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Tag: Something Rhymed
For me she is not dead: playwright Julia Pascal on war correspondent Martha Gellhorn
In the lead-up to Julia Pascal's new play Blueprint Medea, running at London's Finborough Theatre from 21 May to 8 June, she lets us into the secret influence of Martha Gellhorn on its most powerful scene.
Some of you might remember that Pascal reviewed our book A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Brontë, Eliot and Woolf for The Financial Times, calling it 'an exceptional act of literary espionage'. We were delighted to receive this endorsement from a writer whose stage plays we had long admired for their daring representations of female friendship.
It is a particular pleasure, therefore, to welcome Pascal to Something Rhymed.
Who has been my most important female literary friend?
Martha Gellhorn, in later life.
Martha Gellhorn.
It was 1990. I was writing a drama about the Nuremberg Trials. Someone told me Martha Gellhorn had attended them. I knew of her fame as the most important female war journalist of her time but I had no idea that she had seen the architects and perpetrators of the 'Final Solution'.
I called her, introduced myself and asked her to lunch. I don't lunch, she told me, I drink.
She invited me to her Eton Square apartment. Everything was white. The sofa, the carpet, her sleek hairstyle. She immediately harangued me about my wild curls. Can't you do something with your hair? We drank whisky. She smoked. She spoke about war, travelling, writing. And, of course, the man she hated being associated with, Ernest Hemingway. After a few meetings, she told me that Hemingway was a lousy lover. She talked about marriage as a terrible idea. Don't. You end up quarrelling about the gas bills.
Gellhorn would send me postcards in those days when letters were written and stamps were bought, and I saw her intermittently as I was conducting my own difficult love affair with a man in France. Yes, we did marry. No, we did not quarrel about the gas bills.
But in other ways I followed her lead. What did she teach me? There were forty years between us. I saw a woman who was unafraid of offending. I saw a woman in her eighties still madly in love with the craft of writing even though her sight was limited by macular degeneration. I learned from others who knew her that she was both feared and admired, and I liked her say-it-as-it-is attitude.
Julia Pascal in the early 1990s, around the time when she first met Martha Gellhorn.
In my new play Blueprint Medea, there is an unexpected female friendship. Set today, Medea, a Kurdish soldier flees imprisonment in Turkey and arrives in Heathrow on a forged passport. She works illegally as a cleaner in a gym where she meets Jason-Mohammed, the son of an Iraqi taxi-driver. They have a similar Muslim background but their cultures and philosophies are different. Medea, a Kurdish Muslim, has become politicised by the PKK. She is an atheist and a feminist. Jason believes himself to be a secular Londoner but, during the action of the play, is sucked back into conservative Middle Eastern values.
When his father forces him to marry his cousin Glauke, Jason is made to believe that Medea, as a Kurd, is the 'wrong tribe'. Euripides' play Medea kills Glauke by sending her a poisoned wedding dress. In my version, Medea deflowers Glauke and, in doing so, suggests that she is freeing her from the strictures of Islamic patriarchy. By placing her finger in Glauke's vagina is Medea committing violence or freeing Glauke from the Islamic marriage market?
Did meeting Gellhorn provoke me to write this unusual scene?
Gellhorn and I did once connect in the most visceral of ways. I was at her apartment once when I felt menstrual blood seeping through my skirt. I excused myself. But before I could finish cleaning myself up, Gellhorn was forcing me out of her bathroom. Making straight for the toilet, she fished out the tiny offending tampon. As I looked on from the hall, it struck me as extraordinary that the great war correspondent was touching the tampon that had just been inside me, that she was plunging her hand into the essence of my womb.
Her aggressive yet liberating act did not mark the end of our friendship. The last of her communiqués was Come over and tell me how your career is going.
I was busy with a production and did not reply. I did not realise this was her last postcard to me. I did not know that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was years after her death that I learned this command was her way of organising goodbyes to friends before her carefully planned suicide.
No longer would I go over to her white flat, taking with me packets of smoked salmon – there was never food in her apartment. No longer would I see her watch television and shout at the injustices of the world or hear about her snorkelling in Eilat with her brother. Until long after her death, I didn't even know that, like me, she was Jewish. Why did she never mention that?
I was brave when I met Gellhorn: her influence has made me braver. This has led to a kind of wildness in my writing of female friendships. I like to think that Gellhorn would have enjoyed Blueprint Medea and the two huge female characters I have created. I wish she were still alive to be there on the first night.
She would tell me that women don't behave that way. She was no feminist and female solidarity was not her world. And yet, because of our friendship, my impulse to write strong female characters has intensified.
For me she is not dead.
Julia Pascal is a playwright and theatre director. She was the first woman director at the National Theatre with her adaptation of Dorothy Parker's prose and poems in the Platform Performance Men Seldom Make Passes. She has been produced in the UK and internationally and is published by Oberon Books. In 2016 she completed her PhD at the University of York. She is a Research Fellow at King's College, London University. Currently she is researching a new play on a meeting between American philosopher Hannah Arendt and German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon in France 1940.
You can book tickets for Blueprint Medea via London's Finborough Theatre, where it will be running from 21 May to 8 June. We've already got our tickets, so do say hello if you spot us there.
If you too have an idea for a future Something Rhymed post, please do get in touch. You can find out more about what we are looking for here.
Categories Guest posts•Tags Blueprint Medea, Charlotte Salomon, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, Euripides, female directors, female literary friendship, female playwrights, female solidarity, female war correspondents, Finborough Theatre, Hannah Arendt, Julia Pascal, King's College, London University, Martha Gellhorn, Nuremberg Trials, Oberon Books, Something Rhymed, the National Theatre
Published on January 21, 2019 January 19, 2019 by emmaclairesweeney3 Comments
Late last year, we received an intriguing message from novelist Jennifer Montgomery, who had recently read our book A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Brontë, Eliot and Woolf and then discovered Something Rhymed.
Jennifer told us about a thesis project she'd completed at university about nineteenth and early twentieth-century books for American girls. As she researched, she told us, she kept stumbling upon literary friendships between the women who wrote these books. But since this was tangential to her thesis, she had to set these notes aside – until now.
Jean Webster. This image is in the public domain.
Few writers owe as much to their university experiences as Jean Webster. Not only is her most famous novel, Daddy-Long-Legs, set at a woman's college much like Jean's beloved alma mater Vassar, but the main character draws heavily on Jean's adventures with her best friend at university: her fellow writer Adelaide Crapsey.
Although Jean wrote stories while Adelaide focused on poetry, the two lively, rambunctious young women had much in common. When they weren't collaborating on plays – in their sophomore year, their gleefully melodramatic comedy won a college drama competition – they careened around the countryside on their bicycles, debated vociferously in favor of women's rights and socialism, and dreamed of spectacular literary careers.
But their paths diverged after they graduated in 1901. Jean swiftly met success. Her literary reputation built steadily novel by novel, until her seventh book Daddy-Long-Legs catapulted her to literary stardom in 1912. The novel, which is still in print today, is told through a series of letters written by a young woman much like Jean or Adelaide: a sprightly aspiring writer with feminist and socialist sympathies and a well-developed sense of fun.
Meanwhile, Adelaide's career stalled. Although she continued to write poetry, family troubles and then ill health made it impossible for her to give single-minded attention to her work. Finally she received a devastating diagnosis: tuberculosis.
At the time, tuberculosis was considered a poet's disease: a sign that the creative fires within were burning away the poet's physical frame. But Adelaide had wanted to be a new kind of poet, just as she and Jean were New Women: robust and hearty, precise and scientific, not at all like the stereotype of the languishing early Victorian maiden or the sickly, emotionally overwrought Romantic poet. The diagnosis flew in the face of the identity she and Jean had built together.
Adelaide Crapsey. This image is in the public domain.
Perhaps for this reason, Adelaide told neither Jean nor her family of her diagnosis. Instead, she joined in the celebrations of Jean's meteorically successful new book. Their friendship remained strong despite their different life paths: the two friends decided to spend the summer of 1913 together.
They made ice cream, stayed out late ('Adelaide and I nearly slept out-of-doors the night of the 4th,' Jean wrote exuberantly), and worked together on a play, just as they had at Vassar. But this time, rather than writing a college drama, they were transforming Jean's book for Broadway.
But the pace proved too much for Adelaide: she collapsed. Jean rushed her to the hospital, but at first she remained optimistic.'I think at last – after 4 years of silly tonics and rest & fresh air & everything else that didn't work – we are going to cure her up!' she wrote.
But soon Adelaide could no longer hide her fatal diagnosis. Jean let go of dreams of curing her friend, and focused instead on making her last months comfortable: helping her family find a sanatorium, visiting her, and trying to find publishers for her poems. She knew, as only a fellow writer could, what comfort it would give her friend to see at least some of her work in print. When she managed to place Adelaide's poem 'The Witch' in the magazine Century, Adelaide wrote to her in gratitude: 'the thinnest blade of an opening wedge is the thing that counts now, and the times are all against us'.
The times were even more against them than Adelaide knew; barely a month after Adelaide wrote that letter, Jean rushed from the production of Daddy-Long-Legs to be at Adelaide's deathbed. After Adelaide's death, Jean fulfilled her final promise to her friend: she presented Adelaide's book of poems to her parents. Adelaide had not wanted her parents to see the poems earlier because so many of them dealt with Adelaide's suffering and approaching death.
Jean hoped to find a publisher for Adelaide's poems, but within two years she too was dead: felled, like Charlotte Bronte, by complications of pregnancy. Instead, one of Adelaide's former suitors shepherded the collection into print under the simple title Verse, complete with an introduction that described Adelaide as exactly the sort of sickly romantic poet she scorned.
Despite the inappropriate introduction, critics noticed the brilliant concision of the five-line cinquain form that Adelaide had invented, which she wielded to great effect in poems such as Niagara. Her poems are still reprinted in anthologies, just as Jean's paean to their college days remains in print to this day. Despite their truncated lives, Jean and Adelaide fulfilled their most important Vassar dream: their words are still read over a century after their deaths.
By day, Jennifer Montgomery works in a library; by night, she writes novels and reads about nineteenth-century novelists.
We're looking forward to sharing more of Jennifer's research discoveries over the coming months.
Categories Jean Webster and Adelaide Crapsey•Tags A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Adelaide Crapsey, Brontë, Century, Charlotte Bronte, cinquain, Daddy-Long-Legs, Eliot and Woolf, female literary friendship, Jean Webster, Jean Webster and Adelaide Crapsey, Jennifer Montgomery, New Women, Niagara, nineteenth and early twentieth-century books for American girls, Something Rhymed, The Witch, tuberculosis, Vassar, Verse
Released today in the USA: A Secret Sisterhood: The literary friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf
In London tonight we plan to celebrate together with a glass of bubbly and a home-cooked meal. We'll be raising our glasses to the US edition of A Secret Sisterhood, which Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are publishing stateside today. And we'll also be toasting all the readers of Something Rhymed who encouraged us to write a book on female literary friendship.
It won't be long before we get to help this edition make its way into the world during our US book tour.
We'd love to meet some of you in person at the following engagements in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles:
Thursday 26 October, 6-7.30pm – Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney in conversation with Kate Bolick at NYU Bookstore, New York City
Saturday 28 October, 2-4pm – The Jane Austen Society of North America – NY Metropolitan Region and the Brontë Society American Chapter: Conversation with Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney (chaired by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore) at Shakespeare & Co, New York City
Wednesday 1 November, 6pm – A Celebration of Literary Sisterhood: Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney in conversation with Mary Volmer and Cheryl Crocker McKeon at Book Passage, San Francisco (event sponsored by the WNBA-SF, Saint Mary's College MFA in Creative Writing)
Tuesday 7 November, 7pm – Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney present and sign A Secret Sisterhood, in conversation with Elizabeth L. Silver, and joined by Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson at Vroman's Book Store, Pasadena
Wednesday 8 November, 6pm – Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney in conversation with Prof. Michelle Carriger at UCLA (event sponsored by UCLA's English Department and Friends of English)
In the meantime, we have upcoming UK events at Chawton House Library, Bloomsbury Literature Festival and Wantage Literary Festival.
We long ago promised each other that we would try our best to enjoy the process of getting published, because we knew all too well that chances to celebrate can be few and far between. Today seems a good time to reflect on A Secret Sisterhood's publicity highlights to date:
Medley of vivid narratives – The Atlantic
Midorikawa and Sweeney have committed an exceptional act of literary espionage. English literature owes them a great debt – The Financial Times
Glorious insights into female rivalry and female solidarity and the delicate balancing act required to ensure one doesn't override the other – The Herald
These forgotten friendships, from illicit and scandalous to radical and inspiring, are revelations – Kirkus
Evocative and well-researched ode to female solidarity – Publishers Weekly
Best Holiday Reads 2017 – Observer
The Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2017 – Publishers Weekly
Articles, essays, excerpts and interviews
BBC History Extra
Times Literary Supplement
And there'll be more soon in Kirkus, Lenny, LitHub, The Millions, The Paris Review, Smithsonian, and TIME.
We'll be back with another guest blog from another pair of modern-day female writer friends.
Categories Our books•Tags A Secret Sisterhood, A Secret Sisterhood: The literary friendships of Jane Austen Charlotte Brontë George Eliot and Virginia Woolf, BBC History Extra, Bloomsbury Literature Festival, Book Passage, Brontë Society American Chapter, Caeli Wolfson, Chawton House Library, Cheryl Crocker McKeon, Daily Telegraph, Elizabeth L. Silver, Emily Midorikawa, Emma Claire Sweeney, female literary friendship, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I newspaper, Irish Independent, Irish Times, Julia Fierro, Kate Bolick, Kirkus, Lenny, LitHub, Mary Volmer, Michelle Carriger, Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, NYU Bookstore, Observer, Publishers Weekly, Red Magazine, Saint Mary's College MFA in Creative Writing, Smithsonian, Something Rhymed, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, The Herald, The Jane Austen Society of North America – NY Metropolitan Region, The Millions, The Paris Review, TIME, Times Literary Supplement, UCLA English Department, UCLA Friends of English, Vroman's Book Store, Wantage Literary Festival, Women's National Book Association -San Francisco
A Foreword by Margaret Atwood
Published on December 22, 2016 December 22, 2016 by emmaclairesweeney11 Comments
When our UK publishers, Aurum Press, asked us to find a major contemporary author to write the foreword to A Secret Sisterhood, Margaret Atwood immediately sprung to mind.
Some of you may remember that Margaret kindly shared a link to Something Rhymed on social media not long after we first launched. We were particularly touched by this gesture since we know that Margaret understands the importance of female literary friendship first-hand. She is a longstanding friend of Nobel Prize-winner and fellow Canadian, Alice Munro. You might well find more details about their relationship cropping up on our site in the new year…
But how could we possibly get our request to Margaret Atwood? Ironically, given that she is a keen user of new technologies, the answer lay in the lost art of letter writing – something we wrote about in the early days of this blog. We plucked up the courage to slip the handwritten note into Margaret's hand after a public lecture, and then we waited…
The new addition of Margaret Atwood's name to the front cover tells you all you need to know for now about her response! Come June 1st, A Secret Sisterhood will be available from bookshops, our stories of female literary friendship coming after Margaret's wise and funny reflections.
As you can imagine, we are delighted by this generous example of sisterhood, and are truly humbled to be sharing our cover with her.
Categories Our books•Tags A Secret Sisterhood, Alice Munro, female literary friendship, Foreword, front cover, lost art of letter writing, Margaret Atwood, Nobel Prize, Sisterhood, Something Rhymed
KATHERINE MANSFIELD: A 'Prelude' to What?
Published on August 15, 2016 August 8, 2016 by emmaclairesweeney3 Comments
'Prelude' by Katherine Mansfield was the first short story that Virginia Woolf commissioned for Hogarth Press. We re-read it and tried to work out what Woolf might have seen in it…
Categories Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf•Tags Emily Midorikawa, Emma Claire Sweeney, female literary friendship, Hogarth Press, Katherine Mansfield, Prelude, Something Rhymed, The Aloe, Virginia Woolf
Women Take Back the Write
Published on May 28, 2016 October 21, 2016 by emmaclairesweeney1 Comment
New Zealand-born writer, John Forde, was inspired to pen his first blog post in nine months after attending two of the Something Rhymed salons. Here are his reflections on the state of gender relations in the UK's literary world, and whether men have a role in this conversation.
Is feminism dead in the UK? This month's Something Rhymed Literary Salon series re-opens a much-needed debate about women's visibility in the literary scene.
Not long after I moved to London, in the summer of 2003, my friend D'arcy and I were sitting in a park, watching some cute guys playing football. A cluster of young women watched them from the sidelines, giggling nervously behind their hands, and shifting their weight from one leg to the other so their kitten heels wouldn't get stuck in the damp grass.
"There's something wrong with this picture," D'arcy said. "If this was New Zealand, the girls would be in there playing too."
Her point was proved just a few minutes later, when their football rolled in our direction. One of the boys jogged towards us to retrieve it. He was about 18 or 19, lean and sexy, with a shaved head and grey trackie bottoms. As he came closer, D'arcy grabbed the ball and stood up to face him.
"Give it back!" he said. D'arcy said nothing but smiled at him, taunting him with the ball.
The boy flew into a rage – furrowed brow, red cheeks, skinny arms gesticulating. "It's not for you!" he bellowed, grabbing the ball out of her hands. "You're a girl!"
Though I didn't know it then, there in a nutshell was my experience of gender relations in the UK. Action and adventure is for men; women are there to watch men, and empty the slop bucket when it starts to smell.
In the years that followed, I puzzled at the meek acceptance of women's subordinate status in the culture, and tried to identify the conditions that made it possible. Part of it was the everyday tragicomedy that constitutes being English. Politeness and deference are celebrated as virtues, meaning in language is buried under layers of irony and passive-aggression, and there's a national addiction to the word "sorry". It's amusing, in a Dadaist, masochistic kind of way, but hardly conducive to having a serious dialogue about inequality.
But there was something else at play, I sensed, that felt painfully specific to women. Feminism was a dirty word. Over the years, I lost count of the number of times I read or saw or heard a woman begin a feminist critique with "I'm not a feminist but….". And it was truly, madly, deeply uncool for women to get angry, especially if it involved contradicting a man.
Where were the strong, stroppy feminists of my home country? The Kate Sheppards who got the vote in 1893 without having to resort to hunger strikes, the Jean Battens who flew solo around the world, the Katherine Mansfields who moved to London and made Virginia Woolf jealous, the Jocelyn Harrises who taught me at university, the Helen Clarks who became Prime Ministers? In Ye Oldie England, the only murmurings of feminist discontent came from nice white middle-class radio presenters with cut-glass accents, or columnists in the left-wing newspapers. Everything was so quiet and measured, carefully calibrated so as not to give offence.
As I learned, feminism – or any other social cause in the UK – would always play second fiddle to the monolith of class. How can class be avoided, in a society where the head of state is an unelected monarch (though admittedly a woman), where the ruling classes are overwhelmingly drawn from a handful of private boys' schools, and where the rest of the population gets classified by their accent or what school they went to? George Bernard Shaw was onto something in Pygmalion: the way an Englishwoman talks can be literally the difference between her being a duchess or a flower seller.
It was then that I realised how shocking and revolutionary Germaine Greer must've been when she took on the UK in the 1970s. She was the antithesis of a "nice girl": searingly intelligent, classically educated, articulate, funny, and most importantly, fearless in her opinions and unconcerned with being "difficult" or giving offence.
Towards the end of the 2000s, with the Conservatives back in power, the UK seemed in dire need of a re-inoculation of Germaine's brand of feminism: articulate, angry and persuasive. Greer still popped up occasionally in the Guardian, but she seemed strangely irrelevant and lost in her own nostalgia – twittering about new translations of Proust or criticising transsexuals with a venom that was out of sorts with contemporary sexual politics. There were a few others of her generation about: Helena Kennedy was still going strong, though since ascending to the House of Lords, she'd shifted her focus from women's justice to the wider sphere of human rights abuses.
So who was England's modern-day feminist voice? In 2011, Times columnist Caitlin Moran had a huge bestseller with her book How To Be A Woman. Moran's greatest achievement, I think, has been to rescue the word "feminist" from the trash heap, and repackage it for a post-Internet/lads' mag generation. She's a bright and entertaining writer, but to me, she's more stand-up comic than feminist commentator – always working too hard to get the laugh, and desperate to prove that she's as hard-drinking and rock 'n roll as one of the lads. Her autobiographical writing is extraordinary – How To Be A Woman has a fearless and unapologetic account of her getting an abortion – but even this seems to work against her. By continually referencing her life, Moran reminds us how exceptional she is. Like Julie Burchill before her, she was a working class girl from up North with no university qualifications, who somehow became a broadsheet journalist and author. Moran is a depressingly rare success story; she's an outlier, rather than the Everywoman she seems to want to be.
In the last few years, something has been shifting in feminist discourse, much of it centred around social media. Websites like The Everyday Sexism Project encouraged women to take note of and record daily reminders of their secondary status. The vicious trolling of academic and TV presenter Mary Beard was met with a sustained critique about misogyny in Twitter. And research sites Vida and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender In Media published hard evidence of women's under-representation in literature and film. Finally, women were getting angry again – and even talking about how their right to get angry was being slapped down by men smirking "Calm down, dear". There was still little hope in hell of Britain getting a feminist Prime Minister – I'm with Russell Brand's assessment of Margaret Thatcher breaking the glass ceiling for other women "only in the sense that all the women beneath her were blinded by falling shards" – but it was a start.
A new voice in the current wave of English feminism is Something Rhymed, a website set up by writers Emma Claire Sweeney and Emily Midorikawa to research and celebrate female literary friendships. Their efforts are soon to be turned into a book, A Secret Sisterhood, published in 2017. This month, Emma and Emily curated a three-part series of panel discussions on women's under-representation in the UK literary scene, and what can be done about it.
I've been to a fair few literary salons in my time, and walked away from most of them feeling entertained but not that challenged, forgetting most of what I'd heard by the next day. The Something Rhymed salons were a weightier, more satisfying experience – like the glorious meal Virginia Woolf describes at the start of A Room of One's Own, before she returns to the women's college for prunes and custard.
The first salon (which I confess to not attending) concentrated on the shameful under-reporting and publishing of women's voices in literature and journalism. Bolstered by statistics from Vida, the London Review of Books was singled out for a particular kicking: despite having a female editor, its record of reviewing books by women and female contributors is appallingly low. (Just a few weeks later, Jenny Diski, one of the LRB's few regular female contributors, died, leaving the magazine looking even more terminally male and white.)
In the second salon, a new panel – writers Michèle Roberts and Karen Maitland, editor Sarah LeFanu and journalist Arifa Akbar – took on the vexed subject of "women's writing". Arifa kicked off by noting that many of her female interview subjects described "women's writing" as a trap, a niche category into which female writers can be dropped into and ignored. Quoting Woolf, who said famously that "it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex", Arifa also noted that gender categories tend to be imposed from outside than from within. Women writers are called "domestic" when they write about family, she said, whereas male writers writing in the same territory (Philip Roth, Jonathan Franzen, Karl Ove Knausgård) are categorised as "state of the nation" writers.
This bias was something reported on by all the panelists. Karen added that there was still widespread kowtowing to the perceived authority of men, and an assumption that women's literary territory was "domestic" and therefore narrower in scope. Arifa agreed, arguing that many male readers (including her builder) were reluctant to read fiction written by women – even The Girl on the Train, the recent femme-penned commercial blockbuster.
Sarah gave a fascinating account of her work at the Women's Press, which was set up expressly to further the cause of the women's movement, and to create a platform in which "revolutionary women" could get published. The Women's Press was instrumental in publishing science fiction written by women – until that point considered largely a male domain. Sarah commented ruefully on the poor showing by women in Penguin's recent two-volume anthology of British short stories, edited by Philip Hensher, and called on women in the literary world to renew their political credentials.
Michèle, one of the Women's Press's most celebrated authors, couched women's inequality in a wider historical and political context. Since the days of Ancient Greece and Rome, women have been associated with the body and child-bearing, rather than intellect or public speaking. In our modern capitalist era, huge profits are made from dividing and categorising the sexes for marketing purposes. Arifa agreed, and discussed the sexual commodification of female writers, especially those from "exotic" BME backgrounds. She described a hair-raising moment from her days at the Independent, where a Ghanean author was selected for a profile solely on the strength of her youthful good looks.
Karen discussed the problems of literature being separated along gender lines, and the reluctance of the industry to move beyond binary categories. She related visiting a bookstore, in which the male store owner had organised all the books into male vs female sections. The owner told Karen proudly that he'd even researched authors with gender-free names, to ensure that sneaks like Pat Barker and J K Rowling didn't end up in the "wrong" section, thus avoiding the horror of one of his male customers accidentally buying a book written by a woman.
When asked what strategies should be put in place to combat gender stereotyping, Arifa encouraged female authors to stop anonymising themselves or trying to "trick" readers with gender-neutral names. Michèle spoke encouragingly of the power of community, and praised Something Rhymed as a good example of modern-day consciousness-raising. Sarah argued that more attention needed to be paid to female success stories, and to continue the fight for pay equity among the sexes. And Karen encouraged everyone to read and write widely, and to focus on removing gender barriers for the next generation of readers.
It was a fascinating panel, as much for the generation differences in the panellists' approach to feminism as for their individual strategies. As Sarah and Michèle spoke, I felt my shoulders drop and I exhaled with satisfaction. Here, at last, was the confidence and the unapologetic politicising that I'd been missing in over a decade. It sat in such marked contrast to the tentative, atomised discourse of whichever wave of feminism we're in now. Maybe I am just a 70s feminist at heart; I'm certainly from the generation who benefited from their efforts. And yet Arifa seemed closer to my generation's voice: cautious, questioning, alert to inconsistencies, and keen to avoid orthodoxies. Both voices seem necessary to inform a well-rounded debate.
In the third salon, Emma continued the discussion about strategies to improve gender equality in the literary world. The panel comprising novelists Jill Dawson and Louise Doughty, editor and blogger Varaidzo and literary curator Melanie Abrahams were asked to discuss how we can encourage more reading by and of female writers.
Louise spoke of the power of literary prizes, both to transform a writer's career, and to bring women's writing to wider public attention. She discussed the controversial history of the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), in which the original sponsors Mitsubishi withdrew their support after protests that the competition was biased against men. Jill noted that the prize is now one of the world's top literary prizes, a status that was unimaginable when it was first launched.
Varaidzo spoke about the absence of writing featuring female and non-white protagonists, particularly in children's and young adult fiction, and pointed to the opportunities offered by self-publishing as a means of short-circuiting the publishing world. Crowdsourcing provided an accessible way to finance literary projects, she said, and has the added commercial benefit of identifying demand for a writer's work in advance. She gave a hilarious account of attending a workshop at a major publishing house, in which well-meaning editors admitted they had no idea how to access younger and BAME audiences. While the will was there to connect, bridges needed to be built between publishers and writers from under-represented groups.
Jill agreed with Varaidzo's assessment of the major publishers, and cited the excellent work done by the Women's Press and smaller independent presses to fill in the gaps in the marketplace and promote women's work. She noted similar problems for working class writers trying to find a market, arguing that the publishing industry was still dominated by white middle-class Oxbridge graduates, usually called Lucy. She noted that many publishers and agents still followed a highbrow academic culture, favouring reviews published in the LRB or the Times Literary Supplement rather than on Goodreads. Doughty added that while publishing was now a heavily female industry, the big decisions about sales and marketing still tend to be made by (male) financiers, with an eye on corporate profit, resulting in conservative decision-making.
Melanie, the creative director of Renaissance One, described her organisation's work as literary ecology: identifying needs and potential markets, and offering support and mentoring to writers and literary organisations. She encouraged a scientific approach to combating gender inequality, identifying "points of infiltration" and shifts in power structures in the literary world, and "looking with joy" at the cosmopolitan landscape.
Jill agreed with this approach, saying that the struggle for gender equality often felt like Sisyphus pushing his rock up a mountain. Rather than a single monumental struggle, many smaller rocks can be set into motion, she said, running together to effect change across a number of sectors.
Louise praised the efforts of Birmingham writer Kit de Waal, who invested part of the royalties from her book deal into a scholarship for a student from a disadvantaged or minority background to complete an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College (where I'm currently studying). Doughty described the huge enthusiasm that the scholarship has generated from other writers, who have donated time, money and mentoring services for the scholarship winner and finalists. All it takes is one person with a great idea, she said, around whom others will gather.
The salon looked to end on a low point, as the panelists lamented, once again, the strict gender divisions between boys' and girls' books. Jill spoke of the reluctance of school teachers to teach books with female protagonists for fear of alienating male students. Varaidzo pointed out that recent changes in the secondary school English syllabus has resulted in an absence of black British female authors, and that teachers needed encouragement to teach female and non-white authors.
Louise ended with slightly cheerier news – a book group of City bankers and lawyers, who realised that they were only reading books by men, and eventually put their suited hands up and asked her to recommend a female author. Jill and Louise argued that men needed to be encouraged to read more women's writing, and that fears about boys' poor academic progress shouldn't result in only male-themed books being read in schools.
Emma concluded by saying that men needed to be included in the discussion on gender equality, and thanked the men present at the salon for coming along. For some reason, this moment stuck in my side like a thistle, nagging at me. Part of me senses that discussions about equality are best had by women talking on their own, at least to begin with, raising their own consciousness without the need to reassure or defer to men.
Image by Ashley Hall.
That said, Emma is right that discussions on gender equality can't exist forever in a female-only sphere. Sooner or later, allies need to be found within the patriarchy. As Jill and Louise pointed out in their respective salons, little boys can be as constrained by gender norms as little girls, albeit with radically different outcomes in terms of their access to power. Feminism belongs to everyone – though it wouldn't hurt men (me included) to shut up occasionally and listen, rather than being the first to offer their solutions on how best to change the world.
I'd like to offer a Great White Male Bravo! to Emma and Emily for organising a fantastic series of discussions. The energy generated in each of the sessions I attended was palpable – connections were made, business cards and email addresses enthusiastically swapped, and consciousness was raised. Perhaps timid kitten-heeled England isn't as doomed as I thought it was.
Categories Events•Tags Arifa Akbar, Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, Caitlin Moran, editor and blogger Varaidzo and literary curator Melanie Abrahams, feminism, Geena Davis Institute on Gender In Media, gender relations in the UK's literary scene, Germaine Greer, Goodreads, Helen Clark, How To Be A Woman, Is feminism dead in the UK?, Jean Batten, Jenny Diski, Jill Dawson, Jill Dawson and Louise Doughty, Jocelyn Harris, Julie Burchill, Karen Maitland, Kate Sheppard, Katherine Mansfield, Kit de Waal, London Review of Books, Louise Doughty, MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, Mary Beard, Melanie Abrahams, Michele Roberts, Penguin-Random House, Renaissance One, Sarah LeFanu, Something Rhymed, Something Rhymed Salons, The Everyday Sexism Project, The Women's Press, Times Literary Supplement, Varaidzo, Vida, Virginia Woolf
Something Rhymed Salon Series: A Summary
Published on May 20, 2016 May 20, 2016 by emmaclairesweeney2 Comments
It's been a week since the last of our first series of Something Rhymed salons, which looked at ways to increase gender parity in the literary world. So now marks a good time to reflect on the ideas we've generated during our panel discussions.
The author and books blogger, Kendra Olson, who attended all three salons, has kindly offered us her summary of the series. Over the coming days, we'll follow on from this by posting up some of the panellists' talks and some other responses by audience members. And, finally, we'll collate all the ideas we've come up with for accelerating change.
If you came along, now's your chance to voice any suggestions that you didn't get to make on the nights. And, if you weren't able to make it, do get involved in the conversation by using the comment box below.
A Summary of the Something Rhymed Salon Series by Kendra Olson
Over the last month I've been attending a series of literary salons in Central London that examine the problem of gender inequality in the literary world and attempt to come up with practical, positive solutions. The salons were run by the talented and generous Emma Claire Sweeney and Emily Midorikawa of Something Rhymed, a blog celebrating female literary friendship.
Emma and Emily brought together an impressive array of panellists for the salons, including women writers and academics, literary editors, critics, performance poets, reviewers, presenters, and the founder of a literary events company committed to diversity in the arts. Regarding the lack of male panellists (Michael Caines of the Times Literary Supplement was the only man on any of the panels), Emma said that they had tried very hard to get male panellists—they initially sought to have equal gender representation–but did not receive much interest from men. This is not to say that men did not attend the salons, because they did—indeed, it seemed to me that each salon brought more men who were intrigued and motivated by the discussion; one of them was the talented Leslie Tate, who has written up his observations on the first two salons on his blog.
The starting point for the discussions was the VIDA count, which has consistently shown a striking imbalance amongst the rates of publication and reviews of male and female writers at the major literary publications. For those who don't know, VIDA is an organisation representing women in the literary arts, which seeks to examine, publicise and address gender (and other) imbalances in the literary world.
Salon One: VIDA Count
Michael Caines spoke about unequal representation of female reviewers. Caines speculated that one of the reasons why women are poorly represented is due to editors already having a ready pool of tried and tested male journalists at their disposal. He said that we don't just need more female fiction reviewers but more female reviewers across all categories–women tend to be given the "lighter" stuff whereas men are given more serious subjects, such as politics.
BBC presenter and writer, Harriett Gilbert spoke of her experience, saying that literary editors at magazines are far more likely to be women—hers are nearly all female. However, they still tend to choose books by male writers. Her theory is that while women are happy to read books by men and immerse themselves in the male experience, the reverse is not true (this is something that several panellists commented upon over the course of the salons). She believes the problem has far deeper roots than the publishing industry, going all the way back to childhood. After all, it's easier for a girl to be a tomboy than for a boy to be the reverse. She thinks this is why JK Rowling disguised her sex when writing the Harry Potter books, so that boys could safely walk around with her books. Because of this situation, editors need to ferret out the female reviewers, and female writers should be proactive in seeking reviewing roles. However, alternatives to traditional media should also be considered as publishers are now seeking a variety of publicity models for fear that print media is on its way out.
Maggie Gee (prolific writer and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature) advised young writers to do what they're interested in and go where they wish—all writers are earning less these days. She recalled Virginia Woolf's envy of Katherine Mansfield, which Gee put down to there being so few opportunities available for women at the time thus making them direct competitors. Gee encouraged women writers to be supportive of one another. During the discussion she spoke to the value of smaller, independent publishing houses who could take risks with more interesting work.
The ever inspiring performance poet and author, Salena Godden, a friend of Maggie Gee, said she is wary of labels and that a writer must only concern themselves with bettering the work they wrote yesterday. She read from a poignant essay she wrote for the forbookssake website to promote the Women in Print campaign by Unbound. She also encouraged women writers to put themselves out there and enter competitions and submit their work without the constant expectation of being rejected.
"I believe that if we do not start publishing more women, we only pass on half of our inheritance, half of our heritage, half of the story. If we only hear from the great white shark, we miss all the other diverse voices and fish in the sea." –Salena Godden, ForBooksSake
During the discussion, the Books Editor for Mslexia, Danuta Kean, stated that we live in a society where 40% of the population is comprised of ethnic minorities, however this is not represented in literature and publishing. She said that it was up to publishing representatives to change the situation.
Salon Two: So-called Women's Issues
The second salon analysed why books about women and so-called women's issues are so often devalued by the literary establishment. Why is it that the experiences and perspectives of women are seen as less than that of men? Is this because women have, traditionally, written about the home and family whereas men, as per their historical life roles, have explored, experienced and thus written about the wider world? Why is one experience seen as valid and not the other? Is this the reason for devaluing women's literature, or are there other issues at play?
The journalist and literary critic, Arifa Akbar (formerly of The Independent) said that while the idea of women's fiction is a helpful category, it is also a trap. It means you can be pushed to the side-lines more easily. Margaret Atwood suddenly becomes women's fiction. When women read men's writing we universalise it, but the reverse doesn't happen. Conversely, the domestic novel is only domestic when a woman writes it, not when it's by Philip Roth or Karl Ove Knausgård. She said that newspaper and magazine editors need to be aware of this and give equal space to women writers—she was unsure if these editors were indeed conscious of not doing so—and that women writers have a duty to make them mindful of this.
Bestselling historical fiction author, Karen Maitland, attended an all-girls school yet the only female novelist they read was Jane Austen, and she wrote about husband-hunting! Karen said that she became interested in historical fiction because of the beguinages (the medieval cities of women). She said that at historical fiction conferences, male authors are often given more credit than female authors when it comes to what are seen as male fields (weaponry etc). She was unsure if it worked the other way around. She also related an experience she'd had in a bookstore recently where the (male) bookstore owner had actually separated all the books by the gender of the writer (even those writers who used gender neutral pseudonyms) in order to ensure (one would presume) that his male customers did not "accidentally" buy a book written by a woman! Karen wondered if the advent of ebooks might actually change men's buying habits as the book cover isn't visible.
Booker Prize shortlisted novelist, Michèle Roberts, reminded us that women invented the novel. But most of our institutions – education, the law, the media etc. – have been dominated by men. She thought that the younger generation of men was changing, but that these changes need to be carried out in a wider cultural arena for there to be changes in the literary world. She said that having a women's writing group is one of the things which has kept her going as it offers close critical reading and support.
Sarah LeFanu, former senior editor at The Women's Press and one of the three members of Michèle's writing group, said the issue of gender disparity in publishing has been depoliticised. Nowadays if you complain about it you're seen as whinging. But the issue remains as political as it ever was. As an example of this she cited last year's Penguin anthology of short stories, which featured 18 women writers and 30 men! She was concerned that women don't take up all the space that should be available to them—particularly in this day and age when publishers are so risk averse. She said good writing does not have a gender bias. She also encouraged participants to write about these issues and to talk about why the books they enjoy aren't being read and reviewed more widely.
Salon Three: Genuine Change
The final salon aimed to come up with solutions, not only in regards to gender disparity but also in regards to ethnicity, class, ability and sexuality. As one speaker put it, our literature should represent our society as a whole, and all the diversity within it.
Varaidzo, arts and culture editor at gal-dem (an online magazine produced by women of colour), said she's been quite critical about the lack of scope in the British publishing industry. But, in some ways, her own journey has been relatively easy. She attributed this to growing up during the time of the internet and being able to navigate that space and talk to the people she wanted to fairly easily. Regarding the topic of education and children's books, she noted that very few children's authors manage to transcend gender—the boys go out and do things while the girls are introspective.
Orange Prize shortlisted novelist, Jill Dawson, who has guest blogged on SomethingRhymed, said the issue is as much about sexuality, class etc. as it is about gender. She said that working class women need more literary role models (currently the women represented in mainstream publishing are mostly from the Oxbridge educated class). As a young woman, she read a lot of African-American women as their writing spoke to her in a way that, for example, Martin Amis's writing did not. What interested her was that they had a unique vernacular and voice. They too were struggling (Maya Angelou for example), and their words continued to influence Jill when she became a young, single mother. She encouraged people to think about who and what they're reading, as changing our reading habits and reading more widely is one way of changing the literary landscape.
Former Booker Prize judge and Costa Award shortlisted novelist, Louise Doughty, who has also guest blogged on Something Rhymed, spoke to the benefits of the internet age. Since publications can be crowdfunded and there is online publishing, websites etc. For example, VIDA came out of the work of one person. The opportunities for writers now are small but multiple, and while not all ventures will be successful, some will be. While publishers claim to be desperate for new voices, at the same time their (conservative minded) sales and marketing teams are at their backs. These people can only go on what is already selling and are therefore always chasing last year's successes and unwilling to take risks on new voices.
Melanie Abrahams, the founder of Renaissance One, a literary events company committed to diversity in the arts, said that while there may be a lot of noise made about a title online, that doesn't necessarily equate to a lot of sales. Traditional publishing has changed very little over the years and the internet doesn't always affect that. She claimed to know a lot of writers who are successful and don't use social media at all.
Kendra Olson
During the discussion, an audience member who is a professor at both Goldsmiths and New York University spoke about the fact that she was able to choose her own readings for her students at NYU, but at Goldsmiths she had to teach a pre-devised syllabus. The Art of the Novel course, for instance, included only one or two female authors.
The issue of prizes came up a few times during the salons. In the first salon, Michael Caines wondered if the judging committees of literary awards should be assessed for gender parity. This was an issue which Maggie Gee and Michèle Roberts spoke of as well, recounting how they'd had to argue to get female novelists shortlisted when judging major literary awards.
While I'm still relatively new to the literary scene, I found the salons enlightening, thoughtful and very accessible–a delightful surprise as they could easily have turned out to be somewhat cliquish and depressing. In fact, the organisers did such a wonderful job of creating a welcoming, friendly and supportive atmosphere that I stayed until the end—and am very glad I did as I had lots of lovely conversations afterwards.
Reflecting on my own experience, I have to admit that I've perhaps read more men than women in the past, but in the last few years this has changed dramatically. These days nearly all of the books I read are by women—not because I've made a conscious decision to read more women writers, but simply because I'm lucky enough to benefit from many female literary friendships and I'm interested in getting to know the work of these authors and the work of the writers they enjoy. This is not to say that I've stopped enjoying the work of male writers—not at all—but perhaps the circles I move in as an author with a small, independent publisher means that I'm more likely to discover the work of female authors.
What do you think? Are you a woman writer, or do you work in publishing? If so, what has your experience been? Regardless, do you have an idea for accelerating change? Please do leave a comment below.
Our friends at Naked Wines, who kindly provided the wines for our salon series, are offering a special discount even for those of you who couldn't come along in person.
Categories Events•Tags academics, accelerating change, Aria Akbar, Booker Prize, celebrating female literary friendship, critics, Danuta Kean, Emily Midorikawa, Emma Claire Sweeney, forbookssake, gal-dem, gender parity in the literary world, Genuine Change, Harriett Gilbert, Jill Dawson, Karen Maitland, Karl Ove Knausgård, Katherine Mansfield, Kendra Olson, Leslie Tate, literary editors, literary events company committed to diversity in the arts, literary prizes, Louise Doughty, Maggie Gee, Margaret Atwood, Melanie Abrahams, Michael Caines, Michele Roberts, Mslexia, Orange Prize, performance poets, Philip Roth, presenters, Renaissance One, reviewers, Royal Society of Literature, Salena Godden, Sarah LeFanu, so-called women's issues, Something Rhymed, Something Rhymed Salon Series, summary, The Independent, The Women's Press and, Times Literary Supplement, Unbound, Varaidzo, VIDA Count, Virginia Woolf, Women in Print campaign, women writers
Jane Austen's Admiration for Maria Edgeworth
Published on February 1, 2016 February 1, 2016 by emmaclairesweeney2 Comments
This month, we've really enjoyed reading and discussing The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth. Neither of us had read the Anglo-Irish writer before, but we'd long heard of her as an influence on Jane Austen. This is particularly interesting since Edgeworth held progressive views for her time, her novels exploring issues such as inter-racial relationships, feminism and same-sex desire.
'The authoress of Pride and Prejudice has been so good as to send me a new novel just published, Emma'
Jane Austen greatly admired the novels of Maria Edgeworth. Both these images are in the public domain.
Austen singled out for praise one of Edgeworth's most controversial books, Belinda, in her own novel, Northanger Abbey:
"And what are you reading, Miss –?" "Oh! it is only a novel!" replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. "It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda"; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language."
Austen so prized her fellow novelist's good opinion that in 1816 she asked her publisher to send a precious presentation copy of Emma to Edgeworth in Ireland.
You might remember that a presentation copy of Emma cropped up in our post on Austen's radical bond with the family governess and amateur playwright, Anne Sharp. Just as Sharp was the only friend whom Austen singled out to receive these rare volumes, so Edgeworth appears to have been the only professional author.
Maria Edgeworth's presentation copies of Emma, sent to her by Jane Austen. This image is used with permission from Sotheby's.
Anne Sharp's presentation copies of Emma, sent to her by Jane Austen. This image is used with permission from Bonham's.
In our recorded conversation, we talk about Edgeworth's and Sharp's wildly different responses to Austen's gift and their respective reactions to the novel itself. We also share our reasons for believing that Edgeworth's The Absentee played a crucial and illuminating role in the unlikely friendship between Austen and Sharp.
Categories Jane Austen and Anne Sharp•Tags Anglo-Irish Writer, Anne Sharp, Belinda, Emily Midorikawa, Emma, Emma Claire Sweeney, female literary friendship, Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, Northanger Abbey, presentation copy, Something Rhymed, The Absentee


The following example demonstrates how to create a grid. In this case, the grid defines three ColumnDefinition elements and four RowDefinition elements that host child content.
A Grid contains a collection of UIElement objects, which are in the Children property.
Columns and rows that are defined within a Grid can take advantage of Star sizing to distribute remaining space proportionally. When Star is selected as the height or width of a row or column, that column or row receives a weighted proportion of the remaining available space. This is in contrast to Auto, which distributes space evenly based on the size of the content that is within a column or row. This value is expressed as * or 2* when you use Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML). In the first case, the row or column would receive one times the available space, while in the second case, the row or column would receive two times the available space, and so on. By combining this technique to proportionally distribute space with a HorizontalAlignment and VerticalAlignment value of Stretch, it is possible to partition layout space by percentage of screen space. Grid is the only layout panel that can distribute space in this manner.
By default, rows and columns take up the least amount of space necessary to accommodate the largest content within any cell contained in a given row or column. For example, if a column has one cell with a long word like "hippopotamus" contained within it but all the other cells in the column have smaller words like "dog", the width of the column will be the width of the largest word (hippopotamus).
You can precisely position child elements of a Grid by using a combination of the Margin property and alignment properties.
Child elements of a Grid are drawn in the order in which they appear in markup or code. As a consequence, layered order (also known as z-order) can be achieved when elements share the same coordinates.
Grid and Table share some common functionality, but each can be applied in appropriate scenarios to better use its built-in features. Grid adds elements based on a row and column index; Table does not. The Grid element allows layering of content, where more than one element can exist within a single cell. Table does not support layering. Child elements of a Grid can be absolutely positioned relative to the upper-left corner of their "cell" boundaries. Table does not support this feature. Grid also offers more flexible resizing behavior than Table.
Grid uses the GridLength object to define the sizing characteristics of a RowDefinition or ColumnDefinition. For a definition of each unit type, see GridUnitType.
If a child element is added to a column within a Grid, and the column has its Width property set to Auto, the child will be measured without restrictions. This behavior can prevent horizontal scroll bars from displaying if a ScrollViewer is being used, as the child element is measured as unbounded. For purposes of display, the child is clipped rather than scrolled.
Initializes a new instance of Grid.
Identifies the Column attached property.
Identifies the ColumnSpan attached property.
Identifies the IsSharedSizeScope attached property.
Identifies the Row attached property.
Identifies the RowSpan attached property.
Identifies the ShowGridLines dependency property.
Gets an enumerator that can iterate the logical children of this Grid.
Gets a value that represents the total number of Visual children within this instance of Grid.
Gets or sets a value that indicates which column child content within a Grid should appear in.
Gets or sets a value that indicates the total number of columns that child content spans within a Grid.
Gets or sets a value that indicates that multiple Grid elements are sharing size information.
Gets or sets a value that indicates which row child content within a Grid should appear in.
Gets or sets a value that indicates the total number of rows that child content spans within a Grid.
Arranges the content of a Grid element.
Gets the value of the Column attached property from a given UIElement.
Gets the value of the ColumnSpan attached property from a given UIElement.
Gets the value of the IsSharedSizeScope attached property from a given UIElement.
Gets the value of the Row attached property from a given UIElement.
Gets the value of the RowSpan attached property from a given UIElement.
Gets the child Visual at the specified index position.
Measures the children of a Grid in anticipation of arranging them during the ArrangeOverride(Size) pass.
Called when the visual children of a Grid element change.
Sets the value of the Column attached property to a given UIElement.
Sets the value of the ColumnSpan attached property to a given UIElement.
Sets the value of the IsSharedSizeScope attached property to a given UIElement.
Sets the value of the Row attached property to a given UIElement.
Sets the value of the RowSpan attached property to a given UIElement.
Returns true if ColumnDefinitionCollection associated with this instance of Grid is not empty.
Returns true if RowDefinitionCollection associated with this instance of Grid is not empty.


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Notes from the trail: Back to basics on education
by Nancy Vail February 26, 2020 February 25, 2020
At a volunteer orientation late last year, I learned that an estimated one in four adults in Yellowknife is functionally illiterate. That means that 4,000 adults here cannot read this newspaper.
That they are only able to read and write at a grade four level is not a reflection on them but an education system that failed them miserably.
Last year, a consulting firm out of Winnipeg came up with the wild idea of turning Aurora College into an institution that would attract students from around the world thus turning the college into a money maker rather than the sinking ship it is. But why don't we start with the basics which emphasizes educating Northerners, which was the original intent of the college anyway.
It is no wonder that the north's rate of illiteracy is so high considering that residential schools were allowed to flourish here for so long and that most educators only come North for a year or two to gain experience. They do not put in the long term commitment necessary for people especially in the communities to help First Nations trust a system that has caused so much inter-generational trauma. There is little doubt that this can be a challenge.
When Alfred Moses called for a review of the college a couple years ago, it was strongly suggested in the early stages that more effort be put in to bolstering satellite education in the communities to enhance and increase educational opportunities there so that people would not have to give up their housing and support systems to move to larger centres where they often flounder. This support is crucial to the success of First Nations people who are still subjected to racism and isolation far worse than other students in larger centers. Study after study has shown that at the very least, First Nations students need the support of strong friendship centers if they are to succeed when away from home. And making that move could cost them their housing. This is not the answer. Satellite education, something this government suggests it will look into, is one of them.
Somehow, a new emphasis on this tool was lost in the election and cabinet shuffle and the idea of a polytechnic school was born. But that is not expected to materialize for six more years, if ever.
Six years? People need help now.
If we can provide more tutoring services during the interim both at the volunteer and government funded level, it will mean that more marginalized people will be able to fill out application forms, type out resumes and apply the reading and writing skills necessary to be gainfully employed. We also know that education does wonders for self-esteem giving people the confidence they need to work. Why aren't we doing that?
Further, with the dismal rate of adult literacy in Yellowknife where there should be an abundance of resources, it is obvious that more effort is needed to increase availability to basic education here, too.
Currently, tutoring services are available through the NWT Literacy Council, Aurora College, Native Women's Centre and Tree of Peace but the number of people they are able to help is limited as determined by staffing numbers, government funding and time required to train and work with volunteers.
As a community, we can do more. After all, money earmarked for these programs promises good returns as it helps people get jobs, thus pay income tax and relieve the stress on the social assistance programs. It's a win-win situation.
We don't always need grand schemes to improve unhealthy situations. Sometimes it just takes a little effort at the grass roots level. We always say that giving money to people who are on the streets or who do not have much is a questionable support. Providing them with more educational opportunities shows that as a community we care and as one great teacher said, teaching them how to fish allows them to take care of themselves indefinitely, and not just for one meal.
We need the GNWT to step up with increased staff funding and volunteers willing to donate an hour or two a week to tutor. A little effort can go a long way.
Tagged: #school, Education, GNWT, literacy, Nancy Vail, opinion, reading, Yellowknife, yellowknifer
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Navajo Churro Sheep
Navajo-Churros have a double-coated fleece that weighs four to six pounds. The fine, soft inner coat provides insulation, and the long, coarse outer coat protects the inner coat from dust and dirt while repelling rain and snow. The fleece is low in grease, which makes it easy to process. Navajo-Churro sheep are found in several colors, including white, silver, blue, brown, red, black, and spotted. Patterns such as badger face are common. This range of hues is valued by wool crafters and sheep breeders alike. The wool of the Navajo-Churro is primarily considered a carpet wool and it is often used for rug weaving.
America's first domestic sheep were small, rugged Churro sheep from Spain, brought by Francisco Coronado in 1540 and Don Juan de Onate in 1598. Sheep were used as a source of meat for the explorers and for the missionaries who followed and established a chain of missions throughout the region that is now Mexico and the southwestern United States. During the "Golden Age" of the southwestern sheep industry (1788–1846), master weavers from Mexico promoted their skills, and the trade in textiles and livestock was significant. In 1807, Zebulon Pike reported that a single flock of Spanish sheep could number 20,000.
Southwestern Churros went down the Chihuahua and the Santa Fe trails and eventually all the way to California. Churro sheep found their way into the hands of Native Americans who used the sheep for meat but especially came to value the wool, a wonderful new material that was quickly adopted for production of textiles. Sheep soon became the basis for subsistence and trade in Hispanic and Native American economies. During this time selection for fleece character, coupled with the natural -selection of the challenging environment of the arid Southwest, forged the Navajo-Churro breed.
In the 1860s, the Navajo-Churro sheep population was nearly destroyed as part of the United States government's efforts to subjugate the Navajo people. Churro stock was further diluted by continuing efforts to "improve" Native American flocks through introduction of other breeds. The government's attempts to control rangeland erosion led to further slaughter of -Native American flocks. By the mid-1930s, very few "purebred" Navajo-Churros remained, and they were scattered across the Southwest.
In 1977, Dr. Lyle McNeal and other conservationists began an effort to protect the breed from extinction. McNeal, an animal scientist at Utah State University, founded the Navajo Sheep Project to conserve the Navajo-Churro, especially among the traditional herders and weavers of the Southwest. The Navajo-Churro Sheep Association and registry were formed in 1986 and included the many groups of people who have historically been involved with the breed. The Navajo-Churro has benefited from this broad-based conservation effort, and registrations rose steadily from 1986 through 1997. The Navajo-Churro is still rare, but its survival now seems assured.
The Navajo-Churro sheep is a hardy breed, adapted to the adverse conditions found in hot, dry deserts and sub-zero climates. It has long legs, a narrow body, and light bones. Both ewes and rams may be polled or have two or four horns. Mature rams average 160–200 pounds and mature ewes about 100–120 pounds. The breed is noted for prolificacy. Lambs are easily born and vigorous, and the ewes are excellent mothers. The weaning rate is high, especially given the environment.
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Richard David "Rich" Putman
Obituary of Richard David Putman
Richard David Putman (Rich) died Friday, December 11, 2020, in Tucson, Arizona. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, February 8, 1951. He is survived by his wife Sandra F. Montgomery, step daughter Kim Benson (Eric), grandchildren Kyle and Alex Benson, sister Sue Ann Mahon (Alex), niece Jen Harris (Tim), nephew David Mahon (Goldie), great nieces Emma Harris and Ruby Rose Mahon, and great nephew Alexander Harris.
He was preceded in death by his parents, David Clark Putman and Margaret Jean Putman of Midland, Michigan, and Cresskill, New Jersey.
Rich spent his youth in Michigan and New Jersey and graduated from Cresskill High School, class of '69, Cresskill, NJ. He joined the US Army and received an honorable discharge after serving stateside and in Germany.
In 1984, Rich moved to Tucson, AZ, to be near his sister and her family. He loved the desert and warm winters, often saying he didn't miss shoveling snow in Michigan.
Rich had a successful career as service writer for motorcycle, automotive dealerships and an auto repair shop. He later worked in communications sales, retiring from Cox Communications, Tucson, after more than 10 years. At Cox, Rich earned awards and accommodations for outstanding service.
In retirement, Rich pursued his love of riding motorcycles as well as listening to classic rock music and accompanying it on his set of drums. He was an avid car racing and sports fan, following University of Arizona sports, as well as his favorite teams Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings. Retirement also gave Rich the time to pursue his interest and talent for building, remodeling and repair. He enjoyed working on home projects and was always ready to help neighbors, family and friends.
A life interrupted too soon, Rich will be remembered for his warm and friendly demeanor, vast interests, and open heart. He loved people and our country. He will be missed by all who knew and loved him.
A celebration of Rich's life may be planned in the future. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Habitat for Humanity, Tucson, AZ, in honor of Rich's passionate belief
that everyone should learn basic home improvement skills, to maintain the roof over their head and appreciate and conserve the environment.


Summer is winding down and autumn is right around the corner. We have six new winners in August.
Mary L. Hamilton's YA novel, See No Evil, has been won by Caryl. Woo hoo!
Maria I. Morgan's Bible Study, Outrageously Fruitful, goes to Jaclyn! Congratulations!
David Mike's memoir, Dishonor, is gifted to Second Iron. Yay!
Alice J. Wisler's historical fiction, Under the Silk Hibiscus, has been won by Lisa Worthey Smith. You go!
Eva Marie Everson's Christmas novella, God Bless Us Everyone , has found a home with bb4Him .
A big THANK YOU to all our faithful readers for taking the time to stop by and comment. It's such a simple way to win. Just leave a comment on a Wednesday or Saturday post and you're entered to win that specific book or gift card.
3 Questions Wednesday, Alice J. Wisler, Betty Thomason Owens, David Mike, Eva Marie Everson, Fiction Writing Prompts, Maria I. Morgan, Mary Hamilton, Saturday Interview, Writing Prompts & Thoughts & Ideas...Oh My!
Thank you Jenifer and Mary! Congratulations to the August winners!


text:
#pragma once

#include <map>
#include <string>

#include "Util.h"

namespace paddle {

/**
 * This class is used to keep a set of class types. It can register a
 * class by a type name and create an instance of a class by type.
 * Example:
 *   // Declare the registrar
 *   ClassRegistrar<Layer, LayerConfig> registar_;
 *
 *   // Register a class using its constructor
 *   registrar_.registerClass<ConvLayer>("conv");
 *
 *   // Register a class using a creation function
 *   registrar_.registerClass("pool", [](LayerConfig& config){
 *     return PoolLayer::create(config);
 *   });
 *
 *   // create a class instance by type name
 *   Layer* layer = registrar_.createByType("conv", config);
 */
template <class BaseClass, typename... CreateArgs>
class ClassRegistrar {
 public:
  typedef std::function<BaseClass*(CreateArgs...)> ClassCreator;

  // Register a class using a creation function.
  // The creation function's arguments are CreateArgs
  void registerClass(const std::string& type, ClassCreator creator) {
    CHECK(creatorMap_.count(type) == 0) << "Duplicated class type: " << type;
    creatorMap_[type] = creator;
  }

  // Register a class using its constructor
  // The constructor's arguments are CreateArgs
  template <class ClassType>
  void registerClass(const std::string& type) {
    registerClass(type,
                  [](CreateArgs... args) { return new ClassType(args...); });
  }

  // Create a class instance of type @type using args
  BaseClass* createByType(const std::string& type, CreateArgs... args) {
    ClassCreator creator;
    CHECK(mapGet(type, creatorMap_, &creator)) << "Unknown class type: "
                                               << type;
    return creator(args...);
  }

  template <typename T>
  inline void forEachType(T callback) {
    for (auto it = creatorMap_.begin(); it != creatorMap_.end(); ++it) {
      callback(it->first);
    }
  }

 protected:
  std::map<std::string, ClassCreator> creatorMap_;
};

}  // namespace paddle

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We are delighted to be sponsoring The Ballymaloe Good Living day on Sunday 7th February at The Ballymaloe Grainstore is all about investing in Good Health and Health Living. The Ballymaloe Good Living day will offer the chance to learn about everything from Art Therapy, universal energy arts to kite surfing. There will be nutritional advice from Rachel and Darina Allen among others and information on Dyslexia and much more. Food stalls will be catering for visitors throughout the day and there will be plenty of stalls to browse for both shopping and learning. A day of inspiring talks (all talk entry included in ticket price) on everything to do with enhancing your lifestyle both mentally and physically. The Ballymaloe Good Living day objective is that visitors leave that evening with at least one new life enhancing idea or thought to carry forward in 2016 and always.
In the afternoon of the Ballymaloe Good Living Day and to celebrate and rewards the joys of movement – Ballymaloe Relish are sponsoring a Ballymaloe Relish Lucky Run. Entry for this Lucky fun run is €15 per person and this includes entry to the Ballymaloe Good Living day. Cash prizes available and not just for the fastest runner!
Tickets available online at www.ballymaloegrainstore.com from 10am on Wednesday 13th January and is limited to 200 entries – race registration,for those lucky enough to have secured a place, will be at 2pm on Sunday 7th February in The Big Shed and the 5km (approximately) fun run will start at 3pm. We look forward to seeing ye there.


text:
← "The Odyssey" Review
"The Discovery" Review →
The Colours Blogathon: Betty Blue (1986)
Catherine at Thoughts All Sorts is hosting The Colours Blogathon, and my contribution to this amazing and colourful parade of entries is a French cult classic film from the year 1983 called "37°2 Le Matin" or simply "Betty Blue". Nominated in 1986 for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, this film of a passionate, but doomed love affair is now almost iconic. It exquisitely, stylishly and powerfully narrates and presents the love story of Zorg and Betty, initially written by Philippe Djian, the author behind "Elle" (2016). Faithful to the book, this movie is like its main heroine, Betty: undeniably beautiful, unashamedly erotic and sensual, and also a bit crazy and self-indulgent, capable of finding beauty in tragedy and charmingly rendering it through a cinematic prism. In "Betty Blue", what you may find is both an artfully erotic cinematic take on a moving love story, and an uncomfortable film filled with both familiar and unfamiliar character studies. Add to this a beautiful soundtrack by Gabriel Yared and a delightfully colourful cinematography, and you have a truly memorable film about passionate love gone awry.
Betty Blue (1986)
"Life was putting me to sleep, but for her it was the opposite. A marriage of water and fire – the perfect combination to make everything go up in smoke" (Zorg in "Betty Blue").
"Only real Love and real Hate can make you do great things" (Zorg in "Betty Blue").
Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, the theatrical version of "Betty Blue" starts with our narrator making love to Betty, a girl he met a week ago. The narrator is Zorg, a thirty year old guy, who is living in one of the beach bungalows, while having a day job of handling the repairs of another 100+ beach huts. It seems that his life followed a familiar course until he met Betty. This girl turned out to be charming, beautiful and sexually-liberated, but also too high-spirited and volatile (a femme fatale), who always seems to reach for some unattainable dream or idea somewhere beyond everyday existence. As Zorg later says about her: "what she wanted was to leave a pile of ashes behind her and hit the road like in the old good days". Despite Betty's later irrationality, she is rational enough to realise that she and Zorg are going in circles. For her, Zorg's plumbing jobs is like rolling a Sisyphus rock with no point in it – her worse fear being meaninglessness. She is not satisfied just to exist like Zorg, she…they…should shine. In that way, Betty is completely opposite of Zorg, who is a down-to-earth/laid-back guy, content with his humble living and working arrangements, and with the idea of living a simple life, enjoying simple pleasures. Zorg and Betty's attraction is powerful and soon intense love blossoms. For example, describing the extent of his infatuation with Betty, Zorg says in the book: "I thought about all the hours we had ahead of us – it was like swallowing opium".
This film's beginning is probably its best part, when the film shows the tranquil states of Zorg and Betty's souls "before the storm". The setting here: the sun, the sea, the beach, the huts, all of the colours, and the vivid personality of Betty amidst all that, is captivating, even though there are slight exaggerations in the film in comparison to the book (for example, in the book, there are only 27 huts for the pair to paint and not 500+ or so as the film implies). However, soon an unrealistic and oppressing painting job sends Zorg and Betty packing their bags for bright lights of a city. Their life in a city begins like a trial. The pair stays with Lisa, Betty's girlfriend and Eddie, Lisa's boyfriend. When they were living in a beach hut, Betty found Zorg's written manuscripts, and is determined now to make a great writer out of Zorg by typing up his handwritten books and sending them to a publisher. The duo also starts to juggle their waiting jobs at Eddie's pizzeria with their turbulent love affair, and soon again hit the road for Eddie mother's funeral, finally ending up by taking over his mother's store selling pianos. In this part of the film, the film does not really know what to do with itself, and it even becomes a bit dull to see some scenes. Understandably, the slow pace here only reflects the uneventful plot line of the book, but whether the director wanted to reinforce the image of the pair leading their hedonistic lifestyle, or drive home some Kerouac-like or existentialist theme, the audience just have too much of that reinforcement here.
The final part of this film is about Betty's escalating irrational behaviour. She has been quite a character throughout the film, mediating between childishness/optimism, and apathy/desperation. It becomes heart-breaking to see her crumble away. And, even more so for Zorg, who got used to a bit bipolar Betty with her mood swings, but also the one who shows a passion for living. It is devastating to find oneself at the top, when it no longer matters to you. The film's ending is not original, but neither is it without an impact.
How similar is the film to the book? It is a faithful adaptation, even though, at least in the theatrical version, any crimes committed by Zorg or Betty's jail time are left out. Perhaps, these things were important to show Zorg's devotion to Betty and his intense love for her. In the novel, Zorg is re-discovering life and himself through Betty, though those meditative parts are not very clear in the film. In the book, Zorg says: "Courage had nothing to do with it…[w]atching Betty sink deeper every day would make knocking over a bank – or blowing up half the world – seems like [a] child's play". Zorg's masquerading as a woman had little to do with him gaining money, he was more concerned to ensure that Betty had a laugh. Zorg's poetic metaphors and wit is all over the book: he "tries to heal third degree burns with the glass water", and also says: "it wasn't that I reduced the whole world down to Betty – it was that I just didn't care about the rest. She smiled, and my anger disappeared like a wet footprint in the burning sun."
"Betty Blue" is notoriously to be found on Roger Ebert's "Most Hated Films" list, but this in no way means that the film is actually bad. "Betty Blue" would either be totally loved or probably hated, and hated only because it has the danger to be very misunderstood. The film is shot in a European/French style, not that dissimilar in feel to what will become known later as the New French Extremity cinematic movement. In fact, it was Béatrice Dalle herself who was later cast in such a well-known New French Extremity film as "Trouble Every Day" (2001). "Betty Blue" is unflinching in its portrayal of sex and nudity, highlighting in that way the rawness and the liberating nature of Zorg and Betty's relationship. Perhaps, some of the nudity in the film was completely needless (in fact, there is too much of it, especially in the director's cut), but since the film is a quintessentially French affair gone mad, all the nakedness in the film only makes for an original viewing experience, reflects the graphic nature of the novel, and, may also pay an indirect tribute to the sexual liberation of the 1960s. Also, to emphasise the film's so-called "French-ness", the film even ridicules the police.
Béatrice Dalle is perfectly cast as Betty, embodying her through and through. This was Dalle's first ever role in a film, and she gives a great performance. Dalle did not have to go too far or stretch her own personality to portray Betty, because Dalle herself has always been known as a very vivacious woman, who not always had a very harmonious relationship with the law. Jean-Hugues Anglade ("La Reine Margot" (1994)) is also good as Zorg. A bit languid, but self-assured, Anglade fits perfectly into this romantic image of a failed writer-genius who has to make ends meet by doing lowly repairing jobs, despite his apparent talent. The simplicity/inherent fatalism of Zorg's way of thinking is emphasised in the book by him saying: "Life doesn't have much to offer outside of a few things that aren't for sale. I opened my beer and thought about Betty."
The clever cinematography and the beautiful score are probably what make this film so exquisitely wonderful and tragic. "Betty Blue" is done in a French film movement style called "cinema du look", prevalent in the 1980s. Luc Besson and Jean-Jacques Beineix are just a couple of directors who were experimenting/working with this theme. The movement stresses style over substance/narrative, and puts at the forefront any visual extravaganza. Young, generally misunderstood, personalities form part of such films. "Betty Blue" also has this content and feel, and unnatural aesthetics stand out in particular. Amids the playing of a saxophone or a piano (both of which are incorporated into the film's narrative in some way), we are confronted with intense colours, especially that of red, blue and yellow. Red is often worn by Betty to either signal her hidden distress or just to show off her passionate, sensual and headstrong nature. Likewise, there are effective images of fire present in the film, in the background of cold blue colours. Equally, half way through the film, the colour yellow appears, such as the yellow car, to signal immediate danger or just the fact that the characters need to start to pay attention (because danger is near). This nice play of colours is not incidental and may even demonstrate the film's attempt to hack into the audience's subconscious, and invoke in their minds and hearts different imagery.
The music is composed by no other than Gabriel Yared, better known for his breathtaking compositions for "The English Patient" (1996) and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999). Yared's "Betty et Zorg" and Des Orages Pour La Nuit'" compositions are particularly evocative in the film, demonstrating the loveliness and beauty of Betty and Zorg's relationship, its (sexually) liberating qualities, but also hinting at the melancholy, nostalgia and the world of mirages present in Zorg and Betty's coupling.
"Betty Blue" is an excellent adaptation of Philippe Djian's novel, even though the book still remains more compelling overall. In terms of its narrative, the film is brave, unrestrained and even poetic, even though it does drag quite a bit in the middle. In terms of the visual presentation, as every other film du look, it is a delight to watch, with bright colours, especially those of red, blue and yellow, evoking different sentiments. Moreover, with the bold and genuine performance by Dalle in the lead role, and with the melancholically beautiful musical score, the whole film can be seen as one very powerful love story, told through a medium which could only be defined as a piece of cinematic art. 9/10
Filed under Film Reviews II Tagged with 37°2 le matin, Béatrice Dalle, Betty Blue, cinema du look, Erotic Films, French Films, Gabriel Yared, Gérard Darmon, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Philippe Djian, The Colours Blogathon
16 Responses to The Colours Blogathon: Betty Blue (1986)
godtisx says:
This is one of my favorite movies on the planet! 🙂
joliesattic says:
Cool. I like new stuff.
I hope you will find something to like here!
Lloyd Marken says:
I must get around to watching this, nice review.
I just love discovering new movies…and yes, I'd heard of Betty Blue but never thought any further about it. Well, well, well…you've got me intrigued…I'm so curious now. It sounds great. On my To Watch List as of now…and it will get onto my Watched List very, very soon.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a great post for my Blogathon. Appreciated.
You are welcome, and many thanks for hosting such a great blogathon. I have already discovered many new films through reading other entries. As for "Betty Blue", I think it should just be viewed through another lens – I would say it is a European film which just wants to stress sight, hearing, emotion and character.
Sounds just wonderful…can't wait.
Just like you, I've also discovered lots of newbies…I think I knew about 3 (2 of which were mine) in total.
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MIB says:
Nice write up! I saw the extended cut which was three hours long, and I believe the first film ever in which the opening shot features a couple bonking! 😮
I have a director's cut on a DVD, but I don't think I ever watched all of it because it is so long. It is so nice it exists, though. The opening sequence is quite eye-catching, isn't it? But, apart from all the surprises, I think it shows the basis of Zorg and Betty's relationship.
Oh this is a very interesting choice!
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text:
World ASEAN
Indonesia launches anti-terrorism mobile application
The Indonesian Police launched a mobile application on January 27 to encourage people to report suspected terrorism-linked activities in their neighbourhood.
VNA Thursday, January 28, 2016 11:02
Indonesia considers new security steps
Indonesia reveals attack suspects' identities
Indonesia announces identity of one attacker
Three men arrested for Jakarta terror bombings
Indonesia: Bali could be next target of terror attack
Indonesia: Police block New Year terror plot
Indonesian police patrol at Kuta beach area in Denpasar, on the country's resort island of Bali on January 20, 2016. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesian Police launched a mobile application on January 27 to encourage people to report suspected terrorism-linked activities in their neighbourhood.
The application, called "Stop Terrorism", allows information to be directly transmitted to the police's information centre.
The application enables people to directly report terror activities or the suspected presence of terrorists in their neighbourhood, said application developer Adjie Pratama said.
Other features include emergency phone numbers, direct link to social media such as Twitter, discussion forum between users and authorised state agencies for terrorism issues.
It can be freely downloaded to smartphones from Google Playstore and Amazon Store.
Users are obliged to fill each report form with their ID number, driving licence number and cellphone number.
Indonesia witnessed a series of terror attacks in opened public area in daytime on January 14, claiming eight lives, including five terrorists, and injuring 26 others.
In 2002, explosions by terrorists killed 202 foreigners and locals in the tourist resort of Bali. A series of bombings targeting "Western objects" in Jakarta, such as the Australian Embassy, JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in 2003, 2004 and 2009, respectively, claimed the lives of dozens of foreigners and locals.-VNA
Topics: ASEAN Community
indonesia anti-terrorism mobile application Stop Terrorism report on terror activities suspected presence of terrorists Related stories Indonesia
The link between enterprises and farmers has helped form large raw material areas of stable and long-term development, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri.
Indonesia plans to ban copper exports in 2023
Indonesian president Joko Widodo said his government will soon consider halting the export of unprocessed copper ores to encourage domestic processing of raw materials in the country's industrialisation push, following a similar policy on nickel and bauxite.
Singapore's inflation remains high in 2023: Economists
Based on latest data from Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry and Industry (MTI), many economists have forecasted that the country's inflation will remain high in 2023, despite signs of reduction from global price pressures.
Thailand to build 8.8 billion USD aviation city this year
Thailand is set to begin construction on an aviation city worth 290 billion THB (8.8 billion USD) and located in its industrial east early this year, according to an official source.
Indonesia to introduce ASEAN breakthroughs on fin-tech, e-commerce
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), which is chairing the 2023 ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC), is about to introduce seven legacy breakthroughs on five priority issues during the country's ASEAN chairmanship this year.
EU-Malaysia trade to match pre-pandemic levels by year-end: EU Ambassador
The European Union (EU) is expecting trade with Malaysia to recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year, EU Ambassador to Malaysia Michalis Rokas has said.


Up at the lakes, I came upon a man gazing into the water.
My gasp sent two of them diving, leaving one looking up at us.
The gentleman in the red coat (probably irked we'd ruined the show) told us that he'd seen one of them eating a turtle.
I incorrectly 'corrected' both the hiker and my companion Bob Coooper, a bona-fide journalist (i.e. truth-dealer) that this was a 'fisher'–not a 'river otter'. I was so sure of it.
Until I got home and looked it up. Seems like fishers look quite different.
Sheesh. Well, anyway, aquatic mammals of every type are cool to spot.
See if you can find the bikers in the watercolor.
Other wildlife: Pat Reddix, riding with Charlie Kelly, and Gary Leo on his daily constitutional with Dave New Kidneyguy.
~ by jacquiephelan on January 28, 2010.


Wye Valley Volunteers offers services to people in need, resident in the communities of Bourne End, The Wooburns, Flackwell Heath and Little Marlow. Volunteers are welcomed from any area.
The services – voluntary transport scheme, home visiting, coffee and lunch clubs, shopping trips and Community Minibus – are accessed via the Community Volunteer Office. See details below.
Volunteer recruitment and support is also organised from this office.


This Sedan delivery was only one of 5266 made in 1959. Representing less than -one half of one percent- of total production for that year, this is an extremely rare survivor. It was found stored in a small garage in Omaha. Where it was drove in and sat untouched since 1989. Originally built in Oakland Ca. and purchased by the Union Pacific railroad. This delivery was originally ordered in the rare Aspen Green color with the factory bench seat.