Soiree's Past Week

At My Soiree - January 25 - 31

A typical winter view from our window.

...And Looting Isn't Always Crime - Monday, January 25/10

Art and/or Morality - Tuesday, January 26/10

Your Name is WHAT? - Wednesday, January 27/10

Days of Wine and Yoga - Thursday, January 28/10

Movies for Foodies - Friday, January 29/10

Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4- Jan 24-30  -- January 30/10 

Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4 - January 24 - 30

A most interesting site if you love lemons, as I do, is lemonflower. This site has everything lemon, from recipes, to beauty tips, to laws about lemon cars, to a business plan for a lemonade stand! The recipes alone are worth the visit - lemon pie, lemonade, lemon chicken, lemon butter.


Also this week is Blogger's Cafe, a blog full to overflowing with information and reviews of other blogs. There are four "libraries" in this blog, each containing the blogs the owner has reviewed in categories - makes things easy to find. This is a great resource and is always good for spending as much time as one has free just poking around.


I love wine and am only just beginning to work my way around a site called Winedoctor (independent opinion on wine). The site is extensive with detailed information about wines from different countries and regions, about producers, vintages, and tasting notes. There is a glossary of terms and a section called Wine Advice with information on such things as choosing glasses and shapes of wine bottles. This is another one that could keep a person busy for a good while.



Finally this week is a blog that already has about 15,000 followers, so needs no introduction from me! But I do love it, so can't resist. The Sartorialist features photos from great cities like Paris, Milan, and New York (among others) of chic and stylish people on the street. What a simple, but wonderful idea. The men and women  Scott Schuman photographs all have a distinct personal style, are always cool, and mostly wear clothes that I couldn't wear in a million years. But they are totally wonderful.

Movies for Foodies

Eating as a focus in the movies is a fairly recent development, according to Paula Marantz Cohen in her article "Eat Drink Actor Director" in The Smart Set:

The recent film, Julie & Julia, is an index to how far we have come, not only in our culinary evolution but in our cinematic one.... It is hard to think of an American movie before the 1960s that concerned itself with food... .Not until the 1960s did food begin to be directly represented in movies. Julia Child’s televised approach to cooking seems to have augured the change.

Cohen discusses several movies with great scenes about food.

My all time favourite eating scene is from the 1963 movie Tom Jones. Running for over three minutes, the characters say nothing whilst slurping and caressing their way through increasingly luscious, symbolically aphrodisiac food.

They become more and more lascivious with their delectation and end up in the bedroom. Compared to today's movies, it seems a bit tame, but hasn't lost its sex appeal. Any movie that can keep the audience's interest for nearly four minutes with no one speaking is worth a look. The prototype for food porn!



Completely different, the great diner scene in Five Easy Pieces (1970) satirizes the rigid menu policies ("No Substitutions") of a few decades ago - those days when the establishment was more important than its customers.

Jack Nicholson's character tries to order a side of toast - they don't do sides - so he tries "hold the..." to get only what he wants. As Cohen says, he deconstructs a sandwich. He also may have contributed greatly to the more lenient policies in most restaurants today.



Of course, neither of the older movies is so postmodern a meta-movie as Julie & Julia - being as it is "quintupply " about food, learning about food, writing about food, learning about food through the original writing about food and writing about it. Just what I said - quintupply! It's a wonderful movie, especially because of Meryl Streep's rendering of Julia Child - she's so incredible.

So Bon Appetit! Here's to food in the movies at a theatre near you.

Days of Wine and Yoga

A war has broken out in the American yoga community among the purists, the peckish, and the profit margin.

Julia Moskin writes about it in the NYTimes - "When Chocolate and Chakras Collide" - January26/10.

The traditionalists believe that the goal of yoga should be largely philosophic and spiritual, with  practice that leads to the purification of the body and mind, and hence to unity. Bacon, burgers, and Brie en croute are not on the purists list as acceptable ingredients for the good yogic life.

The peckish like their meat and their wine and argue that the traditionalists are judgemental. The peckish also, like all good interpreters of scripture, find justification for their choices in various texts from the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist canons.

For some, though, the profit margin is paramount, and they have seen an opportunity to offer innovative yoga with music, wine, and gourmet food - all from the convenience of one's yoga mat in a class of other like-minded yo-gourmets.

The tempest arising from these conflicting views about the proper approach and attitude to yoga seems to exist only in a tea pot, or wine glass, as the case may be.

Yoga has been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and will likely suffer in no way from adoption by yet another group of practioners with a different perspective. Yoga has already survived, either because or in spite of, the different paths along which its adherents have taken it.

In North America, especially, yoga has a checkered history. In the seventies, anyone who practiced was suspect - flaky at least, subversive of good honest religion at worst. Religious groups were particularly vigilant in overseeing such an exotic practice from The East.

 I say, to each his own. It seems so odd to have such arguments over the choice to have cheese with the Downward Dog or not. (Would that be a cheese dog?) I guess our egos can make an argument about anything - rather counterproductive for the yogi, one would think.

The solution is easy. Purists will follow traditional practices and get what they want from that. The peckish will have their days of wine and yoga and heightened gustatory experience. The profit margin will blossom.

So everyone should take a deep Alternating Breath and just relax.

Your Name is WHAT?

My middle name is Dorcas, and that has never been easy!

I always was extremely reluctant to tell people my middle name, mostly because it sounded like "dork" and also because no one had ever heard of it. I used to say that people would laugh if I told them, and of course they swore that they would not. You know what happened next! I would reveal my middle name, and everyone would burst out laughing.

The name is biblical: Dorcas is a Greek name (Tabitha in Aramaic ). She was

a disciple of Joppa found in the Book of Acts 9:36–42 of the Bible. She was a dressmaker, who made clothes for the poor in her village. Acts recounts that when she died, the people of the village called upon Saint Peter who came to where she was being waked and raised her from the dead. (quote from wikipedia).

(Saint Dorcas is on the right in the picture, above.)

There have always been Dorcas Societies doing charitable works. There was also a Dorcas brand  of dressmaker's supplies. Still no amount of having folks do good works in the name of Dorcas, or boxes upon boxes of dressmaker's pins could compensate for having a name that made everyone think of the word "dork"!

But one lives with it. And one goes simply with the initial "D."

Then just last year, I looked up Dorcas in Wikipedia and nearly fell over where I stood.

Dorcas is commemorated as a saint in the Lutheran church. Cool. I was raised in the Lutheran church. The Wikipedia entry gives the dates for celebration of her in different Lutheran synods:

She is commemorated with Lydia of Thyatira and Phoebe on January 27 in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and on October 25 in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Now that is really cool. My birthday is today, January 27th.

The last sentence of the entry, however, blew me away totally! My mother's name is Dorcas; I was named after her. My mother's birthday is October 25th. She is Lutheran. (The Roman Catholic church celebrates St. Tabitha's day on October 25.)

And it wasn't planned. My great-grandmother, who was definitely not Lutheran, was named Dorcas. We carry on her name.

Somehow, I am less reluctant to tell people my middle name now. I can take their incredulity - "Your name is WHAT?" - and suggest that they look the name up in Wikipedia: A saint who was raised from the dead, whose name I share, who is commemorated on my birthday.

With this turn of events, I am now a bit smug and self-satisfied, thank you very much.

(In the image at the top, Saint Dorcas is on the right.)
(The final image is of St. Peter raising Dorcas from the dead.)

Art and/or Morality

Jeffrey Toobin's article in the December 14/09 issue of The New Yorker is quite a comprehensive discussion of the ongoing legal issues and extradition order for Roman Polanski. The article lays out the timelines of events and the twists and turns of Polanski's long self-exile in Europe.

Called "The Celebrity Defense," Toobin's article traces the influence, for both Polanski's advantage and disadvantage, of his celebrity status.

The arguments put forward in the "for" and "against" Polanski camps remind me of the same arguments raised when Woody Allen was caught having an affair with his, then, step-adopted daughter Soon-Yi in 1992.

Allen, who is 34 years Soon-Yi's senior, eventually married her in 1997, but the scandal raged at the time.

Allen's (it should be noted that he did not commit a crime and faced no charges) and Polanski's cases raise issues about art and morality. Often in Polanski's defense has someone commented on his talent and contribution to the world of film. The same defense was raised concerning Allen.

I remember listening to a call-in show on CBC radio just after the Allen scandal broke. The callers clearly were divided into two camps, fairly evenly split, as follows:

1) Artists are different from us mere mortals and, thus, should be forgiven their sins (or judged by a different standard).

2) Artists have no special relationship to the law, are not above it, and should be held up to the same moral and legal standards as everyone else. Period. No exceptions.

These two positions lead to further questions about what happens when it's concrete, and we are putting our dollars where our morals are.

Are art and the morality of the artist intertwined? Independent? Should one purchase or in any way support the work of someone who is deemed immoral? Or are we merely purchasing something not related to morality at all?

Do we know the moral qualities of all the people who own (and own stock in) the companies (plus all the people who work for them) whose products we purchase? Is not knowing an excuse for going ahead with a purchase? Is that really any different from buying a book or painting created by an individual of whom we disapprove?

I wrote some months ago about seeing Hitler's watercolours in Florence and going through a severe ambivalence because I liked the paintings but had a hard time reconciling that with who had painted them.


These are not easy questions. Jeffrey Toobin does a good job of showing how they play out in the life, crimes and sentencing of Roman Polanski.


(Both paintings shown in this post are by Adolph Hitler.)

...And Looting Isn't Always Crime

In Haiti, right now, the media is causing a problem for the already-suffering victims. The problem is with labels, especially the label of "looting."

Rebecca Solnit, in her article "When the Media is the Disaster" in Guernica (January 21/10), demonstrates just how "media outlets often call everything looting and thereby incite hostility toward the sufferers as well as a hysterical overreaction on the part of the armed authorities."

Solnit gives examples of photo captions that either presume a great deal about what is going on or isolate circumstances that make something look especially bad without showing the whole context.

For example, she cites the case of a photo with the caption: “A looter makes off with rolls of fabric from an earthquake-wrecked store.” For another photo, the caption reads: “A Haitian police officer ties up a suspected looter who was carrying a bag of evaporated milk.”

In both cases, Solnit believes that the only certainty is that the media are too quick with the word "looting," a response that privileges property over the survival of the people.

The "looter" with the bag of milk may have taken it to feed his and others' starving children. And whom would he pay and with what? Calling such an act a crime in the situation in Haiti would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous. The "looter" with the fabric may well have been going to use the cloth to make a tent or sunshelter for some of the many homeless. Again, in the circumstances in Haiti, a most logical response.

Solnit gives these and other examples, and these possible interpretations, to demonstrate the secondary victimization by the media of the already victimized. She says that the same thing happened in New Orleans after Katrina.

But, according to Solnit and sociologists who study human behaviour after disasters:

Personal gain is the last thing most people are thinking about in the aftermath of a disaster. In that phase, the survivors are almost invariably more altruistic and less attached to their own property, less concerned with the long-term questions of acquisition, status, wealth, and security, than just about anyone not in such situations imagines possible. (The best accounts from Haiti of how people with next to nothing have patiently tried to share the little they have and support those in even worse shape than them only emphasize this disaster reality.) Crime often drops in the wake of a disaster.

Solnit believes that the media are obsessed with property and security and often exacerbate already bad situations. She insists: "We need to banish the word “looting” from the English language. It incites madness and obscures realities."

"We live and die by words and ideas, and it matters desperately that we get them right."

In Haiti, we need to get it right, and soon.

Soiree's Past Week

At My Soiree - January 18 - 24


Here's to the last week in January coming up. One week closer to spring.

Cheers!

How Long? - January 18/10
Send Money, Not Wedding Dresses - January 19/10
The Eve of St. Agnes - January 20/10
Ode to the Lemon - January 21/10
Brewing Up History - January 22/10
Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4-Jan 17-23  -  January 23/10

Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4 - Jan 17-23

My favourites from last week.

Shining History:Medieval Islamic Civilization is a blog of far-ranging information, about architecture, mathematics, philosophy, and more, all about the multitude of contributions, discoveries, and firsts by thinkers and inventors from the medieval Muslim world. Advancements in science and preservation of knowledge in Islamic culture paved the way for the Western European Renaissance and raised the level of civilization between the 5th and 12th centuries. Although scholars have found that the Dark Ages in Catholic Europe may not have been nearly as dark as once thought, there is no question that Europeans were surpassed in sophistication and learning by the Muslim world. This blog is rich in information about the achievements of Islamic civilization.

The poet John Keats is in the news nearly two hundred years after his death with the recent release of the movie Bright Star, the story of the ill-fated love between Keats and Fanny Brawne. There is a comprehensive website dedicated to the life and work of the poet, complete with a newsletter, biographies, and facsimiles of some of the maunscripts of letters and poems. The facsimile of the "Bright Star" sonnet pictured here is from the site.

Allen Ginsberg. "Spiritual seeker, founding member of a major literary movement, champion of human and civil rights, photographer and songwriter, political gadfly, teacher and co-founder of a poetics school, Allen Ginsberg (1926 - 1997) defied simple classification." This site has photos, published and un-published work by the poet, hand-written materials, and then some. A great site for Beat and Ginsberg fans.



Medecins sans frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has a blog "Haiti Earthquake" and blogs about work on other fronts, plus a photo blog. There aren't many entries (busy saving lives instead of blogging!), but this one is worth a look.

Brewing Up History

US archaeologist Patrick McGovern does archaeology that I could eagerly take to, quite unlike the archaeology I encountered as an undergraduate - parabolic dental arcades and detailed descriptions of molars not exactly being my cup or tea.

Frank Thadeusz, in an article in Spiegel Online (Dec 24/09), writes about McGovern:  "The expert on identifying traces of alcohol in prehistoric sites reckons the thirst for a brew was enough of an incentive to start growing crops."

That's right - beer (and wine and mead) not bread as the primary impetus for humans to learn how to plant and raise grains and other crops.  Has our understanding of human history been in the grip of some version of the Women's Christian Temperance Union?

Well no more!

Evidence suggests that "the craft of making alcohol spread rapidly to various locations around the world during the Neolithic period." McGovern

carried the theory much further, aiming at a complete reinterpretation of humanity's history. His bold thesis, which he lays out in his book "Uncorking the Past. The Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverage," states that agriculture -- and with it the entire Neolithic Revolution, which began about 11,000 years ago -- are ultimately results of the irrepressible impulse toward drinking and intoxication.

McGovern finds traces and sometimes whole preserved samples of different alcoholic concoctions from around the world:

"Available evidence suggests that our ancestors in Asia, Mexico, and Africa cultivated wheat, rice, corn, barley, and millet primarily for the purpose of producing alcoholic beverages," McGovern explains. While they were at it, he believes, drink-loving early civilizations managed to ensure their basic survival.

The "hybrid swill" our Neolithic ancestors produced was nutritious and much easier to make than bread, although one scenario for manufacture isn't so appealing:

Lacking any knowledge of chemistry, prehistoric humans eager for the intoxicating effects of alcohol apparently mixed clumps of rice with saliva in their mouths to break down the starches in the grain and convert them into malt sugar...These pioneering brewers would then spit the chewed up rice into their brew. Husks and yeasty foam floated on top of the liquid, so they used long straws to drink from narrow necked jugs.

Thank goodness for modern brewing techniques and for centuries of the winemaker's art. (Although anyone who has ever tried it can attest to the effects of drinking beer through a straw!)

Perhaps as we raise a glass to our Neolithic forebears, we can find a reason in this new understanding of human history to take ourselves less seriously.

Ode to the Lemon

The poem is "Ode to the Lemon" by Pablo Neruda (trans. Margaret Sayers Peden).  The photos are mine - making preserved lemons.

From blossoms

released

by the moonlight,

from an

                     aroma of exasperated                       

love,

steeped in fragrance,

yellowness

drifted from the lemon tree,

and from its plantarium

lemons descended to the earth.

Tender yield!

The coasts,

the markets glowed

with light, with

unrefined gold;

we opened

two halves
of a miracle,
congealed acid
trickled
from the hemispheres
of a star,
the most intense liqueur
of nature,
unique, vivid,
concentrated,
born of the cool, fresh
lemon,
of its fragrant house,
its acid, secret symmetry.

Knives                                                                      

sliced a small 

cathedral

in the lemon,

the concealed apse, opened, 

revealed acid stained glass,
drops
oozed topaz,
altars,
cool architecture.

So, when you hold

the hemisphere

of a cut lemon

above your plate,

you spill

a universe of gold,

a

yellow goblet

of miracles,
a fragrant nipple

of the earth's breast,

a ray of light that was made fruit,

the minute fire of a planet.

The Eve of St. Agnes

Tomorrow is the feast day of St. Agnes of Rome, a virgin who was martyred at the age of twelve or thirteen for refusing to marry the son of a Roman official. Here is one version of her death:

"The Prefect Sempronius wished Agnes to marry his son, and on Agnes' refusal he condemned her to death. As Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins, Sempronius had a naked Agnes dragged through the streets to a brothel. As she prayed, her hair grew and covered her body. It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat. It is also said that the blood of Agnes poured to the stadium floor where other Christians soaked up the blood with cloths. She did not want to marry but wanted to have God in her life." (Wikipedia)

Another version leaves out the horrific details, concentrating on Agnes's pledge of purity to god in her faith,

St. Agnes was a Roman girl who was only thirteen years old when she suffered martyrdom for her Faith. Agnes had made a promise, a promise to God never to stain her purity. Her love for the Lord was very great and she hated sin even more than death! Since she was very beautiful, many young men wished to marry Agnes, but she would always say, "Jesus Christ is my only Spouse." (Catholic Online)

A tradition has grown up around the patronage of St. Agnes for unmarried young women - young women who would have been assumed to be virgins because unmarried.

In short, the young virgin will have a vision in a dream of her future husband (known or not) if she goes to bed without supper, lies naked on her back to sleep, hands under the pillow, looking nowhere but to heaven. (John Keats's poem "The Eve of St. Agnes" tells of the tradition in the lives of Madeline and her love Porphyro.)

The story of St. Agnes seems an odd base for such a folk tradition to build around.

Agnes was put to death (martyred and sanctified for it) for choosing to remain celibate. Agnes as the patron saint of virgins, girls, chastity, rape victims, and Girl Guides makes sense based on her story.

But she is also the patron saint of engaged couples - a seeming example of those IQ-test questions which ask which of the items does not fit. How is the saint canonized as a martyr to celibacy also the patron saint of engaged couples?

It's difficult to know just whose interest is being served with the traditions of St. Agnes's eve - the young virgin's or that of the future husband who will have a bride primed for naked submission to him and spiritual submission to god. 

Yet the folk tradition does serve the chuch and religious authority is reinforced, as such submission of a woman to god through submission to her husband has been ritualized for centuries, both officially and in folklore.

And how is a religion to flourish with too many of its young women remaining unmarried and virginal? And what are the men to do without wives? And how to ensure virginity until marriage? Part of the tradition is that the vision in the dream is only for virgins.

Poor Agnes!  A real young girl (A.D. 291 - 304), killed and possibly raped with state sanction because she did not want to marry. She may be held up as a martyr to her faith, yet her sad story has been  used throughout the centuries to honour the very thing she so suffered for.

I must say it on her behalf: "No means no!"

Send Money, Not Wedding Dresses

Millions of dollars are pouring in to relief agencies for Haiti; rescue teams from cities and countries around the world are on site; food and water and medical care are beginning to get to the people who need them; military divisions and peacekeepers from several countries have arrived to orchestrate the relief and keep order.

We watch it all on television and often feel frustrated that we can't do something more immediate to help. It's frustrating. Somehow clicking on a link and whipping out the credit card seem so removed from the urgent demand.

Good people often give in to that frustration and begin campaigns to amass goods to send to the affected people. Others figure out a way to get there in order to help directly. There are already efforts underway to collect gently used shoes and clothing for the earthquake victims.

The need is there for all these goods, but sometimes the arrangements for getting them to the disaster area and then on to the victims  makes unnecessary complications for everyone.

Any plans to send goods to Haiti should go through one of the recognized, experienced aid organizations who have the disaster supply lines - the logistics - to carry out a mission successfully.

The Center for International Disaster Information offers guidelines for donating. They say that "Monetary Contributions to Established Relief Agencies are Always the Most Useful Response to Disasters." They also give guidelines for the donation of commodities (like what not to send). Finally, they say that "Volunteer Opportunities for Disaster Relief are Extremely Limited."

Canned food and bottled water may seem logical, but are inefficient. Somebody has to unload and distribute commodities, and the people already working in any disaster already have jobs to do. And the people working with relief agencies are trained; volunteers often are not and can get seriously in the way - be more of a hindrance than a help.

The Huffington Post has links for people to purchase goods for relief agencies.

So send money if you can. Collect shoes and clothing for an experienced relief agency. But please, no wedding dresses, or other useless stuff - reported on How Stuff Works about the tsunami in 2004:

care packages piled up containing everything from pajamas and teddy bears to birth control pills and Bibles — a hodgepodge impossible to sort through. There were boxes filled with half-used ointments and prescription drugs, as if do-gooders had cleaned out their medicine cabinets.

Remember - Money is best! (to a reputable agency - here's a link to a list of them).

How Long?

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States.

There are many, many famous speeches by Dr. King. His powerful writing, combined with the oratory of a preacher, sways the heart and raises goosebumps in listeners. One of my favourites, which combines his own words and those of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," is a particularly fitting memory of him on this day.

In view of the many racist comments about the people of Haiti in the wake of the terrible devastation there and continuing racism the world over, Dr. King's answer to the question "how long will prejudice last?" seems too, too optimistic.

But it is a much needed reminder for us all about just how very far we have to go.

How long is "not long"?

Soiree-Perfect Pashminas (Again)

Pashminas became a hot trend in the 1990s, just as martinis did.

Unlike martinis though, pashminas have been around for hundreds of years.


The garments get their name from the finest of cashmere wool that comes from pashmina goats.

Authentic pashminas are 100% pashmina wool and are both expensive and in short supply.

The pashmina boom of the 1990s coincided with a boom in cashmere products, generally, and with a boom in grades and quality of cashmere and cashmere blends. Inexpensive cashmere sweaters grace the shelves of discount stores,  something unheard of until the 90s.

Pashminas also come in different qualities of wool and are often blended with silk. The name has become synonymous with the garment, most often a shawl or large scarf, so there are even so-called pashminas today made of synthetics.

The real pashmina shawl or scarf is soft and warm and comes in dozens of colours and prints. It's a true luxury item, made famous by Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Grace of Monaco. This picture is of Princess Grace with a white pashmina wrapped in her signature style.

Good enough for a princess and a first lady, pashminas are versatile and elegant.

Perfect for a soiree.

This is a re-post of an earlier one (October 27), and I have been  corrected by an anonymous reader who let me know (kindly) that the photo I had in the original post was not of a pashmina goat at all, but a North American mountain goat, Oreamnos americanus- like the one at just above.

One thing I strive for in this blog is to give correct information, so I am grateful to the person who left the comment. I also hope that seeing this again will not be too boring for readers.

Soiree's Past Week

At My Soiree Jan 11 - 17

In case you missed one. Enjoy!

10 Things I Know About Losing Weight -January 11

Archaeology for English Majors - January 12

My Short Unsuccessful Acting Career - January 13

Help Haiti! - January 14

Fighting the Grammar Police - January 15

Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4 -Jan 10-16 - January 16

Weird, Wild, Wonderful 4 - Jan 10 - 16

The blog Appetite (discovering the world of food one photograph at a time) is absolutely stunning. The food photos are some of the best I have ever seen, and there are recipes, travels (showcasing food), and chitchat about food.

The blog and the photos (like the one at left) are the work of Penny De Los Santos.

This is one of the best blogs I have seen for food, photography, recipes - some of my favourite things, all brought together in one place.

Tastespotting.com calls itself a "community-driven visual potluck" and showcases recipes and photos that members submit. The images are wonderful and clicking on one takes you to the submitter's site/blog for the recipe.

The bonus is that it links to so many other awesome food sites. The Curried Wild Rice and Chicken Chowder (photo from blog, above, left) sounds excellent, so I've linked directly to the submitter's blog. The second bonus is that you can join and submit something of your own.


I wonder how many food blogs there are? Millions, probably - so not hard to find good ones. The editor of Tastespotting has her own great blog - Chocolate Shavings. This blog has professional and stunning food photos and recipes that you can access by category as well as by just randomly browsing through the posts.
 

Finally for this week, The Ballerina Gallery, a website entirely of photos of ballerinas. The home page has an alphabetical list of dozens of great dancers with a link to a photo gallery for each one. Quite fascinating. There were far more names on the list that I didn't know, than there were ones that I did, but just randomly clicking on any one yields some great photos.

(The photo is of Margot Fonteyn, by Baron.)

Fighting the Grammar Police.

Grammar police are everywhere, pointing out mistakes and tsk-tsking about sloppy writing. Sometimes they don't know what they are talking about when it comes to the "rules" for writing correct English.

In his wonderful book Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Joseph  M. Williams points out the different types of rules that the grammar police are so happy to enforce.


Not all rules are created equal, as Williams discusses in the first section on correctness.


Some rules can't be broken without "breaking" the language. English is English because of certain rules that govern its structure. Williams gives the example of articles (a, an, the). We say "the tree." We don't say "tree the" and expect readers and listeners to take us seriously. "Tree the" is wrong, plain and simple, and no style sheet or differing opinion will change that.

The second type of rule distinguishes Standard English from non-standard English. Most educated writers can follow these rules without thinking about them. They write, "We have no bananas" rather than "We ain't got no bananas."

With the third group of rules, we can challenge the grammar police. The rules in this group were made up by grammarians based on the way they thought we should write. This is the secret ammunition because most grammar police believe that these rules carry the same authority as the other two types.

One such rule tells us not to split infinitives: We should write "to run quickly," rather than "to quickly run." But (another of these rules says not to begin a sentence with "But"), for anyone who was a fan of Star Trek: TNG, the line "to boldly go" simply will not work the other way: "to go boldly"!

In the category of invented rules, Williams identifies two sub-types - folklore and options. Folklore is simply that and carries no authority. Beginning a sentence with "and" or "but" falls ino this sub-type.

Options make writing sound very formal, almost as if the writer is trying too hard to be correct. One well-known rule of this type is the one that exhorts us not to end a sentence with a preposition. Winston Churchill offered the best example of how following this rule makes writing sound stilted: His famous saying- "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put"- makes the case.

Sometimes we have no choice - teachers, bosses and editors insist on strict adherence to all the types of rules. As a teacher of writing, I insist that students write correct, formal Standard English, as is fitting for academic work, and that they know about all the rules.

But the next time the grammar police criticize your writing, tell them about the rules and tell them they may just not be right. Many of the rules are not written in stone.

Help Haiti!

It's impossible to imagine the pain, the fear, and the grief of the Haitian people and their visitors caught in the recent earthquake. It's heart-wrenching to see the images of children crying and bleeding, fathers carrying their little ones, looking for safety and refuge that doesn't exist.

In this poorest country of the western hemishpere, the people look into the abyss.

In most other countries in this hemisphere, in even the worst disaster, there is ultimately someone in charge with a plan and the resources to carry it out. We are told that in the case of an emergency, we should have enough food and water put away to survive for a few days "until help arrives." For most of us that help comes from within our own countries.

In Haiti, no help will arrive from within. There is no plan, no money, no working government, hospitals, authority, ambulances, central place of refuge, food, water, rescue, intact port or airport.  The abyss.

The only help for Haiti must come from outside, from us.

Donate if you possibly can, in whatever amout you can.

Please help build a bridge over the abyss.


One resource for links to agencies to donate to is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Only reputable agencies are listed there. (Even, and maybe especially, in the face of such tragedy, scammers turn out in full force looking for our money!)

My Short, Unsuccessful Acting Career

Some things were never meant to be. My career as a Thespian is one of them.

Every year, our high school put on a big musical and a Shakespearean play, the musical in the auditorium and the play in a room with what is called a thrust stage (see diagram), the surface of which was about 15 inches off the floor (bear with me, the design and height of the stage are critical to the demise of my acting career, as is the position of the X in the diagram!).

I was not a gutsy kid in high school and had never auditioned for one of the productions. The season of my acting career was no different.

My best friend had a bit part in that year's production - King Lear. She had a non-speaking part as a rowdy serving wench in Act 1 Scene 4, on stage as one of the hangers-on to the party of Lear's 100 rambunctious knights, about which Goneril bitterly complains.

The director had thought to demonstrate for the audience just how rowdy the "insolent retinue" indeed was by having some "not-to-be-endured riots" right on stage ( thereby including more students in the production.)

They needed one more rowdy serving wench.

My friend assured me that the gig would be easy - no audition, no speaking - just sit on the stage in a long, flowing wench-appropriate-censored-for-high-school dress and drop grapes into a knight's mouth and "exeunt" with the others, laughing, shouting, and otherwise making a big commotion.

How hard could that be? And ALL the cast and crew got to go to the party at the end!

Our opening was spot on, full with parents, friends and the local drama critic. Our riotous antics were loud and disruptive; the grapes went where they were supposed to go. Only the boisterous exit to get through, and my part, at least, would be a stunning success.

The problem with the thrust stage is that the audience is right there beside the actors, in our case with moveable chairs. I sat on the stage (where the X is in the diagram) with my knight's head in my lap, ready to leap up at the end of the scene and run off the stage.

The problem when I leapt up was that the chair leg of the fellow closest to me was on my dress and yanked me back with a resounding thud and odd snap of the head.

Everyone ran off the stage while I tried to tug at the dress to no avail. Finally, I had to tap the guy on the leg, point to the problem and wait while he clued in and moved his chair. Of course by then, everyone else was gone, and I couldn't very well have a rambunctious riot by myself.

I ran off, right into the director who was quite furious that I hadn't been paying attention to the cues. He chalked it up to inexperience when I told him what happened and was no longer angry at me, but still angry that the scene had been ruined - and a pretty important one at that.

As all actors do, we waited for the next day's paper to see what the drama critic would say. He praised the performance -  the acting was good, the directing quite inspired.

But there near the end of the review were the words I dreaded. One of the actors had seriously missed a cue and had broken character by engaging with a member of the audience.  Of course, you can't explain after the fact - hey! it wasn't my fault.

The cast party was fun, and none of my fellow students seemed upset with me. My best friend suggested that we try out for bit parts in the upcoming musical, West Side Story. It sounded okay. Then she mentioned the scaffolding we would all be perched on, and I couldn't help but think of all things that could go wrong with that arrangement. I declined, still smarting from my bad press.

And that was the end of my short, unsuccessful acting career.

(maiden photo credit)

Archaeology for English Majors

One of the most unforgettable courses I took as an undergraduate was an archaeology course on human origins taught by Dr. Birute Galdikas, who announced on the first day, quite peevishly, that any English majors present shouldn't think the course was an easy"A."

I very nearly dropped out, fearing I would be made fun of or made to feel that I shouldn't be there. I was an English major, just not the type Galdikas was addressing. I persevered and am very glad I did.

I had no idea that this rather abrupt and assertive professor was a renowned primatologist, known the world over as one of Leakey's Angels (a term she coined).

Louis Leakey was a world-famous archaeologist, known for his work in Oldavi gorge in Kenya, work in which he found and documented links in human evolution. He appointed three women to carry on some of his work, especially with primates and all three became famous. Dian Fossey lived and eventually died for her work with mountain gorillas. Jane Goodall is a feature on shows about chimpanzees. Birute Galdikas works for the understanding and preservation of orangutans.

Of the three women, Galdikas is probably the least famous as a media star, as she has concentrated her efforts for nearly 40 years on preservation, living in Borneo caring for and studying the orangutans and trying to prevent the demise of both the species and individuals. She is also a professor at Simon Fraser University, my alma mater.

Galdikas's lectures always fascinated me, as she ranged wide in her discussions of evolution, primates, and human ancestors. And my interest was authentic, but only at the most general level.

The textbook had the real nitty-gritty on hominid features through several eons of evolution. Parabolic dental arcades and numbers of bumps (I don't think "bumps" was the official term) on molars were not my cup of tea.

The tutorials were interesting, as we looked at bones of various species. Plus,the TA actually allowed me to write a literary analysis of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. It's surprisingly interesting and engagingly written.

I did what any self-respecting English major would do. I more or less memorized the textbook. Short-term memory stuff. I no longer remember how many molars of what type with how many bumps Australopithecus afarensis has, but am glad I know why such knowledge is important.

Definitely one of the most memorable courses of my undergraduate years.

And Dr. Galdikas, if you ever happen to read this, I got an "A," I was an English major, but it was hard work - and work I don't regret doing.

10 Things I Know About Losing Weight (and Sometimes Forget!)

Almost seven years ago, I quit smoking for good. Since then, I have struggled with all or part of the same twenty pounds, over and over again. What in the bleep, bleep, bleep do I have to do to lose that twenty pounds and keep it off?

This post is not about the usual tips for weight loss that are repeated over and over again everywhere. It's about what I have figured out to do and remember to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.  

1. It's never over. How many times have I thought about weight control as something that would end when the "correct" number of pounds was gone - suffer for a time; then resume life as usual. As unpleasant as it is, the fact that weight maintenance involves lifelong change is totally true! This is probably the hardest one for me. The time when I reach an optimum weight is the time when I'm most likely to forget all my own advice.

2. It's an equation. Calories in, calories out - calorie excess, calorie deficit. I know that many things can affect the equation, but people get hung up on the details. Emotions and beliefs don't negate the equation, as in "It's my birthday, so it's okay."  It's old math; 2 + 2 = 4. Period.

3. If not now, when? Procrastination is my enemy when it comes to losing weight. Always after the - party, summer, weekend, birthday, dinner, trip. Well, when then? When I hear people say that they just can't lose weight, I always think to myself that they can lose, but they can't START.

4. Eat now what you will eat always. It's trite, but dieting is bad. The best number of calories is the number required to maintain the desired weight. I learned this from the vet when one of the cats had to shed a few pounds. He said to give the cat the amount of food listed on the bag for the weight she should be. It worked (see 2 above!). So simple - although the cat didn't like it much.

5. Love yourself. I am absolutely convinced that weight will not go away and stay away when I hate what I see in the mirror. It also seems counterintuitive to fight against oneself; how can conflict produce a good result. I remind myself that I want to lose weight because I want to treat myself better, that I'm doing it for me. If weight loss is to fix something, I believe it won't work.

6. Keep going. I always want to give up after I eat french fries or a piece of cake. I try to remind myself to forget it and keep going.

7. Know the Triggers. Triggers to overeat are different for everybody. Mine involve anything upsetting or stressful - the furnace quits forever; I'm sick; my husband is sick; a fender bender; someone's road rage. Triggers are things that make me feel entitled to eat whatever I want, equation be damned. Part of this is to have strategies because there will always triggers.

8. Be kind. Life is happening now, not later. I know I will not go through this life without eating pie, potato chips, and fries. Moderation is key and so is being realistic. Friday is chocolate day at our house. Always a little dark chocolate for dessert. Knowing that I grant myself that treat without guilt allows me to avoid the chocolate aisle otherwise. (It doesn't work at Christmas which is just one of those times when the best I can do is manage overindulgence.)

9. No timelines. I find that the very least productive thing is to have a date/event in mind by which time I will have lost X pounds. Almost every time I do this, I end up heavier by the appointed date rather than lighter. Maybe I'm just perverse, but having a deadline seems to invite negative behaviour.

10. Don't obsessively focus on losing weight.  When I spend any siginificant part of my day focused on losing weight - counting calories, writing down food consumed, planning meals, and, mostly, continuously thinking about it all - I get sick of the whole business. This can result in giving up on the weight loss instead of just giving up thinking about it too much.

I know what to eat and how much. I know how important exercise is. I know where to find information about calories and nutrients, about exercise and cardiovascular health. I need to get the whole weight loss thing straight in my head. These ideas help me sort it out.

Soiree's Past Week

At My Soiree - Jan 4 - 10

Looking forward to next week - some books, some food, some photos.

Lot of Bad Pounds in Gambia - January 4/10

The CSI of Literature - January 5/10

Skating on Thick Ice - January 6/10

Help for the GNOME-ically Challenged - January7/10

Oh Positive - January 8/10

Weird, Wild, Wonderful Four-Jan 3 - 9  - January 9/10

Weird, Wild, Wonderful Four - Jan 3 - 9

Contexts.org is a site entirely about sociology. The site, along with the magazine of the same name (Contexts), "makes sociology interesting and relevant to anyone interested in how society operates...It is a publication of the American Sociological Association." The site has several blogs and publishes articles about society, culture, sexuality, criminality. Pearl from the blog Humanyms referred me to a photographic project called the Adipositivity Project featured on the Contexts site.

ZCommunications - The Spirit of Resistance Lives -  grew out of "South End Press (1978)... founded to raise consciousness about class, gender, race, and power and to provide information, analysis, and vision to help activism."  The site is huge with ZNet, ZMag, ZBlogs, ZMedia Institute, ZVideo and more. This is another site where readers could spend days.

Massachussetts Institute of Technology - MIT - offers many of its public and course lectures free on video here. The selection is very extensive. Where else can one listen to world-class experts in their various fields for free? Many of the videos are long - they are the actual lectures of about 45 minutes - but the range of topics is amazing and the information awesome. (There is even rocket science for those so inclined!)

Ever wondered what the best source for vitamin K is, or potassium, or riboflavin, or fibre? This USDA site has just that. I've used this site countless times to find information about different nutrients and trust it more than other sites where they are also selling supplements.