A little dram will do ya

I dropped some things off at an Irish friend's house today, and she asked me to stay for a cup of coffee. She'd just bought a professional espresso machine so I said yes quickly.

After she made the coffee, her husband brought out some Irish whisky and asked if I wanted to put a little drop in my cup. It was only noon but when my friend Madeleine told me that she'd read that a woman who lived to over a hundred said she owed it to the fact that she'd had whisky with her coffee at Elevenses (what British people call late-morning coffee), I said I'd go for it.

What a great tradition. I felt much better for having the whisky even though the espresso had so much caffeine that I became agitated in the afternoon and got on my husband's nerves.

"I think you might be a bit sensitive to caffeine," he observed, which means in British under-stated talk that I was being a complete nightmare and if he'd had any Valium available, he would have administered it to me immediately.

Q & A with Casey Ann Hughes

I've already received a Food Q&A from a new reader, Casey Ann Hughes from Natchez, Mississippi. She found my blog somehow and has asked me to start contributing to a new community blog she has started called The Natchez Blog.

Food Q&A with Casey Ann Hughes

What was your favorite dish from childhood: Canned asparagus. It was considered a luxury item, and children were only allowed one, as my parents ate the rest. Being rationed like that made it very appealing – to this day.

Favorite foods to prepare: Stouffer’s frozen dinners

If you could invite three people as dinner guests, who would you invite? Hillary & Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama

Where and what was your most memorable meal? Mama Mias (?) in NYC years ago. It lasted for hours and had many, many courses with lots of wines.

Favorite restaurants: Commanders Palace in NO and Monmouth in Natchez

Favorite junk food: Honey roasted peanuts, which is really good for you. Mr Goodbar, which is not.

Name three items that are always in your fridge: Canned milk for my coffee, cokes, and honey butter to jazz up my frozen veggies

Casey Ann Hughes PhD
www.caseyofnatchez.com

Q & A with my aunt Carlene

My aunt Carlene Myers Scanlon from Jackon, Mississippi, was featured in a Q&A about food in a newsletter recently. I enjoyed reading it because it gave me personal insight into her -- for example, the fact that she wished she had known her grandfathers better as they died too young. Don't we all feel wistful for the people who used to populate our lives but are now missing?

I thought it would be fun if some of you silent readers answered these questions too and sent them in for me to post -- then we could get to know you better. Send your answers to miss_mudpie@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks.

Here is what my aunt Carlene said:

What was your favorite dish from childhood: Fried oysters at a small Greek restaurant on Lamar St; creamed white potatoes and gravy at most restaurants; my mother's dressing at Thanksgiving and Christmas; fresh butter beans at Jo Corley's house in Alta Woods.

Favorite foods to prepare: tilapia [or catfish] meuniere; steak; artichokes with melted butter; crabmeat dip; sweet potato casserole; corn pudding.

If you could invite three people as dinner guests, who would you invite?
1. Laura Bush, she appears to be a congenial guest and a good conversationalist.
2. Grace Kelly, I saw her in person on the movie set during the MS Youth Tour.
3. My grandfather Mabry because I have only a slim recollection of him, as he died when I was three. And my grandfather Myers, he died when I was six and I would have liked to have known him better.

Where and what was your most memorable meal? Ernie's in San Francisco... we dined on steak, salad and potatoes with red wine in order to celebrate a friend's election to the Presidency of the Young Lawyers of the ABA. When the guys placed their money on the table, someone knocked over the wine and the poor waiter had to dry the money.

Favorite restaurants: Galatoires in N.O.; Commander's Palace in N.O.; Tony's in St. Louis [a waiter behind every person]; buffet at The Cloister at Sea Island, GA; Nick's, Mayflower, Bon Ami [in Jackson].

Favorite junk food: #1 popcorn, mixed nuts, [not junk tho]; M&M's; candy kisses; mini candy bars and most Halloween candy.

Name three items that are always in your fridge: V-8 or orange juice; fat free milk and unsalted butter.

It's me again: on the subject of food, I thought I would make some peanut butter cookies today as they are such an American treat, and my kids never have them. (Katie: I'm freezing a bag for you for the next time you come home.) I found an EZ recipe using Bisquick (below). My English husband took a bite of one of the cookies hot out of the oven, made a terrible face and was throwing it in the trash can when I became outraged and snatched it as it was traveling towards the bin and ate it myself.

Peanut Butter Cookies using Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg
1 1/2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 375 F or 190 Celsius. Mix sugars, peanut butter, shortening and egg. Stir in baking soda and Bisquick. Roll into balls, place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in criss-cross pattern with fork and bake.

Friday adventures

I took the day off and met my husband and daughter Katie for lunch in London then we went to the Babylon exhibit at the British Museum.

We had lunch in Chinatown at a dim sum place. It was a bit too authentic for me -- I think I prefer more touristy Chinese food. I had no idea what I was eating -- we just pointed at items on trolleys that the staff wheeled past and hoped for the best.

Here's Mel and me after lunch. The big Chinese New Year's parade is tomorrow so the area is all decorated. (It was so cold today that I had to keep my hat on.)

Mel spots an atheist bus
On the way to the museum, Mel spotted an atheist bus at the stop lights.

These buses have been the subject of much discussion on this blog, so we had a good laugh when we actually saw one in use. "I guess the bus driver is an atheist," my daughter commented, as a bus driver in Southampton had actually refused to drive one of these buses because of his Christian beliefs.

Babylon Exhibit
The Babylon exhibit at the British Museum was so interesting.

The greatest capital of the ancient world, the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar was a city of unrivaled splendor.

I haven't thought much about how Babylon is depicted in the Old Testament so was interested to see how its history is presented there through this exhibit. One of the Biblical stories I read as a child that left a deep impression on me was the 'handwriting on the wall' that happened during Belshazzar's feast. The museum had paintings of the event, and even had a dark space on the main wall where the handwriting was actually recreated, like you were really there yourself with the event unfolding.

I reflected how stories never have the impact again that they do when you are a child. When I read that story in bed when I was very ill with the mumps and couldn't sleep, the power of it made me sit up and read it carefully again to be sure of what it said. The house was dark and quiet; my parents were asleep in their room nearby, so I was alone with my discovery.

I studied that painting (below) in my story book over and over, amazed. I thought it was all literally true, and the world seemed a wonderful place indeed if something like that could happen.

Welcome baby Luca

I've been so busy with the trivia in my life that I forgot to report on one of the big things that happened this week -- my nephew Sam and his GF had a baby. I posted on it earlier, how Sam's baby was a surprise. My niece Lauralee is about to have a baby boy too but he hasn't appeared yet.

Because Sam's baby was a surprise, much maturity has been required from family members. They have all rallied around, and there have been no recriminations, tantrums or broken relationships because of it.

You know, I love my Southern family back home, but, boy, if this had happened to us, there would have been fireworks! Just a different view of life, I guess; you're more expected to toe the traditional family line in Mississippi.

Sam just sent us a note that he's changed five diapers, been wee'ed and poo'ed on and is in love with the baby already.

Olli-Pekka and me

I was randomly selected to attend a meeting with the CEO of Nokia, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, and no one else I knew was. When people higher up than me discovered I was invited and they weren't, they grumbled and were jealous. I mean, you don't get to spend time with a top executive in the world every day of the week. Then I felt bad, like I wasn't worthy to be in the presence of OPK (what they call him sometimes) but they were. So I decided to be grateful and take lots of notes.

I went in early to get a good seat, and there he was greeting people. "Can I get a picture?" I brazenly asked. He was taken aback but agreed so I got my photo (above).

OPK was impressive -- he gave a talk with no Powerpoint slides ("We have enough Powerpoint in the company already," he said. We have so many slide presentations here that we refer to them sometimes as 'death by Powerpoint.') or notes about how the company has to change to meet the challenges of a recession.

Afterwards, I was showing people the pic of me and Olli Pekka on my phone. Suddenly people who wouldn't have given me the time of day last week were eager to speak to me. "What did he say?" they asked, anxious about their jobs in the cutbacks to come.

I would pause, then say I'd asked specifically about their jobs to OPK. Then I'd run my fingers across my throat and make a cutting sound.

Just kidding....I told them that OPK said they were important members of the company and their jobs are totally safe.

Equine Business degree

When my friend Elizabeth and I were attending Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, a long time ago we used to make fun of students getting odd-sounding degrees in equestrian-related things. We could understand riding horses and getting qualifications in riding and training, etc., but some of the stuff they got degrees in made us laugh.

Today on the MSN website is an article about how pets can help students cope with stress. I read the first paragraph and immediately remembered Elizabeth and how we poked fun at horsey degrees. I am more mature now and wouldn't make fun of this stuff these days but I still don't know what the degrees mean. So you tell me, what does a person who has a degree in Equine Business Studies actually do?

When school gets too overwhelming, college student Joanna Olsen has a tried-and-true stress reliever: an hour of Frisbee with her dog, Mischka.

“She always seems to know when I’m stressed and comes over and paws at me if I seem out of it,” says Olsen, a senior equine business major at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., of her beloved rat terrier.

How's your morals?

The French trainer on our course this morning greeted us with, "How's your morals today?"

Of course he meant 'How is your morale?' or 'how are you feeling after yesterday's session?' I pointed to the guy across the table and said, 'His morals are very bad.'

After we had a laugh over that, the trainer indicated it was time to start the serious work of the course. "Let's make zee Blah Blah," he said. I loved that Frenglish (French English) way of saying that we were going to discuss the coursework.

We were learning how easy it is to ruin corporate relationships if you mishandle them. I was interested to learn that in Japan, if someone gives you a business card, you don't just stuff it in your bag, but you must make a show of scrutinizing it with interest, and you must make a favorable comment about the job title. ('Hmmm, head janitor...what responsibility you have. What power.')

The attendee from the Casablanca office said that doing business in Africa, especially in Mauritania was tricky. Say you schedule a trip for a day, from 9 until 4. In the morning, you can't talk about business until an elaborate tea ceremony is completed by which time it is lunch. You can't talk about business during lunch, and it goes on for hours. He said by the time they are ready to talk about the contract you've brought for them to sign, it's time for your taxi back to the airport to leave. Only then, when you are all in the car together going to the airport, can you pull out the business documents and talk about them and get those signatures.

English radio does an American Civil War program

I heard a documentary about the American Civil War on English radio this weekend. It was interesting for a few reasons:

* Part of it was about the siege of my town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They read a jokey menu that a soldier had written about what might be served at the local hotel for lunch -- all the entrees were mule-based, and the dessert was acorns. (Vicksburgers had to live in caves during Grant's siege and were starving.)

* The Southern accents that the British actors attempted were appalling! Some of them sounded more like Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies than Robert E. Lee. Why didn't they just pick a few Southern expats off the streets of London to read the native dialog? (London is full of expat Southerners, especially where any American food is sold.)

* I realized that I learned so much from just listening to the facts of the war rather than watching a TV documentary where you can get distracted by the scenery and re-enactments.

Which brings me to my major beef: why does the camera have to linger so lovingly over the profiles of the people presenting documentaries? Why can't they just show me (well, us, the audience) the footage rather than us having to watch so-and-so react to it first then viewing his (it is invariably a 'he') profile as he surveys the scene? I hate wasting all that time with the admiring camera angles. Just tell me the stuff, and let me decide how to react. Otherwise, I'll just stick to the radio.

An un-blogworthy course

I'm on a course this week on Managing 3rd party relationships. We have to do things like learn the legal documents that must be in place before we do any work with companies outside Nokia. I was thinking during a break how there wasn't much that was blogworthy about the course.

One guy on the course is from the Nokia office in Casablanca. Wouldn't that be fun, to live and work in Casablanca. In my mind I think the place must still be like the movie set of Casablanca with Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart around every corner.

Giving God credit

I thought this was an interesting article from a London paper today:

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

Attenborough went further in his opposition to creationism, saying it was "terrible" when it was taught alongside evolution as an alternative perspective. "It's like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five ... Evolution is not a theory; it is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066."

Attenborough, who attended the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester in the 1930s, said he was astonished at manifestations of Christian faith.

"It never really occurred to me to believe in God - and I had nothing to rebel against, my parents told me nothing whatsoever. But I do remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever ... and thinking, he can't really believe all that, can he? How incredible!"

I've been culled

My daughter was trying to go to my blog to read any posts about herself (she is blatant about liking to see herself featured in a post) but she mistyped my name. It was then that she noticed that one of my posts had been culled and used in a Jury Experiences blog.

A post I wrote about my mother going on jury duty had been filed under 'Jurors can help stop the injustice.'

Here's the excerpt they used. Feels very strange to me to see my material used in this way. I guess all's fair in cyber space though.

Mom does jury duty [Mississippi]
http://www.elizabethscanlonthomas.com/2008/03/mom-does-jury-duty.html

"But it was at the end of the trial that I got the biggest shock. My father went to say hello to the judge — my father was well liked by law-enforcement officials because they would give him confiscated moonshine to test in his pathology lab to see if it was safe to drink so they could take it home to enjoy later. Anyway, the judge gave me a wink and a smile and said about the trial: as long as it’s blacks killing other blacks, we don’t care what happens! (only he didn’t say blacks)."

Lemon socialism

I'd never heard the term Lemon Socialism before. Wiki definition is at the bottom of the post. The term is used by Robert Reich, who was the 22nd U.S. Labor Secretary, in his blog:

"The federal government -- that is, you and I and every other taxpayer -- has taken ownership of giant home mortgagors Fannie and Freddie, which are by now basket cases. We've also put hundreds of millions into Wall Street banks, which are still flowing red ink and seem everyday to be in worse shape. We've bailed out the giant insurer AIG, which is failing. We've given GM and Chrysler the first installments of what are likely to turn into big bailouts. It's hard to find anyone who will place a big bet on the future of these two.
...
Put it all together and at this rate, the government -- that is, taxpayers -- will own much of the housing, auto, and financial sectors of the economy, those sectors
that are failing fastest.

It's called Lemon Socialism. Taxpayers support the lemons. Capitalism is reserved for the winners."


from Wiki:

Lemon socialism is a term for the practice in supposedly free market capitalist economies in which the government steps in to bailout or otherwise subsidize weak or failing firms.

Happy Chinese New Year

Xing Nian Hao! Gong Xi Fa Cai !

Apparently this means Happy New Year and Happy Spring Festival in Mandarin. One of my Nokia colleagues sent this cheerful picture to everyone in the office with these greetings. He also brought in loads of Chinese snacks to share but I can't really offer those to you in cyberspace.

There are so many different cultures working here at Nokia; so much opportunity to learn from people about different ways of thinking and living.

And on a more practical note, this guy can help my son with his Mandarin homework when he gets stuck.

Don't scare him

My daughter brought her boyfriend back with her from a rowing race in London to our house for dinner last night. (They were both wearing gold medals for coming in first like they were suddenly Olympic champions in rowing.) "Please don't act too eccentric," she said to me.

"I'm not eccentric," I protested. She rolled her eyes.

"You are the most eccentric person I know," she said. I saw one of our foster cats walking past. "I'm not eccentric, am I?" I said to it.

"See!" my daughter said. "That's what I mean. You're talking to the cat."

"But I'm not expecting it to answer me," I said, defending myself.

Anyway, we had a delightful dinner of meat pies, taters and a veg. (There's a restaurant in Reading called Sweeney Todd's that makes delish meat pies of all types, and I had cleverly bought four earlier so had enough food for our last-minute guest.)

While they ate, I made beignets, the New Orleans treat. What a mess that was to make (rolling out dough, getting covered in flour, hot oil spewing nearby) then I fretted when I threw them into the hot fat, willing them to puff out and rise. Afterwards, I covered them in powdered sugar.

But you can't have beignets without some milky hot drink so I got out the last Spanish chocolate from the fridge (I brought it back from our summer vacation), melted it down and made hot chocolate. Mmmm.

As Katie and her BF were leaving, I said, "I wasn't too bad, was I?" She laughed and the BF smiled and said all was well.

Beignets were brought to Louisiana by the Acadians. ... Today, the beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar.

Chai Wallah

Ever since I saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire last weekend, I've been calling people 'chai wallahs.' It's a term that describes the lowly boys who make and bring others tea. In the movie, the chai wallah becomes rich by answering all the questions correctly on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

I was in a meeting last week with my boss and other members of my group who are Indian. They think I'm just a provincial American who knows nothing of other cultures so when I addressed one of them as 'chai wallah,' was he shocked. I had such a laugh over his surprise but I probably didn't do my career any good.

My husband always makes the tea at home because I can't be trusted to make a proper British cup of tea so now he's the new 'chai wallah.'

what is a chai wallah?

A wallah is one who performs a specific task. A rickshaw wallah drives the rickshaw, a dhobi wallah washes clothes and chai wallahs, you guessed it, they make chai. Chai wallahs are everywhere in India. Everywhere. From busy urban street corners to hidden alleyways, at bus depots and railway platforms and walking through the train car, along riversides and on footpaths that lead to pilgrimage sites in the middle of nowhere — when you need a fresh cup of tea, the chai wallah is always near.

What we do for beauty

I read this somewhere today:

Our women ancestors have left us a legacy of beauty insecurity. Women have a heritage of being willing to do all sorts of harmful and disrespectful things to their bodies to make themselves more 'beautiful.'

We have gone from corset stays to Botox -- how far have we really come?

Meditate your way to weight loss

Women who want to lose weight should ditch their diets and learn to relax instead, research shows.

At the end of a two-year study, women who followed a programme of yoga and meditation had lost weight and kept it off, while those who focused purely on exercise and nutrition had not.

The 'relaxed' women were also generally happier and healthier at the end of the study.

Experts believe that reducing stress stops cravings for fatty foods and sweets.

The team at the University of Otago in New Zealand divided 225 overweight women into three groups, according to the paper in the journal Preventive Medicine.

The first group took part in yoga, meditation, and positive visualisation. The second group focused on physical exercise and nutrition, while the third received nutrition information in the post.

But 'the most striking results' were in the first group --they had an average weight loss of five and a half pounds (2.5kg).

Dr Horwath added: 'At the two-year mark, these women were the only ones to maintain the psychological and medical symptom improvements. 'The positive results are exciting, given the limited long-term success of traditional dieting approaches.
'By learning and practising relaxation techniques as part of a wider lifestyle change programme, women have effective tools to manage stress and emotions without resorting to unhealthy eating.'

Intimidated by a British accent?

I've already done a post on a similar topic. Let me refresh your memory, then read the Gawker post below that ran today.

I wrote:

"Brits assume I am stupid because I have a thick Mississippi accent...I have learned to avoid the mistake of assuming that a person with a posh British accent is intelligent. In fact, it can often be the opposite -- the posher the accent, the dumber the person.

Americans, we have to stop being intimidated by their accents. One time I saw Jeffrey Archer (before he became a convicted criminal) intimidating an American interviewer on TV by speaking like he was a member of the Royal Family. (Brits exaggerate their accents when they feel the fear of an American being intimidated, I can tell you.) I was annoyed with her for displaying her Accent Insecurity like that.
Remember, a posh accent does not equal intelligence!"

Here's the story today from Gawker (www.gawker.com):

Professional annoying person Toby Young has an oh-so-self-serving theory as to why he is detested as a Top Chef judge: Americans cannot handle a person who speaks in complete, correct sentences.

After our own Joshua Stein said Young "knows little bordering on nothing about food" and called him "a self-serving whiny drunk pissant," and after many other critics railed against his Top Chef performance, Young fired back a reply in the Evening Standard:

"Almost all the reviewers — and there were dozens of them — accused me of regurgitating lines I had written down beforehand, irrespective of whether they applied to the dishes or not. For instance, I said of one plate of food, in which the vegetables were much better cooked than the two meat components: ‘It rather reminded me of one of those Hollywood films in which classically trained British actors have been cast in character roles. The two leads were upstaged by the supporting cast.’

Now, I can assure you that I came up with this on the spot — no great shakes, considering it isn’t exactly Wildean in its wit. But one of the penalties of being a well-educated Brit in America is that people are constantly accusing you of having memorised lines for the simple reason that you talk in complete sentences and — completely unheard of, this — you don’t make any grammatical mistakes."

America as the last man standing

Addendum: I put this post up this morning then asked a Muslim colleague to read it and comment on it. His comments appear after the original post and make fascinating reading.

I have readers of this blog in the UK who tell me they like to read it to know what Americans are thinking. For that reason, I will post some of an email I received from the US the other day. Americans haven't had as much experience with Muslim populations as those who live in England or Europe have so this sort of speech resonates with some of their deeper fears:

America as the last man standing 'In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe?'

Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem. The speech was sponsored by the Hudson Institute on September 25.

"Dear friends,Thank you very much for inviting me. I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.

The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city."

Any thoughts? Please comment. Would love to hear your opinion.

One of my Muslim colleagues has responded to this post. His opinion is below:

"The speech which is in your email is from Geert Wilders, the right-wing Dutch MP, who asked Quran to be banned in Holland and is being faced in Court. He is worried that Muslims will outnumber Europeans by 2050 and that Islam will be way of life in Europe. If he is worried, it's his problem.

YES that’s true that Islam is spreading not only in Europe & UK but also in America. Words used by the Geert Wilders are annoying and disturbing for any Muslim, but I think its understood when someone gets frustrated & afraid of Islmic lifestyle. In fact, there is no need to be worried about this. They (Mulims in Europe) are doing what local laws allows them to do. As long as they abide by the rules and regulations of a society & living peacfully, its OK whether person is from a Muslim, Jew or Buddhist community.

WHY THESE PEOPLE ARE COMING TO EUROPE? Because there countries have been ruled by dictators who are not willing to give basic rights to them. Then these rulers are being supported by West (Europe) specially America. We would never stay in Europe, if it wasn't for Capitalist's West ideology and Values propagated and imposed on Muslim world. West goes by what benefits her. For example they promote democracy, but they remain silent on Dictatorships. They want freedom for people, yet they occupy Muslim lands.

As I mentioned earlier, after coming to Europe, local laws allow them to live peacefully (which they did) and in any way practice their religion. SO whats the problem? No Muslim has ever make a mockery of Prophet JESUS or DAVID or JOSEPH. We all respect them more than you do, but you can count yourself how many time Prophet Muhammad have been insulted by Christian extermists. What does that show?

Elizabeth, THIS WORLD HAS THREE MAJOR COMMUNITIES.

MUSLIM, JEWS & CHRISTIANS ( NO NO NO)

Its
LIBERALS ( muslims, jews, christians)
MODERATE ( muslims, jews, christians)
EXTREMISTS ( muslims, jews, christians)

It’s the Extremist group which is causing problem everywhere. And everywhere means all over the world. But the problem is that nobody holds extremist Jews or Christians responsible for the problem; its only the Muslims extremists held responsible for all the problems. That actually tilts the balance of Moderate Muslims towards the extremist side causing a unbalance in a society. Once again, we being Muslims are not responsible for the deeds of these extremist groups but being part of Islamic community, the west hold us responsible.

Anyhow...
It’s the responsibility of every Jew, Christian & Muslim to identify this Extremist group within themselves and do not listen to them as they want this unbalance to occur in communities helping them causing chaos in the society. Geert Wilders is one of them.

Now the decision is yours."

Gratuitous photo of my daughter

My daughter's boyfriend has a fancy camera that takes great photos. I just had to put this one up of my daughter because I'm being self-indulgent.

Katie is in med school so we get little e-mails from her that read like this:

"Oh guess what! I'm attending a post mortem tomorrow at Tommie's Hospital (the one opposite Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament what I was taken to after my road traffic accident). It's at 8 AM but I know it'll be so superawesome as to be worth it. Apparently sometimes the bodies are still warm. Too much detail? Perhaps. I'll tell you all about it if you want to know more, tomorrow. =)"

'Still warm bodies'?? I think I'd pass on that experience myself.

There is no reason not to follow your heart

I love this Steve Jobs quote:

"In 2005, two years after he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Jobs waxed philosophical about death in a commencement address he delivered at Stanford University:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

A little dilemma

I walked to a store during my lunch break to get some stuff to put in a box for wounded soldiers in a base in Germany. What an unassailable excuse it made too to get out of running with the girls at lunch. ('While I would love nothing better than to come on a two-mile run with you, I must do my duty and put together a care packager for wounded soldiers.' I usually wimp out with just an 'I'm tired' excuse.)

So I'm in the store filling up a basket with things they might like (a Willie Nelson CD or reggae? A scary movie or a comedy?) -- shampoo, socks, toothpaste, chocolate -- then I come on to the last thing in the list: cigarettes.

I pause for a bit. I don't really like getting people cigarettes; I run over my options in my mind, then get in line for cigarettes. But it's a long line so I have time to think. So what would you have done? Buy the cigarettes or not? I'll tell you what I did if you tell me what you would have done first.

Inauguration Book Club meet

At book club last night, we discussed Barack Obama's book Dreams of My Father as we watched highlights of the inauguration. We all enjoyed reading the book very much but Obama's experiences resonated most with a woman in our group who was born in Africa, lived in Alabama and now lives in England. She had been sent from Africa to a small college in Alabama, and unfortunately she experienced racism for the first time. I was glad to see her so happy about Obama coming to power because, of course, I come from the part of Southern society that would have been racist to her, if you see what I mean.

Here she is with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot to celebrate the day, still wearing her Obama campaign badge:

Here's our hostess, Manju, with Obama on the TV screen:

While we were at our meeting, we began to discuss Michelle O's lime-green-gold outfit that she wore for the swearing in. I told them that I'd seen something on the web asking if it was a dress or upholstery? Some things never change. A momentous day in history and we end up discussing clothes!

Also I noted that the most hits on the inauguration website were for the recipes for the big lunch where Ted Kennedy had a seizure. (Was the food really that bad?)

Here's the menu and the URL for the recipes:

The main course, "Brace of American Birds," features Duck Breast with Cherry Chutney, Herb-Roasted Pheasant with Wild Rice Stuffing, and Molasses-Whipped Sweet Potatoes. The birds hail from a small farm in Indiana, a nod to the Land of Lincoln. Dessert is Apple Cinnamon Sponge Cake, which takes inspiration from Lincoln's love of apples, said to be a favorite snack.

Didn't get your invite? No problem! You can still eat with the Obamas from home:

Seafood Stew
Duck Breast with Cherry Chutney
Herb Roasted Pheasant with Wild Rice Stuffing
Molasses Whipped Sweet Potatoes
Winter Vegetables
Cinnamon Apple Sponge Cake

Obama's Lunch Recipes

To learn more about this historic meal, visit the site of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. There are details on the floral arrangements, music, and Mary Todd Lincoln's White House china, upon which — you guessed it — the meal will be served.

Love this quote

"Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate."

So long

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. --Dr. Johnson.

Timely advice

I thought once I got the kids out of diapers and primary school, life would be smooth sailing. But no! It's gotten more complicated than ever. I can't seem to do anything right with my teen son and was falling into despair. Surely, I thought, there cannot be a worse parent than I am.

Then an old Christmas card fell out of a box of decorations last December. A friend from Boston wrote a note with an update on her family. The card was written years ago but what she wrote couldn't have been more timely for me. She detailed some problems she was having with her son, and it was as if I had written the words myself about my current problems. The fact that she, a woman I consider a great mother and a better person than I am, had suffered with the same problems meant that maybe I wasn't total crap at this mothering thing after all. Maybe this sort of thing happens to all of us.

I was so grateful to have this unexpected boost that I wrote her a note. I thanked her for the words of comfort she'd written years before I was to ever need them.

She wrote back, sending me a picture of her family. They have a family goal of visiting each of the 50 states of America as a family, and they only have one state left. I thought that was a fun idea. Here's a pic of them in Alaska, with no Sarah Palin in sight:

Another religious post

Faithful reader Theresa wrote that she knows how much some of us enjoy religious discussions in this blog so she sent this in:

1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people.

2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world.

4. Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.

Ha! You thought it was going to be something contentious, didn't you?

Gym whining

I knew I should go to the office gym at lunch -- it's good for me, it helps me with my back and knee probs, etc. But I didn't want to go. I don't feel like it, I whined to myself. I have my period; I have this jaw pain -- I want to skip today.

On and on my internal wrangling went until finally I picked my bag to go out the door, still whining inside my brain.

As I pushed through the heavy revolving doors, I saw a man coming towards me who could barely walk. He was using a cane and a complicated technique for swinging one leg ahead of the other to get where he was going. I could see this wasn't a temporary injury but part of his permanent existence.

My bad attitude vanished the instant I saw him. I became grateful that I was even able to use the gym, and ashamed of my whining.

National Day of Service

I thought having a national day of service today was a great idea. See information below. Yesterday I wrote a wounded soldier at Walter Reed army hospital, and one day this week after work, I'm going to buy the stuff for a care package to send to the army hospital in Germany.

"Democrats Abroad urges you to participate in the community service day on January 19in one of the ways outlined below. Our service to the community in January 2009 can make a significant difference, just as our votes did in November 2008."

Inaugural Community Service Initiatives

President-elect Barack Obama has requested that the Inauguration celebrations include a community service activity on January 19, 2009, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. The international leadership of Democrats Abroad has chosen two activities to be conducted by Democrats Abroad around the world. We hope you and your family will join us in supporting these efforts by contributing a bit of your time to these community service activities.

1. The Wounded Warrior letter writing campaign supports the wounded servicemen and women who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, who receive far too little attention and who are in much need of emotional support. You can do your part by writing letters or cards yourself or by organizing a group of your friends and family to do so together.

In addition, you can send wounded servicemen and women simple care packages with snacks and personal hygiene products they have difficulty obtaining in the hospital. Democrats Abroad will also be hosting a letter writing event on January 19in Washington for leaders and members attending the Inauguration. Help make this a worldwide Democrats Abroad effort by participating and writing to our service men and women.

For those who will be writing from home, please find the addresses to which letters, cards and packages can be sent directly, below.

Address for the Platoon (in Iraq):

1LT Lange-Geise
F Co (PFDR)/2-10 AVN
COB Speicher
APO AE 09393 USA

Care Packages: The wounded especially appreciate chocolate and cologne. Other items needed include: new DVDs (no extreme violence); new CDs (no violent lyrics or profanity); new portable CD players with headphones; new washcloths, hand towels and bath towel s (dark colors are best); lip balm (Mentholatum, chapstick, etc.); mouthwash, shampoo, conditioner and hair gel (travel size only); toothbrushes and bar soap travel holders; mint and cinnamon chewing gum; new duffle bags; new men's and women's boxer shorts/underwear; new sweatshirts and sweat pants; new T-shirts; baseball caps, etc.

Please Send to Care Packages to:

Staff Sergeant Scott Jordan
Wounded Warriors Landstuhl
Wendelinusstr Apt 4
Ramstein, Germany
66877

Brook Army Medical Center
Attn: Gift Coordinator
3851 Roger Brook Drive
Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234 USA

Note – this is where the amputee clinic is and some letters here would also be greatly appreciated

A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington , D.C. 20307-5001 USA

Sunday evening

Just took an antihistamine after playing with my new foster cats. I'm allergic to the things, but I still love them. Actually, I was just saying in a comment that one of them just lives in a shelf in a storage cabinet behind the sofa and a curtain so it's like he doesn't even exist.

Slumdog Millionaire
Have you seen this movie yet? My son wanted to go see it. I haven't been inside a movie theatre for almost a year. People talking and texting on their phones had driven me away.

We braved it and were enchanted by this movie. I'm going to ask my Indian friends at work what they thought about it. It could be a totally distorted view of India and life there so I want to know if it is.

The Roaring '20s
I've been reading Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties by Lucy Moore. I want to discuss the concept of 'welfare capitalism' that Harding, Coolidge and Hoover thought was the best economic policy at some point. (The idea is that if government doesn't interfere with business, then companies profit and will be 'altruistic' with their employees with high salaries and good benefits. The courts in the '20s thought it was unconstitutional to regulate labor practices so decisions usually went against women and children.)

Until I finish the book, though, I will just share this little anecdote from it for now:

"In the early 1920s, Listerine, variously used in the 19th century as a surgical antiseptic, a cure for veneral disease and a floor cleaner, was transformed by advertising into a magical product that would free its user from the dreadful life-ruining scourge of halitosis -- a faux-medical term for bad breath invented by the marketing men. Their advertisements showed a downcast girl holding her friend's bridal bouquet above the caption, Often a bridesmaid, never a bride. The cause of her loneliness was 'chronic halitosis' -- which happily Listerine (rebranded as a mouthwash) promised to cure."

See I fell for that. I thought 'halitosis' was a real medical term, and we have several bottles of Listerine upstairs.

American individualism has made its imprint on Christianity

Thank you to another reader who sent in an article with her comment below. I haven't asked permission from her to use her name so will just put this up anonymously for now. Thanks for sending it in.

"This article sounds like a follow up to something you were discussing a week or two back.

I love the NO God bus signs. Wish more people would practice being good people and kind to one another instead of spouting religious doctrine and telling other people how to think/believe!"

American individualism has made its imprint on Christianity

A sizable majority of the country's faithful no longer hew closely to orthodox teachings, and look more to themselves than to churches or denominations to define their religious convictions, according to two recent surveys. More than half of all Christians also believe that some non-Christians can get into heaven.

"Growing numbers of people now serve as their own theologian-in-residence," said George Barna, president of Barna Group, on releasing findings of one of the polls on Jan. 12.

In the Barna survey, 71 percent of American adults say they are more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a defined set of teachings from a particular church. Even among born-again Christians, 61 percent pick and choose from the beliefs of different denominations. For people under the age of 25, the number rises to 82 percent.

Many "cafeteria Christians" go beyond the teachings of Christian denominations to embrace parts of other world religions.

Half of Americans also believe that Christianity is now just one of many faith options people can choose from (44 percent disagree with that perception). Residents of the Northeast and West were more likely than those in the South and Midwest to say Christianity has lost its status as the favored American religion.

Christians expressed a variety of unorthodox beliefs in the poll. Nearly half of those interviewed do not believe in the existence of Satan, one-third believe Jesus sinned while on earth, and two-fifths say they don't have a responsibility to share their faith with others.

The most striking divergence from orthodoxy, however, was first revealed in the 2007 US Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That comprehensive survey of 35,000 Americans found a majority of Christians saying that people of other religions can find salvation and eternal life.

The results stirred controversy among some Christian leaders for whom Jesus as the only path to salvation is a paramount teaching. Some questioned whether those surveyed about "other religions" might have been thinking of Christian denominations or traditions - such as Protestants referring to Roman Catholicism - rather than non Christian faiths.

Pew undertook a follow-up survey, which it released in late December. That poll found 65 percent of American Christians (including 47 percent of Evangelicals) do indeed think that many different religions can lead to eternal life. Among these Christians, 80 percent cited one non-Christian faith as a route to salvation; 61 percent named two or more.

The survey also asked about views on how one obtains eternal life. Among all adults with a religious affiliation, 30 percent say correct beliefs are what counts, 29 percent say salvation depends on one's actions during life, while 10 percent say both are essential. Those who emphasize the impact of actions are more inclined to believe that practitioners of non-Christian faiths can achieve eternal life. Most of those who emphasize beliefs say non-Christian paths do not lead to heaven.

The poll confirms a broad rejection of religious exclusivity. Among all religious adults interviewed, 65 percent say many religions lead to eternal life and only 29 percent say theirs is the one true faith. Sixty-nine percent of all non-Jews say Judaism can lead to eternal life and 52 percent of non-Muslims say that of Islam.

Forty-two percent of religious Americans also say atheists are able to find eternal life.

While some people hail these findings as heartening for American pluralism, others see them as a wake-up call. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary writes on his blog about biblical Christianity's role in countering such inclusive views and helping people find the true Christian way.
Others point to the power of egalitarian American culture.

"It's just part of a 200-year working out of ideas about personal autonomy and equality that are sort of built into the American experience," says Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. "The notion that someone is going to burn in hell because they have their own beliefs is just not resonant within our larger political ideals."

A Tale of Two Babies

I have two sister-in-laws, and this week I discovered both of them will become grandmothers within days. But the stories of their grandchildren's babies could not be more different.

My niece Lauralee has been planning and planning for her baby boy's arrival. She's even kept a detailed blog of her pregnancy, posting photos of herself and scans of the baby. We have all followed her adventures and await Chase's arrival impatiently.

My nephew Sam, on the other hand, thought having a baby was a far-off event for him. That is until he received a phone call: "You are going to be a dad," his girlfriend's father told him. "Next week." Sam, in shock, thanked him for that info and hung up. Then he called back immediately. "Can you run that by me again?"

(Sam's girlfriend had been putting on a bit of weight, but they thought it was just too many calories.)

I am keeping track of both babies, and have calculated that they will end up being born only days apart. Wouldn't that be cool if they ended up coming on the same day?

My latest cats

I went out this morning to pick up my new foster cats, Jasper and Molly. When they got to our house, they went and hid, like they think I am going to be a bad mother or something. Here they are hiding in a tiny corner next to the fridge where I keep the recycled trash and brooms and dustpan.

After I took this photo, Molly hid behind the dishwasher and got stuck. She had to mew until I heard her to rescue her. How embarrassing to hide away then have to call attention to yourself because you can't get out.

I talked to the lady who just adopted my last cat Lizzie today. Apparently Lizzie just LOVES life with her already. Hmph. I wanted Lizzie to miss me a teeny bit....

What men have said about women

Nature intended women to be our slaves....They are our property; we are not theirs. They belong to us, just as a tree that bears fruit belongs to the gardener. What a mad idea to demand equality for women!...Women are nothing but machines for producing children. Napoleon Bonaparte

That Napoleon -- he had some great ideas! Here's another one:

In August 1798, Napoleon wrote, "I hope...I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness."

(Later Napoleon's secretary Bourienne wrote that his employer had no serious interest in Islam or any other religion beyond their political value.)

A vaguely related topic
I feel that I can now show you a photo of the Russian fridge magnets one of my friends brought me back from her Christmas visit home. (I am making this tenuous link to Napoleon because he invaded Russia, but really I just wanted to show you these adorable magnets I was given yesterday.) I think I am the only person at Nokia who has a matryoshka and a samovar magnet in her cube.

I am desperate to visit Russia someday. Vlad, one of my Russian friends at work, brought me a book on St. Isaac's Catherdral in St. Petersburg back from his trip home, and yesterday another friend brought me these magnets. I sure would like to get a look at Lenin someday too. Is he still out in public?

Atheist bus signs update

The bus driver in this article below is so fastidious in his beliefs. You wonder if he will next refuse to drive the bus if any atheist or non-Christians are on it. Maybe we will want to scrutinize reading material brought on to the bus or perhaps he will refuse to let people board who have on T-shirts with slogans he disagrees with.

"A shocked Christian bus driver refused to drive his vehicle after he turned up at work and discovered an advert on the side saying: 'There's probably no God.'

Ron Heather, 62, told bosses he was horrified and could not take the bus out because the atheist advert conflicted with his own religious beliefs.

He then walked out of his shift in Southampton, Hampshire, in protest.

The First Bus vehicle was one of 800 across the country to feature the first-ever atheist advertising campaign, run by the British Humanist Association.

The slogan says: 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.'

The campaign has been backed by archsceptic and evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins, who claims the existence of God is about as likely as that of the tooth fairy.

Now bosses at First Bus have had to make special arrangements to accomodate Mr Heather's religious beliefs by making other buses without the advert available to him."

My stress-isode

I decided that I must be having a stress episode these last few days, or stress-isode as I've shortened it to in my mind. All the jaw clenching and pain -- then last night I went to rehearsal for the Philharmonia Chorus in London and found I wasn't singing very well -- my throat was very tight. I had an audition scheduled after rehearsals as the new chorus master wants everyone to be assessed. I was nervous about that anyway, but about 3/4 the way through rehearsal, my voice conked out. How embarrassing is that to have to say, "I can't do the audition because my voice has just gone?" But I had to anyway -- the woman I told this to was not pleased as there aren't any other dates I could do it on. So I've messed up her schedule, and she let me know that. Another thing for me to feel bad about ! Yay. Just what I needed.

On the train home, there were two loud abusive drunks, and it was only 9:45 in the evening. One drunk got on with his portable DVD player. He turned the volume up full blast so he could hear his Spiderman movie. (Is it harder to hear when you are totally plastered?) When someone asked him to turn it down, he threatened to kill him. Then he raged to his girlfriend for the next 30 minutes about how good-natured he was and how other people should just let him live his life, and oh, how angry he was that the man asked him to turn the sound down. He should have whacked him when he asked. In fact, he'd like to kill him now. Where was he? (He turned to check but the man had left the carriage.) One thing that did make me laugh was when he broke off his murderous rage to say to his girlfriend, "Look at Spiderman. This is the movie where he loses his superhuman powers." He sounded like such an idiot at that moment, not a scary drunk.

The other drunk was in the next carriage. He was not so aggressive. He wanted to know where to get off for the Reading stop but kept drinking and falling asleep when people tried to tell him. "Are there bookies at that stop?" he asked. "Is there a zoo?" I was one of the last people on the train so was supposed to tell him to get off then but then I smelled a terrible smell, like he had just wee'ed all over himself I thought he can stay on this train 'til the end of time for all I care, and walked away.

Another reason to drag your ass to the gym

New research published in the international journal Neurobiology of Aging by Marc Poulin, PhD, DPhil, finds that being physically fit helps the brain function at the top of its game. An Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Senior Scholar, Poulin finds that physical activity benefits blood flow in the brain, and, as a result, cognitive abilities.

"Being sedentary is now considered a risk factor for stroke and dementia," says
Poulin, a scientist in the Faculties of Medicine and Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. "This study proves for the first time that people who are fit have better blood flow to their brain. Our findings also show that better blood flow translates into improved cognition."

The study, Effects of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Cerebral Blood Flow on Cognitive Outcomes in Older Women, compares two groups of women whose average age was 65 years old. From a random sample of 42 women living in Calgary, the study observed women who took part in regular aerobic activity, and another group of women who were inactive. Poulin's team recorded and measured the women's cardiovascular health, resting brain blood flow and the reserve capacity of blood vessels in the brain, as well as cognitive functions. The team included scientists, doctors and graduate students, with MSc student Allison Brown taking a lead role.

The scientists found that compared to the inactive group, the active group had lower (10 per cent) resting and exercising arterial blood pressure, higher (5 per cent vascular responses in the brain during submaximal exercise and when the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood were elevated, and higher (10 per cent) cognitive function scores.

One study participant, Calgarian Merceda Schmidt, 91 years old, walks about six kilometres per week to her volunteer schoolteaching and piano playing commitments. "It's just in my nature - the batteries I got when I was born. My legs want to go," says Schmidt. "I have to admit, I was nervous before the bike test. I could've done better if my shoe hadn't fallen off."

More on atheist bus slogans

Alert blog reader Paul has sent me an update on the fight over the slogan on sides of London buses that says "God probably doesn't exist so enjoy your life."

"Officials at the Advertising Standards Authority are now considering whether to tackle the question that has taxed the minds of the world's greatest thinkers for centuries.

It has recorded 48 complaints since Tuesday when buses first hit the streets emblazoned with the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." At least 40 more people were understood to have made objections by last night.

Most of those who have contacted the ASA consider the adverts offensive and say they break guidelines on taste and decency.

However Stephen Green, the Christian campaigner who led the protests against the BBC's broadcast of Jerry Springer – The Opera, is claiming they should be taken down because the statement in the adverts cannot be substantiated.

He said: "If you're going to put out what appears to be a factual statement then you have to be able to back it up. They've got to substantiate this proposition that in all probability, God doesn't exist."

The ASA is now considering whether to investigate his complaint, which could lead to it reaching a deep ontological conclusion about a supreme being.

If it ruled that the wording in the posters was unsubstantiated, it would be interpreted as effectively saying that in all probability God does exist."

This sort of reminds me of the movie "Miracle on 34th Street" where they end up in court and a judge has to make a ruling on whether Santa Claus exists or not.

God hires an ad agency

We have so many religious discussions on this blog. Maybe a healing activity would be for all of us to take part in a virtual Book Club. Here's my nomination for the first book.

"Bob Zyskowsi, respected journalist for The Catholic Spirit, featured Steffan Postaer’s recently released The Happy Soul Industry in his October 6 blog Bobz Book Reviews. While Zyskowski wished for a “tad less bowing to the convention that sex sells,” he also says that the books “has worthwhile lessons to share about life and faith and virtue and marketing.”

In Postaer’s The Happy Soul Industry, God acknowledges that people aren’t responding to the message anymore. So She (yes, God is a She in this book) looks for a different approach and finds a solution by hiring an ad agency."



I'm just kidding about reading this book. It sounds like total crap but marrying God and marketing seems a logical next step for declining church membership.

Flying saucers attack

I had to leave work early to go to the doctor because I was having muscles spasms in my jaw and can't eat or speak properly. I was worried the doctor would tell me to go away, that I was wasting his time but he was very nice. I have some
anti-inflammatories and codeine now to combat the problem. But I ended up home early so turned on Bloomberg TV to see the latest terrible economic news. I couldn't believe it when I saw Nortel was going into bankruptcy. They were such stars in the 1990s. It seems like every day something else awful happens with job losses and bankruptcies. Today another friend of mine was laid off from a good professional job.

Then I turned to Open Access TV, my favorite channel on satellite. They'll broadcast anything, and I find some real treasures. Right now they are showing a classic 'aliens are invading the Earth' movie from the 1950s called Earth vs The Flying Saucers. It's so bad, it's good. (Sort of like Plan 9 from Outer Space.)



You know what just happened -- one of the fightened Americans in the movie fired a gun at an alien coming out of the flying saucer. "That won't kill him," my husband said. "Doesn't he know Alien Movie Rules?"

But the gunfire did kill him. It seemed a violation of all the things that years of watching science-fiction movies and TV shows have taught us.

Ph.d Despondency

This is an interesting article from the Daily Beast. I swore I'd never read a Tina Brown blog, but I relented when I saw the subject of this.

"In an economy where everyone is overqualified, having an advanced degree is virtually worthless.

For six years, Rebekah slaved at Boston University for her PhD in American Studies. Her plan: work in New York as a museum curator. She pictured chatty, engrossing interviews with like-minded creative types. “Everyone would be so pleased” with her PhD, she thought. Yet eight months after graduating, Rebekah is unemployed and considering a gig at a public library that requires only a GED.

The demand for humanities PhDs has long been tight—for four decades, the number of jobs requiring them hasn’t kept pace with the number of people earning them. But by all indications, recent university hiring freezes and evaporating grant money have reduced the world’s most elite degree to junk-bond status.
...
“It took six years to write my dissertation, but getting employed feels impossible right now. There’s something a little sick about that,” says “Liz,” another freshly minted PhD who didn’t want her name used."

Boy, am I screwing up

Been reading a Victorian book on manners that I bought in a Devon antique shop. The book makes me itch after a few minutes -- must be full of mites busy destroying the pages -- they are so yellow and smelly.

Anyway, according to it, I am majorly screwing up in matters of etiquette. It admonishes:

Never introduce people to each other unless you feel quite sure that it will be agreeable to both parties.

If you are walking with one friend and meet another on the road, you must not introduce them to each other, unless you know previously that they wish for an introduction.

Ladies are not obliged to consider their ball partners as acquaintances, unless they please.

It is the lady's place to bow first to a gentleman.

It is no longer necessary to introduce the guests to each other at an evening party.

Can you imagine how abysmally I would have fared in Victorian society? I'll talk to anyone, and I make friends instantly. I love to meet people and listen to them talk. In fact, I've been snubbed in one office for speaking to people without being introduced to them first. Some Brits are still peculiar about this -- you cannot start a conversation with them without having first been introduced. When this happens at an office though, I find it so amusing. These people know perfectly well you sit near them because you are working ON THE SAME PROJECT. Get off your high horse, I used to think.

That shut me up

I was in a meeting just now, sitting next to an Indian guy who has a circle of friends at the office. When they chat informally, they don't speak English. I walk past them sometimes and try to figure out what they might be saying.

Before the meeting started, I asked, "What do you and those guys talk about? It sounds so lively."

He replied, without missing a beat, "We are planning the overthrow of the United States."

Everyone in the meeting room laughed. I thought it was an amusing way for him to tell me to mind my own business.

More wisdom from my 2009 calendar

From Saturday, the 10th of January:

I am patient with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it. -- Edith Sitwell

Note from me, not the calendar: Have you ever seen a pic of Edith Sitwell? I saw an exhibition about the Sitwells at the National Portrait Gallery once. Edith had the biggest nose I've ever seen. I think she didn't mind it, so she's an inspiration to those of us who always want to change something about our physical appearance. Who really cares anyway? Sometimes I think about getting a face lift in a few years' time, then I think, would I spend all that money and go through such pain so I would look better to -- who? -- these people I work with? My neighbours? My husband? Then the idea seems sort of crazy.

From Sunday, the 11th of January:

The good thing about starting a new year is that we have an opportunity to assess our lives and where we are in them. Taking some quiet 'assessing time' may be the most important activity we can do this month.

Life can be good

Is there anything nicer than spending a Sunday evening reading in front of a fire with a snoozing cat nearby? I don't think so. I took this picture of our foster cat Lizzie only minutes before the phone rang announcing that someone wanted to adopt her permanently. Another kitty heartbreak as we'd grown to love her. She sleeps on my son's bed every night and I'll see both of those lazy heads come down the stairs at almost the same time on weekend mornings. Except for the other night when Mikey thought Lizzie was a pillow and put his head full force on her. EEEK! she said in cat lingo then got the hell out of there.

I'll be so sad to see her go, and not have a cat in front of the fire for a while. Lizzie came to us as a stray; she was scrawny, her eyes were wild, etc. She's put on weight with us, relaxed, her eyes look completely different -- they show contentment rather than fear. So it's good that we could help her on her way to finding a real home but hard on us when they go.

I'll never reach Enlightenment

I finally got workplace resources at the office to put a chair in the company's quiet room that is only used by Muslims at the office so it is filled with Islamic stuff. That got me wondering -- if I'm in a quiet room that has not been officially designated as a religious area, do I have to observe the other users' rules to remove my shoes upon entering the room?

Anyway, my chair is in a teeny patch of the room that is not taken up by prayer mats. I sat there for a few minutes and tried to meditate but I couldn't. All I could think of was the big old sandwich I'd eaten, and why did I eat the bag of crisps too when I didn't need the calories? Then I started thinking about people who are bugging me and how to handle them politely. And so I just gave up.

I'll try again on my next lunch break tomorrow.

Miscellaneous stuff because I'm tired

I wore myself out yesterday doing a big post -- why I blathered on quite so much, I don't know. I'll keep it shorter this time.

Today I am mulling over info that my friend told me about meditation at the Buddhist Temple in Reading. She was doing it, so I went for a session so I could join her when she's there as it's only down the street from my house. She stopped by for coffee a few days later and said she's not going to go anymore because of what happened at the service. (I haven't been to a service, only to a small introductory session on how to meditate.)

"You have to chant and say things like 'All Hail to Buddha'," she explained. Then she gave me a leaflet the monk had given her. Here are a couple of lines:

'Let us pay homage eternally
To the Buddha, to the Buddha, to the Buddha.'

I thought about it and said, 'now I won't be able to do it either. You got me involved and now you are dropping out.'

But she replied, 'you decide for yourself. Don't let me influence you.'

And she was right about that. I should think for myself sometimes, but it's so hard. :)

Anyway, I think I'll go to a service this week and see how bad it is. Apparently the hailing Buddha is on either end of long sessions of seated and walking meditations so that shouldn't be so bad. I was thinking how often I just mouth the prayers to Jesus at events at my son's school or when I'm doing singing somewhere in a church or attending an Evensong so what would be the difference with Buddha?

A day in my life

Here's what's been going on with me for the past 24 hours:

Trying to get a grip on my new job
I used to be contractor so was mainly concerned with getting tasks set by others done as quickly as possible. As a permanent employee my job is different -- I have to plan long term, have meetings, do slides, hold workshops, etc. It's a different mindset.

Fighting with my son over an unbought card and wearing a jacket to a game
When I got home from the office, my son said he was going to a birthday party in 20 minutes. He was still dressed in his school uniform, making no effort to change. "I didn't know about a party," I said. "Did you get him a present or a card?"

My son expressed SURPRISE that he would need a card or a gift. That necessitated a fast trip to a corner shop to buy a card so we could put some money in it.

Listening to political opinions in a shop
Went into a shop for a card. People around the counter were having a loud conversation about the war in Gaza. "Israel is a cancer," one of them said.

I froze, waiting for lightning to strike. You would never hear this sort of sentiment voiced in a public place in America, ever.

Watching arsenic and old lace with Mel while I wait for phone call
A friend at work's band was playing in a bar in Reading on Friday night. I agreed to go and listen, but he wasn't sure what time it would start. I watched Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace while I waited. I have always loved this movie.

Going to bar to listen to friend's band
My friend told me to get to the bar by 9:15 so I did but it wasn't anywhere near time for him to play. I asked him where his band was and he said they hadn't appeared yet. I discovered this friend and I have different concepts of time. I have more rigid timetables than he does -- well more rigid than most of my friends but if I didn't, I'd never get anything done.

Drinking a sickly sweet martini while listening to bands
I had to cool my heels for about two hours in the bar before my friend's band went on. Here I am with Anna and my martini. She used to work at Nokia, and I haven't seen her since she left to work at Motorola, a competitor:

Sleeping
Got home from the bar, was a bit animated with my husband as I mocked a singer I'd heard earlier in the evening -- his songs were so derivative and his voice flat. Then conked out and went to sleep.

Waking up to a beautiful snowy morning
It snowed overnight. It wasn't anything forecast so a nice surprise when I opened the curtain. I had some coffee and read the Times.

Deciding to walk in the unsullied snow.
I thought that I must rush outside for a walk in the snow before everyone else messed up the beautiful scene so I did. Here are some pics:




Arguing with husband over really stupid things
We had a couple of energetic discussions this morning that stressed me out. One was whether to buy my son Cokes or not. I said he'd just buy one on the way home from school but my husband said it's better that he has to work to buy a Coke that way, rather than just have them supplied in the house. I'm so sure that our family's lack of Coke drinking is why my kids have no cavities -- but Mikey has been drinking Cokes more lately so we probably need to stop having them. I gave them up myself but slipped and had them over Christmas.

Doing the laundry, planning dinners for next week
Tons of dirty laundry to do, and dinners to plan and cook for next week. The only way I can manage a full-time job and commute is to do everything domestic on weekends. I plan meals, cook them and freeze them on the weekends for the week ahead.

While doing the laundry, I dropped Mel's sock in the kitty litter. I fished it out, brushed debris off it and hoped he won't notice if his sock doesn't have a clean fresh smell like the others.

Threatening son if he doesn't find my Ipod that he has lost for weeks
I have to re-audition for the Philharmonia Chorus next week, and I need to listen to recordings of the things I want to sing on my Ipod as my piano playing is too bad to accompany myself at home.

(Found out my Ipod been in the back of the car in one of those deep pockets on the back of a seat since Boxing Day but he was just too lazy to go get it when I asked him for its return.)

Started a fire because its so cold plus I knew that would flush the cat out because she's been missing all day

She loves to snooze in front of the fire so I knew she'd have to come out from wherever she was hiding.

Trying to get a blog post together before I have to get dressed and meet someone for a coffee this afternoon.

I wear pajamas for as long as I possibly can on weekend days. Will finish this post and go get dressed as my friend will be here in an hour and then we are going out for a coffee.

Christian complains about the Probably No God campaign

I got such a laugh out of this article in a London paper today. The Humanist Society is running ads on the sides of London buses saying that 'there's probably no god,' and a Christian has sued to the advertising authority saying there's plenty of evidence to support a God but 'scant evidence' to say there isn't, so the ads are untruthful and should be removed. Info and pic below.

An atheist advertising campaign claiming 'there's probably no God' has been reported to the regulator.

Hundreds of buses are due to carry the slogan in a four-week £140,000 campaign, backed by the British Humanist Association.

But Christian Voice has complained the the ads break the Advertising Standards Authority's codes on substantiation and truthfulness.

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) saying the adverts break the ASA's codes on substantiation and truthfulness.

'It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.

There is plenty of evidence for God, from people's personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world. But there is scant evidence on the other side...'

Ice skating at Nokia & the NFL

It's so cold in England that everything is frozen, including our pond at the office. One of my colleagues snapped a photo of someone ice skating on it during lunch. This is unheard of around here, that it could be that cold. I'm not sure it's safe for this guy to be out there skating but it sure sounds like fun. I've never skated on a frozen pond in my life. My friend Ellen grew up in Holland, and she used to tell me stories of skating from town to town when it was freezing.

Here's the pic:


NFL comes back to London
Any of you expats who read this blog want to go to next year's football game at Wembley? They've just announced the date and the teams:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers V New England Patriots
When: 25 October

I've gone for the past two years and had fun. I'm not taking my kids next year though. Last year they were dreadful -- pouting if they didn't get nachos or if he had a better seat than she did or whatever adolescent behavior they indulged in. My son decided he wanted to go in the third quarter and kept asking, "When are we leaving?"

They can just stay home and watch the game on satellite TV.

Fitzroy Square and interesting quotes from my 2009 calendar

I had a hectic day at work yesterday then went straight up to London afterwards to start rehearsing for a concert at Southwark Cathedral. Everything was going fine while we were singing Bruckner but then the chorus master introduced pieces by Kodaly and some contemporary composer I've never heard of who does things like make us sing in different keys within the same measure. I was totally lost; had no idea what note I was supposed to be singing.

I love walking back to the train after rehearsals because I get to walk through Fitzroy Square that is full of posh Georgian houses. It looks like the streets used in the movie My Fair Lady. I like to fantasize about what it would be like to be able to afford to live there and be in the center of things, rather than live in the "provinces" as Londoners witheringly refer to places outside their city.

Here's one of the houses I walk past on my way to rehearsals. Isn't it pretty?


Also, here's a quote from my 2009 calendar that I liked:

Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.

Eleanor Roosevelt

ps
I wanted to name a kid Eleanor but when my son was born I thought I'd better give him a more masculine name to avoid schoolyard fights. In hindsight, I wish I'd stuck a baby in the middle of Katie and Mikey, and she'd been Eleanor.

Meditating

A friend recently took up meditation. When she mentioned the place where she trained, a Buddhist temple, was just down the road from my house, I said I'd join her. I had an introductory session last night with the monk who runs it.

When I met the monk, I was struck by how she radiated contentment. She's older than I am, but she seems so youthful. She has some sort of inner joy -- when I saw her and spoke to her, I thought "I want some of that!" What a great advertisement she is for meditating.

She reminded me of the guru in Lost Horizon -- one of my favorite old movies from 1937 with Ronald Colman. Not that she looks like a 200-year-old man but the wise way that she spoke, and how at peace she seems with herself reminded me of the scene. Clip below:

Will report how what I have to do and how it's going soon.
I thought I might take advantage of the quiet room at work to meditate for 10 minutes during lunch. I went to check it out earlier today, and it's been Islam-isized by my work mates. There are prayer mats, compasses, signs pointing the way to Mecca, a list of prayer times, signs that tell you to take off your shoes when entering because this is a room of prayer and not to step on the long prayer rugs. I was intimidated. I found a couple of people who use this room for their prayers, and they told me times that were safe to use it. (Not at 12:30, 1:30, 3:30, etc.)

I did say that I might stick a Buddha and a Christian cross in the quiet room just for balance....

The uselessness of online petitions

In an expats online group I belong to, we received this:

RECENTLY YOU MAY HAVE HEARD A STORY ABOUT A YOUNG GIRL NAMED: (MEGAN MEIER) WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE BECAUSE OF ONLINE HARASSMENT, NOW I WOULD LIKE TO STOP THIS FROM EVER HAPPENING AGAIN, I MYSELF AM GOING THROUGH THE SAME ORDEAL, I FEEL THAT IT IS A TERRIBLE THING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH, AND I COULD NOT IMAGINE A YOUNG TEENAGER TO HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS ON THEIR OWN, I WOULD LIKE TO START AN ONLINE PETITION THAT IF ANYONE IS CAUGHT HARASSING, SLANDERING OR STALKING ANYONE ONLINE THEN THEY SHOULD BE FORBIDDEN FROM EVER USING OR BE ABLE TO GO ON THAT SITE
AGAIN, PEOPLE THAT DO THIS ARE CRUEL AND INSENSITIVE AND THEY NEED TO BE BANNED AND STOPPED....SO, IF YOU CAN HELP JUST BY ADDING YOUR NAME, LOCATION AND THE SITE YOU READ THIS ON TO THE PETITION BELOW THAT WOULD HELP OUT A LOT AND BE VERY APPRECIATED! !!

Don't you get tired of receiving these things to sign, and if you don't, the world will collapse? I also hate the ones that say if you don't sign it in 10 minutes, you will have bad luck. Or the ones a few years ago that if you didn't sign meant you weren't a patriot and didn't care about the troops in Iraq. Talk about arm twisting.

Luckily, another expat came in and sorted this problem out:

Claim: Signing and circulating online petitions is an effective way of remedying important issues.

Status: False.

Origins: The 2000s have seen the birth of an Internet phenomenon: the e-petition. It offers instant comfort to those outraged by the latest ills of the world through its implicit assurance that affixing their names to a statement decrying a situation and demanding change will make a difference. That assurance is a severely flawed one for a multitude of reasons.

Often petitions contain no information about whom they are ultimately intended for and instead are no more than outpourings of outrage. Expressions of outrage are fine and good, but if they don't reach someone who can have impact on the core problem, they're wasted. Thus, a petition that doesn't clearly identify the intended recipient may have some small value as a way for its signers to work off angst, but as an instrument of social change it fails miserably.

Moreover, petitions aren't the instruments of social change we'd so dearly love to believe they are. Yes, a petition festooned with a zillion signatures can have some influence, but only as a tangible proof of a subset of public opinion, and only upon those whose welfare is dependent upon public opinion (e.g., politicians) . Those signatures aren't votes, and they aren't treated as such by the governing bodies that have to decide on the tough questions of our times. At best, they're seen as an indication of the public's will, no more.

Petitions calling for the erection of a firefighters memorial or to have next Thursday designated national performing arts day have some small hope of success, but all bets are off when the question becomes more complex ("Let's solve the problem of poverty in the USA") or when acts taking place on foreign soil are the subject of the angst ("Let's end child rape in South Africa"). Difficult problems don't suddenly yield up simple solutions just because a great many fervently hope they would, nor do foreign governments feel impelled to change conditions in their countries just because folks in other lands are upset by them.

Okay, so the average e-petition isn't ultimately worth the pixels it took to create it - why are they so popular?

In a world beset by complex problems, the solutions of which will take enormous amounts of time, money, and commitment, such simplification as the e-petition provides a welcome relief. Imagine having the power to solve those problems! Moreover, imagine having it merely at the click of a mouse!

Such is the appeal. A sense of powerlessness and lack of control over events played out on the grand scale becomes replaced by the certainty that real change can be
brought about at the cost of no more effort than it takes to type a few characters on a keyboard, just enough to display one's name on a growing list of equally committed cyber activists. Through the magic of the e-petition, those left feeling like bystanders to important events are transformed into powerful agents for social change. It's heady stuff.

It's also illusion.

E-petitions are the latest manifestation of slacktivism, the search for the ultimate feel-good that derives from having come to society's rescue without having had to actually get one's hands dirty or open one's wallet. It's slacktivism that prompts us to forward appeals for business cards on behalf of a dying child intent upon having his name recorded in the Guinness World Book of Records or exhortations to others to continue circulating a particular e-mail because some big company has supposedly promised that every forward will generate monies for the care of a particular dying child. Likewise, it's slacktivism that prompts us to want to join a boycott of designated gas companies or eschew buying gasoline on a particular day rather than reduce our personal consumption of fossil fuels by driving less and taking the bus more often. Slacktivism comes in many forms (and there are many other illustrations of it on this web site; our goal was merely to offer a few examples rather than provide a definitive list), but its key defining characteristic is its central theme of doing good with little or no effort on the part of person inspired
to participate in the forwarding, exhorting, collecting, or e-signing.

Those truly committed to righting the wrongs of the world are encouraged to take pen in hand and craft actual letters to their congressmen or to whomever they deem are the appropriate people to contact about particular issues. Real letters (the kind that are written in a person's own words and sent through the regular mail) are accorded far more respect than form letters (let alone petitions), and that should be kept in mind by those intent upon being heard. Yes, the effort it takes is far larger. But so is the potential for making an actual difference.

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes. com/inboxer/ petition/ internet. asp