Want to be a free thinker but still a nice person

Restraining myself

2008-10-11T00:07:00.000-07:00

It is soooo hard not to write about your real life in a blog -- you know, you can't really say things like 'this idiot said to me yesterday blah blah' in case the idiot actually reads your blog then sends death threats or threatening legal letters. I've often wondered how you could write about real life but disguise it enough so people can't figure out who you are talking about. It would be so cool if you could really let it all hang out in your blog.

But still...today a woman told me she was going to the opera in London soon. I was very impressed, as I never took her for a person of culture. 'Yeah,' she went on, 'I'm goin' to the opera theatre in London.' She described how she needed a new outfit, etc. and repeated her intention to go to the opera.

'Which opera are you going to?' I asked.

'The Phantom,' she said, totally serious.

OMG, she was talking about the Phantom of the Opera the whole time! I almost fell off of my chair.

Other things I find hard to talk about in my blog

The US presidential election -- I try not to talk about politics in here anymore but I am totally obsessed with the race. I spend hours checking the latest thing that Sarah Palin has done or what the latest poll numbers are. It's taking over my life --I will be relieved when it's all over. It's like being on a roller coaster now -- with that and the stock market crash, I have no sense of balance these days.

At least we'll be able to afford a turkey at Christmas (I hope)

2008-10-10T00:22:00.000-07:00

Spent all day today in a big meeting room at a test camp. We had to work on a specific software release from Copenhagen all day -- I didn't have any time for checking my blog, sending e-mails or even checking the stock market -- so by the end of the day, I had a headache and a backache from sitting in a crappy chair all day and was grumpy.

But when I opened the door to the house, there was Minnie, our new foster cat, waiting for me. I like to think it is LOVE that makes her anxious for me to return home, but I know she just wants her dinner. Still, it is a ritual that I already love, and we've only had her in the house for a few weeks.

I know I've already written one ode to Minnie, but I want to write more -- but I can't write poetry worth a damn so will borrow from Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

I love thee--in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine.

Stock Market

My husband is totally freaking out about the stock-market crash. I am worried too but I don't know what we could have done -- if I'd taken our money out of the bank and put it in the mattress, it would have burned up by now or been stolen or something similarly ruinous.

I tried to reassure Mel -- 'it's not like we are the Cratchits yet,' I said. 'We still have enough money for a Christmas turkey!'

Ivanov & Kenneth Branagh

2008-10-09T00:56:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, but I've been sick for the past few days and dead to the world. I haven't been keeping up with the blog. I did manage to get up last night to get myself to London to see the hottest play in town, Ivanov. Kenneth Branagh is the lead -- do you remember him; he was married to Emma Thompson?

I went up on the train with my friend Karen Firbank. We were talking about the most intimate things, as you do on a train, then at the end of the trip when we were getting out at Paddington Station, my neighbor said hello. She'd been sitting right behind Karen the whole time so must have heard every word. I was embarrassed -- I wonder what horrible thing I said that she heard and will mull over?

Anyway, Karen and I met my husband Mel and my friend Mrs Williams at Fortnum & Mason's for a quick glass of champagne before the show:

I love Chekhov. The lives of his characters are so horrible, yet you can see the humor of their existence, compare it to your own, and hope to make your own life better because you've seen his work.

Here's what Chekhov wrote:

“All I wanted was to say honestly to people: ‘Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!’ The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life. And so long as this different life does not exist, I shall go on saying to people again and again: ‘Please, understand that your life is bad and dreary!’”

Here's a pic of Kenneth in the title role. He was fantastic. I don't think I've seen a better play in my life.

London teen slang

2008-10-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

Last August, my friend Elizabeth from Detroit wrote me that she needed help. Here's what she said:

"On Sunday, the Maccabi Games will begin here. Something like 4,000 kids are participating and they're coming from all over the world. We've got a big group already here from England, and I want you to give me some cool phrase, some British slang or something, to amaze these people."

My daughter Katie raced to the rescue with these phrases. Try them out on your friends and see if they aren't impressed. :)

"I'm knackered" means "I'm tired"

"Allow it" - The simplest explanation of this is "Don't allow it" - an example - "I want ice cream" "Nah, allow it" <-- this is London slang and hasn't really made it out of London yet. Another way of saying it is "I don't agree with that suggestion".

"lush" - "great" - this is really a Welsh term and if you tried using it on the Londonders, they would rightly laugh at you.

"innit" - affixed to the ends of sentences in a complex pattern that appears seemingly at random. An example may be "You're stupid, innit"

"Bollocks" - Can mean completely untrue - alternatively can be used as an interjection to replace "Dammit"

"Bloody" is still an acceptable term to use. However, usage of "I say", "rather" and "Hello" as a means to attract attention is, these days, considered obsolete.

Quiz Night

2008-10-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

My smart-ass husband predicted that I would write about the Quiz Night we attended last night with the clever post title "Quiz Night," so I will.

Here are some of the questions we didn't get. Can you answer them?

1) Which ABBA song begins with "I wasn't jealous before we met. Now every woman I see is a potential threat."

2) What do the initals SPQR stand for?

3) And what about GPRS?

4) To the nearest mile, how high is Mount Everest?

I can't believe our table lost, even though we couldn't answer these questions. We were in the lead all night, then lost in the last round. I think the other tables must have been cheating....

Dr. Dillingham reads

2008-10-06T02:16:00.000-07:00

I've posted book recommendations from my former English professor before. I recommended he read our latest book club read, Antonio Tabucchi's Pereira Declares: A Testimony, and he wrote to say he liked it. I couldn't believe he approved of a book we read. He's so well-read and discriminating in his tastes that I thought he'd hate anything we chose. :)

Here's an excerpt from his e-mail with other recommendations in case you are looking for some intellectual reading:

"I can't remember right now whether I have mentioned to you already that I did read Tabucchi's Pereira Declares: A Testimony, with great enjoyment. I plan to look around for more of Tabucchi's work. That's a very clever and powerful novel.

Coincidentally, I read it as part of a sequence of reading that started with Sandor Marai's Memoir of Hungary, 1944-1948, and included a couple of books by the British travel writer, Norman Lewis---his amazing memoir, Jackdaw Cakes, and his book on being in Spain during the 1930s and then his diary (published much later) Naples '4, which chronicled his time as part of the occupation of southern Italy in that year. So the whole account of life in Portugal leading up to WWII was part of a fairly rich context and probably acquired some added intensity from the related readings."

Autism genes can add up to genius

2008-10-05T04:34:00.001-07:00

This is an excerpt from a fascinating article from The Sunday Times in London today. Remember the guy who played Borat? His brother is doing research into autism and thinks the genes that create the disorder can also give mathematical or musical genius to people who don't have autism or Aspergers Syndrome.

"Intellectual gifts and certain brain disorders are closely...Some people with autism have amazed experts with their outstanding memories, mathematical skills or musical talent. Now scientists have found that the genes thought to cause autism may also confer mathematical, musical and other skills on people without the condition.

The finding has emerged from a study of autism among 378 Cambridge University students, which found the condition was up to seven times more common among mathematicians than students in other disciplines. It was also five times more common in the siblings of mathematicians.

If confirmed, it could explain why autism - a disability that makes it hard to communicate with, and relate to, others - continues to exist in all types of society. It suggests the genes responsible are usually beneficial, causing the disease only if present in the wrong combinations. “Our understanding of autism is undergoing a transformation,” said Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the autism research centre at Cambridge, who led the study."

Act quickly

2008-10-05T02:15:00.000-07:00

Why English is so hard to learn

2008-10-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there was no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12. There was a row among the oarsmen on how to row.

13. They were too close to the door to close it.

14. The buck does funny things when does are present.

15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Cute pix

2008-10-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some amusing snippets so I don't have to think of anything intelligent today (not that I ever do anyway):

More scary health news to worry about

2008-10-02T00:56:00.000-07:00

More stuff to worry about -- now they think you can tell secrets about your general health from looking at your hands. I was checking my hands constantly while browsing this article -- I'm surprised I hadn't dropped dead from worrying by the end of it.

"Dry skin and chipped fingernails are not the only reason to pay attention to your hands. For new research shows they contain vital details about our health, including clues to hidden diseases such as cancer."

Here's some info, so start checking your hands right now. Click on the link at the bottom of the post to read the full article.

REDDENED PALMS
Could mean: Liver cirrhosis

FATTY KNUCKLES
Could mean: High cholesterol

SPOON NAILS
Could mean: Anaemia

CLUB FINGERS
Could mean: Lung cancer

BLUE FINGERNAILS
Could mean: Heart failure

BEADED NAILS
Could mean: Rheumatoid arthritis

BONY LUMPS ON FINGERS
Could mean: Osteoarthritis in the hips

TWO-TONE NAILS
Could mean: Kidney disease

SWEATY PALMS
Could mean: Overactive thyroid

OVERSIZED HANDS
Could mean: A pituitary tumour

More info here:
Click here to read article about hand health.

Opera night

2008-10-01T00:46:00.000-07:00

Went to an old village pub in Hampshire last night to meet our friends the Blakeleys and Elphicks for an opera night. A handsome talented singer entertained us during the six-course meal, and my husband said later how amused he was by how the older women there swooned. I think he included me in this comment.

Here is Karen Blakeley making friends with the singer Humphrey Berney. He's going to NYC and LA soon to audition for things and hopes to become the English Josh Groban in the US. I'll bet he could do it too, as he's a lot cuter than Josh G and has a wonderful voice.

I wish I could think of interesting or amusing anecdotes from last night to entertain you with, but I had too many Bellinis and pink champagne so probably my short-term memory is gone.

A vicar's musings

2008-09-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

I've blogged before about the vicar in the village where I used to live and his column in the monthly village mag. It must be so hard to come up with a sermon every week, and an idea for a column. This month the vicar rails against Sunday-morning flea markets (they are called car-boot sales in England) for cutting into his customer base:

"Car boot sales are a way of focusing a large group of people in one place to recycle still useful but unwanted domestic items that previously would have been thrown away. Car boot sales are often held in the grounds of schools and other community buildings, or in grassed fields or car parks. Usually they take place on weekend mornings, usually Sundays.

So “car boots” are most often a Sunday morning gathering. Just like church they have a regular congregation together with some visitors! The parallels are numerous - as we have seen - but then so are the differences. This is not to criticize car boots or those who go to them, but simply to compare these two Sunday morning gatherings. Let me mention 4 points of contrast:

We have discovered real treasure in the Lord Jesus Christ and we want to help one another to know him better. We are not ‘recycling unwanted items’!

We are here to share in the eternal word of God which dwells among us richly. We are not dealing in whatever anyone happens to have to have to hand. We don’t make our own truth like the car boot participant makes their own market.

We are a gathering brought into existence by the Holy Spirit of God. The local church is called God’s Temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. It is not just a human gathering.

We meet to give not to get. We want to tell people the message of the love of God who loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son to rescue us from sin and death.

So there it is - we have a choice. On Sunday mornings we can either ‘recycle unwanted items’ or we can come to know Christ in whom are all the treasures of the knowledge of God. Please note that I am not saying that there is anything
wrong with Car boots - they perform a useful function. Nor am I implying that Christians should not attend them - except when church is on of course! But I am saying that we have something infinitely better on offer. It’s here, every Sunday, at 10.00 am."

Love this cartoon

2008-09-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

This is the way I've been feeling during the credit crunch, although I am wa-a-ay too young to have been part of the '60s LSD crowd!

The 16-year-old hamburger

2008-09-29T00:48:00.000-07:00

A friend at work told me about a woman who has a 16-year-old hamburger. She bought it and kept it in a plastic box, and it looks the same as the day she bought it. She points out that it's so full of chemicals and additives that the burger will never die.

That's a picture of it above (1996 burger on the left) and a new hamburger. If that doesn't put you off buying McDonald's, I don't know what will. But it's so easy and comforting to eat junk -- I know it's a constant struggle for me to restrain myself.

Here's an excerpt from her post about her hamburger and a link to her site:

This is a hamburger from McDonalds that I purchased in 1996.

That was 12 years ago.

Note that it looks exactly like it did the very day I bought it.

People always ask me - what did you do to preserve it ?

Nothing - it preserved itself.

Ladies, Gentleman, and children alike - this is a chemical food. There is absolutely no nutrition here.

Not one ounce of food value. Or at least value for why we are eating in the first place.

Click here to view her website.

A brush with Jesus

2008-09-28T11:06:00.001-07:00

I went to Evensong at the church around the corner from my house to check out the choir. I knew they were good and was thinking about singing with them, even though I'm a total non-believer. I'd had a nice experience at that church after my mother died when my daughter and I went to Evensong and sat in the darkness listening to the singing while I shed a few tears for my mother.

No such luck this visit though. I sat in the darkness and was inmediately invited by the vicar to sit up in the choir. I was nonplussed and meekly followed him. There were only four people attending so they put them up in the choir area. I was internally freaking out though -- I'd wanted a quiet reflective experience but now I was in the brightest part of the church only yards away from the choir itself. They all came in and started singing, and I felt I had to be attentive to them as I was practically in their faces anyway. But I'd wanted anonymity and darkness to let my mind wander.

I was hemmed in by the lay reader who sat next to me so I couldn't escape. The choir was great, the vicar very nice, but then I had to do stuff like turn to face the statue of Jesus at a moment's notice and recite the Apostles' Creed. My childhood kicked in at that moment so I knew every word, but my goodness, what religious pressure.

What amazed me also is that there were 15 people in the choir singing their hearts out, a lay reader, a vicar, an assistant vicar and an organist -- so they outnumbered the actual attendees by 5-to-1.

As the service ended and the choir left, the organist kept playing and the lay reader didn't move so I couldn't even leave. The vicar took off his surplice (Mel tells me this is the right word for his vicar outfit), came into the church to pack up his sermon stuff and his little speaking platform, but still we had to sit there while the organist went on. I couldn't exactly knock an elderly lady down after all those prayers for peace and understanding and end to the world's violence, now could I?

(Oh yeah, the assistant vicar asked that St. Michael and his angels protect us from harm, etc., and there I'd been making fun of angels in my blog earlier in the week.)

Anyway, I finally got the hell out of there but I was waylaid by the very nice vicar who wanted me to come back soon, etc. I had to break it to him that someone had hacked the church's website and there was a picture of a blonde and a beach now where there used to be the church. (I'd been checking it earlier to see what time Evensong was.)

"Oh dear," he said in a vicarly way.

OMG, I'm finally home and enjoying a delicious bowl of my homemade chicken and veg soup. The cat Minnie poo'ed in her litter right in the middle of my soup eating but I got my husband to clean it up.

My chicken soup recipe is:

-real chicken stock that I made myself with a 'fryer' as we call them in the South
-a little can of cream of chicken soup
-vegs that I sweated out with butter earlier
-Lowry's seasoned salt that I brought back from US
-oregano and basil from my garden

My son refuses to eat the stuff I make unless it's something fun like the pan-fried fish and cornbread I made for lunch. Anything healthy he won't touch.

Isn't this the way you feel lately?

2008-09-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

I am sorry to hear Paul Newman is dead. Here's the summation scene from the Verdict that is very apt for the times we find ourselves in:

(I stole this idea from another website, just so you know.)

Reading traffic worse than being held hostage

2008-09-28T00:51:00.000-07:00

From our local Reading paper:

"Terry Waite spent almost five years of his life as a hostage in Beirut and narrowly escaped death on numerous occasions in Uganda but yesterday he came face to face with his fiercest adversary -- the town's traffic."

Waite, who was an envoy for the Archbishop of Canterbury when he was kidnapped, said, "The traffic here is worse than being taken hostage!"

It made me laugh to read this, especially that Waite could have such a sense of humor about something so horrible. But really the traffic in Reading is a total nightmare -- you can't get from A to B without major jams. You can't decide you need to run out for a plant for the garden or bananas without a major time investment and aggravation.

I've had friends just give up on the south of England because of all the traffic and move up North. I want to get out here when the kids are finished with school. I can't stand the gridlock.

Your bedroom gives your political views away

2008-09-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth from Detroit sent me this interesting article:

"Your office or bedroom holds telltale signs of whether you are a conservative or a liberal, finds a new study. While political conservatives tend to keep a tidy, organized office, political liberals favor colorful, more stylish but cluttered spaces.

A person may hide their political ideology from others, including from pollsters, but the researchers were delighted to learn that a peek into subjects' living quarters or even workspaces could give that away.

Conservatives and liberals leave behind distinct "behavioral residue" that can be picked up by savvy scientists and possibly other observers, according to the study by New York University psychologist John Jost and his colleagues. The results are set for publication in a forthcoming issue of the journal Political Psychology."

My cubicle at work is cluttered; so is my side of the bedroom. I like having all my junk around me to admire -- photos, old opera tickets, programs from things I've been to, etc.

Elizabeth's office is full of interesting stuff, yet very organized, bright and clean. So the jury is still out on her!

Loud perfumes are disgusting

2008-09-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't know this (below); did you?

"...loud perfumes are disgusting, yet they are fashionable in America because we like to flaunt the brands we wear. [Perfumer Christopher Brosius] explains that major cosmetic companies are aware of this, and it has long been standard practice to vary a perfume's formula to appeal to taste in the markets it's destined for: the American version will be quite bold, but the Japanese version may be even softer than the French one. "Nobody will confirm that for you," Christopher says, "but it's true"."

Read more here.

One piece of good news this week

2008-09-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

Even if our brains are shrinking for various reasons (see previous post), we can still help our bodies in one delicious way:

"A small square of dark chocolate daily protects the heart from inflammation and ubsequent heart disease, a new study of Italians suggests. Milk chocolate might not do the job.

However, this guilty pleasure has a limit.

Specifically, only 6.7 grams of chocolate per day (or 0.23 ounces) represents the ideal amount, according to results from the Moli-sani Project, one of the largest health studies ever conducted in Europe. For comparison, a standard-sized Hershey's kiss is about 4.5 grams (though they are not made of dark chocolate) and one Hershey's dark chocolate bar is about 41 grams (so a recommendation might be one of those weekly)."

When you go to France, you'll notice the French eat a small square of dark chocolate after their meals. So French of them not to cram a full bar of chocolate into their bodies, but just enough to satisfy their choc craving.

As the article above notes, milk chocolate is no good. If you are still eating milk chocolate, switch to dark -- you'll never want the milky stuff again.

Brain shrinkage

2008-09-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

We had brain draining last week from sharing a bed with your partner, and now we learn about brain shrinkage from not having enough Vitamin B12 in your diet:

"MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.

The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87.

When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.

Brain scans of more than 1,800 people found that people who downed 14 drinks or more a week had 1.6% more brain shrinkage than teetotallers. Women in their seventies were the most at risk.

Beer does less damage than wine according to a study in Alcohol and Alcoholism.

Researchers found that the hippocampus-the part of the brain that stores memories - was 10% smaller in beer drinkers than those who stuck to wine.

And being overweight or obese is linked to brain loss, Swedish researchers discovered. Scans of around 300 women found that those with brain shrink had an average body mass index of 27 And for every one point increase in their BMI the loss rose by 13 to 16%."

Biting off more than I can chew

2008-09-25T01:04:00.000-07:00

I get so enthusiastic about things in my life, and I volunteer for this and that, join groups and so on. Then when it comes to actually doing it, I find I don't have the time or energy. How come I don't think of this upfront? I have been on this planet for years so why haven't I learned to modify my behavior yet?

I joined Red Cross with my daughter a few years ago because she needed the experience to get into medical school. I took the First Aid course, then was ready to do duties, but then I discovered that duties take about 10 hours -- so you lose a whole day out of the weekend or have to stay up very late when covering a concert or play. But I still have to be at work by 8:00 each morning and my commute is 1.5 hours each day.

I ended up barely doing any duties and feeling guilty.

Then I auditioned for a big chorus in London, and found out that the rehearsals are twice a week in London (I thought they were only once a week because I read it on their website). I just love singing with this group but getting up to London after a full day at the office is killing me. I have to drive home from Farnborough to Reading, leave my car at the house, jump on a bus and then a train and then the underground to get to rehearsals. When rehearsals end, I have to run back to Paddington station so I can get the 9:45 fast train home. Then I have to be out of the house by 7:30 the next morning to get to work.

Last night I tried to get to rehearsal but I just couldn't make it. So now I see that I've over-extended myself yet again and will probably have to drop out. Will I ever learn?

Vladimir and the Young Pioneers

2008-09-25T00:51:00.000-07:00

I love little badges from the political movements of the past. I have Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter campaign pins from my youth. Elizabeth from Detroit gave me a real Lenin badge when we were in college, and I used to wear it on the lapel of my coat. When I was at New York University, I found an authentic Chairman Mao pin that the Communist party workers had to wear.

Now I've just ordered a Young Pioneers pin from Ebay that all the young Russians had to wear at school from the 1920s through to 1991. My Russian friend at work, Vladimir, was telling me all about it. Here's a pic and info:

The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union, also Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization (Russian: Всесою́зная пионе́рская организа́ция и́мени В. И. Ле́нина), was a mass youth organization of the USSR for children of age 10-15, that existed in the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991.

Vlad had to sing songs like this one. And check out the uniform that all the school children had to wear. Vlad said that necktie/scarf thing had to be ironed straight everyday!

The lyrics are sweet, but Vlad said he always thought they were too saccharine when he was growing up in St. Petersburg and had to sing this song:

Bright blue the sky.
Sun up on high—
That was the little boy's picture
He drew for you
Wrote for you, too
Just to make clear what he drew.

Chorus:
May there always be sunshine,
May there always be blue skies,
May there always be mummy,
May there always be me!

Happy Birthday Mom

2008-09-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

My mother would have been 80 today. I was planning earlier in the year to go to her nursing home in Tennessee for such an important birthday, but she died last spring.

I thought about how long it took me to get over my father's death in 1994, and I didn't even like him so I figured it would take me years to get over my mother leaving me.

But recently I decided that I don't need to get over her. She still seems to be alive in my heart and thoughts so that'll do for me. I talk to her photograph in my bedroom sometimes when I'm getting ready for work -- why do I have to get over that?

This sums up what I'm thinking:

When everything is dark, when we are surrounded by despairing voices, when we do not see any exits, then we can find salvation in a remembered love, a love which is not simply a recollection of a bygone past but of a living force which sustains us in the present. Through memory, love transcends the limits of time and offers hope at any moment of our lives. Henri Nouwen