What can I or anyone else say? The events unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico are sad not only for the presumed loss of life of 11 workers on the deepwater drilling rig that exploded in a ball of flames on April 20th and subsequently sunk to the ocean floor a mile below, but also for the environmental disaster that is slowly unfolding before our collective eyes.

I recently attended an exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco (located adjacent to the California Academy of Sciences mentioned in an earlier post) entitled Boquet to Art, the 26th annual edition of the exhibit featuring some 150 floral displays interpreting the Museum's permanent collection and also this year the upcoming Impressionism exhibition from the Musée d'Orsay that will be on view throughout the summer.

In a special issue of the National Geographic magazine published this month entitled Water: Our Thirsty World is a beautiful map featuring every river system in the world and detailing the challenges we all face managing our precious fresh water resources in the 21st century. I have heard it said more than once that “water is the new gold” and this fascinating journalistic study more than brings that cliché to life.

Over the years I have had the pleasure of hosting my parents, other relatives, and friends from the East Coast as my guests here in northern California. It is always fun for me to share the wonderful cultural and recreational attractions we have here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and this most recent visit from my parents was no exception.

At the end of 2008, I took a trip to Montana and became aware of an unexpected byproduct of the economic downturn as I saw a line of rail cars literally parked on the tracks near Great Falls that stretched to the horizon and beyond. Besides the visual blight, the cars had the potential to interrupt animal migration patterns and were a stark reminder of the challenges of managing supply chains during a recession.