Six of the town’s police officers have since been arrested for their roles in the murder. Authorities say the killing was related to the ongoing turf war among rival drug cartels in Nuevo Leon and other parts of Mexico.

Time reports that since December 2006, when Mexico’s current president Felipe Calderón took office, “there have been an incredible 28,000 drug-related killings.”

Funeral wreaths in memory of mayor Edelmiro Cavazos are arrayed outside the funeral home where his wake was held August 19. Cavazos allegedly was killed by members of a drug cartel working in collusion with local police.
Photo: Reuters

A Van Gogh floral still life known as “Poppy Flowers” and/or “Vase with Flowers” (since some decidedly non-poppy yellow blossoms crowd the few poppies aside here) has been the pride of Cairo’s Mahmoud Khali Museum, and its embarrassment. Saturday, the painting was stolen from the museum for the second time.

According to aolnews “Egypt’s minister of culture announced that the $50 million work of art had been ‘cut from its frame’ while on show…. He added that police were now studying security camera footage and questioning employees.” The investigation could get tough since “according to one security official, interviewed by Agence France-Presse, both the museum’s cameras and its alarms have been out of action for ‘a long time.’”

Several sources say that this work was one of many homages Van Gogh made to Adolphe Monticelli, a prolific flower painter whom Van Gogh admired. Here’s an interesting site, in French, with more details of Van Gogh’s efforts to imitate the elder painter (especially nice hollyhocks).

The painting, reportedly worth $50 million today, was stolen in 1978 and recovered two years later in Kuwait. “However, a duplicate was sold for $43 million a year later, sparking speculation that the returned painting was a fake.” Early Sunday, a story circulated that “Poppy Flowers” had been found and two Italian suspects detained, but that news has now been retracted by Egyptian authorities. The painting is still unaccounted for—and those yellow flowers are still unidentified.

And Dig for Texas, another brainchild, is gathering petitions for a vegetable garden to be planted at the Texas Governor’s mansion – part of a bigger push toward sustainable food production and homegrown edibles statewide.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting Pamela in person, and generously she brought us some Goodwin Creek lavender harvested from her own yard. We’d call it heavenly, Pamela, except we know better. This beautiful herb came right out of the Texas soil. We’ve poured it into a bag and now have a sachet that will freshen a car ridden in too many times by too many nervous people and panting dogs.

Thank you, Pamela. Till we meet again….

Writer, gardener, and dynamo Pamela Price, from Leon Springs, Texas, after a macrobiotic lunch at Casa de Luz in Austin
Photo: Human Flower Project