Botanical History, Worse History

      When I learned that both vanilla and chocolate are species native to the warmer parts of the Americas, I began to wonder if the Aztecs and their neighbors were actually dessert empires.

      ...Sugarcane and cinnamon came out of India, and not to the New World until Europeans found the place, but the alacrity with which their cultivation followed that discovery suggests volumes about our species interest in dessert -- and our heedlessness of side-effects and consequences.

      Haiti is still in a bad way and possibly getting worse.  I heard on the news that we're trying to get Canada to take the lead in helping their government sort things out.  Why not the U.S.?  Smedley Butler might have some insight about that; start at Wikipedia and you'll learn things you might not much like.