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Wladimir Klitschko spends time with daughter in Miami
Wladimir Klitschko enjoyed a relaxing day at the beach with his daughter Kaya on Thursday following his dramatic loss to Anthony Joshua in the boxing ring on April 29.
The 41-year-old Ukrainian has decided to spend a few weeks dedicated to family before deciding if he's going to engage in a rematch against the WBA and IBF king.
He tenderly doted over daughter Kaya, two, for a fun day at the beach in Miami.
Family time: Wladimir Klitschko, 41, decided to spend some quality time with daughter Kaya, two, in the wake of his big loss against boxing heavyweight Anthony Joshua
Enjoying time with his daughter: In the wake of his big loss, the boxer appeared to put it behind him to spend some time with his family
There was no sign of his fiance and Kaya's mother, Hayden Panettiere.
Kaya looked to be enjoying the warm water and wore only a pair of bathing suit bottoms to go for a leisurely swim.
She looked happy to be spending time with her dad as the cute little blonde smiled brightly at him.
Kaya's doting dad looked to be putting the epic loss behind him as he seemed content with his daughter.
Happy family: Wladimir shares Kaya with Nashville actress Hayden Panettiere (pictured in July 2016)
Good dad: The 6'4″ heavyweight boxer even blew up a floatie toy for Kaya who watched in an adorable dress before stripping down to her bathing suit for some fun in the water
Smiling! Kaya looked content with her dad in the ocean as she smiled up at him
Cuteness overload: The father-daughter duo spend some time soaking in the rays in Miami where they spent time in the warm Atlantic ocean
The 6'4″ heavyweight boxer even blew up a floatie toy for Kaya who watched in an adorable dress before stripping down to her bathing suit for some fun in the water.
It was late last month that the boxer lost an epic match against English heavyweight Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London on April 29.
Klitschko is still undecided on whether to take up the rematch clause in his fight deal with Joshua.
Listen up, Dad: Kaya looked like she was telling her dad a very important story as he looked down at her intently
It has been speculated however that Klitschko, a living legend of the sport, may take the opportunity to retire and bow out on top following one of the most memorable heavyweight clashes of all time.
Clearing up the situation this week, promoter Eddie Hearn told the Sun: 'If Klitschko comes back and says he doesn't want a rematch then we will fight Pulev next, unquestionably.'
Hearn admits he has already held discussions with the Ukrainian's coach Bernd Boente about which steps to take next.
Rematch? Klitschko is still undecided on whether to take up the rematch clause in his fight deal with Joshua
As for his part, Klitschko is keeping mum, but didn't rule out the possibility of a rematch.
'Bernd said he (Klitschko) will have two weeks with his family and then he will make his mind up,' said Hearn.
He said post-fight on Sky Sports: 'Of course, we have [the rematch clause] in the contract, right now I'm interested.
'I need to analyse what the heck happened. I wish I could raise my hand, instead of somebody who didn't make it back to back.
'But congratulations to Anthony, he got up, he fought back, and he won the titles.'
One winner, one loser: Klitschko lost out to Anthony Joshua in an epic match at Wembley stadium in London
Good relationship: Wladimir looked to be trying to reason with his little tot as pair spent time playing in the sand
Loves her daddy: Kaya looked like she was having a great time as her dad lifted her up in the water
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk
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Tag: Coco
2010's In Film Day 8 (2018)
January – Coco
A film that's just as beautiful now as it was when it was released. This film is incredibly emotional, but it is also life-affirming. Yes, you'll cry your eyes out, but you'll also feel uplifted by the whole thing. Another great thing about it is that it used a mostly Latino cast, they didn't just hire a lot of white people and get them to do a mildly racist accent. On the downside, apparently, when this was released it was pre-empted with a new short film based on Frozen, which is a somewhat misguided thing to do. This was one of the first films I saw that year, so it could really only go downhill from there.
February – Lady Bird
Or it could get better. This is a personal favourite of mine. I know quite a few people who hate this film, and I get it. It meanders a lot and doesn't really have a plot. Considering how important story is to me, you'd think I would hate this. But something about this film makes me love it. I think it's the general tone of it, it's very warm. It's basically an Instagram filter placed on polaroid pictures of treasured memories. It makes me nostalgic for a life I never even had, for a time which I didn't really experience.
March – Blockers
I've said it before and I'll say it again; it's incredibly refreshing to see a teen sex comedy from a female perspective. Not many films admit that teenage girls enjoy sex. It's mostly teenage boys "conquering" girls until they sleep with them. The idea that women can get pleasure from sex is weirdly missing from films (with the exception of two characters; the slut, and the cheating girlfriend/wife), so it is nice to see this film. Also, it's hilarious, full of great performances all round.
April – A Quiet Place
In 1952 John Cage composed the piece 4'33". It's basically: everyone in the orchestra puts their instruments down and do nothing for four minutes, thirty-three seconds. The intention is that it makes people listen to the background noise, to make them aware of the atmospheric sounds around this. This film does that, Because the audience noise was so sporadic, when it did happen it wasn't annoying, it was scary. That's what makes this film unique, every time you see it will be different because you'll have to listen to the background noises around you. They'll be people uncomfortable who'll be adjusting their position, which creates noise that scares you, that exact scare will never happen again for any other screening, it's unique to that one experience. It's a horror movie with audience participation. I tried watching it on a plane, though, and it didn't really work.
May – Deadpool 2
This….this was not a good month for me. Most the films released this month that I'd want to see weren't released at cinemas (How To Talk To Girls At Parties I can understand as was low budget etc, but the cinema showed trailers for Entebbe all the time so how can they not show that?). I prefer this film to the first one, the story is much better for one. I always felt that most of the first film felt like a set-up to the final scene, rather than one continuous story. This felt like a flowing story with a beginning, middle, and end. Plus it also genuinely surprised me, the marketing campaign hid what this film was actually about better than any film I've seen (including Endgame). Luckily it did it in a funny way so you didn't feel annoyed and disappointed. The big downside is TJ Miller is still in it. I would have understood if they reshot his scenes with someone else.
June – Hereditary
The best way I can showcase my feelings about this film is to quote my original review:
It's been a few days since I watched this. I needed the cool-down period so that I could approach this with the sophistication and slick analytical nature which we are known for. So here goes: WHAT THE COCKING SHIT-FUCK WAS THAT?
I still maintain it's worthy of the cocking shit fuck. I may have been wrong a few minutes ago when I said Deadpool hid what the film was about the best. This completely misled the audience. Kudos to the film for having the sheer balls to kill what looked like the main character, and so brutally too, I like marketing that works like that, when it deliberately deceives you, but not in a way that you feel cheated, but in a way that it means the story beats come as a complete surprise. It's the way of saying "okay, now all bets are off" and it throws you off. That's what you want from this film, you want to be unsettled and to feel like you're constantly on the backfoot. That sense of unease and uncertainty is essential to a film like this. I love it, but don't want to watch it again.
July – The Incredibles 2
The first one was Incredible, and this one was Incredible two (I'm so sorry). Everything about this film just works beautifully, the voice-work, the way it looks, the story, it all interacts with each other in the most wonderful way. The story is serviceable, it doesn't come anywhere near the depth of Toy Story 3, or the heart of Finding Dory, but that doesn't actually matter. You're not sitting there thinking "well this story is pedestrian" because the way the film is done you don't really care, you're just sitting there amazed at what you see unveiling in front of you. It does what it needs to do, and it does it well. That's not to say it's a simple movie, it's probably the only mass-market animated movie this year that has dealt with the themes this does. Themes of masculinity and feeling worthless because you're not the one the family depends on, the emasculation that can cause. Was it worth the wait? Kind of. I mean, I'd be annoyed if they said we had to wait 14 years until the next one, but I'd rather they get everything perfect than rush it out. Like A Quiet Place, I watched this on a plane too. Well, I attempted to, the guy sitting next to me was watching it too and he was about 2 minutes ahead of me. I had to stop the film as I knew I would never win that race.
August – Searching
It HAD to be this. It HAD to. This is one of my favourite films, not just of that year, but of all time. A true hidden gem. It's so good I struggle to talk about it. It does SO much right, and I can't wait to see it again. *spoilers* even the happy ending doesn't feel forced or tacked on. Some films are so good they inspire you to make similar films, this film is so good it will kind of make you want to give up as you know you will never touch it. It's apt that I reviewed this after finishing the Saw series blogs, because that series could learn a lot from this about how to craft a compelling mystery. The film is about a girl who goes missing, and her fathers attempts to find her, but the entire film takes place on computer screens. This has been done before; with Unfriended, which considering I now call that "Unfriended. A.k.a, fuck that film" should show how highly I regarded that film, and my expectations for this. I have a love/hate relationship with "gimmick" films. You know what I mean, the kind where the biggest sell of it isn't the plot or actors, but the way they made the film. When they're done well, like Buried (one person in a casket for the entire film), they're a great piece of film-making, but they have to be great, because if they're only okay (Unsane), then the fact it's a gimmick-heavy film works makes it seem worse. Every writer should watch this film, so should every editor. In fact, everyone who wants to get involved in film-making should watch this film, it's just so damn good.
September – The House With A Clock In Its Walls
This film is the work of someone who knows what they're doing, but is toning it down slightly for the younger audience. This is definitely a film for kids, it is a slight horror but it has that warm feeling that you associate with films from the '80s like ET etc. There's an air of warm nostalgia to the whole thing that will warm the hearts of fans of those films. It's incredibly, I don't know, cosy. Just because it's a difficult film to dislike, does not mean it's an easy film to love. It just doesn't really do much to make you remember it for years to come. The final third almost manages it, with a chaotically fast-paced piece that is logical and weird. The whole film is weird, which makes sense as that's the message of the film: weird is good, embrace the weirdness. Also; bullies are dickholes.
October – Halloween
I've never seen a Halloween film. Well that's a lie, I might have seen the first one, but when I was like 10 so I wasn't really paying attention to it. As such my knowledge of the film series is stuff I absorb through pop-culture osmosis. So I know a little bit (He's called Michael Myers, the third one is unconnected to the rest of the series and was originally meant to be the second one, THAT music etc), but not enough that I feel emotionally connected to. Despite that; I still REALLY enjoyed this. It seems to ignore all but the first one, and is all the better for it. You don't need to have watched a lot of films to get this, as long as you know the basics of the character you should be fine, actually considering how well scripted this is I don't even think you'll need that. It does a great job of bringing you up to speed, explaining what's haunting certain characters. The downsides of this film; there's one death which is kind of embarrassing to watch. It's where Michael Myers stamps on someone's head, it looks incredibly fake and is almost comical. It breaks the tension completely and takes you out of the moment. There are also issues with the characters. The ones who survive are fine, it's the ones who die that you don't really care for. There are some characters with promise who then die before they get to fulfil that promise. And there is a twist which is completely unnecessary and stops mattering after a few minutes, it seems like it is only there because it was the only way they could think of to move the plot from one moment to the next. Luckily the moment that builds up to is superb.
November – Ralph Breaks The Internet
I enjoyed the first movie, it was fun, heartwarming, smart, and funny. It was done by people who had an obvious love for video games, specifically arcade and retro ones. This one……doesn't really work, for many reasons. Firstly, it kind of feels like a generic movie, not a Wreck It Ralph sequel. The first movie doesn't seem to come into play much here, it's not a natural progression and feels like it could have been written featuring any characters. Too many of the jokes veer into "this is a thing, we are referencing the thing, now laugh!" territory. There are some funny moments but they're few and far between. This wouldn't matter as much if the script was engaging, but it's not. It's incredibly bland, I was actually bored many times throughout this. When it approached what I thought could be an ending I was actually disappointed to be proven wrong. There's an entire subplot about characters from the first movie starting a family which takes up a grand total of about 3 minutes of screentime. It's kind of strange as you can tell the film was aiming to be emotionally heavy, and that would have been a good subplot to cut to to relieve tension and provide juxtaposition. It's way too reminiscent of The Emoji movie for its own good.
December – Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
This film loves the character of Spider-man, you can tell this by the way it mocks him sometimes. It's like the lego batman movie in that way, it does make fun of previous films, but it's done with such knowledge and love. This is a different kind of comic book movie, for one thing, it's REALLY weird. It's a film for kids that deals with multiverse theory. It's also incredibly meta, but not too much so. The voice work here is great too. The film-makers didn't skimp when it came to casting, you've got real talent here: Hailee Steinfeld, Lily Tomlin, Nicholas Cage, Liev Schreiber, Kathryn Hahn etc. It also features what has to count as the best and most heartbreaking Stan Lee cameo ever. This is the first film released after his death (not counting the Deadpool 2 re-release), he appears on screen after Spider-man dies and says "I'm going to miss him". F*cking heartbreaking. The most depressing part of the film, and there's quite a lot of them, I mean, the original Spider-man gets killed early on, and all the alternate spider-men/pig/women are haunted by a death of someone, they're defined by guilt about who they could not save. This is the best time to mention the characterisation of the different universe characters; they are all fully-fledged characters with motivations and backstories. This could be a film to launch a franchise.
The animation is some of the best you'll see, with multiple styles displayed across the film, each incredibly distinct and gorgeous. The fight scenes are done brilliantly too, you never lose track of what's happening, the final fight, in particular, is a masterpiece of surreal film-making that plays out like a AAA video game boss level. The soundtrack too, is amazing. It really suits the film, the songs are not only great but they go perfectly with the images. It does what a soundtrack should do, it complements the film perfectly. Yeah, I've said a lot of good things about this, with good reason, it's BRILLIANT. The one downside is the flashing lights could cause a seizure, and that really should have been better publicised. Other than that? A great way for me to end the year, and this blog.
2018 Film Awards
On February 11, 2019 By troubledproductionsIn Awards, Year round upLeave a comment
The "Well I Liked It" Award
I don't get the hatred for this. The story was solid and the performances were great. It also looked fantastic. I could understand people thinking this film is just "okay", but to score as low as it has genuinely confuses me and I don't get it. I feel part of it is due to the (lack of) marketing which put the idea that this isn't a good film in peoples heads.
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 38%
Best Scene/Moment
Blackkklansman – The Montage
I've touched upon it before but the closing montage is amazing and is one of the most devastating moments of the year. It really puts forward the idea that we, as a species, are kind of fucked up.
Deadpool 2 – Deadpool "fixes" things
That was hilarious and wrong and I loved it. It proved why Ryan Reynolds is the correct choice for Deadpool (as if there's any doubt of that now) because he's that willing to make fun of himself and admit his past superhero film mis-steps.
Game Night – Egg Keepaway
Was pretty much done as a one-shot, very well done and the scene made geographical sense in terms of what you saw about the layout of the house.
Creed II – The Of The Fight
It made me feel emotion for a complete bastard. I loved it.
Infinity War – The Snap
Possibly. I didn't think they'd be crazy enough to actually fucking do it. Now let's see how they handle the next step.
Hereditary – Charlie's Death
Mainly because it came out of left-field and was so brutal and unexpected it literally inspired the words "what the cocking shit-fuck was that?" to be put in a blog. It side-footed almost everybody who saw it.
Halloween – Michael Myers Goes Through Houses
A brilliant piece of film-making. He just goes through houses killing people. He doesn't do it in a flashy way, with lots of jump cuts and scary sound effects. He just casually walks in, stabs, walks on to the next house. It's a great display of a serial killer being effective as you could hope for in cinema. It's like he's not killing out of hatred, but because he just feels like it.
Worst Scene/Moment
Co-Winners
Truth Or Dare – The Ending
Obvious sequel hook is obvious. And it made the main characters seem like completely selfish dicks. Effectively the ending is "I will massacre millions of innocent people" and this is seen as "sweet". Nah, it's sociopathic.
Show Dogs – The grooming scene
The only film in this blog that i haven't actually seen. But it has a scene which features someone telling the main character that if someone in authority is fondling his genitals he should just be quiet and go to his happy place until it's over. Not to escape it, or to stop it, but simply to put up with it. What a fantastic message to send to children.
Biggest Disappointment
Okay, I don't know exactly what I expect from this film but I know one thing, I expected SOMETHING. This was just really dull. It's over two hours long and every minute of it drags like someone learning to swim through treacle. Important characters are just forgotten about. It has moments where it looks like it's going to tell an interesting story but then backs away. There are a hundred different stories you could tell with this scenario, and this decides to tell none of them.
I like a great spy drama as they usually have great plotting and look amazing. They also usually are technically brilliant, a chance for directors to really show what they can do. This didn't do any of that. It did nothing. It was flat, lifeless, and worst of all, dull. I never cared for the characters (which is a minor problem), and I didn't care for the plot (which is a major problem). How disappointing was it? Put it this way; if I fell asleep half way through, I wouldn't have checked wikipedia to see what I missed.
It's a horror movie with Helen Mirren, how could this not be great? *watches it* oh, that's how.
I do love a good teen horror as they're usually pretty funny and well-done. This was not. The story was so boring and the characters were so annoying I was actively rooting for them to die. Most of them did, but you couldn't get any satisfaction from their deaths as they were so heavily sanitised there was catharsis. Also, the ending reveals one of the characters to be a selfish bitch, and obviously sets up for the sequel. Ultimately this is one of the worst films I've seen of the year.
The Cloverfield Paradox
I don't know why I was surprised by this. The second one was a disappointment too. But I thought this one would be different. It had a more obvious connection and had Chris O Dowd. But nope, still made a bland story that isn't as smart as they think it is.
The Happytime Murders
I wanted this to be incredibly funny, crude, and, most importantly, made with love. This was just really dull. They didn't even really make the most of the gimmick. They just used it really to make "puppets swearing is funny" jokes. It's not just that this film is not great, or that it's not even good, it's actively bad and I genuinely didn't expect that. A crushing wave of disappointment hit me relatively early on and never stopped. It's a shame as a puppet-noir comedy would be great. It it was done well.
Funniest Film
I expected this to be thoroughly okay, yet I loved it. Yes, some of the laughs are in the trailer, but most of them that are then lead to something even funnier, or are funnier in context. I was laughing my ass off through some of the dialogue in this, and the physical comedy. It's a great comedy of errors which can be difficult to pull off without annoying the audience.
It's not funny continuously, but when it is funny it's HILARIOUS (see also, Lady Bird).
This film was filthy! And all the better for it. This would not have worked if it was heavily sanitised for a younger audience, the crudeness makes it. Plus, I've said it before and I WILL say it again, it's refreshing to see a gynocentric teen sex comedy. It helps that it is REALLY funny with dialogue that's endlessly quotable dialogue. This could have been forgettable, in the end it was memorable.
This film could be 90 minutes of somebody punching a kitten in the face, and the ending tag will still cause me to list it in one of the funniest films of the year. Okay, I am a sociopath but the point still stands. You spend so much time laughing here you miss jokes, which you then get the second time.
Scariest Film
Not a horror film, no, but that closing montage is fucking terrifying.
This film made Michael Myers scary again. And showed why Jamie Lee Curtis is awesome. But it would have been for naught if it wasn't actually a scary film itself. And it is. Everything about it works to create a classic horror film.
I'm a big fan of body horror when it's done right, very few things can beat it. There are a few moments in here which are incredibly creepy and disturbing. It would have been creepier on a big screen though.
This wasn't "something's coming to get you!" scary. This was more "unending dread and feeling that something is not quite right" scary. It's just so damn, "off" throughout. You constantly have the feeling that something weird is happening and you're not entirely sure what. It keeps you on edge throughout and means you can never really get comfortable.
Now this is "something's coming to get you" scary. This wins this award for the effect it had on the audience. Everybody watching it is too scared to make any noise. The thing is, I'm not entirely sure the audience is aware of it. They just know not to make any noise during the screening. It's a horror film which affects behaviour. Much like how Jaws made people scared of sharks, Psycho made people scared of showers, and Truth Or Dare made people scared of spending money on cinema tickets in case they see a film as bad as that again.
Best Animated/Children's Film
By the team behind Wallace and Gromit, so you know you're not going to get something bad. Aardman rarely make anything that's not a lot of fun. They may lack the emotion of Pixar, but they're more enjoyable a lot of the time. Not as good a film as Coco, but probably a better kids film.
Goosebumps 2
Horror is a genre which is difficult to aim towards kids, yet when it works it's absolutely wonderful. Kids don't mind being slightly scared, it's why Scooby Doo works (and is probably most kids introduction to most of the staple horror movie icons; Frankenstein, Dracula etc). So I'm glad this film worked as it shows there's life in the genre and will hopefully inspire more.
This one is here purely based on the animation. If I found out a kid liked this I'd assume that they're actually an adult pretending to be a kid. It's just too, I dunno, Wes Anderson-ey for kids I think. The animation is f*cking superb though. It looks absolutely breathtaking.
Weirdly animated, there's been nothing else which looks like this in a while. It's not quite a comic book come to life, but it's very reminiscent of the style. The story is also great, teaching kids about multi-verse theory is not something a lot of films do. The voice acting is also great with some weirdly a-list cast members in somewhat minor roles (although I am disappointed Spider-Ham wasn't voiced by Jon Hamm).
I watched this on a plane and still loved it (most of it anyway, the guy sitting next to me was about 40 seconds ahead of me watching the same film and it annoyed me as I'd never win that race). A great mix of satire, slapstick, and superhero greatness. And it looks amazing.
Obviously, I was going to mention this. It's Pixar, and I love Pixar. They're seemingly incapable of making non-great films (when they don't involve cars). This film is so great that it almost seems like an insult putting it in this category. This is not just great for animated film, this is a great film full stop. Emotionally engaging, funny, and beautiful to look at.
Best Film To Look At
Only for the moments where they made real houses look like game pieces. A subtle touch that was not necessary, but I loved it, it showed dedication to the craft.
The colours! Never has death looked so pretty. It's the cinematic equivalent of looking through a kaleidoscope. I'm not 100% certain but I think you could enjoy this film with the sound off, just enjoying the visuals of the whole thing.
Purely for the genius in the set design.
This film was beautiful in its ugly nature. It was dirty and grimy and felt like if you touched it you could catch something. It was brilliant.
Not so much for the quality of the visuals, but for the amount of shout-outs and hidden references they crammed in in the background and didn't draw your attention to.
Shape Of Water
A film you don't so much watch, as absorb. A simply beautiful piece of cinema.
Spider-man: Into The Spiderverse
The animation for this made my eyes water with joy. So smooth, so distinct, and so…..right.
The Afrofuturism look to Wakanda was SUPERB. I don't think I've seen anything like this before. Marvel have had some criticism for their films but they seem to have a knack for picking the right director for a lot of their stuff lately. The film Ryan Coogler directed before this? Creed. Which, yeah, was GREAT, but in a completely different universe from this one, needed a different skill set so it was a risky move, but one that paid off.
John Krasinski – A Quiet Place
"I love you, I have always loved you" scene alone would get him nominated for this. This film proves he's more than just "Jim from The Office". I think viewers of that show knew he was good, as that had a lot of emotional moments that reduced people to tears. But I don't think many people expected him to be THIS good. A great performance, in a film that deserves it.
Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Playing Freddy Mercury is not something that's easy to do. He had a certain other-worldness to him that a lot of people can't pull off. You need to have the charisma so that if someone saw you walking through the street they'd know they are somebody. He doesn't quite manage it all the time but gets so damn close you can't help but admire it.
Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
He got nominated for a lot of awards because of this, and there's a good reason for that, he was great in it. Playing the role with a great mix of sadness and anger that won't be a surprise to anybody who saw his work in War For The Planet Of The Apes. In the last few years, he really seems to have found his niche as an emotionally conflicted actor, and this is one of the best examples of it you're likely to see.
Michael B.Jordan – Creed 2
I was tempted to put him in for Black Panther instead, his performance in that almost overshadowed the main character, but a lot of that was also down to superb writing. A lot of performers I feel could have done that and made the character work. This, this had to be him. His facial acting is great. There's one moment in particular which stands out. He's arguing with Rocky and says something incredibly harsh, just by his facial performance you can tell that he regrets saying it but is too proud to apologise.
Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
It must have been so easy to play this for laughs. To make this character a one-note joke. For him to turn this character into one of the most compelling characters of the year deserves acclaim, luckily he achieved that with the number of awards he got nominated for/won for this role. It's odd to me how when discussions of great actors are bought up, people don't mention Sam Rockwell anywhere near as much as they should. Seriously, watch Moon, that film is basically him acting alongside himself for the entire duration, and it works wonderfully.
Paul Whitehouse – Ghost Stories
I'm not saying this is the best performance of the year, but it's so notable that I felt it needed to be mentioned. I mainly know him from comedies, yet seeing him in this makes me wish he did a lot more drama. I could definitely see him doing work in the theatre.
Doug Jones – The Shape Of Water
There are two things which make it hard to give a great performance: 1) not being able to speak. 2) being under heavy makeup. Imagine how hard it must be if you do both? How he managed to do this I have no idea, but he created an absolutely compelling character with his performance here. Turning someone who visually is like the creature from the black lagoon into something lovable. Humans are essentially sociopaths who find it hard to feel empathy for those who aren't like "them", this is why it's so easy for the press to demonise immigrants and people they deem "others", because of a complete lack of empathy. So for us to feel this much for something that we know isn't even of the same species is something truly incredible. Now all we need to do is get The S*n to go fuck itself.
Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
She is amazing in this. Turns what could be a hateful character into one you can't help but root for, even when she's doing terrible things. Nominated for Academy Award, and it's almost impossible to argue with that. A great mix of fantastic storytelling, and simply superb performance.
Jodie Foster – Hotel Artemis
Because she's Jodie Foster and you almost forget just how incredibly she is when she wants to be, and she clearly wants to be in this. Every part of her body is acting in this, even the way she walks tells a story. She knows her stuff, and it show.
Millicent Simmonds – A Quiet Place
A great performance, and hopefully leads to more deaf people being cast in films. Acting is a decidedly able-bodied job for some reason, casting directors would rather cast an able-bodied actor and put them in a wheelchair, than cast someone who's in a wheelchair. It's odd and makes no sense. But what does make sense is the sentence "Millicent Simmonds was AMAZING in A Quiet Place, I wonder what she'll do next" (not the most subtle segue back, but meh, I'm taking it). The emotion she portrays in this film can bring tears to your eyes. She doesn't have the easiest job this year, but she does it, and does it well.
Sally Hawkins – The Shape Of Water
Yet another strong performance by someone whose character could not speak. As such you lose all vocal nuance and subtleties, yet she still provides one of the most emotional performances you're likely to see. I don't often agree with film awards (I still maintain that Shakespeare In Love is not an Oscar-worthy movie in any aspect), but the plaudits and acclaim she got for this have been well deserved.
Hong Chau – Downsizing
Yeah, I was not a fan of the film. But her acting in this was brilliant and it's criminal that she wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award. The best way to describe her performance is she's like a flower made of iron. You feel an urge to protect it despite how strong it obviously must be.
Toni Collette – Hereditary
Obviously this was going to be mentioned. And with good reason. Her performance is potentially game-changing for horror films as it means "well it's just a horror" isn't going to be an acceptable defence of bad performances. This is one of the only horror films I've seen lately where I'm genuinely surprised it didn't get Oscar nomination. It definitely deserved it.
Best Character
Lady Bird (played by Saoirse Ronan) – Lady Bird
Some people will find her annoying, I found her endearing. Yes her dialogue was a bit too "written" at times but I didn't care, I enjoyed her that much.
Barbara Thorson (played by Madison Wolfe) – I Kill Giants
Spiteful, bitter, and sarcastic. What's not to love? Also she gave me some of my favourite bits of dialogue of the year. It's great because she started of as a real force to be reckoned with but as the film went on you saw her vulnerabilities and sadness. Most adult characters aren't written as well as this.
Harold Soyinka (played by David Oyelowo) – Gringo
A film which nobody seemed to see last year, which is a shame as it's a real hidden gem of 2018. Some of that is down to the MASTERFUL plotting, but most of it is down to just how damn likeable the main character is. A character who is shaped by his events with a definitive arc that seems real and human. A lesser actor would have made you pity him and view him as kind of pathetic. The way Oyelowo plays him, however, you're with him all the way, it's brilliant to watch.
Killmonger (played by Michael B. Jordan) – Black Panther
It's no secret that Marvel has struggled to make compelling villains. Most of the time they've just gone with "The hero, but bad!". They've got slightly better lately; Vulture and Ego, in particular, were impressive, Hela, not so much. Killmonger, however, was utterly compelling. A great villain is one that you kind of agree with. Ones that you listen to them and you can see why they have people follow them. It makes them seem better characters so they have a bigger impact. This character is so compelling, and so, well, right, in his believes that you sort of feel like joining him yourself. You know who he reminded me of? Steve "Leopard" Leonard from The Saga Of Darren Shan books. A character motivated by hate who has done awful things, but his death still shocks you and makes you tearful as you feel he was never really in control of his own destiny.
Not a nice story, but a very, very good one. Everything about this film just works. The script, the performances, everything. It's not perfect, but the things I didn't like about it are mainly just personal preferences. This is not an easy film to criticise, it's the kind of film that could change you when you watch it. It's ugly, but beautiful.
One of the first films I saw this year, and as soon as I saw it I thought "I should just stop going to the cinema now", I feared that everything else would seem mediocre after watching this. This is Pixar at their emotionally devastating best.
It stopped Michael Myers being considered a lumbering idiot. It essentially had to redo decades of mistakes. It did that, and then some.
A masterpiece of film-making. Scary, heartwarming and with great performances. Oddly enough the sound design is great too. I went in expecting to like this, and ended up loving it.
As much as I loved the other films on this list. NOTHING came close to this. Nothing. I'm aware there's a difference between films I love, films which are good, and films which are impressive. This is all three. Not just one of the best films of 2018, genuinely in my top 10 movies of all time.
So, that's it, I'll see you next time.
On January 26, 2019 January 26, 2019 By troubledproductionsIn Year round upLeave a comment
Coco (2017)
On January 24, 2018 January 24, 2018 By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment
No words can do this justice, which does not bode well for me having to review this, it turns out I can't just upload emotions to a blog and use them as a review. Which is a shame as this would be perfect for it. This film plays heavily on emotions, and very often. People talk about how Up is so emotional it's basically torture, and it is, for the opening. Outside of that, it's just standard Pixar (which is still about 80% better than everything else out there but still), this is consistent. At least the beautiful visuals will cheer you up, you can distract yourself from the existential crisis the film is giving you by just looking around the wonderful scenery, and then notice the oddly high amount of children in the Land Of The Dead and the implications of that……Jesus Christ.
The story? Now, as you may have guessed from previous reviews I've done, stories are key to me, and usually, kids films are more focused on catchy songs and bright colours than the story. But this is Pixar, and they are Gods, so the story here is intricate, in depth, and will stay with you long after you leave the cinema. You can tell a lot has gone into this story to make it work and it's been made with a real love of film-making, and also of Mexico and it's cultural traditions.
Not entirely sure how much this film will resonate with kids though. The themes it deals with are aimed very much at a particular audience, it deals not just with the importance of family, but also about legacy, and the fear of being forgotten. I'm not really sure "when I die will I be forgotten? Will everything I do be for nothing?" are massive issues for young children (apart from super depressed ones). Oh, and with a slight note of dementia as well.
There's a surprise heel turn which doesn't really come off as too much of a surprise. People who have seen a lot of films will kind of guess that one person turns out to be a bit of a dick, but what will truly surprise people is just how evil he turns out to be. He doesn't just go "slightly evil", he turns out to be truly despicable.
I did mention earlier how this film is incredibly emotional, and it is, but it is also life-affirming. Yes, you'll cry your eyes out, but you'll also feel uplifted by the whole thing, which is nice. What else is nice is that it used a mostly Latino cast, they didn't just hire a lot of white people and get them to do a mildly racist accent. Animated films are becoming more progressive in terms of casting, they no longer seem to be sold based on the voice cast, which is a remarkable shift from years ago where entire advertising campaigns used to be based around who was doing the voices, now it's more concepts and visuals, which is a great sign for the future.
So in summary: go see it at the cinema. This film deserves to be seen on the big screen. But then buy it on DVD/blu-ray as well, because it deserves to be seen multiple times.
Also read: This review of Coco courtesy of another site we know.
Also watch: Kubo And The Two Strings

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Hey Pam! I would like to request a showing of 1510 Morgan Circle. Let me know what times you are available. Thank you!
You won't want to miss this one. Inviting brick home that features living room with fireplace, kitchen with snack bar and plenty of cabinet space, dining room, 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. Relax in the sunroom or on the back patio. Two car attached garage plus a storm shelter right out back door. Call Pam today to schedule your appointment.
Subdivision: Elmwd N III Addn.
All data for this listing was last updated on April 08, 2019 at 02:56PM.


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This week's photo prompt is in the public domain for use and not attributed to anyone, so untraceable, which I always find a shame.
Another Tricky tale - the last one was Week 167. As I get closer to National November Writing Month and having a bash at putting down the first in what I believe will be a series of Tricky books, she seems to be appearing more and more MidWeekFlash prompts. At least it gives me something to work with.
Feathered Fatality
She saw the bird fall out of the tree and ran to it, but by the time she reached it, its life was gone. Tricky picked it up gently in her hands and examined it. There were no visible wounds, or signs of sickness or old age. She fanned out its wings looking for any breakages. Nothing. But she took a moment to admire the stunning blue feathers that glinted with luminescence in the morning light. It also reminded her of her mother.
Her mother had used feathers liberally: in her clothing, in her rooms for decoration, and in her magic. Well, people called it magic but Tricky knew better. The energy feathers contained was high, and watching her mother easily manipulate people while covered in them, she knew it was powerful.
People thought finding one feather was lucky, but one feather alone could do little unless added to a potion of some kind. Her mother never needed to use them in potions though; she had mastered their use without having to combine it with other elements, and blue had been her favourite. She'd said it carried the most power being a unique colour in nature, so rare and unusual.
Tricky remembered a particular frock her mother used at special occasions, at a public gatherings where she could show it off. It had layers of coloured feathers adorning it, and the blue especially had stood out, highlighting her mother's eyes that reflected the same piercing shade of blue.
Tricky's smile faltered as she recalled the end of the frock; wrapped around her mother the day of her execution. They'd gone with the tradition of burning at the stake. Tricky had been proud her mother hadn't screamed.
This thought brought her back to the bird in her hands, which hadn't cried out when it died; it had fallen silently from the tree. There was something unnatural about it. And even though she knew such deaths of wildlife were common, particularly since much of the world had died off, a feeling in her gut told her otherwise.
This wasn't just any bird, it was a Jay, one of the Corvid family and in her circles they had a deeper meaning. For one to fall dead in front of her portended something dark had being wished against her.
Carter. It had to be him and his cronies. Had they tapped into feather energy or had they just used an old witch ritual? Did they know what they were playing with? Tricky couldn't be sure. Carter was wily and slippery, you could never be sure what he knew or what he could find out. He had his fingers in many rotten pies.
Tricky shuddered. She wrapped the bird in her scarf. She would take it home and perform a parting ritual. She would then remove the feathers. They might contain information about what had passed. Maybe she could glean something from them about what he was up to.
Kat Avila 9 October 2020 at 13:03
Managed to get some words for Withered Legacy - a story I haven't worked on in while!
https://fictiontrials.wordpress.com/2020/10/08/midweekflash-wings/
Miranda Kate 11 October 2020 at 09:19
Really good. Intrigued to know more. Thanks for joining.
Mark A Morris 12 October 2020 at 21:48
Hercules strained his neck, fixing his eye on the cook.
"And you," he said, glaring across at her from his perch. "You had a perfect opportunity to poison him. You could have prepared his breakfast in seclusion while the rest of us were asleep, leaving it out in the kitchen for the maid to deliver. You wouldn't need to be there with him while he ate: the toxins were like a time-bomb, ticking unheard on his plate. You could arrange to be called away, create an alibi, let somebody else take the fall. It's known you'd had a disagreement with the maid. She was a junior member of the staff, a newcomer to the house. Who better to frame for your crime? She was a little too young, most definitely too glamorous, and yes, too self-assured. She was a stranger in the town, her accent setting her apart. Nobody would take her side if she was challenged."
The others all gasped, subtly shifting away from Mrs Danielson. She was one of the longest serving of them all. It was rumoured that she'd assisted in the birth of the late Lord's sons, being one of the first to be sent for when the Lady's waters broke. One of the coppers filled with water, a clean set of towels: who better to call when the Lord was unavailable? Cook had the authority of her position and a voice that was rarely ignored. She was a sergeant-major of a woman: a woman with stature in the house. It was almost inconceivable that she could be involved.
And yet, the bird-detective had a reputation of his own. He had uncovered the deceit of the deerstalker wearing fraud; the one who'd purported to be the possessor of the finest mind in the country. If it hadn't been for the superior reasoning powers of this detective's avian brain he would still be at large, claiming to solve heinous crimes and extorting enormous sums of cash, promising never to reveal what it was he'd deduced. He'd had an easy familiarity with both sides of the law, serving himself instead of the moral majority who'd been wronged. Who would have thought he would be nothing an opportunist with a drug habit and a violin?
Parrot Hercules; that's who. Hercules, the world's greatest bird detective.
But the woman in the apron was made of stronger stuff. She had large hands, thick fingers, thumbs which could break a bone with a quick flex of her wrists. You could imagine that she was planning her escape from this room right now. Or perhaps she was pondering on how she'd serve the famous detective in a sauce derived from his own juices, with his head wrenched off and his legs adorned with fascinators fashioned from paper.
Maybe she would be more than a match for him.
Maybe this would be the end for Hercules, the parrot.
Thanks for reposting, such a great tale.
Mark 25 October 2020 at 21:40
Oh, by the way, Preview isn't working for me. So, I'm posting this blind.
Blue Angel Wings
Miranda Kate 15 November 2020 at 10:07
It's here & it works & I love this tale it's perfect.
Guest Blog - Editing Process Q&A - Richard Wall
Guest Blog Series Coming soon - Editing Processes ...


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Jan 23, 2023 | Access, Featured
By Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, Ph.D. Hospital closures, service cuts, and lack of medical care in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the state—that is the status of hospitals and medical care in Mississippi, where 38 rural hospitals (54%) are expected to shutter their...
A Mutistakeholder Approach to Rare Disease Drug Development
Oct 31, 2022 | Access, Featured
Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, Ph.D. A rare disease, by the U.S. definition, is one that afflicts less than 200,000 individuals in the population at a given time. Compared to more widespread conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, 'rare' diseases do not receive as...
Are We Making Progress With Coverage for Behavioral Health?
Sep 30, 2022 | Access, Featured
By Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, Ph.D. Perhaps a cliched statement, but the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant psychological impact on a large portion of the global population and has renewed stakeholder interest in providing access to behavioral health services for...
What Does Pharmaceutical Innovation Mean and How Does It Affect Me?
By Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, Ph.D. Pharmaceutical research, manufacturing, and marketing are long, nuanced, and expensive processes. While innovation in this space has a direct impact on both disease, prevention and disease outcomes, patients may often feel distant...
Patient Access to Care in Jeopardy as Hospitals Face Staffing Shortfalls
Jun 14, 2022 | Access
Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, Ph.D. Staffing shortages have hit diverse industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the healthcare industry has been particularly affected. In the first year of the pandemic, nearly 3,600 healthcare workers died due to COVID-19, and a...


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In WFAN call, Christie softly pushes back on job report
Dustin Racioppi
State House Bureau, @dracioppi
Gov. Chris Christie, having repeatedly expressed an interest in sports radio and flirted with the possibility of working at WFAN 660-AM after he leaves office, called into the New York station on Thursday to say that he hasn't officially declared himself a candidate.
That's because he can't.
Christie did not refute the details of a Record report published Wednesday that said he is among "plenty of candidates" to succeed afternoon drive host Mike Francesa, whose contract at the station is up at the end of the year. Christie has been rumored to be a candidate to fill the void left by Francesa, a titan of sports-talk radio. But Mark Chernoff, the station's program director, who has a major role in hiring, told The Record that the station would "like to consider him" and "If he's interested and we're interested, it's worth pursuing."
Calling into the "Boomer and Carton" show that he regularly co-hosts, Christie was asked Thursday if he had officially thrown his hat into the ring for the afternoon show.
"No. Apparently Mark Chernoff stole a hat of mine and threw it into the ring for me. I didn't know he was my agent," Christie said.
But just as he is barred from profiting off writing a book, a law that Christie sought to have changed, the governor is prohibited from engaging in employment discussions. The state ethics code says state officers or employees "must refrain from circulating resumes or in any manner seeking employment with those (interested) individuals or entities while still in state service."
Christie has been careful about how he words his responses to rumors about his future. Francesa himself asked Christie last month whether he would be interested in his job as WFAN's afternoon host.
"Mike, you don't throw your hat in the ring for that kind of thing. You just see what happens," Christie said.
Last week, during an appearance on SNY's "Baseball Night in New York," Christie was asked by host Doug Willliams: "Do you want my job or something like it?" Christie said that with 10 months left in office he has to start thinking about his next job and he "would love to do something like that as part of what I do in the next phase of my career." One of the show's panelists followed up, telling Christie that he could fulfill his job requirements - to make money, have fun and spend more time with his kids - "if you had a little radio slot every day, or something like that."
"I've heard rumors about that," Christie said.
In the WFAN interview Thursday, Christie did refute a recent New York Post report that he told his staff that he is taking a job in the White House.
"The New York Post report was blatantly false," Christie said.
Christie kept with the sports theme to discuss his future.
"When my term concludes at the end of 2017, I will be considering all different kinds of options about what to do next with my career," he said. "I feel like a bit of a baseball player. I'll be a free agent for the first time in 16 years. We'll see what happens."


The Gabriola Health and Wellness Collaborative presents Gabriola Reads: Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari.
Let's start a dialogue about substance use and the opioid crisis. Read Chasing the Scream and talk to others about what you read. Participate in our upcoming book club in early spring.
Drop by the Gabriola Island Branch to pick up your copy today.


Monday, 27. September 2010 Rhein Chemie Corporation will showcase its expertise in rubber and polymer technology.
Rhein Chemie Corporation will showcase its expertise in rubber and polymer technology at the American Chemical Society's three-day Rubber Expo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Frontier Airlines Center on October 12-14, 2010 in booth #210.
Rhein Chemie Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of LANXESS Corporation and a supplier of products and services for the polymer and chemical processing industries, will highlight its preweighed batch ready cure systems, specialty polymer bound cure systems, and broad range of performance chemicals for the rubber industry.
Jonathon Nienaber will moderate the Student Colloquium Sessions on Wednesday, October 13 at the Frontier Airlines Center.
The Rubber Division, ACS will host theRubber Expo&178th Technical Meeting at the Frontier Airlines Center in Milwaukee, WI on October 12-14, 2010.
Technical Meeting Symposia topics include: Adhesion To Reinforcement & Substrates, Advances In Tire Traction, Wear & Predictive Testing, Analytical Characterization Of Rubber, Bio-Polymers, Engineered And Molded Rubber Products, Environmentally Compatible Compounding Ingredients, Future Needs For Processing And Testing, Mechanics And Modeling Of Rubber, New Commercial Developments and Rubber Recycling. The meeting will also feature the 7th Annual Student Colloquium of oral and poster presentations from college and university students around the world as well as a Job Fair.
TheEducational Symposiumwill feature the following seminars: Fundamentals of Color and Appearance, Failure of Rubber and Plastics by Physical and Chemical Analysis and Chemistry and Technology of Polymeric Materials Used in Medical Devices.


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Kapiti can make the most of cyber security skills shortages
New Zealand is facing a security skills shortage, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says.
Kapiti has produced a number of successful start up companies in this industry and it appears there are plenty of opportunities to expand and at the same time upskill many young Kapiti students looking for a future in the tech industry.
Muller will be hosting a roundtable discussion on the hidden threat of the growing shortage of available people with cyber-security skills at the New Zealand security summit in Wellington tomorrow (October 17).
While most of the summit will focus on the latest tools and techniques for protecting an organisation from the rampant rise in cyber-security threats, the lack of cyber-security skills is a real issue, Muller says.
"A recent report from Cisco announced there was a global cyber security skills shortage of more than one million people, as governments and corporations struggle to keep up with the growth in cyber threats.
"Right now in the United States there are over 200,000 open cyber security jobs without candidates and cyber jobs have grown 74 percent in the last five years. Nearly 75 percent of US security professionals say they do not have enough staff to defend their organisations against current threats."
"In New Zealand the government and the tech sector have recognised this growing global problem and have created a collaborative private-public sector taskforce to proactively initiate solutions within New Zealand such as the introduction of specialist tertiary degrees and the inclusion of cyber security in the new school curricula.
"Ironically this could present a wonderful opportunity for New Zealand. If we can maintain our international reputation as a safe and secure country and produce world class cyber professionals, security could become a significant export earner over the next decade.
"Skills shortages in any industry mean that salaries will always be high and cybersecurity is no exception. The demand for talent is so acute that US cities are offering huge salaries to attract the right people and skills."
Among the speakers at tomorrow's summit are KPMG cyber security senior manager Caroline Carver, Foodstuffs South Island chief information officer Phil Wright, Vodafone head of security Colin James, Ministry of Justice senior security specialist Lana Tosic, Air New Zealand chief information security officer Frederick Laury and Xero heading of security Paul MacPherson.
The effective and safe use of information technology has the potential to deliver incredible benefits to the New Zealand economy by enabling greater efficiency and productivity. The technology industry is fast becoming a significant source of export revenues for the country accounting for at least $6.3 billion in exports last year.


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Archive for the 'Personal Reflection' Category
BINGE READING
Most people are aware of – and have probably indulged in – binge watching. I have for "Game of Thrones," and "Grace and Frankie" and "Happy Valley" and "Red Dwarf." Many weeks, I'll save all four episodes of "EastEnders" to watch in one block. (The time commitment is the same as for a feature-length movie, but with fresh popcorn.)
I also tend to binge read.
I'll read a positive review of the latest book in a series, think it sounds like something I would enjoy, and then realize I've never read any of the earlier books. So I start from the beginning. It's not a problem when there are, for example, five earlier books. But when an author has been writing the same series for a couple of decades and now has over twenty books in print, the prospect can be daunting. Plus expensive, even with e-books. (And many libraries, because of space restrictions, cull older books from their shelves.) But I do it anyway. Sometimes, I'm rewarded by an author who is so good that I buy the next book in her series before I finish the earlier one, so I can continue to read without a break.
But there is a potential difficulty with binge reading. Not only can it become tedious (I generally take a break and read something else after Book #3. Or #4. Definitely by #12.), but the idiosyncratic, "charming" tropes an author uses, whether consciously or not, become, to put it bluntly, annoying.
When an author comes out with a maximum of one book every year, it's easy to forget during the time lag that these writing quirks exist. One author, throughout all his books, describes, in detail, every trip, no matter how short, with names of streets and stores I don't know, plus all the traffic and parking woes. When reading one or two books a week instead of one book every one or two years, it becomes painfully obvious that the technique is not only frustrating, but pointless. This author, whose books aren't very long anyway, includes so much information about traffic jams that I began to suspect he was using the details as filler to make the books longer. The fact that the mysteries were pretty thin and not very complex or even interesting became obvious by the end of Book #2. I read the next one anyway, and then stopped when I realized he was repeating himself. I suspect he had discovered cut-and-paste.
Another author's protagonist tends to have brilliant leaps of logic that help him solve mysteries that have everyone else – police, private detectives, family, friends – baffled. But he lacks the thoughtfulness and insightfulness of a Holmes or Poirot. He just suddenly knows what happened. And during the book he displays all the traits usually ascribed to TSTL (too stupid to live) females. Hey, if someone has just tried to kill your daughter, and is also targeting you, and you go with her to her apartment and notice right away the lock has been jimmied, what do you do? My protagonist (and I) would go back outside and call 9-1-1. What does he do? Enter the apartment, find the light switch doesn't work, let his daughter precede him inside. Of course, both of them are attacked. To make things worse, in another book – come to think of it, in every book – he knows he shouldn't be doing what he does and then isn't surprised when he gets hit over the head or locked in an abandoned building. If he's not surprised and expects it's an ambush, you'd think he'd avoid the situation instead of walking into the trap, sometimes several times in the same book.
The time span between books also leads to a kind of amnesia. "Hmm," I think, "I read the previous book last year. I think I enjoyed it." So I'll read the next one, and then part way through remember that I hadn't particularly liked the protagonist or the setting or the mystery. I read it anyway, though, because I have a completion fetish. I avoid that mistake when reading one book in a series after another with no gap between them, and so I don't bother reading another in which the protagonist has not changed or developed. Or worse, I don't find her likeable or believable.
Fortunately, I've found the valuable gems – those books I can't wait to download so I can continue reading without a break– far outnumber the plastic baubles. I'm so glad I have a Kindle.
Personal Reflection, WRITING
PUBLIC COMMENT TO PINELANDS COMMISSION
I am not a politician. I am not a scientist. I am not a botanist nor a biologist nor an ornithologist. I am not an expert in history, neither natural nor human. I am not an ecologist nor a professional conservationist. I drive a hybrid, but I also travel by air. I try not to use chemical fertilizers or pesticides or weed killers in my garden, but I also have no intention of pulling out poison ivy by hand. I compost and recycle, but I use my garbage disposal. In other words, I am a regular citizen, with all the contradictions that entails.
When I first moved to South Jersey in 1981, I had never heard of the Pine Barrens. I knew nothing about Elizabeth White and her cultivation of the first commercially viable blueberries. I had never heard tales of the Jersey Devil. I had never visited Atsion Lake or Batsto or driven on a sugar sand road or seen the Caranza Memorial or climbed the fire tower on top Apple Pie Hill. Wharton to me was the name of a graduate school of business in West Philadelphia.
I then read John McPhee's The Pine Barrens and so began my fascination with this incredible treasure in our backyards.
I am not naïve enough to think the Pine Barrens we know and enjoy are the same ones that existed when the Leni Lenape were the only human inhabitants of the area. Forests were clear cut to provide timber to fire the forges that produced cannon balls for Washington's army and decorative fireplace surrounds for the industrialists who owned those forges. Rivers were dammed to create the lakes that provided the water power for mills. Cranberry bogs were dug and houses were built – small cabins for the workers in company towns and huge mansions for their bosses.
But in November, 1978, the US Congress through the National Parks and Recreation Act, created the Pinelands National Reserve. Only three months later, in February, 1979, the Pinelands Commission was established, followed in June by Governor Brendan Byrne's signing of the Pinelands Protection Act. By January, 1981, both Governor Byrne and the US Secretary of the Interior approved the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan. In 1988, the United Nations formally recognized the uniqueness of the Pine Barrens by designating the area a Biosphere Reserve.
Because of the vision and the political will of Governor Byrne and others like him, we are able to enjoy the natural beauty of the Pine Barrens. If not for those actions almost forty years ago, we would now be sitting in the midst of a sprawling urban enclave, complete with a supersonic airport, shopping malls, a city, and miles of concrete and asphalt.
We cannot undo the mistakes of the past centuries – the destruction of the original old-growth forests, the damming of the rivers, the creation of factories and farms – whether they were done through ignorance or greed or even the need to survive. But you, as the officially appointed stewards of the Pinelands National Reserve, can prevent the repeat of these errors. You have within your power the ability to prevent the degradation of the land and the dismantling of the intentions of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan by voting NO to the installment of a natural gas pipeline through the Pinelands. Please vote your conscience, not expediency.
NATURE, NEW JERSEY, Personal Reflection
AN ANTI-TRAVELOGUE
I've been lax about updating my blog entries because whenever I decide to share an insight or event, whether personal or political (aren't they the same?) or book-related, I post it on Facebook. I'm aware that not everyone who reads my blog is a Facebook friend or follower, so I decided I'd collect the comments and pictures I had posed during an incredible three-week trip Gary and I took in August to Seattle, Vancouver, southwest Alaska (on a cruise through the Inner Passage with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Glacier Bay), Denali, and Fairbanks.
But I discovered a problem when I began to write my travelogue: a written description of a trip, even complete with pictures, is boring. Remember those old film strips teachers would show in class? Boring. Remember going to dinner at some elderly (to you) relatives' house and later having to sit through an interminably long slide show of their vacation? Boring. Remember bringing home a new boyfriend or girlfriend and having your parents pull out all your baby pictures? Boring. Not to mention embarrassing.
I was on the trip, and I can assure you the reality was terrific. We were never bored. We did things we didn't think we'd ever do, saw things we'd never seen, had experiences we'd never imagined, reconnected with friends we hadn't seen for forty or more years. But when I read what I had written, I was bored. I was bored while writing it. Even the pictures were boring – after a while, all mountains volcanoes, rivers, waterfalls look the same.
Doling out the information, complete with my wryly humorous (to my mind anyway) observations, in short bits once a day (more or less) may have been entertaining. Putting it into a running narrative is … have I said this yet? … boring.
So instead of a travelogue, here are some life lessons I culled along the way. In no particular order. And without relevant pictures.
It's very hard to take decent pictures with an iPhone. But it's even harder to take pictures without it, as I learned one day when I didn't get a picture of a Bald Eagle posing close by. I had left my tote bag with my wallet and phone in the trunk of the car of a lovely Seattle couple who took me birding one day. I was wearing yoga pants (hey, they're comfy – I've never even tried yoga) and a tee-shirt, without pockets. Fortunately, the couple had a very good camera and emailed me the picture.
It's harder to take pictures from a moving train. Particularly when it's raining. And I have the blurry pictures to prove it.
It's hardest to take pictures of wildlife, especially when they're far off and moving. And the train is also moving. Wildlife photographers must have infinite patience – and very high quality cameras. And very fast (or is it slow?) exposure to get pictures of Orcas and Humpbacked Whales when they are breaching.
It's fun to get out of one's comfort zone, as I discovered on a solo trip to Mount Baker, in a rented car, without cell phone reception. Fortunately, it was a direct route from Bellingham, where I visited some friends. (Notice, I didn't say it was a straight route.) But it's also a good idea not to be too reckless, which is why the following day I took a bus tour to Mount Rainier.
And it can be rewarding to try – and succeed – at something you didn't think you could do. On the way to Mt. Baker, I took a side trip to Nooksack Falls. For the first time in years, I was able to go down (and back up) a fortunately short but extremely steep rock and tree root strewn trail to the waterfall. I got to the vantage point to discover I was too short to see over the chain link safety fence so I could take pix, but I managed to climb up some rocks to see over the fence. I was so proud of myself, I texted Gary, who was a presenter and participant of the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies in Seattle, and said, "Look what I did, all by myself!"
Sometimes, it's nice to be taken care of. After we went through customs at Vancouver and boarded our cruise ship, we didn't schlep our luggage again until we left Fairbanks to fly to Seattle and then home. The luggage was already in our cabin on the ship and in our rooms in Denali and Fairbanks.
You can find a minyan anywhere. There's an episode of "Northern Exposure" in which the Jewish doctor who has been assigned to the interior of Alaska is looking for a quorum to say Kaddish, the Mourners' Prayer, for his uncle. He has a dream in which he rounds up everyone named Cohen (even the writers/directors the Coen brothers). We did the same thing, but in our case it was done through eavesdropping and then corralling anyone we heard speaking Hebrew so I could say Kaddish on the first anniversary of my mother's death. We even found an American who, after the three of us kept staring at each other, turned out to be an acquaintance from our graduate school years in Philadelphia. A couple of days later, we all got together again and held Shabbat services (interrupted by a sighting of a pod of sea otters) and had dinner together.
And you never know who lives in far-flung places. We had dinner in Skagway with a rabbinic colleague who lives in Israel but visits his kids in Skagway every summer. And we had dinner in Fairbanks with a classmate from my undergraduate days in Boston who has lived in Fairbanks for several years.
Global warming is real. Just ask any Alaskan, at least the ones we met. If you're not convinced by their apologizes that the waterfalls aren't as spectacular as usual because of the lack of snow the past few winters, then read about how the glaciers are receding at an accelerated rate.
You think you'll remember where you were and what you saw. You won't. It's a good thing I filed all the pix as soon as I could into folders on my iPhone or the only reason I would have been able to tell the difference between Mount Baker and Mount Rainer is I saw the former, but the latter was hidden by clouds. (We did get a distant view of it from the Seattle Space Needle.) As I mentioned above, after a while, all mountains, volcanoes, rivers, waterfalls look the same.
It doesn't matter if everything blurs together; there's always Professor Google to remind you of the difference between the taiga and the tundra.
I can survive quite well without Wi-Fi, but only if I have cell phone reception and can check emails, texts, news notifications, and Facebook several times a day. Otherwise, I suffer withdrawal symptoms, as evidenced by my checking every few minutes to see if we had reception yet.
Even if you can't remember all the details, the pictures – even the blurry ones – still show the splendor of the planet.
Finally, if you bump into me and don't think you'll be bored, I'll be happy to show you all 399 of my pictures.
NATURE, Personal Reflection
PSALM 115 AND RELEVANCE TODAY
During Hallel at services during Shavuot, I was struck by the contemporary relevance of Psalm 115. Here is a modern translation:
They have mouths, but cannot speak.
They have eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear.
They have noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel.
They have feet, but cannot walk.
They have mouths, but cannot make a sound.
They will become like the idols they made and trust in them.
With just a few emendations, what the psalmist wrote applies to any fanatic who follows a tyrant or a doctrinaire belief system:
They have mouths, but cannot engage in rational or respectful debate.
They have eyes, but cannot see the evidence in front of them.
They have ears, but cannot hear opposing points of view.
They have noses, but can't smell when something's not right.
They have hands, but can't feel for the suffering of others.
They have feet, but can't walk away from what is wrong.
They have mouths, but cannot question what they are told.
These extremists have already become like their idols and believe what they say.
BOOK TOUR? VACATION? BOTH? FUN! – July 28, 2010
SEE PHOTOS OF THE TRIP ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=32564&id=1675915483
Is it a book tour when the author is going to be in an area anyway and arranges some readings and signings herself? And combines the "tour" with a vacation? And does it matter? (Besides, of course, to the IRS, but I'll leave it to our accountant to figure it out.)
On July 13, I presented a program on Talk Dirty Yiddish at the annual conference of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies in LA; the next day, I repeated the program at the Orange County JCC in Irvine, and appeared at the Mystery Ink Bookstore in Huntington Beach for a signing of Chanukah Guilt. I sold books throughout the conference (and at the JCC and the bookstore). And I reread what I had already completed of Unleavened Dead and rewrote entire sections. But here's the context of the "tour":
When Gary and I were both asked to present programs at the IAJGS, we decided to take advantage of our temporary empty nest and go a week early so we could have a vacation. A real vacation, no agenda, no plans, no chores, no cooking, no cleaning, no laundry (that awaited our return home), no kids. It was the longest we'd gone away together, minus kids, in, oh, about 22 ½ years. (Natan is 22. Do the math. We did.)
We were in full tourist mode, sightseeing and eating our way through LA and environs. We took a "hop-on, hop-off" bus tour (no celeb houses, though – we figured we'd only see gates and lawns – but lots of tourists looking for celebs), went to Grauman's Chinese Theater and LaBrea Tar Pits and Santa Monica Pier (2 birds I'd never seen before , aka "lifers": Heermann's Gull and Western Gull) and the Grammy Museum and the Paley Center for Media and "South Pacific" (where we bought Ari a t-shirt, since he was in the play at camp) and Olvera Street . . . and ate . . . and ate . . . and ate. We even experienced an earthquake. (Epicenter 150 miles away, but the hotel swayed. Fun only because there were no injuries, no damage, and it lasted only a few seconds. Felt longer.)
The highlight of our eating adventures was the Mexican ice cream festival at a restaurant next to the hotel. Even without the kids to witness our transgression, we felt guilty eating dessert for dinner, so we had a guacamole appetizer first. Then the ice cream. Mexican chocolate (cinnamon made it different) and blueberry and Mexican cookie (cinnamon again) dough and sweet cream and, my favorite, the most intensely flavored mint I'd ever tasted, laced with ribbons of Mexican chocolate and topped with pomegranate sauce. I'd better move on to another topic before I short out my laptop from the drool.
After the conference began, Gary was busy attending sessions. So, the ever devoted spouse, I rented a car and took off on my own. I went up to Griffith Park, home not only of the iconic Griffith Observatory, film location of the observatory scenes in "Rebel without a Cause;" not only of a bird sanctuary, where I saw a lifer black Phoebe; but of the newly (to me anyway) iconic Greek Theatre. I had no idea the pseudonymous site of "Get Him to the Greek" was an actual place. It was, unfortunately, closed, so I had to look elsewhere for an Infant Sorrow t-shirt for Natan.
I continued down the hill (mountain? Earthquake-created mound?), around the corner, and up the hill to the LA Zoo. (Another lifer in the rushing water feature at the entrance: American Dipper. Don't ask why I didn't take a picture. Truth: I didn't think of it.)
Then it was off to Franklin Canyon, where I discovered the joys of driving a car on 1 ½ lane switchbacks with cars coming in both directions. It's also where I discovered that a GPS with spoken directions is much safer than trying to look at a printout from Google Maps (often inaccurate) while driving on said switchbacks. For once in my life, I drove with both hands on the wheel, my foot hovering over the brake, and my eyes firmly on the road. Fortunately, I made it; unfortunately, the nature center (but not the grounds) had closed 10 minutes earlier and the ranger wouldn't unlock it for me. But I did get another lifer: an Anna's hummingbird. Two, in fact, flittering around a tree. Not even at a feeder.
I ended the day at the Milky Way, a Kosher dairy restaurant owned by Lea Spielberg. Yes, the mother of that Spielberg. She greeted me at the door, showed me to my table, was very gracious, asked me about myself and then told the other patrons (no celebs, alas; at least none I recognized) that I was a rabbi from New Jersey. She was particularly tickled when I told her I lived near Haddonfield, where the family lived when Steven (may I call him "Steven"?) was growing up. I gave her one of my cards with info. about my books and fantasized for about 2 minutes about getting an email from her son. I told her how much Ari likes Schindler's List, which he saw as part of his class on literature of the Holocaust, and she told me proudly how Steven had taken her with him to Poland. She said she every now and then looks in the mirror and thinks, "I'm WHOSE mother?"
Oh, did I mention that we ate a lot of great food?
On the way back east, we took the redeye to Minneapolis, a puddle jumper to Rhinelander, WI, rented a car, drove to the middle of nowhere, turned left and kept going until we reached Camp Ramah in the North Woods (aka Conover), WI. We had missed visiting day because of our LA trip and came for Shabbat instead.
It was a wonderful experience, unhurried, uncrowded, peaceful.
But hot. It's supposed to be cold, or at least chilly, up there. It wasn't. So we didn't need all the sweaters and long pants we'd brought (bringing our individual bags to just under the 50 lb. limit for each). We did, however, need insect repellant. Ten days later, and I'm still scratching.
Best of all, of course, was seeing Ari and witnessing for ourselves what a terrific and successful summer he's having.
Worst of all was getting home again. The trip was fine. And Natan picked us up at the Philadelphia airport. It was great to see Natan, who had not only kept the plants on the back deck alive but had planted new ones on the front porch. We could tell he hadn't taken advantage of our absence (not that we expected him to) and had a wild party, because the house was as messy as we had left it. (If he'd had a party, he would have had to straighten up first and his friends would have left the place in better condition than we had.) It was the transition back to "real life" that was tough. I may have been away from work for 2 weeks, but it then took another week to get caught up.
Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted. But Unleavened Dead won't write itself.
Did I mention we ate our way through LA?
IN MEMORIUM: ESTHER (PLATZMAN) SCHNEIDER
It's traditional not to offer a eulogy at a graveside funeral, but my mother was anything but traditional.
We all – including my mother – knew this day was coming, but that knowledge doesn't make the reality any easier.
All of us will miss her greatly, especially my father. They began to date when my mother was 15, and her mother first allowed her to date. When a boy asked her out before she was 15, and my grandmother refused to allow her to go, my mother threatened to jump out the window. According to my mother, her mother said, "Go ahead; we live on the first floor." My mother's version of her first date with my father is that she had also been asked out by another boy, but my father was going to take her to a Chinese restaurant. Coming from an Orthodox family, this would be my mother's first taste of tref. She accepted my father's offer.
They knew each other well before, however, as they lived diagonally across the street from each other on Devon Street in Roxbury. My father's family lived in a large two-family, plus attic apartment, Queen Ann Victorian. His aunt and uncle and their son Barry lived on the first floor. He and his parents and sister and grandparents lived on the second floor. My mother used to babysit for Barry.
They married almost 69 years ago, still in their teens, as soon as my father was discharged from the Navy after World War II. They moved into the attic apartment over his parents, across from her parents. My mother learned to cook from her mother-in-law; my mother's mother was not known as a good cook. Almost everything I know about cooking, I learned from my mother, although she did tend to rely on cake mixes and, until I taught her better, would boil frozen vegetables. And it was from both my parents that I learned how to get along with in-laws.
Not that her relationship with her mother-in-law was without its conflicts. The other day, my father said my mother always said she wanted to be buried next to Grandma Gertrude so she could continue to argue with her.
My parents were able to stay together so long for two reasons: they shared the same moral values; and they complemented each other. My father is a pack rat. "You never know when you might need something or can adapt it for another use, so don't throw it away." My mother's approach was, "We aren't using it; get rid of it, preferably, by donating it. The compromise was to keep it, but store it in a logical place, usually the basement or garage where my mother wouldn't have to see it.
That mentality fit in with her mania for cleanliness and neatness. She complained to her doctor once that her back hurt when she got on her knees to scrub the kitchen floor. I think she was in her 70s at the time. The doctor told her there was a wonderful invention called a mop and she should consider buying one. She was the type who would clean before the cleaning woman came, check afterwards, and clean again.
But my mother was not the typical stay-at-home mom who had milk and cookies waiting for me after school. As soon as I was old enough to start Hebrew school and walk there and home alone after public school, she went to work outside the home full time.
My mother was an extremely intelligent woman. When she was in high school in the 1940s, it wasn't considered important for women to attend college, so she switched from the academic to the commercial track, and her first job after graduation was with the Grove Hall Savings Bank. She stayed there, with only a hiatus when I was young, following the bank first to Morton Street; later she worked at Newton Savings Bank in Newton Centre. For years, wherever we would go, someone would come up to her and ask, "Aren't you Esther-from-the-bank?"
I always encouraged her to go to college, especially after she retired from the bank, but for some reason she was reluctant. She never stopped learning, however, through books, lectures, and travel.
She had a phenomenal memory for names, faces, and events. She could look at a picture of her kindergarten class and name almost everyone. She was the go-to person for family history and anecdotes, from all branches of all sides of the families, hers and my father's.
She and my father loved to travel. But in addition to the usual cruise and resort vacations, they did things like live for several months in both India and Sri Lanka, where they searched out and befriended members of the Jewish communities in both countries. They also volunteered on a military base in Israel, where my father had fun fixing tanks while my mother used her extraordinary organizational skills in the office.
My mother never learned to drive. Her excuse was that she was traumatized when her father was severely injured when a teen driver leaped a curb and pinned him against a building. I suspect, though, that she was a Luddite. She resisted switching from a manual to an electric typewriter, and later never wanted to learn how to use a personal computer. She hated when the bank switched to computers, as she was convinced there were more errors than when everything was done by hand.
Yet, without the use of databases and spreadsheets and word processing, she managed to keep all the household records, handle their investments, and even leave me a hand-written list of what to do after her death about life insurance, pension plans, etc. Everything was planned in detail in advance.
Even after she became weakened by years of chemo and radiation treatments for lymphoma – both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's – she fortunately retained her mental acuity, and continued with her interest in the news (and outrage at non-liberal – and some liberal – politicians), love of books and classic movies, and deep commitment to Judaism.
My parents were not very observant when I was younger, although they belonged to an Orthodox synagogue in Mattapan and were active in its social activities. It was only after they moved to Newton and joined a Conservative synagogue that they became more observant, keeping Kashrut, for example, and my mother became a bat mitzvah. They were active in many areas of the Massachusetts Jewish community, from Soviet Jewry to the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts to their affiliation with and involvement with Temple Reyim in Newton and Congregation Aschei Chesed on the Cape, which they helped found. And their Jewish commitments didn't wane in Florida, with their activities on behalf of Temple Torah.
Both my parents have been long-time liberals. Their response to the Bush win over Gore was to become active in the Florida Democratic Committee. My mother loved to engage people in political debates. My father told me one of their neighbors, a right-wing Republican, lamented he'd have no one to argue with now.
Many people didn't realize it, but my mother had a very subtle sense of humor. My favorite story happened when I was a baby. My cousin Peter, Barry's brother, who lived in the same house, was born five weeks before me. He also had red hair. My mother would take both of us out on walks, and people would stop and say, "Oh, how cute. Are they twins?" To which my mother would reply, "No, they're five weeks apart," and then walk on without looking back.
And, of course, there's family. As I said before, she never considered her in-laws to be anything but parents, and my husband Gary as her son. One of her biggest regrets was that she was unable to travel to Boston for her brother Barney's funeral.
And there was her adoration of her grandsons, Natan and Ari. When we called my parents to tell them that they were grandparents after Natan's arrival, they were preparing to go the Cape for the weekend. They switched directions, drove to NJ, and only afterwards realized they hadn't packed things they kept at the Cape, like nightwear and toothbrushes. Ari's bar mitzvah was the last time they traveled. There was no way my mother was going to miss the occasion. No phone call – and there were a lot of them – was complete without my giving a full rundown on all the boys' activities.
I had planned to speak briefly, but once I began writing, I realized I couldn't say everything important about her 87 years in just a few words. And I'm still not sure I've done her justice. Her passing has left a big hole in the lives of all who knew and loved her.
THE JOKE'S ON ME
I don't like practical jokes, even on April Fools Day. I never really enjoyed the original "Candid Camera," and have never seen "Punk'd." I squirm when I see people humiliated in public. Or in private. So it was completely unintentional, and rather ironic, when I became the perpetrator of such a hoax.
It began on March 31, when fellow Oak Tree Press author Sharon Moore emailed all of the OTP authors to check the blog on April 1 for an important announcement. When I clicked on the site the following day, there was a "press release" from Sharon that OTP publisher Billie Johnson had signed a deal with Simon and Schuster. "Wow," I thought naively, "I wonder if S&S is going to distribute our books under a new imprint." Then I read further and realized it was a doozy of an April Fools Day joke. Billie, Sharon wrote, was purchasing S&S! After I stopped chuckling, I sent an email announcing that I had big news, too: my books had been optioned by Hollywood, Broadway, and TV.
I thought my joke was so good (and absurd – I love absurdist humor) that I posted a version of the email onto my FaceBook page. I wrote:
"I was sworn to secrecy until April 1, but I can now announce my Rabbi Aviva Cohen books have been optioned as a movie by Spielberg, as a series by HBO, and as a musical by Sondheim. Bette Midler will star in all 3 productions. And Mel Brooks is teaming up with Gene Wilder and Carl Reiner to adapt Talk Dirty Yiddish as a PBS special."
And that's when the joke was on me.
Many people got it. I got a lot of comments along the lines of "Yeah, you wish." But I got others with what seemed to be sincere congratulations
The April 1 "dateline" hadn't tipped everyone off. So I added a link to Sharon's blog. I still got awed responses. So I suggested people check the date of the posting. Still too subtle. So I posted it was a joke. Some friends responded to the original post without checking the comments. Two days later, after 135 likes (some for the cleverness of the joke) and 87 comments (many from people who understood it was a hoax), I posted a new status explaining it was a joke.
My favorite response was from an author I consider a friend (I hope she still feels the same about me) who wrote, "You mean I just wasted hours being green with envy? And now my husband is laughing at me." But I couldn't tell if she were serious, or if she had realized it was a joke and was going along with it.
And that's really the crux of the matter. As I wrote in my mea culpa, the joke must have been a success if people believed it. But, I continued, it also "demonstrates the limits of the written word for communication, as people can't hear tone of voice and inflections or observe body language."
My idea is not original. Much has been written about how hard it is to know what someone intends when reading a post or a text. A whole industry – that of emoticons – is devoted to "solving" the problem. But is that big grin meant to be ironic? Is someone hiding behind the winking face to disguise an insult? Even my favorite comic strip, "Pearls before Swine," devoted a series to using emoticons to excuse nasty comments. ("If you're hurt by what I said, it's your problem. I added a wink.")
How can we really be communicating when comments are taken out of context and there are no auditory or visual cues to help understand what is meant?
Do I have answers? No. Just more questions. And puzzlement.
But I do appreciate my husband's perspective on the matter. He told me I should be flattered that people thought the news could be possible. It meant they liked my books. Of course, it could also mean they have a low opinion of popular culture. I prefer to believe that they do think my books are that good. So if anyone has contact with Spielberg or Sondheim or HBO or Bette Midler or Mel Brooks or Carl Reiner or Gene Wilder, please let them know I'm willing to accept offers. But, please, no prank contacts from them. I, too, can be very gullible.
How to Make Charoset. (Huh?)
The major theme of Passover is the universal one of celebrating the journey from slavery to freedom, from tyranny to independence. The foods served and displayed on the Seder plate, in the center of the table, all have symbolic meanings relating to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt: the matzah (unleavened bread) for the haste with which the Israelites fled from Egypt; the horseradish or other bitter herb for the bitterness of oppression; the shank bone for the 10th plague, when the Israelites put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts to ward off the Angel of Death, and to represent the Paschal offering in the days of the Temple; the greens to represent the spring season; salt water, to represent the tears that were shed under the cruelty of the taskmasters; the hardboiled egg to symbolize wholeness and the cycle of the year; and the charoset, to remind us of the mortar the Israelites used to make bricks.
"Charoset?" you ask. "Never heard of it. What is it? And who wants to eat mortar?"
Glad you asked. Charoset is a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon and red wine. Other families may have their favorites, made with figs, dates, and other fruits. But apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine are the ingredients I grew up with. Sometimes, I'm a traditionalist.
It's simple to make: put all the ingredients into a food processor (so maybe I'm not that much of a traditionalist) and mush it up. Taste. Decide it's missing something. Add more wine. Taste. Now it's too watery. Add more nuts. Taste. Now it's too bland. Add more cinnamon. Taste. Now it's too sharp. Add more apples. Look for a larger bowl. Taste. Give up and decide it's fine the way it is.
I've been following that recipe for years, and have yet to hear any complaints. Our guests wouldn't dare complain. If they do, they'll be in charge of making the charoset next year.
To my friends who celebrate Passover, have a hag sameach (happy holiday) and a zissen Pesach (a sweet Passover).
HUMOR IS SUBJECTIVE
Check out my new guest blog, hosted by Lesley Diehl, "author of cozy mysteries featuring sassy, country gals who enjoy snooping," at http://www.lesleyadiehl.com/blog. Lesley asked, "What's so funny about murder?" My answer: "Humor is subjective."
A '60s ACTIVIST IN PSWA'S COURT
Want to know how I fit in at the Public Safety Writers Association conference(s)? Find out in their Sept. newsletter; scroll down to the article A '60s ACTIVIST IN PSWA'S COURT
http://policewriter.com/wordpress/pswa-newsletter-september-2014/


Канадская певица, автор-исполнитель, дизайнер и актриса. Её дебютный альбом, Let Go, вышедший в 2002 году, был продан тиражом 16 млн копий.
Loved seeing all of your faces and performing for you here in Japan! I hope you are enjoying the new album!! Thanks for always supporting my music!
This reads my name and Head Above Water in Japanese. I wrote this out myself !!!!