Strawberry Trees

An owl hooted twice, somewhere behind him, and Tuon sighed.
"Is there an omen in that?" Mat asked, just for something to say.
"I'm glad you are finally taking an interest. Perhaps I will be able to educate you yet. An owl hooting twice means someone will die soon." Well, that put a bloody end to conversation.
-Knife of Dreams

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Back home for Thanksgiving break, and the first thing I wanted to figure out: What on earth is this fruit?

From Campus Sights

After a lot of guesswork and research, my dad and I found the answer. It's called a Strawberry Tree. Yep, that's right. Those things you spent your early childhood being convinced didn't exist? It does. Talk about a smack in the face. The fruit has a yellow, pulpy center, with reddish spines around it. The spines aren't sharp, though they are a little stiff. While it is edible, the latin name for the tree and its fruit, unedo, is interpreted "I eat one". You figure out the rest.

Just because it's not very palatable doesn't mean it has no purpose; Spain and Portugal, especially, uses a close relative of the Pacific Northwest's Strawberry Tree to make brandy and jam. Even though it's a Northwest native, I've never seen it before I came to UW. It's a relative to the Madrona, though, which is definitely found around here, so I guess it's no surprise.

Another random thing I've found around campus is The Dreaded Overpass. I have to cross it to go back and forth between my dorm and campus almost every day, so I'm pretty familiar with it. And I'll tell you right now: it's downright frightening wearing clothes while crossing the thing! The wind gusts straight across those streets, coming in from the ocean. And the overpass lies right in the biggest cross-section of wind it could possibly be. Several times, now, it has tried to tug the coat, shirt, belt, pants, and sometimes even shoes right off of me. Truly a scary place to be. It would do you well to be over it as quickly as possible, lest it drag you onto the streets below in its apparel-flinging terror.

On a more serious edge, I've noticed a dismaying trend beginning to develop. The media's portrayal of the marital dishonesty of those it follows is becoming increasingly horrifying. As some of you may know, one of the big things to report on in the news right now is the Tiger Woods affair. While this in and of itself is nothing unusual, what's truly saddening is the manner in which Woods himself is dealing with the issue. It's a pattern we've seen before this year, and one we're likely to see again: he apologized to the people he's let down, apologized to family... but carefully skirted the issue that what he did was, in fact, wrong. Is it the media skewing it, or is he really that unrepentant?
While this may not be such a blatant case, there was another, similar event this year that sticks out clearly: South Carolina Governor Sanford's affair. When questioned about it by the media, he was shown to regret being caught, but it was disgustingly obvious that he was proud over what he did. That, really is what was so scary. Is this the pattern we're moving towards? "Everyone's human, so things like this happen to everyone, just grin, shrug, and keep going as if nothing ever happened." Or, worse yet, "You're such a man, look at all your conquests." Very concerning, indeed.

Anyway. What do you think? Am I over-analyzing the current situation?