agincourt revisionism

for hundreds of years young english people have been told that if they must speak french, the only word that they need to know is 'agincourt'. this, of course, refers to the battle in the middle of the hundred years war (1415) in which the english trounced the french despite terrible odds. you may have heard of it if you remember any of shakespeare's 'henry v'.

anyway it appears that historians got it wrong, and the nasty english behaved like war criminals, or so say the french scholars who are meeting in the town of agincourt for a conference this week. according to the telegraph:

"Academics will suggest that the extent of the feat of arms was massively exaggerated, with claims that the English were hugely outnumbered a lie. More controversially still, they will say that the foreign invaders used numerous underhand tactics against an honourable enemy. These included burning prisoners to death and setting 40 bloodthirsty royal bodyguards on to a single Gallic nobleman who had surrendered."

the rest of the article is here. meanwhile, with regard to anglo-french relations, i can only use my other phrase: plus ca change.

opie and richie for obama?

not to mention the fonz! ron howard dons toupees and a t-shirt to stump for barack obama. my favourite moments have to be the two when he removes the toupees to talk to us as 'himself'.

a playground in berlin

almost three and a half years ago, germany's official holocaust memorial was opened in berlin, not far from where hitler hid in his bunker as his evil dreams crumbled all around him. here is the ny times report on the opening.

i went to see the memorial a couple of weeks ago. it appeared to be a wonderful place for children to play. you can have a mean game of hide-and-seek among the steles. i also saw many young people jumping from stone to stone. it was an interesting question to consider: what is one supposed to do when visiting this memorial? there is an underground information centre, for which i was not in the mood. there is a small, separate memorial for homosexual victims of the holocaust. and there are these wonky, crooked paths up and down and at all angles and heights that make a grid between the stones. part of me was annoyed that people could be so happy in a place commemorating such evil and misery. part of me was rather happy that there was some joy in such a sad place. i don't know if it is a very good monument, but it is definitely a wonderful playground.

pat kavanagh r.i.p.

described by the times as a "leading london literary agent", i had not heard of pat kavanagh before now. i had read works by her husband and many of her clients. upon reading this obituary, i thought she belonged in my pantheon of strong and interesting women.

"Pat Kavanagh was a rare combination of disconcerting wide-eyed beauty, honeyed voice and incisive literary acumen. For 40 years with the literary agents A. D. Peters (later Peters, Fraser and Dunlop) she had supervised the professional lives of an array of top writing talents — a galère that was bound to contain a variety of supercharged and sensitive egos — with a mixture of cool professional appraisal and fierce financial protectiveness."
the rest of the obit is here.

papier mache pandas take over paris

the associated foreign press reports:

"Paris city hall was swamped by 1,600 papier mache pandas on Thursday, part of a WWF campaign to highlight the urgent need to protect the vanishing species. According to the environmentalist group, which uses the bear as its logo, there are only 1,600 giant pandas left worldwide, making it one of the most striking examples of biodiversity in danger. "Through this symbol we want to show our attachment to the whole of the living world," said Serge Orru, head of WWF France. "Of course, the panda is the most touching, the most tender. But worms are just as important as pandas."

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one in four mammals, one in eight birds, a third of all amphibians and 70 percent of plants are under threat from global warming, deforestation and pollution. The hand-painted Paris pandas, around 40 centimetres (one and a half feet) tall, are to travel around the capital's monuments in the coming weeks before setting off for sites across France."

i do have to agree - WORMS ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT AS PANDAS - and don't you forget it.

amy poehler rocks!

politics aside, i gotta say that governor palin is a good sport. she was a guest on snl this week in a couple of sketches, including the above rap with eskimoes and moose.

from worst to first

congratulations to the tampa bay devil rays who have just followed their first ever winning season by beating the boston red sox in the alcs to win the pennant. they now move on to the world series against the philadelphia phillies. go tampa! schadenfreude? moi?!

shazia mirza stand-up comedienne

shazia mirza appears to be an intelligent woman. she makes the jokes about muslims we are not allowed to make ourselves. margaret cho still makes jokes about her asian family. judy gold usually includes her jewish mother. i do hope that sometime soon mirza will be able to apply her humour to more general subjects. i did laugh. i laughed the most, though, at the canadians laughing about the american joke.

why aren't there more successful female comedians?

as i write these words, sarah silverman is appearing live in london. the broadsheets have printed many words about how such a cutie can have such a potty-mouth. it is a question that interests me - what are the qualities of a woman that is considered to be funny. the above promo for a filmfest that happened earlier this year contains some sound-byte opinions of women well-known in britain for their work.

the bonobo

this weekend, i heard for the first time of the chimpanzee known as bonobo. i was wondering to a scientist friend why human beings have such a proclivity towards aggression and being mean. she said that it had to do with survival, and being descended from the common chimpanzee rather than the bonobo. according to her, the bonobo was more like a kind of laid-back hippy kind of creature. "i want to be descended from the bonobo!" was my immediate response. and then i did a bit of googling ...

wiki says:
"The Bonobo (IPA: /bə'noʊboʊ/ , Pan paniscus), until recently usually called the Pygmy Chimpanzee (and less often the Dwarf or Gracile Chimpanzee), is one of the two species making up the chimpanzee genus, Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the Common Chimpanzee. Although the name "chimpanzee" is sometimes used to refer to both species together, it is usually understood as referring to the Common Chimpanzee. The Bonobo is endangered, and is found in the wild only in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Along with the Common Chimpanzee, the Bonobo is the closest relative to Humans. Since neither species are proficient swimmers, it is possible that the formation of the Congo River 1.5–2 million years ago lead to the speciation of the Bonobo, which live south of the river, from the ancestors of the Common Chimpanzee, which live north of the river. The species is distinguished by relatively long legs, parted hair on their head, a matriarchal culture, and the prominent role of sexual activity in its society. This primate is mainly frugivorous, but supplements its diet with leaves and sometimes small vertebrates and invertebrates. Bonobos also sometimes hunt and kill monkeys for food."

matriarchal and frugivorous sounds good, although i'm not sure about living in the congo (a bit hot for me).

scientific american (march 1995) says:
"The species is best characterized as female-centered and egalitarian and as one that substitutes sex for aggression. Whereas in most other species sexual behavior is a fairly distinct category, in the bonobo it is part and parcel of social relations--and not just between males and females. Bonobos engage in sex in virtually every partner combination (although such contact among close family members may be suppressed). And sexual interactions occur more often among bonobos than among other primates. Despite the frequency of sex, the bonobo's rate of reproduction in the wild is about the same as that of the chimpanzee. A female gives birth to a single infant at intervals of between five and six years. So bonobos share at least one very important characteristic with our own species, namely, a partial separation between sex and reproduction."

egalitarian and no chimp version of homophobia, eh? anyway, it was also explained to me that aggression and competition in humans were a vital part of our survival and development, and there was a reason why the bonobo are still stuck up a tree in africa. it's a pity, but that's evolution. *sigh*

a step towards a liberal islam?

the telegraph reports today:

"A female professor has become the first woman to lead a mixed congregation in Islamic prayer in Britain.
By Chris Irvine
Professor Amina Wadud gave the sermon at a centre in Oxford in what is being called a "leap forward" for equality in Islam.
The sermon was controversial as tradition holds that Muslim religious leaders, called Imams, must always be men when there are services with both sexes. Some Muslims also believe it is against Islam for a woman to conduct such services. Prof Wadud took the service, known as a khutbah, to mark the start of a conference on Islam and feminism at Wolfson College, Oxford.
"There's nothing in the Koran that prohibits it," she said. "My own theological research into the essence of Islam indicates the necessity for us to be able to move away from the tradition that restricted women from the practice of leading prayer."

The move has angered many Muslims and a small group gathered outside the college to voice their opposition. Aishah Samah, from Oxford, said: "We're here to uphold the traditions and the values of Islam and uphold the ways of the prophet - peace be upon him." Fellow protester Maryan Ramzy said: "We have no objections to women being heads of state, or organisation leaders. "Women are highly-respected in Islam. But in Islamic law, women cannot lead prayer."

Chairman of the Muslim Education Centre Oxford Dr Taj Hargey, said earlier this week he was undeterred by the possible protests, arguing the prayer service is a step in the right direction. "We believe Islam is a gender-equal religion," he said. "There is a record that the Prophet Mohammed allowed a woman to lead a mixed-gender congregation, but this precedent has been ignored. "Women have led prayers in South Africa, Canada and the US and this is a first time here – it is a celebration." Dr Hargey added: "People thought it was a bad idea to give women the vote. "When Emmeline Pankhurst chained herself to the railings in protest there was uproar, but things move on. "This is about theological self-empowerment - women as well as men have the right to determine their own theological destiny." Prof Wadud has attracted controversy before - in 2005 she led a service in New York City, which had to be held in an Anglican church after mosques refused to host the event."

more about amina wadud.

uk honey shortage

even though i am a diabetic, i still find these stories about bees rather alarming. from tomorrow's telegraph:

"English honey to run out before Christmas
By Paul Eccleston

English honey is unlikely to feature on Christmas menus this year as supplies run out. The catastrophic decline in honey bee numbers has continued with populations down 30 per cent on last year. Combined with another wet summer - which prevented the bees gathering pollen - it has resulted in a honey shortage. Stuart Bailey, chairman of the UK's biggest producer, Rowse Honey, said: "Supplies continue to dribble through and we might have enough for another six weeks or so but I expect it to be gone before Christmas." Amateur beekeepers in England produce about 3,000 tonnes annually but the bulk - 80 per cent - is distributed to family and friends or sold at the garden gate or at farmers' markets. Supermarkets and shops rely on a few dozen big commercial honey farms for their supplies of English honey but there is much less available this year. Rowse, who have a third of the market in the UK, had hoped to supply supermarkets with 250 tonnes but Mr Bailey thinks it may be only half that amount. "It has been a terrible, terrible year possibly the worst for 28 years. Bee numbers are down again and the weather has been so bad it has prevented them from foraging. We will be lucky if the total honey crop this year amounts to 2,000 tonnes," he said."

the rest of the story is here.

add to that an earlier telegraph story that israel will soon no longer be the land of milk and honey but just the land of milk:

"The land of milk and honey is in danger of becoming just the land of milk after a 60 per cent fall in local honey production because of poor rainfall. Apiarists across Israel are reporting honey harvest levels well below half the norm following poor winter and spring rains. The poor rainfall meant there were fewer nectar-bearing flowers available for the bees. The bad weather has compounded already reduced levels of honey production caused by the mysterious global phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) where hives across the world have suddenly been deserted. Israel has suffered its fair share of CCD incidents and local scientists have identified a virus spread by a parasitic mite that could be the cause of CCD. This has yet to be confirmed. When Israeli academics reported the discovery of the new virus anti-Israeli articles started appearing on the internet accusing Israel of creating this virus as part of biological weapons programme."

wtf?

is this real, or is it photoshopped?

yahoo has posted this pic of mccain's reaction to heading the wrong way off the set after the debate last night. while i do love the camera for being able to isolate a nanosecond that may otherwise go unnoticed during the action, it is hard to believe that such a perfect moment really occurred.

this is who that was

"fishface". hard to believe, eh?

happy 50th birthday blue peter!

here is a photo someone else prepared earlier: my favourite presenters john, val and peter (but then i am one of them old bods).

what are they thinking?

the final debate is over. mccain seems quite pleased with himself, while obama wishes he had never heard of joe wurzelbacher. i listened to the debate on bbc radio five live. thought it would be more interesting to hear a non-american commentary. most brits i know are baffled that there is any doubt about who is the most bonkers. i am just sick of all the spin from everyone.

day is night, up is down

what kind of world have we allowed this one to become when our leaders believe that all they have to do is to repeat a lie often and with enthusiasm and that will make things right?

vote no on prop 8

"IF SAME-SEX COUPLES ARE NOT HURTING OUR FAMILIES, WHY ARE WE TRYING TO HURT THEIRS?"

fish face

any idea who this could be? i certainly did not recognise her at all. do you want a clue?

will the real sarah palin please ...

over on dorothy snarker's page, it is tina fey tuesday. she has posted this picture, and i am a little confused. it could be still some jet-lag, or maybe the fumes from our dying treadmill that engulfed me this morning. am i becoming so obsessed with the threat of sarah palin ruling my life for real that i see her in every fortysomething woman with those kind of glasses and a cutesy voice that stands near tina fey?

official jewish tartan

did you know that there is now an official jewish tartan? of course not - why would one? i happened to discover this vital piece of news yesterday when going through the post that came while i was away. in an edition of the hadassah magazine (i am a life member - it was a gift), there is an article about jewish scotland. meanwhile, good old google came up with a few words by tom hamilton in the daily record:

" A SCOTS rabbi has created the world's first official Jewish tartan. Mendel Jacobs, 32, consulted the Scottish Tartans Authority and religious scholars to come up with a design to reflect Scotland's Jewish history. He said: "As the only Scottish-born rabbi living in Scotland, I felt it was important to celebrate the rich tapestry of culture and history we share and it is particularly fitting for Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations. "The Jewish people have been an integral part of Scottish culture for more than 300 years, with the first Jew recorded in Edinburgh in 1691."

The colours, weave and number of threads in the new tartan have all been picked for their relevance to Judaism. Rabbi Mendel added: "The blue and white represent the colours of the Scottish and Israeli flags, with the central gold line representing the gold from the Biblical Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant and the many ceremonial vessels. "The silver is from the decorations that adorn the Scroll of Law and the red represents the traditional red Kiddush wine. "The cloth is also 100 per cent kosher - being a non-wool linen mix."

Internationally renowned weavers Lochcarron of Scotland have vested an interest in manufacturing the tartan. There is expected to be a huge global demand for the design from the estimated 15million Jews worldwide. The biggest markets will be the US and Israel, each with about five-and-a-half million Jews. At the last census in 2001, there were 6400 Jews in Scotland.""

so there you have it. if you want to demonstrate your loyalty to clan mcmoish, you know what to do. ps what do you suppose jewish men wear under their kilts?

keeping up with the news

having been in berlin for a few days and thus without access to television or e-mail - although we did look at german newspapers in the hotel and found a lovely article on how the candidates have to be careful where they eat because of how it reflects on their characters - ultimately we fell behind with regard to coverage of the election in the usa. luckily i was able to find this clip to help update me.

piglet visits the book-burning memorial in berlin

on the 10th of may, 1933 (the 6th birthday of the father of ravaj), the german students association held a massive burning of 'un-german' publications in berlin. this memorial is in the bebelplatz, on the exact spot where the burning took place.

zurueckgekommen!

the ravaj went to berlin and saw her niece and has promised to limit the viewing of photographs to five or fewer. i am now back in london to continue atoning, and will then be able to catch up with you all.

ps photo credit to the mother of ravaj

hiatus

am off to berlin to see the niece of ravaj. hurrah. see you all anon!

nobody can eat 50 eggs! paul newman r.i.p.

one of my all-time favourite movie actors has died. in the days when i was attracted to men, he was my model for the perfect man. i loved his values, his deeds and, o yes, his looks.

regarding his body of work, the three films that come to mind most clearly are 'cat on a hot tin roof', 'cool hand luke', and 'butch cassidy and the sundance kid' (i loved the music of 'the sting' more than the film). of these, the most memorable bit is the egg-eating:



is this possible? the bbc checked it out in hollywood science

by those of us who never knew the man, he will never be missed as long as his films continue to be show. to his family and friends, my condolences.

wikipedia
afp news
telegraph obit
actors pay tribute
olga craig on pn

er, um, i dunno ... sarah palin on foreign policy

Watch CBS Videos Online
that well-known hard-nosed reporter, katie couric, asks sarah palin a couple of simple questions. and there are seriously people out there who seriously think that this woman is a serious contender for public office? and qpr will be in the premiership next year! wait a minute, that could actually happen. help!!!!!!!!!

miracles abound

damion stewart celebrates his winner at villa park this evening

there i was, being thoroughly depressed by the play 'fat girl' (author neil labute), and wondering whether the ravaj would ever find her bescherte ... and then the news came through (thank you rachel's i-touch) that qpr, playing away, in the cup, against a premiership team, had not been humiliated. the thing is - they won!

TRA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!

amazing what happened to me. depression lifted, dodgy stomach was suddenly able to eat spicy indian food, and i started being nice to people again. you may have no interest in football, or any kind of sport. however, those who love me tolerate my obsession because it truly has the power to raise me from the (near) dead. hurrah for queens park rangers!

farewell to yankee stadium

i still don't know why they have to destroy a perfectly good stadium just to build another one TWENTY YARDS AWAY. the last game was played yesterday ... a win for pettitte, a curtain call for dj, good relief by joba and closed by mo. goodbye house that ruth built.

sarah and hillary, together at last

the moment so many have waited for - tina fey dons her sarah specs

palin for president!

a fine campaign video that makes a strong case for palin ... michael palin that is.

btw, life in london has been such fun that i am a wee bit behind in posting. hoping to catch up soon :-)

do i dare to insult the pope?

sabine guzzanti, an italian comedian, is being threatened with jail by the public prosecutor in rome for saying naughty things about pope benedict. the times of london reports:

"Giovanni Ferrara, the Rome prosecutor, is invoking the 1929 Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Vatican, which stipulates that an insult to the Pope carries the same penalty as an insult to the Italian President. Prosecution requires authorisation from the Ministry of Justice, for which Mr Ferrara has applied."

responses in italy are mixed, but sabina's father commented:

"Paolo Guzzanti, Ms Guzzanti's father and a centre Right MP, said the move was "a return to the Middle Ages”. "Perhaps my daughter should be submitted to the judgement of God by being made to walk on hot coals," he added"

the cause of free speech never runs smooth. meanwhile, aren't there other things in the world that could do with such energy and attention? o, right, berlusconi (the italian p.m.) is after the catholic vote ...

here is the rest of the article

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

people around me are panicking. not because england won a world cup match in croatia and now the tabloids don't know who to pick on. neither was it because the large hadron collider has been turned on and the end of the world has not yet happened. it is not even because of the knowledge that angry goats who were wrongly imprisoned in the congo have now been freed to wreak their revenge.

why are we all so anxious? two simple words: sarah palin.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

all of a sudden people are quoting opinion polls and reading about sp dolls selling out and claiming that obama was referring to her as the pig wearing lipstick (i don't think he is bald-faced enough to do something like that, er, i mean there are ethics and values and all that stuff) and that this slight will cause all white women to vote republican.

it's going to be ok, though, don't worry. there is a simple cure for all this. in two words: tina fey. as a separated at birth looky-likey of the vp candidate, we just need her to go on 'saturday night live' a few times and shape the conscience of our nation with a few well-designed sketches.


or, you can join me in europe for the next month or so.

a freudian slip

abc network's terry moran reveals the truth about obama's origins (tip o' the keyboard to ken levine)

the rest of the world prefers obama

the bbc online news page has announced:

"All 22 countries in a BBC World Service poll would prefer Democratic nominee Barack Obama to be US president, ahead of his Republican rival John McCain. Mr Obama was favoured by a four-to-one margin across the 22,500 people polled. In 17 of the 22 countries surveyed the most common view was that America's relations with the rest of the world would improve under a President Obama. If Mr McCain were elected, the most common view in 19 countries was that relations would remain about the same. The poll was conducted before the Democratic and Republican parties held their conventions and before the headline-grabbing nomination of Sarah Palin as Mr McCain's running mate. BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the results could therefore be a reflection of the greater media focus on Mr Obama as he competed for the presidential candidacy against Hillary Clinton."

more detailed numbers may be found here.

o dear, better not tell anyone. i have a funny feeling that if americans learned how the rest of the world wished they would behave, they would automatically do the opposite, just because they could.

fowl humour

don't ask me why i did it. here are some recent answers to the eternal question: why did the chicken cross the road?

Howard Cosell : It may very well have been one of the most astonishing events to grace the annals of history. An historic, unprecedented avian biped with the temerity to attempt such an Herculean achievement formerly relegated to homo- sapien pedestrians is truly a remarkable occurrence.

Machiavelli : So that its subjects will view it with admiration, as a chicken which has the daring and courage to boldly cross the road, but also with fear, for whom among them has the strength to contend with such a paragon of avian virtue? In such a manner is the princely chicken's dominion maintained.

Albert Camus: It doesn't matter; the chicken's actions have no meaning except to him.

Darth Vader : Because it could not resist the power of the Dark Side.

Mark Twain : The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.

Dr Johnson: Sir, had you known the Chicken for as long as I have, you would not so readily enquire, but feel rather the Need to resist such a public Display of your own lamentable and incorrigible Ignorance.

H. P. Lovecraft:
To escape the eldritch, chthonic, rugose, polypous, indescribably horrible abomination not from our space-time continuum.

and the two female versions i have so far discovered (if you count the sphinx as being a female sphinx):

Emily Dickinson : Because it could not stop for death.

The Sphinx : You tell me.

piglet and the lion

on saturday afternoon, a dear friend from toronto came to visit, and managed to persuade ravaj and the pig to ride on a green-line boston transit vehicle and join her at the isabella stewart gardner museum. photography is forbidden in the museum. heck, breathing too close to the objets d'art will earn a loud and stern reprimand from the uniformed guards in each room. we did, however, manage to stage this brief interaction between a lion guarding the exit and our lovely pig.

nb no inanimate objects were harmed during the photographing of this picture.

after wolong

what next for the pandas rescued from the wolong conservation centre after the earthquake? nobody knows yet, but at least they are safe and cared for.

end of the week procrastination aid

this was my favourite candidate for the bookseller magazine's diagram prize for oddly-named publications. sadly, it was pipped to the post by 'greek rural postmen and their cancellation numbers'. noted the grauniad:

""I think the voters wanted a feelgood story about rural postmen because of all the news of post offices closing around the country," said The Bookseller's charts editor Philip Stone. He has so far been unsuccessful in his attempts to contact the book's author Derek Willan to let him know about his win. "There's no prize but the boost in sales is surely prize enough," Stone said. "When we announced our last shortlist, sales increased by 1,000%, from one copy sold in the two weeks previously to ten afterwards.""

for other losing titles, see here. for an explanation, see here.

the wisdom of shirley maclaine

interviewed in the los angeles times on the occasion of the showing of her tv film about coco chanel:

"LA Times: Are you getting smarter as you get older?

Maclaine: No. I'm getting tired."

flip-flopping republicans? no way!

ok you can probably do this to some extent with the democrats as well. you can probably do it with an awful lot of politicians all over the place. however, it was not the democrats who were in jon stewart's line of fire yesterday. watch the hypocrisy. and tell your friends!

why i cannot support sarah palin

palin poses with a caribou shot by her good self
it would be the ultimate irony if the republican candidate for vice-president of the usa ended up being the first woman elected to one of the top two political positions in the country. the euphoria of many after the attack-dog speech sarah palin gave in minnesota last night had me reaching for indigestion tablets. here are some reasons why i felt sick:

* she is an evangelical xian
* who is a member of feminists for life
* and enjoys hunting as a lifelong member of the national rifle association
* she is a big supporter of oil drilling in the arctic national wildlife refuge
* as the daughter of a science teacher, she is open to teaching creationism in public schools

as the l.a.times said:

"she is against abortion even in cases of rape and incest, sued the federal government to take polar bears off the endangered species list, has said creationism should be taught in schools and advocated a constitutional ban on providing healthcare benefits to same-sex partners"

or as gloria steinem wrote:

"Palin ... opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger."

how anyone who was a hillary supporter could possibly be angry enough to vote for a person, whatever their gender, with these particular values, i just do not know.

nb i have no problems with anyone having a religious belief (re evangelical xian note), i am just a firm believer in the separation of church and state, do not believe that ms palin is able to make that division, and thus am dismayed that she is running for national office

dame alison munro r.i.p.

"Of the Miss Buss and Miss Beale rather than the bra-burning school of feminism, Alison Munro believed that if she was to fulfil what she saw as the school's mission of educating girls to be leaders of society, priority should be given to academic achievement: to a father foolish enough to inquire why his daughter was not learning domestic science, she replied: "We don't teach cookery, we teach chemistry.""
the telegraph

alison munro was the high mistress (principal) who interviewed me when i applied to st paul's girls' school. i have to say that i do not recall her all that well. clearer in my memory is the warning i was given before the interview that whatever i did i should not discuss either enid blyton or anything to do with horses. nevertheless, if she had not admitted me my life would have been quite different. i am glad that she did :-)

times obit

a favourite commercial

thank you to all who sent birthday wishes to the ravaj. am now a year older but probably not much wiser :-) in the spirit of celebration and joy, here is an ad that i love. the kit-kat slogan is 'have a break', so the theme here is beings behaving against type, e.g., roy keane (hard man footballer) with an embroidery hoop and anti-feminist bernard manning doing the dishes etc. in the end, i can take or leave those parts - it is the daleks that i love, asking for a cuddle and hanging out with the hare krishna folk. enjoy!

qpr 4 - 0 carlisle united

strange doings down at loftus road. ok, carlisle is a team from a lower division. nevertheless, i cannot remember the last time an r scored a hat-trick, not to mention getting through to the third round of the league cup. o frabjous eve.

mccain has trouble counting

thanks to the editrix blog for showing me this short film in which republican presidential candidate john mccain attempts to be non-committal, i.e., to not use directly the word 'gay'; and pro 'family values' at the same time. apparently gay couples who wish to adopt are not "two-parent families".

the return of piglet

captain piglet of the mayflower
we went to see plymouth rock, but it was under construction, surrounded by a wire and plastic fence. thus it was that we made our way through the sunday afternoon crowds, past the carousel and on board the replica of the mayflower. despite a terrible tribute band blasting out 'billie jean' on the dock, we explored the decks of the ship. i was asked whence i came by one of the pilgrims, and told him london. 'within the walls or without?' he asked. 'without,' i replied. 'then you're not really from london, are you?' he said. damn, they got me again - i had the same conversation with mistress brewster when she visited our school last year. we then had a lovely chat about religious tolerance in seventeenth century holland. luckily i'd had to teach it to the third and fourth graders in the spring :-)

qpr 2 - 0 doncaster rovers

emanuel ledesma scores his first goal for qpr
the sun was shining, qpr won, and all was right in the world. however, ledesma's new-found popularity and success make me wonder how my akos will fit into the team when he is again fit.

top ten funniest jokes from the edinburgh fringe festival

according to today's times online. some of them are actually funny, but there are a couple i just don't get (7 & 10). do you think it's cultural?

The top 10 funniest jokes from the Festival Fringe:

1. Zoe Lyons: "I can't believe Amy Winehouse self-harms. She's so irritating she must be able to find someone to do it for her."

2. Andrew Laurence: "Most of us have a skeleton in the cupboard. David Beckham takes his out in public."

3. Lloyd Langford: "My girlfriend said 'did you know that hippopotamuses kill more people every year than guns?'. 'Yes,' I said, 'but a gun is easier to conceal'."

4. Josie Long: "When I was a kid I asked my mum what a couple was and she said 'oh, two or three'. And she wonders why her marriage didn't work."

5. Tim Vine: "Velcro. What a rip-off."

6. Stephen Grant: "The Scots invented hypnosis, chloroform and the hypodermic syringe - wouldn't it be easier just to talk to a woman?"

7. Edward Aczel: "So far Bird Flu has only killed 47 people. By the time it ends, it's going to have killed 37 million. It's got to get going, hasn't it, if it's going to be the pandemic we've all been hoping for."

8. Joan Rivers: "Grandchildren can be f****** annoying. How many times can you go 'And the cow goes moo and the pig goes oink?' It's like talking to a supermodel."

9. Tom Stade: "I like Jesus but he loves me, so it's awkward."

10. Jeff Kreisler: "People were outraged because of Barack Obama's spiritual advisor. I think it's great he had one. Who was George Bush's spiritual advisor? Jim Beam? Johnnie Walker? Jack Daniels?"

dancing with the stars

this just in - barack obama's dancing with ellen leads to a youtube version of rick astley's song 'never gonna give you up'. a president who looks good shaking his booty - what do you think? i could get down with that. of course that would never be a reason to influence my vote :-)

csi: the hive

a positive story from the bee world was reported by the bbc recently, telling us that the way bumblebees search for food may help humans hunt down serial killers (human ones). a team at the university of london reports that:

" ... bees create a "buffer zone" around their hive where they will not forage, to reduce the risk of predators and parasites locating the nest. It turns out that this pattern of behaviour is similar to the geographic profile of criminals stalking their victims. "Most murders happen close to the killer's home, but not in the area directly surrounding a criminal's house, where crimes are less likely to be committed because of the fear of getting caught by someone they know," Dr Raine explained."

so all we have to do is apply bee patterns to human ones and ... hurrah! well, it is certainly an interesting idea. i wonder how it occurred to someone in the first place?

the full story is here.

leo abse z"l

leo abse, a welsh and labour member of parliament for over thirty years, has died at the age of 91. apart from being the older brother of our beloved friend dannie, he is also worth celebrating for his pioneering work in the reforming of british family and social life when i was a child. the times notes:

"His concerns were at the heart of the reforms that touched and revolutionised family and social life in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s: the acceptance of homosexuality, divorce and family planning, although he also interested himself in a great range of other social issues including abortion, prisons and, more recently, in vitro fertilisation."
the times obituary

in the grauniad, geoffrey goodman begins:

"The politician, social reformer, writer and lawyer Leo Abse, who has died aged 91, was a unique figure in the public life of our time. He reflected, and transmitted in grandiloquent style, the paradoxes of our age along with his own egocentric capacity to express, often in pyrotechnic rhetoric, the contradictions and absurdities in all our lives. He was a leftwing socialist with a Disraelian quality of showmanship, and a product of a Welsh–Jewish idealism oft times coated with Celtic imagery — always laced with a Jewish romanticism he sought, pointlessly, to disguise."
full obituary

from the telegraph:

"Abse was the first MP to initiate debates on genetic engineering, the dangers of nuclear power generation at Windcsale, and in vitro pregnacies; and he campaigned to change the law which made attempted suicide a criminal act. He made a special study of the problems of delinquency, divorce and counselling. It was due to him that the law was changed, in the Divorce Reform Act of 1969, to allow divorce after a marriage had broken down beyond repair. He despised the system of having to secure a divorce by a bogus admission of adultery or couples being compelled to remain married in name. He also saw that the interests of the child were made a prior consideration in divorce settlements. Perhaps his best-known achievements, however, were piloting through the House of Commons the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in 1967 and sponsoring what eventually became the 1975 Children’s Act."
full obit

with regard to the political psychobiographies abse wrote later in life, tam dalyell says in the indy:

"Abse's approach was to study the relationship between politics and personality. He dared to place under scrutiny the interior lives of practising politicians. He insisted this had nothing to do with cheap and scurrilous probing, but related to the belief that when political decision-making can have such fateful consequences as peace or war for a nation, the elected politician cannot claim the same right of privacy as that afforded to the electors.

Policies, for Abse, cannot be disengaged from the policy-makers. The drives and psychological needs of the politicians invade and distort the panaceas they offer to the electorates. If more objective assessments are to be made of policies, assessments must be made of the men and women who expound them. Abse himself deserved to be remembered as one of the most significant social reformers of 20th-century Britain."
full obit

it sounds like he was a man for his time. where are such people today?

the engastrimyth

in my new-found fervour (don't ask how many times i have viewed nina conti videos this week) for the art of ventriloquism, i have been trying to find a good book for beginners. the 1904 version of practical ventriloquism by robert ganthony is not available in my local library network. however, i did discover what, according to the grauniad, "the great ken campbell" considers the perfect practice sentence for ventriloquists to be:

"Who dared to put wet fruit bat poo in our dead mummy's bed; was that you, Verity?"

a post on the olympics

so the americans print a medal table where the team with the most medals of any type (i.e., the usa) is top and the chinese print one where the most gold medals gets counted first (we like them better because then britain is higher up). the aussies are busy dissing the brits, saying that they smell and are only good at sports where they get to sit down. some guy beat mark spitz's olympic medal record, etc., etc.

the big question i had, though, was: what is yngling and how do you pronounce it? thank you grauniad today for answering this. here is what they wrote:

"What is Yngling and how do you pronounce it?

Yngling is a type of keelboat, and easily the silliest of the 23 varieties of keelboat currently accredited by the International Sailing Federation, most of which sound like cast members of the Gladiators - Tempest, Lightning, Dragon, Melges 24. OK, the last one doesn't sound like a Gladiator. Its Norwegian inventor designed it for his son in 1967 and named it Yngling, Norwegian for young man. This is its second appearance in the Olympics, where it is raced only by women - the men's keelboat is the more gladiatorial Star. A spokeswoman from the Norwegian embassy says the word "is slightly old-fashioned now" but confirms that it is pronounced erngling, with the initial Y sounding like a German U with an umlaut. "It's not really a word we use a lot," says a colleague. "

mazal tov ellen and portia

i am not going to write anything about this since many others have already covered it from many angles. i recommend dorothy snarker's site, and clicking through as well to after ellen. am just pleased that this is not being condemned across the board. and of course, i shall have to move immediately to california :-)

pink pound, or boozy brits?

apparently the city of krakow in poland is a popular site for british stag nights. however, as in other parts of europe, the locals are getting a bit fed up with the rowdiness and the vomiting. tourist authorities in krakow have recently announced that they plan to target gay and lesbian tourists instead, believing that they behave better, not to mention having and spending more money. the observer reports the perspectives and responses of local people:

"'They hassle waitresses about sex and brothels. One stripped off in front of all the other guests. They've started drinking out of their shoes, which they think is really funny. They drop ash and spill beer and vomit, and then they go off to brothels.' Nightclub owners complain they have had to fork out on extra security to cope with drunken brawls that often break out between stag groups. And Krakow's taxi drivers are fed up. 'They pack themselves into the car, vomit out of the windows, and run off without paying,' said one driver, named Tomasz."

these are the stag parties. however:

"'I don't know which is worse!' said Piotr Kucharski, spokesman for the Christian Culture Association In the Name of Father Piotr Skarga, which has initiated an email protest campaign and a demonstration in Krakow against the new policy. He added: 'Drunken Britons may get their genitals out in public. But we don't want gays performing public obscenities either.'"

yes, two men holding hands in public is totally on a par with a flasher. the local politicians, however, are no better:

"'We respect people, their autonomy and personal choices. However, we do not support the promotion of perverse behaviour,' said Agata Tatara, Krakow city councillor and member of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party."

it constantly amazes me into how many loops of a pretzel shape people are willing to bend themselves to perpetuate their pink prejudice.

the observer reporter was hilary davies from warsaw and the story was published sunday 17th august

dottie collins r.i.p.

have you seen the 1992 film 'a league of their own'? dottie collins was at the centre of the real-life all-american girls professional baseball league.

"June Peppas, a rookie with the 1948 Daisies, remembered how Collins “kind of played mother” to her and fellow rookies, teaching them how to conduct themselves as professional athletes, and how she provided emotional support for former teammates over the years. “She had a lot of compassion for everybody,” Peppas said from her home in Florida. “She did a lot of letter-writing to support people who had problems. She was a good shoulder.”"

she was also instrumental in facilitating the cooperstown presentation and preservation of the history of that era:

"The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., had been considering an exhibition on women and baseball during the mid-1980s, but, as Ted Spencer, its chief curator, recalled in an interview, it had little material to display until Collins approached him. “When I connected with Dottie, the ball started to roll,” Spencer said. “If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know where it would have gone.”"

the full ny times obit

qpr lose and the world is back to normal

emanuel ledesma protects himself from the fierce onslaught of the sheffield united attack as qpr collapse to a 0-3 hammering up north this afternoon. and what is with the weird yellow shorts and socks? where are our hoops, mate?! this isn't our rangers!!

not got melky :-(

melky cabrera homers vs the blue jays
the yankees have sent my melky to the minors. noooooooooooooooooo!

the associated press reports:

"A starting outfielder with the Yankees for most of the past three seasons, the 24-year-old Cabrera got off to strong start this year but has struggled at the plate since May. He was batting .242 with eight homers, 36 RBIs and a paltry .296 on-base percentage. His playing time had decreased lately. “We just felt that it was time for him to go work on some things. You can’t forget how young Melky is,” Girardi said. “We believe that he’s a much better player than a .240 hitter.”"

qpr's league cup win versus swindon

angelo balanta bundles the ball across the line for the first goal at swindon in the cup earlier this week. i post this as inspiration for the 'r's tomorrow as they play their first away game of the season in sheffield. non-sport fans avert your eyes - i am going to do a yankees post next!

crisis point for uk honeybees

now that the grauniad is reporting this story, does that mean it is finally real? here is some of what alison benjamin wrote last tuesday:

"Britain's honeybees have suffered catastrophic losses this year, according to a survey of the nation's beekeepers, contributing to a shortage of honey and putting at risk the pollination of fruits and vegetables. The survey by the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) revealed that nearly one in three of the UK's 240,000 honeybee hives did not survive this winter and spring. The losses are higher than the one in five colonies reported dead earlier this year by the government after 10% of hives had been inspected. The BBKA president, Tim Lovett, said he was very concerned about the findings: "Average winter bee losses due to poor weather and disease vary from between 5% and 10%, so a 30% loss is deeply worrying. This spells serious trouble for pollination services and honey producers."

The National Bee Unit has attributed high bee mortality to the wet summer in 2007 and in the early part of this spring that confined bees to their hives. This meant they were unable to forage for nectar and pollen and this stress provided the opportunity for pathogens to build up and spread. But the BBKA says the causes are unclear. Its initial survey of 600 members revealed a marked north-south divide, with 37% bee losses in the north, compared to 26% in the south. "We don't know why there is a difference and what is behind the high mortality," said Lovett.

The government recognises that the UK's honeybee hives - run by 44,000 mostly amateur beekeepers - contribute around £165m a year to the economy by pollinating many fruits and vegetables. "30% fewer honeybee colonies could therefore cost the economy some £50m and put at risk the government's crusade for the public to eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day," Lovett warned.

The Honey Association warned last month that English honey will run out by Christmas and no more will be available until summer 2009. It blames the shortage on fewer honeybees and farmers devoting more fields to wheat, which has soared in price but does not produce nectar ...

... In the US, honey yields have been decimated by honeybee loses of 36%, many due to colony collapse disorder (CCD), a mysterious disappearance linked to the blood-sucking varroa mite, lethal viruses, malnutrition, pesticides, and a lack of genetic diversity. CCD has spread to Canada, France, Germany and Italy but has not yet been confirmed by government in the Britain."

nina conti

i found nina conti on youtube via an article in the grauniad re the current edinburgh festival. i watched a short video interview with her and decided i needed to know more. apart from the fact that when i was 14 i had a massive crush on her dad, in those days known as the thinking girl's crumpet, i was just drawn to her act. those of you who know me well may understand why she has caused me to consider learning how to be a ventriloquist. enjoy!

aaaaaaaaaaaar.m.v. part one

bureaucracy - one of the great inventions of the civilised world. of course not. just home in a bit of a fury trying to calm down and go back to the registry of motor vehicles in watertown. first of all, the other day, i discovered that without insurance you cannot get registered, and without registration you cannot get insured. luckily there is a special form for that which means it is not actually a problem, and the insurers will send it to you. eventually.

meanwhile, my first encounter with the commonwealth of massachusetts occurred about an hour ago. you'd've thought that with a licence from the commonwealth of virginia there may have been some reciprocity but apparently not. the first trick is to find the office. there are no signs on any of the surrounding streets. there are no signs in the parking lot. someone i asked in a back street told me it was in the mall. upon getting there, one has to stand in line to get a form to fill out in order to go back into the line in order to get a number in order to get in line to be served. the wooden benches are full of dispirited-looking people trying to figure out whether the woman at the front who is shouting numbers is shouting the same numbers as the ones on the electronic display (she is not). to help us pass the time there is a tv screen up at the front displaying the words "national news". apparently there isn't any.

eventually my number came up. "licence renewal?" the woman asked. "uh huh." i was told to stand in another line. after a while, the line next to us was told to merge with us because the woman at the desk was going to lunch. a few minutes later she started attending to other customers. "hey!" we all shouted. "i'm just going by the numbers," she said. that shut us up. we tried to make sense of what she had said. i decided it was a government plan to prevent alzheimer's by making our brains work. at last i made it to the front. and was immediately rejected. apparently it was a line for renewals only massachusetts to massachusetts. the woman told me i obviously had not been listening properly. i complained, and she sent me to the manager. he had a lovely purple shirt on. by this time, a tear or two of frustration had begun to roll down my cheek. this made the manager very kind and gentle. he explained to me that in any case i would have been rejected because i should have brought my passport with me. or a lease (i don't have one). or a cancelled cheque (i am all electronic these days). so i had to go home.

should i go back now? am not sure if i can handle it all again today. is this really the most efficient way for this office to work? who knows. anyway, i suspect that the deciding factor for me will probably be when i look in the rearview mirror and see how awful my hair is looking after all this tension. after all ... the real issue is surely what the photo on the licence is going to look like!

hip hip hurrah!

was just browsing an old copy of brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable and came across the following entry:

"hip! hip! hurrah! - the old fanciful explanation of the origin of this cry is that the hip is a notarikon, composed of the initials 'hierosolyma est perdita', and that when german knights headed a jew-hunt in the middle ages, they ran shouting "hip! hip!" as much as to say "jerusalem is destroyed."
hurrah was similarly derived from slavonic 'hu-raj' (to paradise), so that hip! hip! hurrah! would mean "jerusalem is lost to the infidel, and we are on the road to paradise.""

and there i was thinking that saying 'hip hip hurrah' was such a terribly british thing to do. shall have to omit the hips from now on methinks, although hurrah still seems to make sense

signspotting

the telegraph has a weekly section wherein it displays photographs of signs that readers have sent in. the focus is on the odd and the amusing, particularly when it comes to mistranslations. it occurred to me that this particular one was most suitable for the ravaj.

anyone still reading?

so i had a bit of a lapse re blogging. i'd like to make it up to you, so here are some links now to things i would have blogged if i had been blogging then:

first of all, obituaries of interesting and amazing women of whom you may not have heard ...

janet askham was a british sociologist who, latterly, had been concentrating on the social aspects of aging. the times quoted her as saying:

"“Ageing is both a social and biological phenomenon. One can start with the notion of when old age begins. There is no biological starting point: it is socially determined. People become old because they are defined as old — by the attitudes and behaviour of others and by laws, rules or policies.”"

pauline baynes was most well-known for her illustrations for works by tolkien and the narnia books. the grauniad wrote:

"Baynes went on to become one of the foremost children's book illustrators of the 20th century. Her highly designed style - witty, inventive and invariably bursting beyond the borders of the page - her strong sense of colour and line, and her careful attention to detail would become instantly recognisable. As for Narnia, despite other artists ringing the changes from time to time with the covers, sometimes disastrously, it is her classic line drawings which have remained an integral part of every subsequent edition of the series."

valerie bennett-levy was nosegay maker to the queen. when describing what she did during the war, the times noted:

"Much more an artist than a physicist, Bennett-Levy amused Sir Robert Watson-Watt, the man credited with Britain’s advances in radar development, when — as a member of a high-level delegation visiting her station — he heard her explaining her work thus: “Well, you twiddle this knob and that knob, and then this other knob, and . . .” He told her: “I’ve been trying to explain what I do to my secretary for years. Yours is the most unscientific explanation I’ve ever heard. I wonder if you’d come round and explain it to her.”"

evelyn keyes lived a far more interesting life off-screen than suellen o'hara, the part that she played in 'gone with the wind'. the guardian ends its description of her life with the following:

"A self-described "flaming liberal" who was once a "mush-minded bigot", the plain-speaking Keyes explained that having an abortion just before filming Gone With the Wind, left her unable to have children."

kathleen kinkade was a founder of a utopian commune near charlottesville, va. the ny times wrote:

"In 1964, while living in Los Angeles and working in a dead-end secretarial job, she read “Walden Two.” Skinner’s novel, about humans living in a hivelike egalitarian society, strikes many readers as bloodless and forbidding, but Ms. Kinkade responded ecstatically. She wrote to the author asking if such a community existed, and if she could join. She received no reply, concluded that there was no such community and decided to create one."

ann lambton was a scholar who specialised in the study of iran. the times said:

"All who knew Lambton respected her not only for her intelligence but also for her physical strength and endurance. She was a fine squash player and often beat students a great deal younger than her. She always cycled between SOAS and her flat in Maida Vale. In Iran and in Northumberland she was a tireless walker up the steepest of hills at a huge pace and she walked everywhere in Iran, besides travelling on horseback or camel."

two goals for one-size

so the season began and i said nothing about it? or maybe i was overcome by the magnitude of two wins in a row. sorry auntie d. and others not into my particular sport fixations. while you should be glad to know that considering the poor performances by the yankees recently, they are less likely to be featured on these pages; at the same time it is the new season and association football is my great love. prepare, therefore, to skip the soccer stories for a while. i understand. really, i do.

meanwhile, here are some pics via action images of the first goal by fitz and his response. nb quite a good nickname i think - he is called fitz hall, and nicknamed one-size. i like it. much better than lee cook's nickname, i.e., cookie; martin rowlands, i.e., rowly; and (why i just do not know) patrick agyemang who is called by many 'dave'. anyway, o frabjous day, etc ...

is she is or is she aint? none of your beeping business!

from the bbc website:

"Actress Lindsay Lohan has hit out at the Los Angeles police chief after he said the star had "gone gay".

"Police chiefs shouldn't get involved in everyone else's business when it comes to their personal life. It's inappropriate," Lohan said. Chief William Bratton made the remark while explaining why he did not support a crackdown on the paparazzi. Lohan, the star of Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, has been linked with DJ Mark Ronson's sister Samantha. The police chief was discussing problems with the paparazzi on LA news channel KNBC. He said: "If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving, Paris is out of town not bothering anybody, thank God, and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue." Chief Bratton had earlier refused to attend a Los Angeles city task force meeting to discuss ways to combat the paparazzi. Lohan gave her response in a video filmed by paparazzi and posted on celebrity website TMZ. Her publicist Leslie Sloane has previously denied that the actress is in a relationship with Samantha Ronson, but said they were "close friends"."

i am both confused and irked by this. on the one hand, personal lives are of course personal business (unless you are a celebrity who courts publicity for the development of your career, in which case you kind of make your whole life fair game). in any case, i am not a fan of publicly outing people. on the other hand, what on earth did the police chief think he was doing when he made a comment like this? sounds like a bit of a publicity-seeker himself. meanwhile, i think the paparazzi are flesh-eaters ... if you click the link, check out how they surround lohan as she enters the airport.

happy first birthday zhen zhen

the san diego zoo's latest panda bear cub, daughter of bai yun and gao gao, has her first birthday today. you go zhen zhen!