Monday appetizer plate

Two tasty hors d’oeuvres from my life:

1. Many of you know my home, some have even lived in it. It’s a duplex with a tiny front yard and an even tinier back one. But for years I’ve noticed these strange insects that only seem to live here- maybe a few in neighboring yards, but as far as I can tell, most of them are right here on our little plot of land.

They always come out around this time of year, when the weather starts getting warm and sunny. Little holes and mounds pop up all over the yard and these blackish flying things come out and buzz around for about two weeks, then disappear for another year. For a long time I thought they might be termites (they live in the ground and have a flying phase, right?) or something like that- I pretty much assume that the entire foundation of this old house is probably a sea of termites, ants, black widows and roaches, but they mostly have left me alone and I intend to do the same to them.

But these flying things weren’t around at first, then there were a few of them, then more every year, and all they do is buzz around, too quickly for me to get a good look at them. For some reason, they are particularly fascinated by the rusty parts of the old metal posts in the back that hold up an ancient clothesline. Finally, a couple years ago, my curiosity became too much to bear and I caught one in a bottle to see if I could figure out what it was. Once it stopped flying around and finally sat for a moment wondering what the hell happened, I could see it was kind of fuzzy and striped, like a bee, but in darker colors of black and grey.

I went on Ye Olde Internet and went to some insect ID-type sites, and voila! Turns out I had me a Plasterer Bee. Don’t worry, I let it go.

They build little nests in the ground with reinforced walls- hence the name. They tend to live in groups because they’re drawn by the particular conditions of the location, but they’re solitary, non-hive-living bees. They’re docile and rarely sting- if I’m in the yard, they just buzz around and avoid me. After figuring out what they are, I now love my plasterer bees! I actually look forward to them coming out each Spring and it cheers me up when they do, like a good omen for the coming year. They showed up last week, so things are looking good so far!

2. If you can, I highly recommend watching the new "John Adams" miniseries on HBO. If you have any interest in history, human drama, sumptuous production design or rich, nuanced acting, you will find something to like here. It’s a wonderful warts-and-all look at the early years of the US and the man who was perhaps the single most important driving force behind its creation, yet he has often been pushed to the side in our general vision of the Founding Fathers because he was uncharismatic, abrasive, and unattractive.

Paul Giamatti is my new acting hero. Sure, he’s been in a lot of things before, and I think I’m probably the only person on the planet who thought that "Sideways" was highly overrated. But here he’s carrying the whole show- with invaluable help from the lovely Laura Linney as his beloved Abigail- and keeps knocking me on my ass with his understated, powerful performance. It’s refreshing to see something that portrays the Founding Fathers as the flawed, bickering human beings that they really were, fraught with passion and uncertainty about the unknown road they were taking. It also makes me wonder what they would think of the current state of our society and the perception of America around the world. I doubt they would be pleased.

Anyway, just watch the show. It’s really good.