Three things from DAH. Free every Friday!
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DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. Thinking about personal hydration: I need to drink more water, and more regularly.

First up this week: Desert … 
Could be desolate. Could be deserved (as in just deserts). In either case, there's a long history of desert fascination in Western Culture, which seems odd to me. Why the fascination with places so inhospitable? We're visiting a desert area in Southern California next week, but we're not going for the desert, we're going to visit people we love in the desert. And we deserve to go! To the desert for our just deserts! I confess that I'm fascinated by those who find deserts fascinating. I'm looking forward to our trip. 

Second up this week, Dessert …
It seems like dessert's word-roots should overlap with desert's. But they don't. The Latin "deserere" means to leave, which I guess is what one is expected to do when in the desert. But with two little letter changes, from "deserere" to "deservire" we stop leaving and start serving after dinner treats. All my Great British Bake Off watching has me hyper-aware of baked treats. Granted, I'm experiencing them on a video screen sharing activities in a tent-pavilion during the English summer when it often seems to be raining. The only deserting going on is when everyone leaves the tent, and it's still miles more delicious seeming than sand dunes. 

Third up this week, Desire …
"Desiderare," Latin for "to long for" (although "sider" is star … I don't follow the ancient Latin-speakers thinking there). Desire is often an extreme feeling. One can be crazed with desire, sometimes. I desire to visit the desert. I seldom desire dessert, unless it's bread pudding. But I can be convinced. And I do like some cookies. And mince pies. Do truly I desire them? I guess so, in a gentle non-crazed way. Although on a hot, dry desert day a moist dessert might have me crazed with desire. I put that last sentence in an online Latin-to-English translator and got "Licet in calido et sicco eremo die umida mensa , ut me insana cupido," a sentence that contains none of the ancient root words. I feel cheated by Latin.

A book about … land …
Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
by Simon Winchester t
Property, its meaning, its use, its ownership. These are concepts that have been floating at the top of my consciousness recently. So, Simon Winchester's recent book (2021), Land, is appearing before me at just the right time. "The latest sweeping, satisfying popular history from the British American author and journalist, this time covering a topic that many of us take for granted … Engaging revelations about land and property, often discouraging but never dull." (Kirkus Reviews)

And a bit more: 

Love in Arizona
by Dejan Stojanovic

You are from California 
I am from the Midwest 
But we met in Arizona 
And went to the desert 
To measure thorns 
Of the lonely, dispersed cactuses 
Measure the light rays, 
Measure the distance, 
Between us and the world 
Measure the love and kisses and screams 
In the solemn silence of the desert.
 
We kissed the dusty ground 
And asked the dry land for a reason 
But the ground was silent 
And we got silent 
There was no measure no reason 
Only life, only life, 
In the dead desert 
And we kissed more 
And did not ask or look for a reason 
Anymore


And that's all for this week.
From Mary Oliver's Sometimes