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These days, I feel like a single candle, cursing the darkness, both literal and figurative. The Anthropocene weighs heavy on my mind, and heart: Global atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) concentration has increased 30% in my lifetime, reaching levels that have not been seen for at least hundreds of thousands of years. Global climate change is accelerating. We are seeing the effects in more extreme weather events. Our complex earth systems are driven toward chaotic respones by warmer termperatures, greater atmospheric moisture, destablizing air and ocean currents. What fossil carbon we haven't burned, we've converted to plastic, contaminating the deepest ocean trenches, and our food supply. We are causing the Sixth Great Extinction of species, and life, on the planet. Not only is there no political will to interrupt our collective psychosis, the kleptocrats insist on doubling and tripling down, forcing ever-wider disparities in wealth and income. As long as they get theirs before...

Today is World AIDS Day. By coincidence, the 41st president also just died, reminding me - and the cohort of survivors from his dark reign - how many more of us died on his watch from inaction, and more active hatred. It's also my dad's mortiversary, the 10th anniversary of his death. As I did ten years ago , I turned to baking. In anticipation of our upcoming tree-trimming party, and a hoped-for cookie-decorating side activity, I chose a rolling cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour. Since I'm unfamiliar with this type of cookie, I stayed as close as I could to the original recipe. I consider these a qualified success. There are some improvements I can make, mostly about technique. I'm happy with the basic recipe. Ingredients Confectioners' sugar, 1-1/4 cups / 5-1/2 ounces (Their recipe gives 5 oz as the weight equivalent, but this is what my scale came up with) Unsalted ("sweet") butter, 18 tablespoons = 1 cup + 2 tablespoons, room temperature (I neglect...