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The Map of Love, by Ahdaf Soueif
Posted on March 26, 2019 October 6, 2020 by admin
(The Guardian')
Ahdaf Soueif has gained a strong reputation from previous novels for the delicacy with which she traces lines between East and West. In books such as 'In The Eye Of The Sun' she has placed her characters against post-colonial landscapes to illuminate both. 'The Map of Love' covers some familiar terrain, but here she meets with only limited success.
The novel traces the unfolding of two cross-cultural romances, a century apart, involving the Baroudis, a powerful, high-born Egyptian family…
Soueif's intent is to show how the "feel and smell of the past wraps itself" around present-day lives, and so Amal goes through the trunk, discovers their blood link, and the correspondences between Isabel's and Anna's encounters with the Orient grow; current Egyptian issues, of national recovery, the difficulties facing the 'fellah' peasant class, and Arab-Jewish relations, are also foreshadowed in the concerns of a century ago; while such issues continue to take their toll on individual lives and aspirations, the only fruits that endure, the novel suggests, are those of love.
Unfortunately the amplification that Soueif is seeking through these counterpoints is rarely achieved and this is largely because her concerns are not sufficently worked through the fates of her characters, particularly the present-day ones…
Baaba Maal – Africa Remix
A top evening all round was had at Senegalese crooner Baaba Maal's concert at the South Bank, London, the other day, followed by a session at this great little naija (Nigerian) shebeen of a bar, 'Emukay', on Walworth Road. (A new discovery – love those! Plus khaki – palm wine mixed with guinness – discovery number two).
The boy Baaba, his band, the dancers – smokin'. I came out on a proper high, with new flesh on old thoughts – how, in most all African music, for instance, there's no anger in the sound unlike, say, rock – but had my fire doused ever so slightly, firstly by a comment from fellow attendee Ben Okri who, I'm sure he won't mind me saying, having complimented the band for its customarily smooth, slick Francophone offering, opined that the drumming wasn't as varied and as adventurous as we might have heard from a Naija ensemble. Then my friend 'Lola, picking up on the dancers – these two women who really killed it, any number of high energy moves, the whole diaspora in there – reckonned that their style bore the scent of African-American dance school; American proteges satisfying western expectations of 'free and wild' African dances, rather than a less freaky, authentic thing. Given that the concert was inspired by the 'Africa Remix' exhibition, which is itself at least partly about showing, in Baaba's words, that Africa is not a continent apart, but one closely involved in the world, a moot point at the best of times was mooter still…
If mootness is your bag, come to the Africa '05 related events I'm putting together for the British Museum this summer (May-September). There'll be all sorts of goodies – mixed media nights (music, oral storytelling etc) + panel discussions eg 'Who gets to speak for Africa?' Great guests – check 'Forthcoming Attractions' here, or click on the British Museum's or The Booktrust's website in 'links' for further details.
In Memoriam: Saul Bellow 1915-2005 (see 'Writers I seriously rate in 'Likes' in 'about me') and Yvonne Vera (1964- 2005, just 40!). Damn, what a year it's been already for writers. That's four down (Bellow, Vera, Hunter S Thompson, Arthur Miller) who are now never gonna read my shit…
Fragments – Bombs – Ashes – Reminisce
'Fragments! Any sort of fragments.'
Novelist G. Infante Cabrera, on being asked his favourite sort of reading.
1) The grisly London connoisseurship of the 07/07 bombers: The fact that the Kings Cross-Russell Square tube bomber chose to place his device in the front carriage. Any north London-Picadilly Line veteran knows that the front carriage is where you want to be for swiftest access to most of the connecting lines at Kings X. You also want to be there if you're getting off at the next stop , Russell Square, cos that's the nearest carriage for the lifts there. In other words, that front carriage is especially packed around those stations, something the bomber no doubt took into account. Man, that's dark.
2) Isn't the Italian lawyer for the Brit-Ethiopian bomb suspect fighting extradition hot, though? A tad hotter, I would venture, than our own (estimable) Gareth Pierce, solicitor for the Brazilian De Menezes' family. Italia strikes again for the aesthetes amongst us…
3) Various shivers/ echoes during the bomb thing…On the day itself, 'cos I was about to head off to this residency I'm doing at the British Museum, and would have used either that tube or the 30 bus (also blown up) to get there. Then discovering that a cousin of mine was on a neighbouring bus to the one that blew, and that a friend of friends had been killed…So, definitely felt that 'there but for the grace of God' feeling. Not truly the shiver of death, personally, but something akin. Five times I've properly felt that shiver – three underwater (I can't swim), and twice in cars. And I've gotta tell you, if you've never felt it, that, truly, your life does flash before you. You're told it, and it's true.
4)Everything is true. (Things I've learnt #4). There's a bunch of things that you hear or you're told or you suspect, say,as a child – that committees are boring, that status/ money gets you laid etc – and, in my experience, every last thing you were told is true. Trust me, I've 'tested' all these things out and, sad to say, worse to see, the world runs on predictable lines. Urgh! Surprise me, why don't you? The wasted time… Refund, please!
5) Bombs, Identity: there's been a lot of sound and fury in the media, on the back of the fact that that the bombers and would-be bombers were British-born or raised, about Ist/ 2nd generation immigrants and loyalty to Britain, fifth columns, voluntary, 'self-inflicted' apartheid/ ghettos and blah. Some 'Guardian' calls that we should take an American approach and actively promote/ embed patriotism in newer arrivals (don't think so), and Tory bigwigs, including their leader Michael Howard, recommending that 'Multiculturalism' be killed off, and newer Britons instead be encouraged to embrace Britishness/ British values, such as 'tolerance and fair play…' (Ho hum).
So all this – how much loyalty do you need to Britain not to be a 'bad'un, essentially, and related matters – on my mind. Some thoughts:
a) (Integration #1). A recent survey finds that, though Britons generally believe that 'multiculturalism' is a good thing, they believe minorities should integrate more…. What! – Not the same Britons who, in their stints in foreign countries spend their time, drink in hand, in the expat clubs, in their little enclaves, not learning the lingo? Not those ones, surely….
NB: On the few occasions when I have been in a truly diverse, private gathering in this country (not so many actually – three hands, maybe), the host/ prime mover has always been an 'ethnic' (to use a word wrongly)
b) 'Multiculturalism should be killed off…' I'm sorry, but when was it ever alive? 'Multiculturalism' in the sense of folk of different races, religions, living around each other has been around for a while now, likewise 'multiculturalism' as a piece of approved officialese by which a body can get funding for some project and stitch its separate and unequal place in the nation's cultural fabric, but 'multiculturalism' in a more vital and useful sense, as a key driver in forging a wiser, healthier people/ society from the varied informations and perspectives of its many – well, I barely think we've started.
c) As it happens, the striking thing, as anyone who knows many young black or Asian Britons will tell you, is just how British/ Western most are. Cars, credit, consumerism and football have done their work…
For the diminishing others, this matter (though not even the key matter, I think, for the bombs – see below) remains as it has been for a while… If you do want everybody to be mainstream, to be British with a big B, well, okay, but British on what terms exactly? What are you offering me, honey? Peace, so to speak, with honour? How big is your big Britain, precisely? Truly bigger than its forbear? Truly?…
[Best media counter to the 'why can't you all be [our version of ] British? plaint: (said by an Asian Briton – didn't catch his name – on BBC World Service radio): 'Just because you're born in a barn doesn't make you a horse.' Ouch!]
The mainstream – how can I put it? The air is different. If you know other, you may feel it whiffs a bit.
d) The mainstream – Britain with a big B.
i) Education (or, Black with a big B)
When I was studying at British schools in the eighties, African children, ie children of African immigrants, were at the top of the tree academically. For a number of years, we bested every other ethnic group – whites, Asians etc. But now Africans have plummetted in the annual education statistics, so far that now we are at the bottom, jostling with some others. Now some of this will be to do with differences in the class of more recent African arrivals and their reasons for coming, but it is surely partly to do with the growing mainstream Britishness of these African-descended kids. The more that they have seen themselves simply as British and black-British, the more they have become creatures of a wider western black popular culture and a British urban schools-system, neither of which are geared to educational excellence. Sometimes, some inner resistance to how your peers or the generality wish to define you can be helpful (eg, if you're black, don't think of yourself as 'middle-class' or 'working-class/ street', both of which may involve in 'authenticity' issues, why not see youself as immigrant-class. The air there is easier. More things are allowed. And you will work hard…)
ii) Moments in the industry # 1…
…Uh, I was gonna hit you with a couple of trendy, so-called progressive Channel 4 anecdotes – pointers to where I think the big B mainstream is at now, but another time (remind me) 'cos not strictly relevant here, because I don't think the bombs were anything really to do with 'loyalty to Britain' . You don't need to love Britain to believe that killing its or anybody else's random civilians is wrong. Unless they are all psychopaths – and I don't suppose they are – the only reason I can imagine propelling people though such actions is that they believe they are serving a greater good. The battle against such people can only be won by fighting on that terrain; by challenging that notion.
That time of year – resolutions and what have you. My plan this year is the same as it's been the last five – no more Mr Nice Guy. Every morning, when I wake, I repeat those words these words to myself: 'It's a cold universe. No more Mr Nice…' etc. I find it works well initially. I can be quite a grumpy one of a morning anyway, and there is a real steeliness about me that first hour. Then is the time to make those 'more money' business calls, to send some ruth-free emails, to do the 'talk to my agent' kind of numbers. Only I don't care to spend that early energy and focus on 'admin' – I'd prefer to use it to write. And, unfortunately, by the time I've rinsed a few tunes, and read a few pages from certain favoured authors to get me into that 'joy of art' frame that I like to write in, I'm in quite a jolly way, my 'Man of Steel' quite forgotten. These are the dangerous hours – definitely not the time to answer the phone, or I'll be saying, 'Yes, Yes, Yes', sans haggle, to every last request.
Ah, so it goes. La folie des grandeurs …
One other resolution. Time to declare war, to go on the offensive against the New Health that's been running things too long. All those aggressively-smug little water carriers etc, conforming the world to their bland specifications. Urgh! Smoking, reading (which, these days, feels pretty illegal too) and one other vice I haven't decided on – that's my new dates-policy. You've gotta have at least two of the three if you're gonna tempt this one…
I've spoken/ written a bit about this 200th anniversary year elsewhere – see 'Slavery – Q and A' in the 'Articles section' for fuller thoughts and the text to a short 'testimonial speech given at the Brtitish Museum – but, for here, just a couple of things…
One, being of direct African descent whose family were not involved in the trade, either as victims or abettors, slavery was never a part of my story, and as such , I do feel that those UK black folk who are descended from the Americas should have main 'dibs' on this matter. Having said that, we are all global Africans and therefore should all have an interest in this issue, not least because its legacies continue to affect relations between us (til now, there are no direct flights, and so little economic business, between Africa and the Caribbean. A bit strange, no?)
Secondly, what a glorious opportunity this year presented for our licence-fee BBC to film SI Martin's delightful, rumbunctious novel 'Incomparable World'. This book is set in the little-known sizeable black-British London community of the 1780s, its numbers enhanced by ex-slaves from the Americas who won their freedom often by fighting for the British in the American War of Independence. You have white and black Covent Garden low-life in there, a la Hogarth, walk-on parts for famous black historical figures of that time, the Equianos and the Ignatius Sanchos, with sharp, character portraits from the time, as it were. Rather than all these white benefactor lovefests, like the Wilberforce 'Amazing Grace' (or 'Amazing Disgrace', as it's being called. I had to say no to the pre-screening of that, when I saw the cast list), here was a chance to present something about this period where black people were fully-rounded human beings, and to give some great parts to black actors. But no, the lazy, ignorant, liberals in our TV and Filmland probably haven't even heard of it.
Thirdly, I do recall that in the mid 90s there was a move, in certain UK Black circles, to try to start an 'African Remembrance Day', in which the commemoration of slavery would feature. But various people said, 'Oh, slavery's old hat. Why bring that up?' and the Day never got off the ground. But as soon as it became clear last year that Blair and the Queen were going to be involved in this whole abolition business, these same folk rushed to get in there, which leads me to my main point. It would be the biggest travesty, the most dishonouring slur, if this year has white – white charity, blacks' desire to make an impression on powerful whites – at its core rather than black. So many of us living in the West still have white people at or near the centre of our beings, our head space, something that I guess began with slavery and really needs to change if we are to regain full psychic health and ease of being. We have ease of walk, a lot of us, but not true ease of being.
To give an example of what I mean: I was appearing on a certain TV show a while back, and a prominent black personality was also on the show. At one point, the white presenter asked me, 'what does the black community think of such-and-such?' and, after trying to undermine the notion of a monolithic community, I answered the question as frankly and truthfully as I could, as I always do. After the show, this black person was angry with me for saying whatever things I'd said to a white person and a mainly white TV audience. 'You Africans, ' this person said, 'you're so naive about white people. We've been dealing with them for 500 years…' You hear this kind of talk a lot from so-called radical, but actually deeply white-minded blackheads, the same ones who are irked with me for calling this site 'the blessed monkey'. I explain elsewhere on this site why I call it that but suffice it say that I only remembered years after I first decided to 'brand' my affairs with this name that 'Monkey!' was an epithet some whites use on black folk. Now was I going to change a long-cherished idea because of what some eight year-old kid once said to me on the playground, or what some other person I probably don't respect might think? Of course not.
Ease of being, please. You should have yourself at your own centre, not even black, and certainly not white. Not least because we owe it to some others who never had the chance. It's about time.
You Tube (Forced Smoking)
'We talk about law: batty law and smoke law. How can batty be legal and smoke illegal, enh? How can man sex man an' ladyboy up there and the police dem nah interfere, but still police come an' start wit' we. What kind of state we livin' in?…'
Diran Adebayo, 'My Once Upon A Time'.
Ah, there was a time, there was a time…Back in the later nineties when I first got this thing – the internet – what a joy it seemed. In particular, the concept of the search engine. I must confess almost the first thing I did was type in the name of a certain delectable American actress – let us call her JA. In those times she was only known to us early spotters, by dint of her appearance on a couple of no-rating TV shows, and the hits for her numbered not many. I checked out the fan site and chat was thick there about the projects folk wanted to see her cast in, and how these directors didn't understand her. She was even known to visit the chatroom back then, logging in under a pseudonym and floating views in her cheeky, fetchingly post-modern way.
But then she had a couple of bootylicious breakthrough movie roles, and now everyone with an eye on such things knows about JA. Her Google count is in the zillions and what was once a tasteful connoisseurs' circle has been buried under so much 'latest hollywood-hottie' nastiness from the Leery-Come-Latelies that the originals have long fled the scene.
As with JA, so with 'Youtube'. I first came across 'Youtube' a year ago courtesy of the smoking-fetish sites (the nearer smoking has got to illegality, the more it's become a Fetish-ful area). People would post alerts, 'Great cafe scene – two Prague girls in boots and Sobranies – go to You Tube…,' and I'd be thinking, 'What is this Youtube?' So I logged on and, man, it was great. In particular I loved all these 'forced smoking' videos they had. Some evian-drinking jogger, or some weights-lifting health-club nut, would be pounced on, dragged off and forced to smoke. These vids were hilarious. But as it emerged last autumn that 'Youtube' would be being shortly taken over by 'Google', speculation grew in the, ah, Extreme Smoking community as to what this might mean for our favourite films. I opined that it would likely only be the uploaders of TV copright material that would have to watch their backs, but wiser heads were less sanguine.
And sure enough, for a number of months now, we have typed in the names of the 'Forced' auteurs, only to be greeted by that doomy red line: 'This user account is suspended'.
Why? We can only imagine one of two things. One – 'violence' to women or to men (hardly seems likely, given these vids are so clearly not 'real'). The other and, I submit, likelier possibility, is that someone high up at 'Google' is an avid, evangelical, anti-smoker.
Bizarre, because I do notice that various possibly even more controversial minority tastes remain amply catered for on 'Youtube'. From crossdresser- and tranny-action to a whole heap of rather singular man-on-man business. That's all cool , but smoking – hell, no.
Once can only sympathise with my character Hope in 'My Once Upon A Time', whose (slightly amended) words I quote above, and hope that Daily Motion, where many of said auteurs have fled, proves more simpatico.
Words, Words…
So, I had to do this UK radio show, the 'Today' programme recently – during that whole "Big Brother-Shilpa 'Race' row – and I was chuffed that day to realise another ambition. You know how you have your major ambitions – Nobel prize, world domination, blah, blah, and your minor ones – visiting every continent, sleeping with someone from every continent, and – a writer's one this – having a scholarly essay written about your work whose title has a colon in the middle ("From roots to routes: Images of journey in Diran Adebayo's 'Some Kind of Black'" … Loved that.) Well, I've a long-time nursed a couple of minor media ambitions. The first was to write for every national newspaper in the country (accomplished, bar 'The Sun' and 'The Star' and those two will be hard). The other was to be appearing on some radio or TV show, and to drop a little Latin into the mix – a subject I'd loved as a child. You're chatting about something, and out would drop a deft '…ad hominem', in would slip a sly '…sui generis' or, best of all, my father's favourite – 'mutadis mutandis'.
So the 'Today' guy calls the evening before, as is their custom, and I'm chatting to him about what I might say on this matter and very quickly, in my ruminations, I see my chance, a gift-horse opportunity… 'Yes,' I said excitedly, 'I'll do it'.
He rings off and I pick up my dictionary, to confirm the meaning and pronounciation of one 'pace'(for 'pace' it is). Being something of a traditionalist in these matters, I'm a 'hard c' man, but I did see that my glossy, new 'Encarta' dictionary was promoting the rather controversial modern trend in this dead language of a 'soft c'. I rolled this around my tongue, I tossed a coin. Okay, let's 'parchay'.
More worryingly, I could see, now that I'd refreshed myself on its meaning, that to use the word in the manner I intended ("Pace Blair's talk about Britain being a tolerant society that welcomes difference, this "Big Brother" has shown the UK to be a less benign animal…") was looking less a gifthorse and more a crowbar. And, of course, to use a poncey word wrongly would be extremely not good. Oh, I paced a while away, to 'pace' or not to 'pace'. In the end, I decided to go for it. The usage was just about okay, you don't know when the chance will present itself again, plus this year I'm all about action, about doing, rather than drafting and filing away.
So, you write down your three points that you're definitely going to make, and five others you'll say if you have time and, if you're like me – with three moody alarm clocks, and only one definitely-working but rarely-heard mobile alarm to wake you up at 6am – you don't sleep. The cab guy comes – an old Naija familiar, but a new Bentley (thanks for that! The Beeb pay you peanuts, but you do get a nice ride) and drops me and I'm pleased to see that Jim Naughtie is the presenter/ interviewer. Naughtie is a man I have seen present Opera on the box; a man, I feel, that will appreciate a little nod to the classics. My moment comes and Naughtie turns to me, and I parchayed away, and I did detect a little, happy, gleam in his eye…I Bentleyed back, took out ye olde eighties filofax, and ticked another one, finally, off the list.
All of which preamble is to say something about the joy of words. Especially poignant now as, in western black popular culture at any rate, we are in a very unvocal, unarticulating, adolescent period. There's nothing like hearing a good, rarely-heard word properly used. The good word is often as good a guide to the truth or otherwise of the speaker as any – so easy to cover emotions not truly or deeply felt in verbal banality. It's just a little bit of creativity that anyone can do. My faves are a common word used with a now rare meaning (like 'passion' for suffering), or hearing a word used in conversation that I've hitherto only seen written down. The other day, at this Arts Council board meeting, our Chair, Christopher Frayling, with a verbal felicity not shared by many knights of the realm, said, 'Look, I don't think we should get too dirigiste about this…" Ahh! A little warm something went through me and my respect for the man – already healthy given his pioneering study of my man Sergio Leone and spaghetti westerns – rose a notch. Dirigiste – I'd never heard that before.
And this is one of the reasons why slang is so great. I was having a little debate recently with some friends about the recentish importation of the phrase, 'My bad!' to mean 'Sorry', courtesy of our American friends. My friends were a bit down on this development, for a couple of reasons, me not at all. I welcome it. The phrase has the virtue of being 'right' – if English had to come up with a new phrase for 'Sorry' , it could not do more accurately than 'My bad!' One of those phrases that does exactly what it says on the tin, and a hell of a lot quicker than 'Entshuldigen Sie, bitte'. And also, as a bonus, there is a pleasant echo of 'mea culpa' in there, which brings us back, funny thing, to Latin…
Less sexy
Another couple of dismal football performances from England's 'Golden Generation' (ho-ho!) against Israel and Andorra the other week. No surprise there. In thirty-five years of avid sports-watching, bar a few games in Euro '96, I cannot think of one England football team that has looked like world-beaters/ world contenders, still less – and this goes across all team sports – an England team that is attractive to watch; that plays what Surinamese-Dutch maestro Ruud Gullit liked to call 'sexy football', the type that my club team the mighty Spurs have been famous for for over a century. Only in England could a sportsman like rugby player Jonny Wilkinson, a guy adept only in the most prosaic parts of his profession – tackling and kicking a dead ball – be accorded the status of national hero. As French rugby coach Bernard Laporte said so eloquently before the 2003 World Cup semi-final, 'No-one carries the English in their hearts'.
If you believe, as many do, that national character, national aspirations, comes through in countries' sporting teams, then the long history of Sport England tells you that this is a country where mediocrity is celebrated; one that likes, nay fetishises hard work – that Protestant mindset again – but has little regard for flair or rigour. Any fule, with a schoolboy level of physics, could tell you that the key to success in most ball games (and, indeed, in chess) is force, space and time, and the manipulation of these. But because the vast majority of English football players are so lacking in touch and passing ability, they constantly lose out on these last two. Just look at the Dutch, a country that has had to think very seriously about the best use of limited space – given that most of the country is under water – and how creatively successive generations have played (Bergkamp, Cruyff etc)
Right now, there is the usual BS in the newspapers about the English Premier League being the best in the world, on account of three English sides making the semi-finals of the Champions League. Don't make me laugh. It wouldn't surprise me if the Faroe Islands – population, 10 – had a higher general quality than the Premier League. What England has are five good club teams, and most of these stuffed with foreigners – Spurs, Arsenal (the blackest Euro club team since Ajax' great mid 90s team), Man U, Liverpool and that little Fulham-offshoot who I can't stand who think they're a big club but can only muster about a thousand supporters for away games. The other fifteen are mediocre or worse. They just hoof the ball about. The League is popular because it's exciting; there are lots of goal chances because neither side can keep posession for longer than thirty seconds. That, plus the fact that there's untold money in the game here which means big glamorous 'stars'. In terms of money against real quality, the Premier League, along with the art market, are the two biggest scams in the world.
For any aesthete, anyone sensitive to the potential beauty of a sport, watching England play anything is an excruciating experience.There are only three things that can save Sport England. One, improve the education system. Intelligence helps in everything (just compare, say, Scottish football players to English players in a post-match interview, never mind the continentals, and you'll know what I'm talking about). Two, stuff the England sides with recently-arrived immigrants (where would the English cricket team be now without Kevin 'too many blacks in South Africa' Pietersen?). The third is a proper cultural Reformation.
In the meantime, let us pray for the Windies in the World Cup cricket. Arh! – too late already.
'What, dost thou think because thou art virtuous there should be no more cakes and ale?'Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Two things have left me flabbergasted this century. The first was the invasion of the diminishing 'threat' that was Iraq. The second, right now, is this ban on smoking announced by the UK government last year, and due to come in force this July. As of then, you will not be able to smoke in any bar, public place, or even private club in England.
I am so agitated, so dispirited about this thing, this mean-spirited, philosophically-stinky piece of social engineering, this outrageous step for a 'free' society, I can barely keep it together to write. I've started and stopped this enough times already. So saddened too by the fact that this piss-poor government will get away with it – there is enough social approval, and, vitally, middle-class social approval, for this move. I predict a non-riot. Confirmed that today when I quizzed a group of university creative writing students about it – couldn't believe – well, I could – the amount of support for it, and seeming indifference to/ ignorance of its wider implications If the more open-minded of the younger generation can't see it, hunh, the game is truly up.
I tell you, this is a dealbreaker, a country-leaver. But where to, the growing problem, where to? Fuck me, the twenty-first century.
I blame the Protestants, number one. I detect their dark hand all over this. Four centuries ago we kicked out the most pleasure-hating section of that pleasure-doubting crew, the Puritans, packed them off to found (pretty much) white northern America, where they banned drums and music-making among their slaves, then liquor, for everybody, and currently ensure that Americans get a mere two weeks holiday a year. But all the while, another strain of them was growing in England – the Puritan-influenced Methodists. They were partly behind the founding of the British Labour party in the late nineteenth century, and the Temperance and missionary movements of those years. These cats liked nothing better than going to visit their 'lowers' – be it the British working-classes or the darker races, and saying: 'You shouldn't be believing/ drinking that, you've got to believe / drink this…'. I know – my Mum's family were converted Methodists. Both Blair and Bush big Protestants. Urgh! – give me a Catholic, at least.
Let no one doubt that this law is a piece of arrant moral condescension. The powers have their notion of what a 'good', well-lived life is, and they have decided to force their notion on other people by punishing those who don't agree with them, thus trampling on a principle that has been enshrined in liberal societies since JS Mill's time: namely, that adults are allowed to risk harm to themselves should they consent to it (hence contact sport etc) It would have been perfectly possible, of course for the powers to allow a compromise system that was largely non-smoking, but where certain bars or sections that catered to the still-sizeable minority that puff was permitted. You would have found plenty of bar staff – smokers and non-carers – happy to work there, perhaps for a little extra, and plenty of their employers delighted to pay that extra. We've sent men to the moon, devised the internet, we know about ventilation, I think it would have been possible, no? The fact that they haven't allowed this tells you all you need to know about the self-righteousness, the intolerance, and the lack of empathy of these people.
Most folk do jobs that they don't want to do, that isn't their 'dream', for fifty years; they pay their taxes, they don't have much money, then they die. If some of these want to unwind after a dreamless day, in a bar, with a drink and a smoke, amongst consenting adults, away from home where the stress often is, or the debts are, or the potentially passively-affected children, God forbid, if some of these want to unwind in their long-legitimate way, then allow it, for God's sake, allow it. What is your problem? Is there some new law that's come in that says that everyone has to live every last minute of life that they possibly can? (There probably is, actually. I am reliably informed that this government has brought in 3,000 new offences into the statute book. Not including this new law that's coming whereby children with some family history of criminal behaviour can have some 'preemptive' order slapped on them aged 11. Soon, you're gonna be banned before you've even begun…It just seems that all we're allowed to do these days is to buy credit and buy houses. Anyone with some other aspiration is made to feel like a c**t.)
Look, most people do want to live as long as possible. So the fact that they're prepared to jeapordize the fulfilment of that wish long after the age of cool by persisting in this expensive, dangerous habit tells you they are deriving some serious benefits from it. People are'nt stupid. In my case – yes I do smoke, mildly, but I promise you my line on this matter wouldn't deviate whether I did or not – I use smoking mainly as an aid in my work, as do many in adrenalin-related activities. At certain points in my writing day, smoking seems to help my thinking. There are, as Sherlock Holmes once noted, three-pipe problems.. Clearly something psychological plus, no doubt, oral going on too, but, hey, it's worked for me, better than gum or lollipops, for twenty-five years. I have to weigh up the (mathematically not-high) probability of cancer or heart disease down the road against the certainty of my present work – the rhythm and way of it – being affected should I quit. It's a no-brainer. As part of that rhythm, I sometimes feel the need to change my location, go for a walk, chew over some thoughts, and 'exit' said thoughts in a quiet, warm-enough cafe or bar, over a smoke. But now part of that innocuous little range of options is denied me, anywhere.
Just because you can't X-Ray stress-relief or work benefits or pleasure like you can a malignant lung doesn't make them any less true. But at one stroke this law has killed off the concept of both a a good work-out and a good night out – be it a casino, a cognac, and a fat Cuban between the lips – my preferred, or whatever's your fancy – for millions of people. Cheers.
Can people not see how excessive this seems, when it could have been worked out?
Okay, enough with the ugly part of this post. No bother even going into the stack of legal philosophers who would point to you why this is an ill law (and Blair read Law at the same place I did. He should know), or how this is yet another coup for the New Health (see posts passim), and has a lot to do with this growing culture of offence, and entitlement (folk feeling that their sense of offence should be the motor, the source from which everything else should flow). Let me finish with this final jab: have you noticed just how many people there are who never had the balls to live their own dream – went for the job in accountancy, and the mortgage and the security – but are still insistent that everyone else must live every last minute that they possibly can? As someone once said, life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but rather by the moments that take your breath away.
So, what to do? Number one, we have to do what we can to ensure that it all stops here. No further (the powers are clearly already preparing the way to outlaw smoking outright within a generation). Two, we must lobby, we must agitate, we must vote with the only language they care for, our wallets, and boycott these new bar rules ( an informed friend of mine, recently returned from business in new, smoke-free Ireland, tells me that Guinness are already bemoaning their losses). Most crucially, we must organise – indeed a bunch of us already are. Details currently sketchy, but anyone like-minded is urged to get in touch. We are ruling nothing out (well, some things, obviously). For starters, I'm making a general request for anyone with any smoking-related trivia – great screen smoking moments, forty-a-day footballers – to send me the info. It has been mooted that, in these role model-minded times – unh!, don't get me started on that bull – we set up a 'Smoking Awards that, in time, may rival, the Oscars or Baftas in profile and prestige. I'll kick things off with a few nominations: click here for the Smoking Awards.
Some thoughts on Barack, the African in him, and 'Post-black'
Oh Barack. Dear, dear Barack. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
Number one, you're a smoker! It seemed barely credible, in these days of the New Health and with that practice now barely legal, that one of ours could regain the world's most powerful office. You, in your twenty-two month great adventure, have proved yourself the most inspiring cigs-man since football's Johann Cruyff. I thought of you as a pair of young women from my local estate accosted me by the newsagent's last weekend and asked me to do them a favour. 'Puff on these," I eased my conscience, as I handed over the goods, "and you may become Barack one day."
Smoking is not important, but I read it as a sign, along with the other evidence – your one time dabblings with drugs, your lingering relationships with radical former tutors, your poker-playing, your liking of hip-hop and that clever, nuanced TV show 'The Wire', that you are, basically, a hip, 'down', college boy, a type that many millions around the globe get and have no problem with. You're at the slightly naughtier end of that set, to be sure – you are, in Jimi Hendrix's phrase 'experienced', but that, as regards your role-model prospects, is even better. For too long, the minority-thick, poorer communities of this hemisphere have been swayed by the entertainers, by the street-educators of Rap's capitalist classes, by the streets of many of their lives; now there is blatantly another way, also achievable, also solvent, also cool enough. You, your college-professor self and your equally-qualified, wife, buttressed no doubt by the added authenticity that a country with a long-time sizeable black middle-class furnishes you, and that the rest of us in the west can only envy, have dramatically raised the relevance and the leadership-potential for us black intellectuals, black 'elites'. Now, both street and scholar have one excuse less.
I like you too because, though I've had many issues with your party down the years (not least with the one you're most often compared to, John F-didn't have the-balls-to-invite friend Sammy Davis Jnr to his inauguration-Kennedy), as I have with your nearest equivalents on our side of the pond, I've always rather it was your lot than the others. I fancy I'll welcome your foreign policy more than I did the Iraq-bombing Bush, indeed more than I did the last Democratic incumbent, the Somalia-bombing,Rwanda-avoiding Clinton. There seems to be a hope, as you'lll know, in some parts of the world that you will be somehow President-for Africa, President-for-the-south: I do not expect that – you have to be America's President and act in its interests, but I do expect more, because you are, as I say, experienced.
Experience, inexperience. Funny things …Some years ago, at one of our big literary festivals, Hay-on-Wye, I had the pleasure of meeting one of your literary 'greats', the late New Yorker Norman Mailer. Across a crowded 'Green Room', our eyes met, as they will when one is the author of 'The White Negro' and the other is the only black in the house. So, we spoke and although, I'm embarassed again to say I don't recall so much of it – Suzanne Vega wafted across and I quite wanted her autograph – we did chat about New York and I remember leaving with the distinct impresion that I – for all his New York talk down all these years – may have seen more of that city than he because I had seen all his bits – the Village, the upper East side, but he had seen little of some of mine – the Flatbush Avenues, the Fort Greenes, the Bed-Stuys. That black is so often discussed as if it's 'less' when in fact, especially, I guess, at the elite end, it tends to be more.
You have that moreness in spades, and that counts for so much in a country as insular and as ethnically segregated as your own. With Hawaii, Indonesia, black and white America and, crucially, Africa, you have a fair chunk of the world in you. The Africa is key because it is likely to give you, in the many racially-accented matters you will face, a difference in spirit.
We Africans seem to have a milder take on these things. Hard to say why it might be, except the fact that our relationship with European masters was much briefer than the hundreds of years for which black peoples were subjugated in the Americas, during slavery, the plantations, and after. Our cultural practices were less disrupted, our mass entry to the West more recent, less traumatised on the whole. I'm sure you've noticed that subtle but clear difference between say, an African-American gathering and an Africans-in-America one, as I have between a British Caribbean- gathering and a Brit-African- one; between, dare I say it, you and your African-American wife whose still burning upset was apparent when she said that now, for the first time in her adult life, she was proud of her country. There is a deeper ease of spirit amongst Africans of direct descent. I've increasingly suspected that it would take an African or a biracial person, these who could to some degree stand outside the heavy history of the Americas, to see beyond, and make white America relax sufficiently for the game-changing breakthrough. And it does fit so sweetly; the African returning to America, but this time not in a slave hold; now the captain of the ship.
That you have 'got beyond' is a tribute to your vision and to what I really, really like about you. that you are the first person to execute a near-perfect 'post-black' campaign and, in so doing, solve the disconnect that has long plagued minorities and the coalitions they have forged in the west.
Here is the problem: whites, as your campaign has proved beyond doubt, don't like race, but we do. They don't fully 'get' race, and this is particularly true in countries like mine which, unlike yours, was not founded on race. Many western whites do not even see themselves most of the time as being part of a 'race', their race being the norm. For them, race is something that happens to other people and when it does, it is something they feel embarassed or threatened by or defensive about or uncomfortable with, or wary of or weary of or impatient with, and this is just as true among the progressive whites with whom we have done most of our dealings. The left love racism, my God, how they love racism – the great proportion of black stories that get attention or get commissioned are to do with or reduced to racism, the one black story they can examine themselves in – but they don't truly respect race; they see it, the stuff that still has to be done because of it, as second-rate, parochial, temporary, something that all bright, right-minded people surely wish to get beyond, so we can all be happy, hanging together and having children who look a bit like you. Blame it on a commitment, to the universality of man, I guess, plus their tendancy, in concert with certain one-note blacks, to always problematize race, but for most black people, race is only a problem when it's racism. The rest of the time, race and what goes with it is fine. It's is normal, they understand, for human beings to bond and racial-cultural bonding, is one of the ways, in which we do it. Race, for minorities, is mainly about resources. Race is what has allowed a bunch of newly arrived, mainly illegal Nigerian and Congolese immigrants to find haven and a job at my north London barbers, One of them would have had a cousin who worked there, and so he comes first cap in hand, and soon the word spreads to his countrymen and then to fellow Africans. Race and culture what accounts for that shared-secret smile at that black party, a hundred strong , when some rare groove tune comes on that their parents had and that didn't make the charts Race is what has made 90+ percent of African-Americans who turned out Tuesday vote for you. Race is true.
In our post-Civil Rights, post-Windrush period, when racism can no longer be relied upon to be the ring to bind us all, this disconnect is now impacting in-house. We have the emergence of our own black middle-class, still a relative sprinkle, but many of them feel they're doing perfectly well thank you, and race-as-problem has proved no hindrance in their careers; who feel that racial calls are the refuge of the weaker ones, though race may have fasttracked them, as it may have you. Or some like me who, in various journeys through lands like yours and mine, hasn't seen the amount of racism he might have expected to if certain stories were true, and so was not surprised at the scale of your victory yesterday; who has seen, if anything, racial suspicion, usually diffused when people meet and discover other matters to connect through. Still others who are blacks-in-Britain but not part of a black community they perceive as being too race-minded. And running beneath, the coming thing, certainly in our neck of the woods – a nineties/ noughties generation, less ideological, more materially-driven, more 'post-racial' in aspiration. One more inclined to believe they can have it all in a Leona Lewis-X-Factor, Olympics, inclusive Britain kind of way, just as this big Britain has begun to turn the screws on what it expects from its newer arrivals. Witness the numerous attacks we've been having these last few years, stepped up since our 07/ 07, from central government, from Trevor Phillips at the Equalities and Human Rights Commmision, to this year's UK Defence Report, on the dangers and failures of multiculturalism, on the need for a revitalised, more enforced sense of Britishness. It is seductive, this velvet-glove-in- toughish-fist offer, not least because the alternative – our established, Civil-Rights-filtered black British-approach, despite certain hype to the contrary, still seems a thing that is failing too many; the many black youth underachieving at school, the many black actors and directors still getting rusty on British film sets (not). The answer, the likeliest route though all these camps, all with their claims to legitimacy, could only be 'Post-Black': in my Britain-oriented conception (because Britain seemed most where it was needed), an acknowledgement that the race-centric methods and philosophy we've employed for doing black culture since the Windrush have had their time, and the search for more viable alternatives and strategies that still have a progressive, pro-black agenda.
I have been talking up 'Post-black' for a while now, and I have to say nothing I've ever broached over many years of public fora raises the hackles of black audiences quicker. It's because they assume I mean 'post-racial', some neutered, 'sellout' thing (proof, if any were needed that, notwithstanding our own youth-tendancies, the 'post-racial' lens through which white commentators have seen you has been largely yet another race matter in which whites are interrogating their own hopes and fears). But it's not post-racial or even post-black really, I explain, just post-this black, this present way of doing things. Our new approach has to be more layered, has to speak to people who want to hear different things. Layered in the way that yours was a campaign of majority-targetted words, and quieter signs.
No, not post-racial, not just a one-stop-shop. Better, newer than that – that much has been clear by the choices you've made, the church you attended (and which person of colour did not know someone, after 9-11, who said, like Reverend Wright, that these were America's chickens coming home to roost?), and that wonderful speech on race you then had need to give. You're more this sweeping line in the sand. A hundred years ago, your African-American forbear WEB Du Bois said that the problem of race, 'the colour line', would define the 20th century. The 21st century's equivalent, for black westerners at least, will be the line dividing those who are race-centric and those who aren't.
This Post-Black era, now you've finally got it up and running, will bring richer dividends, wider reach, without doubt, to black artists, entrepreneurs and politicians alike, certainly on our less-race battered, and less black-populated side of the pond. It will mean some re-focus of energies, a change in some of the debates we get engaged in. If Britain is more averse now to a certain kind of black identity, to fleshen out just one possibility, then why not put ourselves at the forefront of the citizenship debates that are currently of so much import to old and new Europe? After all, us black Britons, with our newer, particular take on citizenship, should have much to offer here that's useful to new others, or old ones remaking themselves.. I feel a film coming on: a Pole , a black Briton and a Romany, a wry , hunam comedy; funds from the big paymaster that is the European Union… New coalitions, new self-identifications.
Any winning idea to win through must have both economic and charismatic or 'dignity' appeal. You with your charisma, the reasonableness that shines through you, and, darn it, all that power, are the poster-boy we've been looking for.
I put a bet on you, Barack, a while back at the start of your grand adventure, at lovely long odds, to do the Double – the Democratic nomination then the presidency. I only collected, you see, if both came through. So what can I say, bro? You've not only done this mighty thing you've done, you've solved a quiet, little, credit crunch too!
Luv ya,
Diran.
(c) Diran Adebayo 2008
* Diran's short story, 'P is for Post-black' is in the collection, 'Underwords: The Hidden City' (Maia Press).


Adler Mark G DDS can be found at Northfield Rd 10512. The following is offered: Doctors & Clinics. The entry is present with us since Sep 9, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 14, 2013. In Northfield there are 12 other Doctors & Clinics. An overview can be found here.


…a stone chamber which reminded me of my old neighbors. Of course, that was a long time ago now, but would you believe their descendants are still telling stories about me and my family to their children?
Even if most of the stories are lies and exaggerations, it is immortality of a sort.
As I passed in front of an open doorway a figure, crossing the hall outside, saw me and immediately ran off.
"Who was that?" they asked.
"You probably scared him," I said, and they apparently believed me.
bells. An idea that a relative 100 generations distant may find one and in holding it, in nearly the same condition as it was the day it was made, wonder who and why it was made and in doing so; keeps the spirit of the maker immortal. A bit dramatic I know but special none the less.
Forgive me is this has already been touched upon, but "Orson" is just too weird to not be part of a word puzzle. I notice that "Orson Parchment" is almost an anagram for "Christopher Manson." If you add "his" and assume that "His Orson Parchment" is a thing, then gets you all the letters in "Christopher Manson." Wasn't there talk of the author using anagrams of his name throughout?
I really don't see what else that machine can be than a reference to the Brazen Head, which moves the story along by telling Valentine that he and Orson are brothers. It also tells him that they are the sons of the Emperor, and where their mother is. In some versions it tells him to cut the thing under Orson's tongue so he can finally speak.
Anyway, the point is, there's a machine in the room, which could be made of brass, and I see a pretty good face on it in the bottom right, which is looking towards the correct door. If it's a good little oracular automaton, we can assume it's telling the truth and we should follow where it's looking. We can also see its function in the story as a contrived plot DEVICE — deus ex MACHINA type thing — that moves things along in a magical/unlikely way. I guess the fact that its little receiving bucket is touching the fool and it is looking at the crown highlights its function in advancing the plot.
I don't know what else to do with this thing! Chip some wood?! Ticker some tape?
Besides the odious casualness with which Orson hands over his family, the thing to note here is that a span of seven years appears twice at the end of the story, both times associated with ruling (the crown). I've found these two sevens in several retellings of the story. If the crown in the room represents Orson's rule, and if the rule is seven years long, that's a pretty decent door indicator.
Our friend Phyllis adds: "The length Valentine and Orson reign — seven years — is significant because it corresponds to the time span for ritual killings of Wild Man priests, and later kings, in France." Not sure if this last bit has anything to do with anything, but what were they doing to these poor people for seven years?
They both DIED after seven years! Do you see what I meant in 39 about how these things mean whatever you want them to? This is NOT a decent door indicator, even assuming that MAZE was presciently designed as a google scavenger hunt, because, using Room 39 logic, the negative association with 7 makes this the door to avoid, whereas value-neutral reference hunting tells you this is the door to take.
There's additionally the issue, when seeking out tangential references, that certain numbers are simply going to occur much more frequently and prominently in history/literature/folklore/whatever than others. If the number 741 were of peculiar relevance to Valentine and Orson, and that number appeared in this room, that would seem undeniably significant. But finding a single-digit number somewhere among the myriad recountings of the involved stories of Valentine and Orson is not a revelation.
1. They didn't both die after seven years. At the culmination of the story, Orson rules for seven years and then leaves. (He leaves his crown behind, just like the crown in this room has been left behind.) In the room there's a door with a crown, a picture of Orson, and a seven on the door.
2. The "seven years of rule" thing is in multiple different versions of the story. It is (I think) the only number of significance in the story.
3. I agree that this is obscure. But if Manson wanted to put in an obscure reference like this, it makes sense that he would do it in this room, where it doesn't really matter much which door you take.
4. In 39, we now have two numbers in the story corresponding to the two wrong doors that occur at the horrific climax of the story. This seems pretty clear as a "rule these doors out" thing and highly unlikely to be coincidental!
#1′s a fair point. It's still nothing that suggests 7 is the right room here, but my criticism was factually incorrect. It still has sufficient negative connotations that there would be no difficulty in using the same interpretation to indicate 7 is the wrong room if that's what we wanted to do.
I'm not going to scour the various versions of the histories of Valentine and Orson looking for other single-digit numbers, but I'm willing to wager that some can be found.
To be fair, it's a reasonable connection to be interested in, beyond the credit I gave it when I was noting that single digit numbers are easy to find references to. This is more than Orson — 7. It's Orson — crown — 7.
I found a version of Orson and Valentine which was searchable as a text. I searched for every number 1 to 1000. Which sounds more time consuming than it was, it is only 32 searches (one, two, three, eleven, twelve, thirteen, twenty, thirty, hundred, thousand). Fortunately Orson and Valentine is spare on numbers in general.
Apart from some really common uses of the numbers one, two, three, and four, most of the uses of numbers are the size of troops or groups of ships (ie. four thousand ships). The only other number besides the 7 years that stands out as potentially symbolically significant or relatively memorable is the "Nine Peers of France." The significance of the this group of heroic knights does not begin with Orson and Valentine, it was a well known name, more like "the four corners of the Earth" in this respect. If I was asked what is the most literary significant and memorable number in Orson and Valentine I would say the 7 years.
The crown does lay on the steps to door 7 but it seems too much of a stretch to tie this to the seven years without some other indication that we are supposed to be looking for years.
I take this as a potential solution, if we find some tie to years in this room I'd say we have a winner.
I absolutely do not buy that this room is a bunch of metaphorical representations of the story of Valentine and Orson, for a variety of reasons I've either already stated or that it wouldn't be difficult to surmise, but if you DO believe that, I don't know how you write off the 7 there. Orson, a crown, and 7, as a representation of Orson's seven-year reign, is implausible because there's no indicator of "year"? Good god, man, look at how much you're willing to read into a giant-size marotte on the other side of the room. It seems like a pretty arbitrary moment to demand exhaustive correlation.
In an only-makes-any-sense-after-the-fact kind of way, it's interesting how the room itself in a vague way resembles a crown. Uh, that is, it's round, open at the top, its doors somewhat resemble spikes…it's technically open at the bottom too, but that might be carrying things a bit too far, and those things are already a bit resistant to carrying.
No, because it doesn't give you the correct door there.
Well… what does that say about the reliability of this observation, then, HMMMMM?
But you know, it's kind of interesting that all the doors in the 33/7/16/36 dead end have pointy tops.
Anyway, I was going to say that the doors in 33/7/36/16 dead end are the ONLY ones in Maze with pointy tops, I THINK, except for the one in Room 17 that LEADS to room 33.
I don't know if this is just pleasant symmetry inserted by Manson or what. But it seems intentional. Going to go post this on Room Interconnectivity.
I was joking by saying you couldn't make the same observation in 33 because it gives the wrong answer, but it is true that the room isn't round, and I'm not sure it's open-topped. I guess it's not clear that 16 is either; it looks like the light is coming through an open roof, but light sources swing a little freely in the Maze.
The pot has holes in the top to let air in so that whatever is inside can breathe so that the pot is a symbol for life. When yo think about it is really the only truly generic symbol for life that isn't medical like DNA.
On the opposite side is the machine. Life vs machine. Orson is alive and covered in vines. The stick guy is just a puppet.
We go with the life door cause life is good?
The machine is vaguely the shape of an armored knight on horseback, bearing a lance.
What, you don't see it? YOU DON'T SEE IT? WHAT ARE YOU, CRAZY?
Don Quixote + Sanchorson Panza?
Please be serious. Don't waste our time with nonsense.
I thought you were my boy!
Speaking of your boy, we need some Kon Tiki action in season 2. TEEEEEEK, TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
No the trap door opens toward the correct door.
Hi WR! I think this page needs an update on its summary and on the "by completion" page — it is now "partially solved," right?
I keep thinking of stuff that the jar could be in O and V there was a lot of traps and betrayals but the jar is next to the right door. While I am reading through this stuff, anybody got an idea what this could represent that is good?
One more thing to support this solution: the text twice mentions "stories," signalling that we should be looking for a story-type solution.
I have become rather fond of my machine = brazen head theory, and I found a face in the machine to support it: it's in the bottom right quarter of the machine — two eyes, a big round nose (with chain attached) and a smiling shadow mouth. You put the question in the little box and the face answers you.
More on the brazen head/brass head. It's important to the story (in the version I read) because it's through the brass head that Orson and Valentine learn that they are brothers.
SOOOOO…. look at that trap door. Could it be a tongue with the prop representing the tongue-tie?
Well, there a bunch of Os and Vs here if we want to reinforce the theme — a prominent sideways V in the trapdoor opening and an O on the handle is one; also a bunch of Vs in the grain of the wood.
Os and Vs in the crown. Vs in the keystones (thanks to sp for that one). Os and a V in the "pot hat" or whatever. Lots of Os in the machine.
Putting it up on the board!
And now it shall be in my head for the next week.
WR confirmed that the pic is Orson from Orson and Valentine. How about this. The jester is the fool that Orson was when he was a wild man and the crown is the king that he becomes at the end. So we choose the happy ending not the sad beginning.
Okay so I looked back an WR didnt confirm it was Orson but I still think there is something to this.
It is Orson, but whether his identity is important or not is still unknown. I guess the important question is: is Orson's name important to a puzzle? Is Valentine?
What I am thinking is that what may be important it is the story line. O&V is long and has a lot of plot twists. There are a few versions of it but the main story could be summed up as, wild man ends up being king. The pot trap could be part of the story and so could the machine. May be it is part of the story shown in pictures? It would make sense because there is only that big pic of Orson on the wall like to say this room is about Orson. He was a king, and theres a crown, he was wild and uneducated and theres a fool. Dont know about the machine and the pot.
Villagers running away from Orson was actually a significant part of the tale as well.
Congratulations also to Kubala Koala from back in September of 2013 who identified the image!
Note: When solving this room I read several versions of Orson and Valentine to see if Manson was using a particular version. The story has a long history, 150+ years of revisions. I could be wrong but it appears as if the room is based on the common denominators of these stories not a particular version.
I buy it! Adding it to the list.
Okay, I totally support this solution, but I am puzzled…. why then is Orson walking the wrong way? Or am I looking at it too literally?
Perhaps because this is based on an image commonly thought to be of Orson during his wild-man days (some experts think it is the giant but MAZE was made pre-Google). So the wild-man is walking toward the wrong door while the villager/cultured man (he has a top hat after all) flees toward the correct door.
Are the machine and pot not part of this solution?
Sorry, I should have added "solution incomplete" to the summary, I'll do it now.
Not satisfied with this. Kubala Koala should have been credited back when they discovered this, since you can't come to these conclusions without this preliminary knowledge. It would have counted as an 'incomplete solution'. Crediting things in such a way makes it impossible to determine if a solution is incomplete or simply wrong.
Wouldn't it make more sense that Valentine were associated with the crown since he was technically the ruler of his land while Orson was in the bush? Sorry if I sound highly critical here but associating Orson with the crown while dismissing Valentine, a key part of the story, is a bit wishy washy.
I mean, its obvious Orson is a more recognizable character than Valentine if you drew them on paper. Valentine is just a regular shmoe, if you drew him alone. Orson on the other hand, conjures up the whole tale.
Maybe the machine is the war machine of the sarocens? I'm an engineer and I can tell you that it is no real machine is just an abstract thing.
I don't credit things that aren't at least partial solutions – saying it is Orson doesn't mean the door is correct.
I did however confirm that it was Orson, all the way back in June, 2014 Beelzibibble wrote: "But Orson is strutting in the other direction, toward 36 – so this seems arbitrary." I replied: "The solution is incomplete, thus it not being in the summary." Then when vewatkin found the 7 in Orson's arm I put the image of Orson from the print and Manson's image side by side for comparison in related images.
Regarding kingship: In every version I read, Orson wound up being either equal co-ruler with Valentine (…the end) or wound up being sole ruler. The oldest versions have Orson as sole ruler after Valentine takes off to do penance. I don't know of a version where he is not described as an idiot at the beginning and does not become a full king at the end.
i guess i just have a problem with omitting valentine entirely in favour of orson being the bearer of the crown. aria's observation of hidden o's and v's reinforces this, as hidden 7s also fit this theme a bit better than an "orson synthesis". i guess I'm just more inclined to leave things open ended with more than one possibly intended theory over one single theory. without confirmation it seems a bit subjective to assume only one can be correct.


text:
Clashes in Ukraine create tension for U.S. and Russia
Feb 22, 2014 5:30 PM EST
PBS NewsHour PBS NewsHour
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/clashes-ukraine-create-tension-u-s-russia
Transcript Audio
Ongoing violence in Ukraine over the past few weeks has added further stress to relations between the United States and Russia. What are the issues dividing the two countries? Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Russian Studies Professor Stephen Cohen about Russia's stake in Ukrainian unrest.
HARI SREENIVASAN:
The developments in the last few weeks in Ukraine have further strained the already fraught relations between the United States and Russia. For more about that and other issues dividing the two countries we're joined now by Stephen Cohen, he's the Professor of Russian Studies at New York University and Princeton. He's also the author of the book Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War. So of course Ukraine is right next door to Russia. Russia has major interests here. How is Putin likely to react?
STEPHEN COHEN:
Well, let's look at what might happen. Let's take the most extreme scenario. The president, democratically elected although he's not a nice man, has fled Kiev, Ukraine to Kharkov in the East near Russia. Presumably he's going to claim he's the legitimate president of Ukraine and form a government in Kharkov. Meanwhile protesters, the mob, whatever you want to call it, have taken over the presidential palace and legislature in Kiev and they're going to form a government. So we are probably gonna have, if not in law in fact, two governments in Ukraine. That's very dramatic in the center of Europe. One will be affiliated with Russia, if this happens, the other with the European Union. And if we think about it in the worst scenario, that will be a new Cold War to divide in Europe. This time, not in far away Berlin, but right on Russia's borders and that isn't good.
Is there a possibility that Russia annexes back that section of Ukraine that likes it?
Today it's eight hours later, nine hours later there. The legislator of Kharkov, which calls itself the southeastern Parliament of Ukraine — that's the area where it's mainly Russian speaking and adheres to Russia — passed resolutions saying they don't recognize the authority of the government in Kiev, which means they're saying they're sovereign and independent. So in effect, they're now allied with Russia. Russia's red line, if you want to ask me about whether Russia would intervene military, it's red line are the two Russian enclaves in eastern Ukraine: Crimea and Sevastopol. Not only because those are ethnic Russians, but that's where the Russian naval bases are.
Okay so President of the United States and President Putin have a conference call yesterday. What are the U.S. interests in all this?
Well, you've asked me two questions. What does Washington think its interests are? Because Washington has spun a narrative that I think hasn't been correct and has worsened the problem. And what I think Washington's interests ought, and Washington's interests ought to be a stable and united Ukraine, at peace with itself and not trapped in an either or proposition between Russia and Europe. There's no reason why Ukraine must choose. Ukraine's an economic basket case. As Putin himself actually said, let both sides, Russia and Europe, help Ukraine. But things may be out of control. This may be something of a revolutionary situation. Nothing written on paper holds to that evening.
And finally turning to something else that's sort of in the news about Russia. Considering that the Olympics are ending now and there are concerns that Putin will crack down harder on his dissidents because the media spotlight will be away. This week we saw that band, Pussy Riot, actually stage their own protests in Sochi and they were beaten horribly. And they were writing in op eds in the New York Times saying next week it's gonna get worse.
Look, Putin isn't gonna crack down inside Russia because the Olympics are over. One of the bad things that's happened in Ukraine is a democratically elected government has been overthrown and forces sponsored by the west are coming to power. Putin wants to know, is that a paradigm for Russia? Is the west going to try the same thing in Russia? Now you and I might say 'that's paranoid,' but as somebody once said 'even paranoids have enemies' and this is widely believed in Russia. And so he might now crack down because he fears the Kiev scenario might be attempted in Russia. I don't think we would dare do that, but Russians think based on what they see, and they've seen something fairly unnerving.
Alright, Stephen Cohen, thanks so much.
Listen to this Segment
Watch the Full Episode
PBS NewsHour from Feb 22, 2014
Transportation Secretary warns of dwindling highway funding
By PBS NewsHour
As benefits expire, long-term unemployed make do with less
eastern ukraine
pbs newshour weekend
ukraine protests

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


as part of my Grant project for the Kentucky Foundation of Women i have designed a calendar featuring some of my collages. each are made from a single photograph, on Paint- some i enhanced using Fotor or Photos. In it i highlight some badassed woman well worth wiki searches…impressive women who impacted or continue to impact the way we interact.
i made a LTD Edition of 50 copies i will number and sign.
TO ORDER : send cash/check for 25$ to Bree 147 Marcus St. #4 Pleasureville, KY 40057 OR Paypal to leastbitternbooks@gmail.com using the friends and family option.
Owl Wouldja Please 9.19.16 Collage made from a single photograph of an Owl Butterfly, from the Naturalist's Notebook taken by John Pizniur. (the photo is posted below). Made on Paint, enhanced with Fotor.
this collage didnt make the calendar, but i do like it.


How do I find a monologue in a play? I need it for my acting class. - Ask Us!
Q. How do I find a monologue in a play? I need it for my acting class.
1. Try searching the CATALOG, using Advanced Search.
Try typing "monologues" in the first box AND "acting" in the second box.
You can limit by using the Narrow Your Search suggestions to the left of the results.
2. You may also use Play Index which has a subject heading, "Monologues" in the "Subject and Author" section. This may help you find a play that has a series of monologues.
3. The Theatre and Dance Library guide also has resources for locating plays both in print and online.
The Drama Online Library allows you to search for full text monologues as well as plays of a certain length or number of roles.
Scroll down about 3/4 of the page.
How do I find plays?


text:
The CLEAN Future Act's Clean Electricity Standard
Ewelina Czapla
House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats introduced the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation's (CLEAN) Future Act in an effort to achieve economy-wide net zero emissions by 2050.
To address power-sector emissions, the bill relies on a Clean Electricity Standard (CES), which would create a credit-trading system that would lead to the elimination of emissions from this sector by 2035.
The CES's success relies on the adoption of technology that is currently too costly to implement or has not yet been commercialized.
On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee leadership introduced the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation's (CLEAN) Future Act.[1] The over 900-page bill aims to achieve net zero emissions within every area subject to the Committee's jurisdiction, including power, transportation, buildings, and industrials. The bill aims to "achieve net zero greenhouse gas pollution no later than 2050, with an interim target of reducing pollution by 50 percent from 2005 levels no later than 2030." The bill seeks to achieve these targets by instituting mandates, providing grants, or providing additional grants to existing programming.
Under this bill, the power sector would be mandated to adhere to a Clean Electricity Standard (CES). The mandate would require retail electricity suppliers to increase the proportion of clean electricity in their supply each year beginning in 2023 until 2035, at which point they could supply only clean energy. In addition, the CES requires prevailing wages for construction workers and the right to organize for employees of power generators. Beyond the CES, the bill seeks to increase investment in clean energy, distributed energy resources, grid infrastructure, and microgrids, and to expedite the expansion of the transmission system.
With a majority of electricity in the United States generated using fossil fuels, the bill's success relies on the adoption of technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.
Clean Electricity Standard
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would implement the CES through a credit system. Initially, the EPA would issue credits following an EPA determination of the carbon intensity of the electricity consumed by a retailer, where low-carbon electricity would receive credits. The EPA would not issue negative credits for carbon-intensive electricity. As new sources of generation are built, additional credits would be issued.
Carbon intensity is the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions associated with the generation of one megawatt-hour of electricity. Carbon dioxide equivalent is the number of metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions with the same global warming potential over a 20-year period as one metric ton of another greenhouse gas. This allows for the consideration of different emissions' impacts using a standardized measure.
Electricity generators would then trade and bank credits in a national market. Beginning in 2023, each retail electric supplier would submit credits to the EPA annually. The number of credits required would be determined by multiplying the megawatt-hours consumed by the minimum percentage of zero emission electricity for the calendar year. The minimum percentage of zero emission electricity would increase each year. In particular, the bill calls for 84 percent in 2031 increasing to 100 percent by 2035. This system would allow those retailers who provide consumers with relatively higher quantities of low-carbon power to sell credits to those who are reliant on fossil fuel generated power. Retailers who are unable to meet the requirements of the credit program may submit alternative compliance payments which escalate in price annually.
For generators relying on fossil fuels, carbon intensity would be calculated by not only including emissions at the point of fuel consumption but also upstream emissions associated with the fuels' extraction, including flaring, as well as processing and transportation. Under the bill, the EPA would promulgate rules to determine how to account for these upstream emissions. The EPA would also issue credits for carbon capture, which would eventually be required for any fossil fuel generation that intends to operate under the trading program in the next 14 years. Similarly, credits would be issued for direct air capture of carbon dioxide.
Uncertain Results
Broadly, the creation of an emissions trading system could lead to an unanticipated result rather than the reductions sought in the timeline. The market could fail to operate as anticipated, not only as it responds to unprecedented conditions, but also because the prices and conditions established by a central authority, in this case the EPA, may fail to align with reality. The European Emissions Trading System, for example, has had limited success in reducing carbon emissions while increasing consumer costs despite the European Commission's Energy Directive to encourage renewable generation.[2]
A majority of electricity generation in the United States relies on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas and coal.[3] Many of these generating facilities, specifically those that consume natural gas, were constructed recently and have economic lives that stretch beyond the timeline proposed by the CLEAN Future Act. The average capacity-weighted age of natural gas-fueled generation facilities in the United States is 22 years while coal is 39 years.[4] As a result, these facilities will need to install carbon capture technology in order to continue operating as the mandated minimum percentage of zero emission electricity increases under the CLEAN Future Act.
Thus far, carbon capture technology has been adopted in the United States largely as a part of enhanced oil recovery rather than for the purposes of capturing emissions at the smokestack. Direct air capture, on the other hand, has yet to be commercialized in the United States. Its expanded adoption may rely on the appeal of the 45-Q tax credit, which calls for not only the capture of carbon dioxide but also its sequestration.[5] The adoption of the technology could raise prices for retail consumers, particularly if market conditions don't improve and the mandate stands. Similarly, increased wages for construction workers and the employees of generating facilities could increase costs for consumers. In addition, such increased costs could discourage developers from constructing new generation facilities.
The CLEAN Future Act relies on the development of additional mandates and the creation of an emissions trading system as part of its CES. These policies have proven ineffective in the past, as AAF has explained, and could result in increased consumer costs with limited reductions in emissions.
[1] https://energycommerce.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/ec-leaders-introduce-the-clean-future-act-comprehensive-legislation-to
[2] https://www.euractiv.com/section/emissions-trading-scheme/news/emissions-trading-system-failures-sour-energy-policy-efforts/ ; https://www.cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/matt-sinclairs-ets-study-oct-09.pdf
[3] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php
[4] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=30872
[5] https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/new-regulation-provides-clarity-for-carbon-capture/
Director of Energy Policy
Ewelina Czapla is the Director of Energy Policy at the American Action Forum.
Jeffrey Westling
Executive Summary The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), tasked with protecting consumers from unfair methods of competition, is making a dramatic shift…
Juan Londoño
Executive Summary The use of algorithm-backed content moderation systems by social media platforms has drawn increasing skepticism in recent years…
Executive Summary In February, the Biden Administration must either end or extend expiring tariffs on solar panel imports that former President Trump…
The Biden Administration's Energy and Climate Policies in Its First Year
Executive Summary The Biden Administration established national goals for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions upon submitting updated nationally…
Addressing the Climate Challenge


text:
Multiple Mitochondrial Dysfunctions Syndrome
Multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome is characterized by impairment of cellular structures called mitochondria, which are the energy-producing centers of cells. While certain mitochondrial disorders are caused by impairment of a single stage of energy production, individuals with multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome have reduced function of more than one stage. The signs and symptoms of this severe condition begin early in life, and affected individuals usually do not live past infancy.
Affected infants typically have severe brain dysfunction (encephalopathy), which can contribute to weak muscle tone (hypotonia), seizures, and delayed development of mental and movement abilities (psychomotor delay). These infants often have difficulty growing and gaining weight at the expected rate (failure to thrive). Most affected babies have a buildup of a chemical called lactic acid in the body (lactic acidosis), which can be life-threatening. They may also have high levels of a molecule called glycine (hyperglycinemia) or elevated levels of sugar (hyperglycemia) in the blood. Some babies with multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome have high blood pressure in the blood vessels that connect to the lungs (pulmonary hypertension) or weakening of the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy).
Multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome is a rare condition; its prevalence is unknown. It is one of several conditions classified as mitochondrial disorders, which affect an estimated 1 in 5,000 people worldwide.
Multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome can be caused by mutations in the NFU1 or BOLA3 gene. The proteins produced from each of these genes appear to be involved in the formation of molecules called iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters or in the attachment of these clusters to other proteins. Certain proteins require attachment of Fe-S clusters to function properly.
The NFU-1 and BOLA3 proteins play an important role in mitochondria. In these structures, several proteins carry out a series of chemical steps to convert the energy in food into a form that cells can use. Many of the proteins involved in these steps require Fe-S clusters to function, including protein complexes called complex I, complex II, and complex III.
Fe-S clusters are also required for another mitochondrial protein to function; this protein is involved in the modification of additional proteins that aid in energy production in mitochondria, including the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and the alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (also known as the oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex). This modification is also critical to the function of the glycine cleavage system, a set of proteins that breaks down a protein building block (amino acid) called glycine when levels become too high.
Mutations in the NFU1 or BOLA3 gene reduce or eliminate production of the respective protein, which impairs Fe-S cluster formation. Consequently, proteins affected by the presence of Fe-S clusters, including those involved in energy production and glycine breakdown, cannot function normally. Reduced activity of complex I, II, or III, pyruvate dehydrogenase, or alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase leads to potentially fatal lactic acidosis, encephalopathy, and other signs and symptoms of multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome. In some affected individuals, impairment of the glycine cleavage system leads to a buildup of glycine.
3.1. The Genes Associated with Multiple Mitochondrial Dysfunctions Syndrome
NFU1
This condition is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means both copies of the gene in each cell have mutations. The parents of an individual with an autosomal recessive condition each carry one copy of the mutated gene, but they typically do not show signs and symptoms of the condition.
MMDS
multiple mitochondrial dysfunction syndrome
This entry is adapted from https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/multiple-mitochondrial-dysfunctions-syndrome
Cameron JM, Janer A, Levandovskiy V, Mackay N, Rouault TA, Tong WH, Ogilvie I,Shoubridge EA, Robinson BH. Mutations in iron-sulfur cluster scaffold genes NFU1 and BOLA3 cause a fatal deficiency of multiple respiratory chain and 2-oxoaciddehydrogenase enzymes. Am J Hum Genet. 2011 Oct 7;89(4):486-95. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.08.011.
Haack TB, Rolinski B, Haberberger B, Zimmermann F, Schum J, Strecker V, GrafE, Athing U, Hoppen T, Wittig I, Sperl W, Freisinger P, Mayr JA, Strom TM,Meitinger T, Prokisch H. Homozygous missense mutation in BOLA3 causes multiplemitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome in two siblings. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2013Jan;36(1):55-62. doi: 10.1007/s10545-012-9489-7.
Navarro-Sastre A, Tort F, Stehling O, Uzarska MA, Arranz JA, Del Toro M,Labayru MT, Landa J, Font A, Garcia-Villoria J, Merinero B, Ugarte M,Gutierrez-Solana LG, Campistol J, Garcia-Cazorla A, Vaquerizo J, Riudor E,Briones P, Elpeleg O, Ribes A, Lill R. A fatal mitochondrial disease isassociated with defective NFU1 function in the maturation of a subset ofmitochondrial Fe-S proteins. Am J Hum Genet. 2011 Nov 11;89(5):656-67. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.10.005.
Seyda A, Newbold RF, Hudson TJ, Verner A, MacKay N, Winter S, Feigenbaum A,Malaney S, Gonzalez-Halphen D, Cuthbert AP, Robinson BH. A novel syndromeaffecting multiple mitochondrial functions, located by microcell-mediatedtransfer to chromosome 2p14-2p13. Am J Hum Genet. 2001 Feb;68(2):386-96.
its a very interesting entry


text:
Twelve new social mobility commissioners appointed
Alix Robertson
All schools and trusts offered improvement help to tackle Covid woes
An academy leader is one of 12 new commissioners appointed today to join the Social Mobility Commission, education secretary Damian Hinds has announced.
Approved by the prime minister and the public appointments committee, the team will join chair of the commission Dame Martina Milburn (pictured above), the head of the Prince's Trust, who took up the position in May.
The new commissioners will start their new roles next month with an event planned to mark the Commission's relaunch on the morning of December 11. Sammy Wright, the vice principal of Ofsted 'good' Southmoor Academy in Sunderland, is among the group, which also includes volunteers, journalists and representatives from the business and technology sectors.
The commission, which sits within the Department for Education and monitors progress towards improved social mobility, was previously headed up by ex-Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn. He resigned as chair in December 2017, along with the remaining members of the committee at the time who left due to a "lack of political leadership".
The government began its search for a new social mobility tsar in February and eventually chose Dame Milburn, who was endorsed by MPs. In July she revealed that she was personally approached for the role by Hinds after the first deadline had passed, and asked to consider applying for the job.
In March, the parliamentary education committee demanded extra powers for the social mobility commission, including the power to publish impact assessments on social justice in legislative proposals.
MPs also called for a social justice minister to be appointed, and said the commission should be renamed "the Social Justice Commission".
But in a response released in May, the DfE said it would not be making the changes proposed, because government departments are "best placed" to consider the impact of policy and legislative proposals on social justice, "as they are the experts in their policy areas".
The last major publication from the commission was its 2017 "state of the nation" report, which included findings that children from disadvantaged backgrounds going to school in former manufacturing urban areas, such as Kettering or Doncaster, had some of the poorest outcomes in the country, while those in remote countryside or coastal areas were also showing weak performance.
Commenting on the new appointments, Milburn said: "I am delighted to welcome a record number of social mobility commissioners who will work to make England a fairer society.
"This is a group of people with real-life experiences of social mobility to help challenge government, business, and society as a whole, to create a fair system where people can thrive."
Hinds added: "This new team of commissioners brings together established business men and women, policy makers, academics and young people all with important perspectives to bring.
"The Social Mobility Commission will benefit from the expertise of this diverse mix of individuals, all of whom will bring their own unique stamp to what social mobility means in their lives."
The full list of commissioners is as follows:
Alastair da Costa – chair of Capital City College Group
Liz Williams – group director of Digital Society at BT
Farrah Storr – editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan
Harvey Matthewson – volunteer, and part-time sales assistant at Marks & Spencer
Jessica Oghenegweke – project co-ordinator at the Diana Award
Jody Walker – senior vice president at TJX Europe (TK Maxx and Home Sense in the UK)
Pippa Dunn – founder of Broody, helping entrepreneurs and start ups
Saeed Atcha – founder and chief executive officer of Xplode magazine
Sam Friedman – associate professor in sociology at LSE
Sammy Wright – vice principal of Southmoor Academy, Sunderland
Sandra Wallace – managing partner UK and joint managing director Europe at DLA Piper
Steven Cooper – outgoing chief executive officer of Barclaycard Business


text:
Otra vez es el título del segundo álbum de estudio grabado por el grupo musical mexicano Pandora, Fue lanzado al mercado por la empresa discográfica EMI Capitol de México a finales de 1986 en formato LP y casete a través de un concierto de presentación en el Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros en la Ciudad de México.

Nuevamente se contó con el mismo equipo de trabajo de Miguel Blasco que participó en el disco debut del trío, entre los cuales estuvieron el músico Gian Pietro Felisatti, encargado de la producción, Jesús Gluck en los arreglos musicales y los excelentes compositores Hernaldo Zúñiga, Difelisatti, J.R. Florez, Kiko Campos y Fernando Riba.  Este álbum, como su antecesor, ocupa un espacio en la lista de los álbumes más vendidos de la década de los 80's según AMPROFON.

Antecedentes
Debido a las altas ventas obtenidas por su primer álbum y el reconocimiento tanto del público como de la crítica especializada musical tanto de su país, México, como en América Latina, al inicios del año 1986, el grupo Pandora recibe múltiples premios otorgados por su casa disquera debido a las ventas, como por el público otorgándoles múltiples reconocimientos como grupo revelación y nuevo grupo.

Mientras el grupo se encontraba promocionando los últimos singles de su disco debut en diversos programas televisivos y en radiodifusoras, tanto de su país como de América Latina, a través del mismo equipo de producción su casa discográfica comienza a planear su siguiente álbum de estudio.

El 27 de abril de 1986 fueron invitadas a una emisión especial del programa Siempre en Domingo para celebrar los 80 años de vida de Don Pedro Vargas quién las había apadrinado, estuvieron como invitados Marco Antonio Muñiz, Julio Iglesias, Celia Cruz, Armando Manzanero, Roberto Carlos, Viky Carr, José Luis Rodríguez "el Puma", Guadalupe Pineda, Emmanuel, entre otros.

Realización
En la primavera de 1986, las tres integrantes del grupo viajan a Madrid, España donde entran nuevamente al estudio de grabación para realizar lo que sería su segundo álbum de estudio.

Para la realización de este material y la selección de temas, el grupo Pandora continuó con el estilo de baladas románticas con el cual el público ya las identificaba. El equipo ejecutivo con el que el grupo trabajó era el mismo que EMI Capitol les había asignado para su primer álbum, trabajando con el productor ejecutivo Miguel Blasco, que participó en el disco debut del trío y su equipo entre los cuales estuvieron el músico Gian Pietro Felisatti, encargado de la producción, Jesús Gluck en los arreglos musicales y los excelentes compositores Hernaldo Zúñiga, Difelisatti, J.R. Florez, Kiko Campos y Fernando Riba.

Promoción
El 22 de julio de 1986, el grupo Pandora, presentó a los medios de comunicación como a su público y seguidores más cercanos, los temas de su segundo disco, a través de un concierto en el Foro Cultural Siqueiros al sur de la Ciudad de México.

Como punta de lanza se elige el tema «Solo él y yo» que rápidamente se colocó en los primeros lugares de popularidad en toda Latinoamérica. Le siguió el tema «Como una mariposa»; otros sencillos fueron «Alguien llena mi lugar», «Horas» y «Adorable ladrón».

El grupo realizó una amplia promoción de este álbum en múltiples países de Latinoamérica, viajando a Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Perú y más al sur.  Se presentaron en programas de televisión y ofrecieron diversos conciertos con el objetivo de darse a conocer más ampliamente en la parte sur del continente.

El 12 de agosto de 1986, el tenor Plácido Domingo invita al grupo a participar en el concierto Placido y sus amigos en beneficio del terremoto de septiembre de 1985 en México, en el cual participaron Figuras de talla internacional como Frank Sinatra, Julie Andrews y John Denver, en el Universal Amphitheater de Los Ángeles, California. El 27 de octubre del mismo año, participan en el XVII Festival Mundial de la Canción popular Yamaha, en Tokio, Japón interpretando el tema «Adorable ladrón».

A finales del año 1986, la empresa discográfica EMI Capitol de México, lanza al mercado la producción navideña Eterna Navidad, donde el grupo participa junto con artistas de la misma empresa como fueron: Yuri, Mijares, Daniela Romo, Tatiana, Hernaldo, Arianna, Denise de Kalafe y Oscar Athié. Esta producción vendió más de un millón doscientas mil copias.  El tema con el que participó el grupo en esta obra 'Los Peces en el Río' fue uno de los sencillos principales del álbum y fue tanto su éxito que se convirtió en un tema clásico para la época navideña.

Recepción y premios
Después del buen desempeño de su álbum anterior y la espera de nuevas canciones por parte del público, en tan solo tres días de estar a la venta el álbum rebasó las 100 mil unidades haciéndolas acreedoras a un disco de oro.

Obtuvieron discos de oro y platino en diferentes países de América y en su país, México, en total vendieron un poco más de un millón doscientas mil copias y ocuparon el lugar 88 de la lista Los 100 más vendidos en la década de los 80's de AMPROFON

A finales de 1986, ganan por segunda ocasión el trofeo Los 15 Grandes de Siempre en Domingo. Nuevamente, aparecen en el Súper Disco del Año '86 con el tema «Solo él y yo».

Lista de canciones

Créditos y personal
El Álbum es una Producción de EMI Capitol de México realizado en 1986:
 Realizada y dirigida por Gian Prietro Felisatti.
 Productor ejecutivo: Miguel Blasco.
 Arreglos y dirección: Jesús Glück y Gian Prieto Felisatti.
 Arreglos de cuerda: Jesús Glück.
 Guitarra: Juan Cerro.
 Bajo: Eduardo Gracia.
 Batería: Mariano
 Teclados y programación Lynn: Luis Carlos Esteban.
 Ingenieros de sonido: José Antonio Álvarez Alija.
 Ayudante de sonido: Alberto Pinto.
 Estudios: EUROSONIC - MADRID.
 Programación: Luis Carlos Esteban.
 Estilista: Cheska

Referencias

Álbumes de 1986
Álbumes de México de 1986
Álbumes de Pandora
Álbumes en español
Álbumes de balada romántica
Álbumes de EMI Records

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
WAC coaches recognize CHS talent
Elise Cannella scored 71 goals during her final season with Ceres High's girls water polo program. - photo by DALE BUTLER/ Courier file photo
Four members of Ceres High School's water polo program earned Western Athletic Conference honors this fall, including team captains Elise Cannella, Andrea Contreras, Nicholas Campbell and Jaden Joy.
Cannella was selected to the WAC Second Team for starring on Ceres High's girls squad, which compiled an 8-6 record en route to a fourth-place finish in the league standings. The top three teams advanced to the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.
Contreras was an honorable-mention selection.
Cannella, a fourth-year player, led the Bulldogs in scoring with 71 goals.
"Elise should have made First Team," Ceres High head coach Stephen Dias said. "She was consistent. She was very aggressive in the water. She didn't back down. She played with confidence. When she knew we needed some points, she'd make some shots. She'll definitely be missed."
Contreras, a third-year player who will be lost to graduation this June, had 32 goals.
"She was focused," Dias said. "She was very competitive. She didn't want to come out of the game when you put her in. She contributed to the team in a solid way with her passing and game knowledge. She grew her strengths over three years."
Campbell earned second-team, all-conference accolades for starring on Ceres High's boys team, which tied for sixth place in the WAC standings (3-11) with Pacheco.
Joy was an honorable-mention pick.
Campbell, a junior, led the Bulldogs in scoring with a career-high 117 goals.
He should have earned first-team, all-league recognition according to Dias.
"He could have been MVP but that comes from the first-place team," Dias said. "He was a major threat. All the teams double and triple teamed him. He motivated the other kids. I've seen steady growth from him each year. He's got all the things that make you a good water polo player. He's got a super, strong arm. He's very competitive. He's learning the process of being a team player."
Joy, a senior, tallied 17 goals.
"He had a 180-degree turnaround from last year," Dias said. "It was amazing. He was a lot faster. He was motivated. He moved the ball where it needed to be. He was a steady rock in the water."
Ceres High boys water polo standout Nicholas Campbell tallied a career-high 117 goals this fall. - photo by DALE BUTLER/ Courier file photo


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Georgiyevka () is a rural locality (a selo) in Rostashevskoye Rural Settlement, Paninsky District, Voronezh Oblast, Russia. The population was 117 as of 2010.

Geography
Georgiyevka is located 8 km northwest of Panino (the district's administrative centre) by road. Bereznyagi is the nearest rural locality.

References

Rural localities in Paninsky District