Uses for Garden Bamboo

As people who grow bamboo know, it is a prolific plant. Years ago, I planted some Bissett bamboo (Phyllostachys bissetii) and what I believe is yellow-groove bamboo (Phyllostachys aureosulcata). The plants took very well to their locations, and now each spring, roughly on Mothers Day, I'm greeted by many many shoots. This gives me a supply of bamboo "wood" much greater than I can ever use myself, and so, for practical purposes, is infinite.

Phyllostachys bissetii

This year I decided to try using some of the culms as stiffeners in a fencing I was creating for a raised bed vegetable container.

I chose relatively narrow culms, cut them to size, and cleared them of leaf branches. I wove the culms into the plastic fence material.

The fencing I have is too wide to keep chipmunks out, but should be fine to deter woodchucks and deer. I suppose the woodchucks may choose to simply gnaw through the mesh, but at least I might slow them down a bit.

Snarky email that will never be sent

Incoming message:
My [offspring] is interested in taking your summer Calculus I course at [public institution] to transfer the credit to their home [private institution]. The transfer credit evaluation process is apparently quite strict.
Perhaps you could coordinate the syllabus for your course to the one from [private institution] so there won't be such problems in the future.
Regards,
[parent email address indicating a job at the Federal Reserve Bank]

Outgoing imaginary message:
Thank you for your suggestion. I will pass it on to the department chair.
On a side note, I see that you work at the Fed. I have a friend who is very outspoken with views on monetary policy. May I give him your email address so he might share his ideas with you?
Sincerely,

My Twitter Feed

It has seemed to me, more and more of late, that people with nothing to say are saying it on Twitter. There has always been some fluff on Twitter, but it seemed, on balance, less than on another social media platform that I had an account on. And I liked Twitter as a way to take notes, so I was okay with it. But the proportion of fluff has increased to the point that it is less useful, either as a note-taking or note-sharing or news-updating platform.

But perhaps I'm just getting more curmudgeonly as I age. So I will analyze my feed, as of right now.

educator/activist who has become something of a cult-figure, and talks more and more like a cult-leader.
retired news anchor (who remains relevant)
NYTimes opinion on tv shows
math educator/activist who usually has good political commentary or good mathematical observations
538 political commentary
politician
journalist
activist
mathematician/activist again
someone kvelling about her offspring
math educator repost of someone's white-privilege
promoted ad for a bank that I will never use
journalist
math educator prompt about male-privilege
journalist
repost of opportunistic union official
math educator math pun
mathematician
math educator responding to a silly poll
promoted ad for a premium cable channel
educator/activist repost of a snippy quip

Maybe not so bad. Five or so things that I actually thought were interesting enough that I clicked through.