prickly

Joan Didion has called fire season the season of prickly dread, the season when the wind works on the nerves and every voice seems a scream.

“Martha” doesn’t gloss over Stewart’s prickly, demanding personality, but it also makes the case that she was unfairly maligned — and ultimately prosecuted — because of her gender.

She made a name for herself in standup by bringing her audiences juicy insider stories about the celebrity elite, twisted into no-holds-barred anecdotes that turned her into a prickly figure in Hollywood.

The route: Hike to Batiquitos Lagoon, then to Moonlight State Beach, where you’ll be bathed in the scent of the flowers cascading down the steep escarpment above, including lantana, purple sea foam and prickly pear cactus blossoms.

The plant Mexicans most identify with is the prickly pear cactus.