The weather changed a bit last week — April showers that turned into downpours. The spring sunshine turned gray. It was just as well because I was under the weather myself with an ailment that was irksome but not serious. It kept me inside, a bit like the big pandemic of 2020 when everybody had to stay home and find a way to pass the time.
I picked up Amy Tan’s marvelous “Backyard Bird Chronicles,” eager to learn about the wildlife in my own yard. It had been a grand spring, with lots of migrating birds and plenty of crows and ravens circling in the blue skies. But the birds seemed to vanish in the wet weather. Even the local owl had gone silent.
The other book I was reading turned out to be boring, the news in the paper was all bad, and the social media reminded me of a talkative kid I used to know who never shut up. So I turned to binge-watching television — old movies, Netflix, baseball and the local news. It was a discovery. The advertising on TV was scarier than the news stories. It was a bit of a window into the real culture of our time…