By LYNNE IRONS

I am similar to those irritating folks who quit smoking but bum cigarettes from others. Because I have a rebellious nature, I do not own a computer. When I need to Google, I go to the library or ask a favor from a friend. This past week I caught the end of a Nina Totenberg report on National Public Radio. The subject was Civil Rights Comes Full Circle in Alabama. A big thank-you to Jenny Seward who found the entry on the NPR Web site and printed it out for me. It was a remarkably moving account of Congressional Representative John Hughes leading a commemorative pilgrimage to Alabama. This year, on the 44th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the official speaker was Eric Holder, the nation’s first African American Attorney General. His late sister in law, Vivian Malone, was one of two students blocked from enrolling in college by George Wallace in 1963. Mr. Holder was introduced by Peggy Wallace Kennedy, the daughter of Gov. Wallace. The two shared a warm and tearful embrace. Isn’t life grand?

I have gardener’s hands. They long ago lost their ability to promote a career in hand modeling. These fingernails are no longer useful tools. Why are there tamper-proof tops on everything, especially products we oldsters need to open, for example, aspirin? Oh! And when did they take the convenient red string from Band-Aids? Trying to open one while throbbing and bleeding is so annoying.

This is my third spring writing this column. The same advice needs to be given regarding crows and emerging pea sprouts. They will pull up every one. I start peas in the big plug trays easily twice the size of common six-packs. I leave them under Reemay until they get some size. Reemay is a wonderful product. It is a film-like material through which light and water will pass. It confounds crows and bugs and also adds a tiny bit of frost protection. It can be anchored with soil, bricks, logs or rocks.

We had another slow food potluck at the Agricultural Hall last Thursday evening. It was, of course, a wonderful gathering of food and the lovers of it. The program for the event was a report from several members who had attended the biennial worldwide get-together of Slow Food International in Turin, Italy. It is affectionately called Terra Madre. The speakers were inspired and shared their enthusiasm with the rest of us.

Slow food envisions a world in which all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it, and good for the planet. In essence, food that is good, clean and fair. The organization began as a protest to the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome and has been gathering quite a following worldwide. Thousands attended Terra Madre this past fall.

Pity my poor editor. My typewriter is on the blink so I have resorted to the handwriting. I did not pass penmanship at Earl J. Hyatt elementary school in Rew, Pennsylvania. Last week I could not judge how much I was blabbing so there was not room for Seniel’s rendition of our New Year’s Eve pig chase.

I have had it with the AIG bonus scandal. How long do we have to hear about it? This is not the first time our tax dollars have gone to support the rich. To wit: farm subsidies, no-bid contracts, corporate welfare, public lands given to the cattle barons, and so on ad nauseum. I find it sad that we are outraged for weeks on end over money and yawn at government-sanctioned torture, human trafficking worldwide, starving children with no access to clean water, or the brand-new hospital here on the Vineyard having no units to treat alcoholism and drug addiction. I do go on! Thank you for indulging me.