Once upon a time, fruits were seasonal. In 2026 America, however, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are permanently available at grocery stores. That’s thanks in no small part to Driscoll’s, by far the biggest name in berries.

In 1989, its board made what the company calls the Meadowood Declaration, a resolution that seemed preposterous at the time: to make all four berries available, in every season, in every part of the world.

A few decades later, they’ve largely succeeded. But at what cost?

Driscoll’s global raspberry business was built on a cultivar it patented in 2004: the Maravilla, a berry that was red enough, sweet enough and shelf-stable enough to be grown and shipped globally…The drawback of the Maravilla, Mr. Rak said carefully, is that it doesn’t taste all that good.

Sure, they’re not very good, but at least you can always get ’em!

Personally, I’d much rather get some delicious farm stand berries, in season.

A new study posits that sometimes cats groom each other specifically to be annoying.

Has your once-storybook marriage crumbled, leading to a divorce that devastated both your heart and your finances? Perhaps you’d like to memorialize that by paying to repurpose your engagement ring into a divorce ring.

Deb had the diamond from her engagement ring set at one end of an open circle and added a new sapphire to represent her daughter to the other end. It cost $3,000 (£2,245).

…

Ring resale values tend to be only around 30% of the original price so for many the trend of giving their old jewellery a new life feels a better investment.

If this feels good, more power to you, divorcées. But let’s not pretend this trend is some wise financial decision.

Whenever the word “investment” is used to mean “expensive purchase”, rather than “outlay of money with the expectation or hope of profit”, someone is trying to sell you something you don’t really need.

It seems comedian Adam Sandler had quite a weekend. First, it is apparently not a joke that he officiated the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden. I’m skeptical that marriage even counts, but I’m sure everyone had a lovely time.

Shortly after, Sandler went to Nantucket. There he played some pick-up basketball in a delightfully loud tropical shirt. As great a story as this is for those who played, I’m most amused by how Sandler wound up where he did.

Unfamiliar with Nantucket, Sandler actually called the Nantucket Police Department’s non-emergency line to ask where he could find a game, according to public safety dispatcher Chris Reynolds.

Sandler said, “Hey, I’m here on your island and I like to play basketball. Can you tell me where there’s a basketball court I could play on?” Reynolds told the Current. He directed Sandler to the Backus Lane court off Surfside Road.

Do you think Sandler identified himself over the phone? Or did he do one of his voices? Is the police non-emergency line the right resource for this? It seems to have worked, anyway.

I’m not entirely sure that call should have been made public, but I’m glad it was.

Do you know what’s a strange time for a 4th of July fireworks show? 2:43 AM on July 5th. That’s when Philadelphia wound up setting off their display yesterday. That strange timing was caused in part by weather delays, coupled with setting things off being the safest option.

The fireworks display proceeded because the pyrotechnics had already been loaded into the launch system and could not be safely unloaded, making completion of the show the safest operational option, according to city officials.

I can believe that the best move was to set off the already-loaded fireworks, but could they perhaps have been safely held until not 2:43 in the morning? Wait a few more hours and put on some daytime fireworks. That would be both funnier and less disruptive.

But this was all precipitated by an original plan that also strikes me as bizarre. The scheduled time for the fireworks was 11:45 PM! Apparently, Philadelphia was looking to celebrate the end of July 4th. Weird.

Scientists have developed a diving suit for cyborg cockroaches why not?

The most immediate practical application is for enhancing search-and-rescue robots. …Using live cockroaches solves a lot of problems because you can use their own muscles and metabolism, which biology perfected for efficient energy use over millions of years of evolution. The electronics only steer them.

OK, that’s pretty clever.

Now imagine a swarm of hundreds or even thousands of these roaches dispersing in all directions across a disaster zone.

Oh jeez, do I have to?