZ Star.

Notice that they are asking for people to sell subscriptions to the Tucson Citizen, which closed May 15. That’s one of those weird things that makes you get all creepy feeling inside, as though maybe you’ve been living in an alternative universe and somewhere out there, there is still a print edition of the once-oldest daily in AZ.

My backyard corn plant - in the shadows I know, I know.

I’m not trying to commit blasphemy here, but this amazing thing growing in my small backyard garden has had me saying, lately, in good-humor and with a little bit of awe and a heck of a lot of excitement: “I’m like God!”

In case you’re not sure what this picture is of, it is my corn plant (surrounded by other less impressive plants like zinnias and basil and pole beans). And the second picture, up close, is – yes, you guessed it – the beginnings of an ear of corn.

Everyday this plant grows a little taller and the ear grows fatter and it is just amazing to watch. Eat local? You betcha. With thanks given to monsoon rains and Arizona sun and my home-grown compost and some organic corn seed and blessings from above.