Every day, I go down to the garden to look at my tomato jungle. The plants are taller than I am; on picking days, I go into one end of the row with a small machete and emerge at the other end with a basket of Romas. When I’m finished, I look at my baskets and think, "Oh. My. God. What am I going to do with all these damn tomatoes?

Answer: Can them.

Canning sounds difficult, like some traditional skill lost with our grandmothers, but it is more relevant than ever. When you grow and can your own, you know where your food comes from, how it was tended and harvested, and how safely it was prepared; also, the transportation cost and impact are minimal (depending how far and how often you need to drive to buy supplies). The waste can be composted; the end-products can be given as gifts. What’s not to like?

Tonight we mourn the loss of three more soldiers -- Sgt. Nathan S. Barnes, Pfc. Ron J. Joshua Jr., and Pfc. Brandon K. Bobb -- killed in Iraq.

One had, an hour before his death, sent home a cheerful email. One found his heroes in the Sandbox. One learned to be "a real soldier" in Iraq.

The grief in the wake of their deaths is a measure of how much they were loved, whether the sadness comes in the form of a children’s memorial parade or anguished outpourings on myspace. They were loved. They are missed.

Their stories follow.

Remember the Energy Task Force? The one that Cheney went all the way to the Supreme Court over because he wanted to keep its participants a secret?

Today's Washington Post online includes This article -- "Papers Detail Industry's Role in Cheney's Energy Report". A snippet of interest, followed by a (partial) list of the players, below:

A confidential list prepared by the Bush administration shows that Cheney and his aides had already (ed. by April 4, 2001) held at least 40 meetings with interest groups, most of them from energy-producing industries. By the time of the meeting with environmental groups, according to a former White House official who provided the list to The Washington Post, the initial draft of the task force was substantially complete and President Bush had been briefed on its progress. (My bold.)

So, who leaked?

And where are the meeting participants now?

(I will delete if this has already been diaried.)

Two more soldiers have died while serving in Iraq. Tonight, we remember Sgt. Courtney T. Johnson and 1st Sgt. Jeffrey R. McKinney; they came from different states and different units, but both are mourned tonight by the many people who knew and loved them.

Godspeed, soldiers. We salute you.

Summer’s here -- and the time is right for county fairs.

If you’ve been to a county fair, you might remember the pavilions full of pieced quilts, jarred jellies, and the blue and red ribbons hanging from platters full of potatoes, tomatoes, and other garden vegetables. You might have walked into the barns full of cows and watched 4-H teenagers shoveling cow manure from the stalls, or shearing their sheep, or napping in a camp chair beneath a string heavy with ribbons. Maybe you bought a deep-fried Oreo, or shared a fresh-made chocolate shake that the local dairyman sold you. Or maybe you remember strolling up and down the midway and got on one of the neon-covered rides, even though you knew it would make you sick.

If you haven’t, now’s the time to try it.

Pull up an Adirondack chair and talk about the fairs, fair food, and other summer traditions that have been important to you over the years. Right this way...

One of first concert-going experiences was a treat from my then-boyfriend: two tickets to see Billy Joel. The crowd was huge, the venue was huge, and the show had all of the energy and flash you might expect.

But what moved me most – what shook me, and what I remember many years later – were the sounds of helicopter blades that shook the building, the powerful introduction to Joel’s ballad about Vietnam, "Goodnight, Saigon." The hall went dark; the choppers roared; the piano played; and Joel sang: "We met as soul mates/On Parris Island..."

When the chorus came around, it was sung by a Joel and a group of men dressed in fatigues. It went:

"And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together"

Tonight, we mourn three sailors -- Petty Officer First Class Jason Dale Lewis, Petty Officer First Class Robert Richard McRill, and Petty Officer First Class Steven Phillip Daugherty – killed together when an IED detonated near their Humvee.

Brothers in arms. Families united in sorrow. Their stories follow.

Ed. note: This diary was written by new series diarist twilight falling. Welcome.

After a July 4 that was blissfully free of any DoD reports of American casualties, the names of the dead resumed inexorably yesterday. Every death is devastating—a life with all its potential ended too soon, a family torn asunder, the world a little colder.

It is hard to find the words to pay homage to these soldiers and their families. Many of us turn to poetry and meditations for help, fitting the poetry to the lives to which we pay tribute. And it is Edna St. Vincent Millay’s words -- defiant, in the best tradition of one of the Marines whose life we remember -- that most resonated with me after reading about the soldiers we honor today and those they left behind (jump below the fold for the poem).

Ed. note: This diary was written by new series diarist Twilight Falling. Welcome.

I have read about the lives of soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice so many times now that part of me expects to see the same stories repeat. It never happens. All of our lost soldiers were very different and unique—different backgrounds, personalities, reasons for enlisting, perspectives on the US role in Iraq, goals in life, families, hometowns, joys, sorrows, fears, dreams. And yet in each group of soldiers to whom any given IGTNT diary pays tribute, there is always some common theme that joins the brave men and women whose lives are remembered.

The three soldiers whose lives we honor today shared such a theme: enduring love. What they loved differed — their country, freedom, friends and families, students, the military, their buddies — but the quality of that love is the same, and it was in the name of that love that these exceptional people gave their lives.

On several sad occasions over the last few years, I’ve let friends in mourning know about The Compassionate Friends, a national organization dedicated to helping families cope with the loss of a son or daughter. Among its principles is that the pain caused by such a loss can best be understood by others who have gone through it.

Tonight, five more families have joined the sad and select group of those who mourn the death of a service member. Please hold in good thought the families – and friends – of PFC Jerimiah Veitch, Spc. Carter A. Gamble Jr., SSgt. Michael D. Moody Jr., Sgt. Chris Davis, and Pvt. Shane M. Stinson.

Please join me below in remembering their lives.

Today, 8ackgr0und N015e brought us "The Dark Art of Forgetting," which salutes fallen firefighters killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those of us who diary about, comment on, or read about Americans who have been killed in these wars are engaged in the opposite of forgetting: As best we can, and with inadequate words, shining light on the memories of those who should be remembered.

We don’t have flags to lower. We have stories to tell against the darkness.

Tonight, we add one more soldier to 8ackgr0und N015e’s memorial: Pfc. Raymond N. Spencer Jr., of Carmichael, Calif., a firefighter who died in Baghdad. We also honor Spc. Karen N. Clifton, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., who was driving her Humvee in Baghdad when her vehicle was hit by a rocket propelled grenade.

Their stories are below.

On this Father’s Day, we remember two more military men, Master Sgt. Arthur L. Lilley and Maj. Kevin H. Sonnenberg, and the parents and children they leave behind.

They were once little boys. Maybe they made cards for their dads for Father’s Day. Maybe their fathers taught them how to throw a baseball, or catch a fish.

They were also fathers, and I hope that they took with them the memories of their children as newborns, and of cuddling them as toddlers, and of discovering the adventure of parenting. As you read about these men, please take a few moments to consider how much has been lost with their deaths.

For the Lilley family, and for the Sonnenberg family: We remember.

As Friend of the court said so beautifully the other night: "For all the lost children, and for all who have lost them."

Pvt. William C. Johnson was expecting his first child this fall. Pfc. Cameron K. Payne had two daughters. Spc. Damon G. LeGrand never got to see his daughter. Lt. Col. Glade L. Felix inspired his son, Chris, to join the Army.

Tonight, we remember these fathers, as well as Lance Cpl. Johnny R. Strong, who died recently in Iraq and Southwest Asia. As you read their stories, please take a few minutes to reflect on what these losses mean to those who knew and loved them. More about each man follows, below.

Tyler Kritz was a quiet kid. He loved his dogs. He wanted to join the military. His biggest fear was that he wouldn’t make it back from Iraq.

He didn’t.

Look at him. Listen to what he thought about his mission: "Iraq will be a free and democratic society, which, in turn, should stabilize the whole middle east for a free, more stable earth as we know it—and after that happens, maybe we can buy everybody in the world a puppy." I can’t stop thinking about how gentle he looks in this photograph, and how sudden and violent his death  -- wounds caused by an IED -- might have been.

Today, we remember Tech. Sgt. Ryan A. Balmer; Staff Sgt. Matthew J. Kuglics; Staff Sgt. Greg P. Gagarin; Sgt. James C. Akin; Sgt. Tyler J. Kritz; and Sgt. Robert A. Surber. They were sons, fathers, lovers, neighbors, buddies, and they are missed.

Their stories follow.

The Memorial Day bunting is coming down.

But the gold stars are going up at four more homes, from Hawaii to Massachusetts.

Today, we honor Staff Sgt. Joseph M. Weiglein, 31, of Audubon, N.J.; Sgt. Richard V. Correa, 25, of Honolulu, Hawaii; Pfc. Robert A. Liggett, 23, of Urbana, Ill.; and Pfc. Matthew A. Bean, 22, of Pembroke, Mass. Their stories are below the fold.

I am crying as I write this. With Saturday's "I Got the News Today" (IGTNT), Noweasels has just let me know about five more young men killed in Iraq. No, more: she has just shown me a glimpse of what’s been lost and of the families that sit, stunned and heartbroken, with the knowledge that their children will never come through the door again.

These aren’t numbers. Numbers don’t matter -– people do. Every man or woman who’s been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan; every wife or lover or parent who has opened the door to two solemn men in uniform; every friend who gets a call saying, "Hey, did you hear about -–." Every medic that has picked up a bloody body, every 92M who has struggled to honor the remains he works with, every solider that has seen his buddy fall and die – they all matter.

I can’t turn away from that central fact, which is why I started reading "I Got the News Today," and eventually began participating. The IGTNT story continues below.

It’s Memorial Day weekend. All day long, the tributes to active military, veterans, and the fallen have been populating the diary list. It’s not surprising; lots of us have military in the family, or have friends who are serving, or just want to say thank you to men and women we’ll never meet.

And, on this Sunday, after a tough week, there’s some good news: Soonergrunt is back in the U.S.!

Many soldiers are coming back in the worst way... a truth that lies under all of the bunting and marching band music and rhetoric. I have been lucky enough to visit Gettysburg, where the full weight of all of those deaths is still palpable, despite the museums' glass walls. I read the Department of Defense’s releases almost daily. And I write, as so many of us here do. (Join me below the fold, won’t you?)

Dear God, so many names.

Today’s "I Got the News Today" is a catch-up edition because there have been so many names, and so little timely information. You may have seen some of these names before, but not their stories. (I have edited the Department of Defense releases accordingly.) Their deaths have passed out of the national news cycle, but they are fresh and raw for the families, and for those that have been contacted by hometown newspapers.

Please think of these men, and their stories, as you pass the flags that your neighbors have put up for Memorial Day. Please think of them as you drive by a cemetery, a military base, a person in uniform. May their stories remind us of the very real, and tangible, losses that have been sustained by our neighbors.

Their stories are below.

It’s Armed Forces Day, a holiday created in 1949 and intended to honor active and past members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, each of which had previously had their own days of honor.

Tonight, three families of service members are united in grief.

Please read on, and honor the memories of Staff Sgt. Joshua R. Whitaker, Pfc. Aaron D. Gautier, and Sgt. Steven M. Packer, who died in the line of duty while serving in Iraq and in Afghanistan.