Joan Didion has died (opens in new tab)

If you liked Cadillac Desert you might enjoy reading A Kingdom from Dust, a long-form article in California Sunday magazine that details the Resnick family behind Pom pomegranate products and their lobbying for water rights in Kern county: https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-du...

I find it funny that a farm in the valley has "water use rights" and will end up using millions of gallons of water per month and pay almost nothing for it meanwhile my sfm which uses about 15k gallons a month will cost $300 for the privilege and I'm allowed to keep going and water outside as much as I want however California regulations prevent me from installing a second shower head in my walk in shower wet room under the guise of not wasting water.

All this even though the place where I live is basically 97% recycled water so you're really just paying for the cost of treating the water.

Eh I generally don't understand why my property has to stay a dessert while 10 minutes from my house the farms take the water and sell it for themselves in the fruit.

The song "That Funny Feeling" by comedian Bo Burnham may be related to the feeling you're describing

Wow, that is quite bizarre. I hadn't noticed the comment due to my browser extensions.

bathos?

I had a hard time finding a publication date for the original, but searching for it suggests 1979.

Political Fictions is my favorite Joan Didion book, particularly her essay on Insider Baseball., which together with Asimov’s Franchise anticipates 538 and all the other media on elections that ultimately disenfranchise voters.

Robert Caro talks the way an old New York grandfather talks, which is definitely very expressive, but I found myself going "mmm hmm" and zoning it out because it just went on and on and on.

It'd probably be good as an audiobook.