By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Patient readers, I suffered a household debacle this morning that’s too boring to explain, and the result is that today’s Water Cooler is an open thread.

Bird Song of the Day

If you could use a palate cleanser after Zelensky’s speech, I highly recommend this episode of Aaron Maté’s Pushback:

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here (TH):

TH writes: “I’m off work for the month of January, so had an opportunity to go to a park in Irvine for a walk and some photography. I was struck by the contrast of the lush deep greens and reds against the background of gray dry shrubbery.”

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the recently concluded and — thank you! — successful annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember , a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals: