By separating these odd lots into discrete posts spread over several days, we might appear more professional. But alas, we are what we seem to be:

  • The National Park Service is reminding folks that 33 national parks will offer premier seating for the solar eclipse on May 20, and six parks “are at the center of the eclipse path.” For your pre- and post-eclipse pleasure, rangers and astronomers will be offering “hands-on eclipse activities,” which sounds vaguely dangerous to us.
  • The winter’s dry warm weather (punctuated by a few notable snow storms) took a toll on ski resorts throughout the west. In Colorado, the season was the worst in decades, with a snowpack that was about half what it normally is. Skier visits were down about 7 percent overall. At Vail, visits were down almost 13 percent and the snowpack was half of last year’s level (although last year was a blockbuster, snow-wise).
  • Not every resort has suffered without snow, though. Whistler is closed but Blackcomb is open until May 28. Lift tickets are marked down 40 percent (to $168 for three days). The Globe and Mail reports that “condos and hotels are available for bargain-basement prices – our two-bedroom-plus loft at the Glacier Lodge, five minutes’ walk from the lifts, slept eight and went for $190 a night (that’s $23.75 each a night!) over a three-day weekend.”
  • Here’s a chance to put your money and your environmental principles where your mouth is. The world’s only carbon-neutral chocolate will soon be available in the U.K. The “handpressed, single-estate, vanilla-free, vintage rootstock, grown-with-a-windward aspect” chocolate is still at sea (on a wind-powered sailboat, naturally), on its way from Grenada to Portsmouth. In the great scheme of necessary environmental improvements, chocolate is not a low-hanging fruit. There are many other, easier ways to get bigger impact. This makes more sense if you think of it as a demonstration project by the ship’s Dutch owner, Fairtransport. It’s also a warm-up for that company’s next project, a 3,000-ton, sail-powered cargo ship.

Beautiful Elakala Waterfalls in the Blackwater Falls State park, West Virginia, USA, by ForestWander Nature Photography, via Wikimedia Commons.