Day: October 16, 2006

There are these teenagers who float near my block. This weekend it was two girls and a boy and they were horsing and hovering around. Their desired form of entertainment was screaming and yelling at each other along with hair pulling, choke holds, and hitting. The girls would frequently emit these loud piercing screams, that elsewhere would signal a need for help, but here was just screaming for screaming sake. Observing the teens the girls weren’t in any obvious danger because they wouldn’t stay away from the boy who was leading the dangerous violent play. The girls kept staying around him. But they kept with the screaming.
It dawned on me that by them engaging in the screaming and the playing “domestic violence” game they are getting those of us who are hearing them and seeing them, to ignore them, which is dangerous. It makes an environment where one can hear a woman screaming that “help me, I need help” kind of scream and ignore it because most of the time it’s been kids horsing around. It could also get one to dismiss real domestic violence that may play itself out in the street.

I feel I need to mention how the experiment with the edible front yard went. It went well enough but I could have used more tomatoes. Oregano is an aggressive plant. It just took over and I thought mint was bad. Where I planted mint, it stayed in place. But it planted the mint in spots where I would be walking on it regularly, so it is busy trying to survive vs taking over the yard.
I have some bald spots in the yard where I walk, and I don’t know what can survive a regular pounding, is edible and can deal with so so light. The thyme I planted in my path just didn’t work out. The tarragon died from being stepped on one to many times. Peppermint does not like everyday traffic.
Maybe I need more brick.