Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Judith's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, December 6th, 2009
11:09 am	Seasonal observances We have survived a very busy three days... Yesterday: 'Big Wave' pre-Copenhagen climate march, for which we duly dressed in blue( Read more... ) Yesterday evening: local Civic Society Xmas dinner, at our local traditional country pub, the Ferry Boat, which sits on an island in the river Lea( Read more... ) Friday evening: Wards Corner 'Winter Warmer' social, at what used to be the local Royal British Legion building, which has been taken over as a community centre called Tottenham Chances. That very day, the news came through that the Save Wards Corner campaign has been granted leave to take their appeal against a judicial review decision to the High Court. Entertainment featured a ukelele band, a cayley band (with a very dictatorial caller), an excellent bellydance trio (who borrowed the belly dance belt I wore along, as they were one short!)( Read more... ) Thursday: TWG FOE Xmas meal( Read more... ) Plans for Xmas itself: ( jigsaws ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
11:36 am	What we're up to 1) Socio-cultural quota We had just one or two free weekends after the wind-down of the summer community events season -- and now the Xmas sociability is overtaking us, plus a bit of pre-Copenhagen CO2 action. Yesterday was food co-op and community cafe up at Lordship Rec/Broadwater Farm, then 'Passing shadows and Reflections' exhibition opening at Bruce Castle of photographs by our local notable wildlife photographer and founder of Friends of Tottenham Marshes David Cottridge -- abstract patterns and textures found in nature: lots of tree bark, lichen and the games water plays with reflections and light. This afternoon, there's an 'Open Studio' in Sylvia's big house a couple of streets away, for those of us living hereabouts who do arts and crafts to show what we do. Thursday is local Friends of the Earth Xmas meal (JN is treasurer and membership sec); Friday is Wards Corner Winter Warmer -- fabulous fund-raising knees-up with local bands, food etc -- do come along if you're in the vicinity! Saturday there's the big climate march, followed by Tottenham Civic Society Xmas meal at the Ferry Boat Inn by the river and reservoirs. And the following Saturday is Friends of Tottenham Marshes Xmas social. Then we head to JN's parents in Lyme Regis the following weekend -- then back home to collapse for what we hope will be a nicely slothful Xmas at home. 2) Life aquatic Just on two years ago, I took up swimming to counteract winter sloth and accumulation of insulating flab. Once I found that goggles, swim cap and ear plugs take the pain out of putting head under water, I've taken to it like a, err, fish to water, and finally mastered overarm (crawl, freestyle) and just recently, the modern 'wave' or dolphin breaststroke -- though I still find it faster to keep head underwater for multiple strokes. So I now reckon 80 lengths (in about 55-60 mins) as a short swim, 100 lengths (in about 70-80mins) as normal swim, and 120 (in 90-100 mins) or 160 (in about 120 mins) for longer stretch. I've even started working my way through 'how to swim good' books: Janet Evans 'Total Swimming' is the best I've found so far. Now working on trying out the various stroke drills, and including more 'speed' lengths. Also having an occasional go at butterfly. So far, completely failing to somersault for tumble or flip turns at the ends. Aiming for three or more swims a week: this seems to have stabilised my weight, but not reduced it at all -- however, I tell myself, it should now mostly be muscle which is denser and heavier than flab. 3) Werking at home Joys of laptop, remote log-in to werk IT system, mobile phone -- so much easier to concentrate at home on the thinking, writing, analysis and even reading that are supposed to be the core of my job. At least, once I switch into 'at werk'mode -- and home distractions are proving less distracting than open-plan office werk distractions. It gives back the couple of hours a day otherwise spent commuting, lets me grab swim bag and fit in the aquatic regime, and nip out to local shops or neighbours. The downside is the loss of face-to-face casual encounters with colleagues; however, none of my actual team-mates are located in the London office where I'm based. On balance, I used to find that it was only at the end of the day, when others started heading off home, that I could manage to focus down on the big stuff rather than juggling small, reactive incoming stuff -- now, at home, I can focus right down on the big stuff for most of the day, and feel more effective -- cultural ecosystem services is my current favourite game. But it does make me feel even more semi-detached from the organisation, particularly the growing mass of bureaucratic process. On balance though, I think it probably does give the organisation better productivity -- and for me, it gives a sense of liberation and enjoyment that feels too good to be really legitimate... 4) Electrickery Werk has a corporate commitment to cut the organisational eco-footprint by 50% (and has also signed up to the weaker 10:10 pledge). So its acquired some 'smart meters' for loan to staff. Ours arrived while I was down with a cold -- and as I emailed back, watching it provided about the level of intellectual stimulation I could cope with in that state. The electric kettle produces a huge surge, so I've taken to boiling kettle-full and filling up a thermos flask with the extra. As well as eliminating all the 'make another cuppa' switchings on, this means instant hot water rather than waiting about for kettle to boil. JN's old desktop computer is another big energy-guzzler -- much more so than either of my laptops (werk and own). Switching on the kitchen fluorescent light pretty much doubles the normal (.04-.07 kwH) background consumption of running a couple of CFCs, the CD system, a laptop and broadband. So far our daily usage totals have fluctuated between just under 300KwH to somewhat over 500KwH, with weekly totals between 20-25KwH -- or 10-15 kg CO2. I'm not sure how where that puts us in the energy efficiency league -- have yet to track down the info sources on that. However, this year our central heating thermostat didn't switch on the boiler until at least six weeks later than the autumn temperature fall would previously have had us shivering -- we're certainly feeling the benefit of the insulation work we had down last year. No feeling of chill striking in through walls, so the inside temperature stays steadily comfortable. Our other new toy on the electrickery front is new fridge-freezer, very tall -- maximum freezer capacity, five drawers, all the way up to my chest, to store summer fruits and other allotment produce. New luxury accommodation for our lavish fridge magnet collection. 5) Other stuff This year we've been to Hadrian's Wall, Sutton Hoo, by Eurostar to Avignon and Provence in spring, and to the Loire Valley with its chateaux in September. I flew for werk to Norderns Ark zoo north of Gothenborg in Sweden. I taught on a couple of permaculture courses for Friends of Tottenham Marshes, and we explored up the Lea to Rye House and the Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey. Oh yes, garden and allotment are doing just fine, just mostly closing down for the winter. Next year, we've actually signed up for two skiffy cons -- Corflu in Winchester, and the Worldcon in Melbourne. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
2:07 pm	# 37, 38: Swimming more better... Janet Evans Total Swimming, by Janet Evans, 1971, Human Kinetics Crowood Sports Guides: Swimming -- technique, training, competition strategy (2006) The Crowood Sports Guide is written for swimming coaches, so has some useful stuff on the physics of forces, lift, drag and resistance, flow turbulence etc. However, it assumes coaching young athletes to compete and win races, which is not my bag. However, the Janet Evans guide pretty much hit the spot for me -- more about enjoying swimming while improving your general form and fitness, with fairly minimal space on strategies for maximising race performance. I've been particularly enjoying the 'corkscrew' stroke drill she desribes -- which trains you to increase your shoulder and torso rotation, increasing the power of your freestyle and backstroke pulls. Useful pre-swim warm-up routine too. So much so, I've ordered a copy from our local independent Big Green Bookshop to keep for my very own, and can now return these two copies to the local library. Am working my way through the half dozen or so books that seem to make up their swimming collection. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
7:55 pm	#34-36: interactive history, herbs and puzzling # 34 Discover Stoke Newington, The Friends of Hackney Archives Sub-titled: A walk through history. Slim vol, for interactive use. Some fine weekend, we must take it for the walk it sets out, and check what's to be seen on the ground against The Book. Walk starts at Stoke Newington station on the A10 High Rd (the Roman's Ermine St), which runs up to where we live. We alight from bus near there to do our weekly shop most Saturdays. The walk goes into Abney park Cemetery, which I regularly try to persuade JN to perambulate, and he accedes sufficiently often for us to have found the Salvation Army founders' corner -- the book details lots more monuments of at least passing interest for us to find, including PC Tyler, shot by anarchists during the Tottenham Outrage in 1909. It shows where Abney House used to stand, facing onto Church St, and makes its way along Church St to Clissold Park, which we have never yet got around to exploring, then back via Daniel Defoe and Wm Cubitt who founded Pimlico where we used to live to William Patten School where the weekly farmers market is held. We think the authors would be the friends of 'Hackney archives' rather than the 'friends of Hackney' archives, but are willing to be corrected on this. # 35 Aloe Vera: The natural Healing Choice, Lee Faber Once you have aloe vera growing, you get lots of aloe vera and lots of little baby aloe veras to sell off at community fundraising plant stalls as 'first aid kit in a pot'. Breaking off a bit of the fleshy leaf to rub on sunburn, grazes, insect bites etc was simple enough to work out, without need for instructions. This book takes a kinda folksy, relaxing tone: there are two active parts of the aloe vera plant -- the clear succulent gel and a bitter yellowish sap or 'latex' from tubules just under the skin. The bulk of the book is recipes, primarily for cosmetic lotions and, to my surprise, for eating (smoothies, wonton soup, many more...) So this is another interactive book, some of which I may get around to trying out. I think, though, I'm more likely to use it as a prop for the interest of people who might buy their own baby aloe vera from one of our summer plant stalls. # 36 Killer Sudoko: a wicked challenge for sudoku enthusiasts A book you finish by writing it as much as by reading it. Having reached the stage of being able to solve most of the Sudokos, Kakuros and Futoshikis I tackle, I started paying attention to the Saturday Guardian's Killer Sudokos. Here and there, I could spot possible numbers, occasionally even a few definite numbers, but nowhere near being able to work through a whole puzzle. So I kept an eye out for a Killer Soduko puzzle booklet, which I was sure would be available, giving helpful hints on methods and a graduated set of puzzles to practice on. All fine and dandy: most of the puzzles solved until the very final Fiendish few. Has it helped with the Guardian's Killers: nope. That is: I now search with more confidence of getting down the easy clues -- but still haven't managed to actually solve a single Guardian killer. Poot. Acquired the book at Waterloo Station WH Smith kiosk, on the way to Permaculture Association AGM. (Comment on this)
11:30 am	# 33 Grow Your Own Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Running Press For our 26th wedding anniversary, my true love gave to me: a miniature' grow your own Hanging Gardens of Babylon': this consists of a (roughly) 3" sq 3-tier plastic ziggurat in three pieces (scale 1mm=1m?), a compressed peat pellet, a dozen or so quite large round seeds, and this 3" square, 32-page booklet discussing the 'Seven Wonders of the World' as identified by the ancient Greeks, the history, archaeological evidence for, and practicalities of how the 'hanging gardens' may have been built and kept watered: water lifted from the river to the top tiers in a 'chain of buckets' mechanism, construction in stone, tile and lead lining as sun-baked clay bricks crumble with moisture. The seeds should, the booklet says, germinate in 6-7 weeks time -- just in time for Xmas. JN gave himself a similar miniature Stonehenge: again, probably in something like 1mm=1m scale. I am now looking for suitably sized Spinal Tap figurines to accompany it. They did not come supplied on a grow-your-own basis. I took JN out to dinner at the Ferry Boat Inn on the Lea, between Tottenham Hale and Walthamstow: an old-fashioned traditional English gastro-pub, catering for the anglers who hang out at the Walthamstow Reservoirs across the road; bird-watchers who visit the Reservoirs as an SSSI, Europa 2000 Special protection Area under the EU Birds Directive, and Ramsar wetland site of international ecological significance. So the dazzling pair of sequin-decked mini-Beyonces, both almost loudly and excitedly screaming into their mobile phones throughout their meal (perhaps that was their way of conversing with each other, though they were the main background noise), was a bit incongruous. A gaggle of a dozen or so assorted young persons, probably students just moved into the first building completed on the vastly ambitious Hale Village regeneration/development site, fitted in better -- one floppy-haired terribly English Tory-boy with insistently posh intonation the only one who obtruded offensively. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
9:33 am	'Ay for 'orses... 'A for 'orses B -eef or mutton C for yourself D -ferential E -eave a brick F -ervescence G -ief o' police H 'ate-cher for it I -vor Novello J -affa oranges K -ay F-rances L for leather M -pha -sis N -for -mation O -ver the garden wall P for a penny Q for bloody everything R -f a mo' S -ther Williams T for two U for me (and me for you) V -va la difference W for two bob X for omelettes Y -ife or mistress [note difference from Joe Cummings version, Letters 26/10/09) Z -phyr breezes That's the version of the 'informal forces alphabet' imparted by my dear old Dad. No doubt you are being inundated by numerous variants. Thanks to Joe Cummings [in Guardian Letters today] for tapping this rich cultural seam. Interesting how it has stuck: I think Dad, who spent part of his war-time as a radio operator, reeled it off when one of my brothers acquired a 'crystal set', that primitive form of radio, and Dad took us outside under the stars to listen to the 'Heaviside Layer' (ionosphere?) bouncing distant FM radio transmissions down so we could pick them up. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
6:21 pm	#32: Terry Pratchett -- Unseen Academicals #32: Terry Pratchett -- Unseen Academicals This will probably be the only book about football that I will ever buy or read in my life. But of course a new Pratchett is unmissable, must be acquired and devoured asap. Perhaps its because of my disinterest in all that 'beautiful game' and the cult of sublebrities that has grown up around it that I found it a bit slow to get going. It probably not giving much away to note that footballer + glam model WAG plays out around the Romeo and Juliet, or West Side Story, theme; that Vetinari takes an interest in re-writing the rules of the game; and that Arch-Chancellor Ridcully fair revels in dragging his bunch of wizards into it. Surprisingly little involvement of Ankh Morpork's finest -- surely Cpl Nobby Nobbs should have played more of a part, as should the Librarian. Still, it all comes together in the end, thanks to the self-effacing and enigmatic Mr Nutt. I even laughed out loud occasionally. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
6:19 pm	#31: Simon Hoggart -- The Hamster That Loved Puccini Allegedly humorous. Perhaps if I read in their entirety the Xmas round robins that the extracts that Hoggart holds up for our ridicule, I'd see the point. As it is, I'm puzzled that this is the second volume that Hoggart has milked from the wheeze. Sure, he reads them so we don't need to. But then, I don't need to read xmas (or other) newsletters that I'm not interested in. On the whole, writing a family newsletter, or 'what we've been up to' little perzine, and circulating to a list of people you mean to keep in contact with, seems perfectly sensible -- and I really must try to find time to emit another one. It's pretty much the basis of fandom as we know it. Sure, some people produce pretty boring self-absorbed perzines, or commit absurdities like writing as if they were pets or soft toys. When bored, stop reading and drop in (recycling) bin. Get over it. Hoggart is amusing as the Guardian's political sketch writer and Saturday columnist; that's why we picked this mint condition hardback up when we spotted it in the Mind charity shop in Stoke Newington, to which it is about to return. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
6:18 pm	#29, 30: PG Wodehouse -- 'Full Moon' and 'Heavy Weather' Two of the classic Blandings novels: Heavy Weather is the one in which sprightly old rogue Galahad Threepwood writes his scandalous memoirs of the youthful indiscretions of chaps who have fattened up into bishops, politicians and respectable pillars of society. Full Moon's plot is the affair of Aggie's fabulous diamond necklace, which Freddy Threepwood (a Bertie Wooster in all but name) gives by mistake to his beautiful but dim cousin Veronica (to whom he used to be engaged, but think nothing of it), who is on the verge of landing an American millionaire. In Full Moon, the Empress of Blandings gets her portrait painted; in Heavy Weather, the Empress gets to eat the controversial manuscript, which despite the alarm caused to the endearingly barmy Earl of Emsworth, does her no harm. The plot whirls around, in the end the baying aunts get their comeuppance, true lovers hearts beat as one, and all ends happily until next time around. Reliable fluff -- a nostalgic fantasy farce of England as it should have been. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
8:04 pm	#25-28: PG Wodehouse #25-26: PG Wodehouse -- Psmith Journalist (first published, with illustrations, 1915) and Leave it to Psmith (1924) I have the first as a hardback, with my grandfather L. Hanna's name inscribed in his elegant calligraphy inside the flyleaf. Lanks Hanna worked as a train-driver, never really recovered from the wounds he got at Gallipolli, and died before I was born. The small library he left, in a glass-fronted cupboard in Nana Hanna's neat front room where the blinds were kept drawn, introduced me to Saki, Damon Runyon, O'Henry, and massed ranks of Wodehouses. I recall being charmed by an earlier Psmith, schoolboy novel -- but couldn't find it when my mother allowed me to appropriate just four of Lanks' old books. Plum's own preface assures the reader that New York 'gangs' do really exist. The second is a US paperback edition that I probably found in a charity shop, with an introduction by one Wilfred Sheed that one reads wondering if it is part of the joke or for real. Psmith (the 'p' is silent, as in pthisis) is like a Bertie Wooster with the brains and sleek effectiveness of Jeeves rolled into his frivolously foppish persona: he oils the wheels, pulls cats out of bags, and so on. The charm of Wodehouse (as with Georgette Heyer) lies in the permutations he plays with a familiar cast of character types, settings and situations. The English chappie cast adrift in New York is one of his standards. If ublishing comes into the plot, then an innocuous family magazine for innocent tots is often what's being written and sold: here, it's called 'Cosy Moments'. Psmith decides to ginger it up into an organ promoting an honest boxer and crusading against corruption and slums, which of course stirs up the gangs. Romance is left out of this one -- except for an honest gangster's love for his cats -- but Plum makes good that deficiency in most of his various other New York stories. You can tell that 'Leave it to Psmith' comes later: Psmith himself falls in love, and being an effective chap, ends up engaged. For a reason that (a week or so after reading it) escapes me, Psmith heads for Blandings as, that useful standby, secretary to Lord Emsworth -- who at this stage is obsessed by his garden, not yet by the Empress. A languishing lady poet in residence turns out to be an American con artist, in quest of Aunt Constance's diamond necklace, which for the best of motives Psmith is also attempting to steal on behalf of Freddie Threepwood, son of the house who is, of course, a Woosterish fribble of comic incompetence. Things get mixed a treat and start to whirl (as CJ Dennis put it), guns get waved about, the con artists are unmasked, and Psmith gets his girl. Bring down curtain on nicely polished farce. #27: PG Wodehouse -- Money for Nothing Another of my grandfather's hardbacks, no copyright date. American con man running a 'health farm', an irascible squireish uncle undergoing health cure, a worthily sensible and hard-working nephew in love with daughter of neighbouring colonel who has fallen out with the uncle, plus frivolous fribble of a nephew to froth things up. Tip in a couple more American con artists just to thicken the plot. Naturally sensible nephew saves the family silver and portraits, and the girl sees sense and sinks into his arms. Curtain calls, bouquets, etc. #28: PG Wodehouse -- The Man Upstairs Short story collection, hardback inscribed by both grandpa L Hanna and my father Jack Hanna, in very similar calligraphy. First published 1914, this edition 1947. Miniatures, most dealing with various struggling young persons trying to make their way in London, or with European settings. Before Plum hit his groove and recruited his cast of trademark fops, butlers, formidable aunts, ineffectual peers, etc. More Wodehouse to come: but the drawback of living with a Tidyist is that your reminder piles of 'Books to LJ' just get vanished back into the bookshelves if you try to leave them to mature. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
9:57 am	Life etc 1) Swam 160 lengths (4 km) in 120 mins on Friday... 2) Ran plant stall for Wards Corner campaign on Saturday: raised err... Well, there was £64.55 in the tin at the end of the day, but I put in £10 change as a float at the start, and some of it was from the campaign marquee selling mugs/t-shirts/canvas bags... So probably raised about £40 in all, from a day sitting in chilly wind, far too close to noisy polluting heavy traffic. Interesting to watch the people passing: most simply didn't register the plant stall, just not part of their worldview. It was a minority whose eyes were caught by plants: seeing the green, their eyes were caught, they had to just scan and check out what the plants were, even if they carried on walking -- even if not really interested, recognising plants was part of their world view. And an even smaller minority actually stopped to see what was on offer -- and most of those who stopped to check us out bought at least one plant, because they were plant-people and interested in local community. However, I did manage to come home with just one small tray of selected plants-- a succulent, warmth loving Jamaican herb whose names include 'Spanish mint' and 'Guyanese thyme', and a clutch of verbascum/mullein/Aaron's rod seedlings to plant out around the allotment. After selling off all my previous plant stock about three weekends ago at Lordship Rec show, I'd re-built the stock up to half a dozen trays full of plants cluttering up our little back passage. Sociable dinner followed, celebrating the birthday of the campaign's events impresario at Caribbean Spice restaurant in West Green. Then home to watch a Monty Python evening on the teev -- or in JN's case, fall asleep in front of... This afternoon, Civic Society members meeting at Bruce Castle -- JN is secretary. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
3:41 pm	AGM with fox and sparrows Our allotments association AGM this weekend was attended by a tree-climbing fox, about 40 sparrows, and a dozen or so of the twenty odd human plotholders. The last counts as a good turn-out -- allotments are for gardening, getting away from the pressures of paperwork, leavened by a spot of gently desultory chat or gossip with whoever else is around. However, for a bunch of people who really aren't into meetings, we managed to string it out --2-5pm, a whole three hours. No wonder the two squirrels who dashed through the meeting area didn't stop and join in. The fox is a half-grown cub, doesn't look healthy -- we think the rest of his family may have succumbed to the mange that has been going around, leaving him (or her) to fend for themself at an early age, and before teaching him to be wary of humans. He came trotting along, took a look at the meeting and disappeared into the tangled vegetation of the boundary hedge; there was rustling and his head poked out through a mass of white-flowering Russian vine at about top of fence level. A score or so sparrows flew up from the cherry tree next door. The fox's head popped back -- then popped out again through the bridal veil up near the top of the cherry tree, and another score of sparrows flew up and away. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
8:38 am	#24: Beechcombings, Richard Mabey Narratives of trees -- particularly the smooth-skinned beech, the various aspects of its character and history, told through visits to notable individual trees of character, and to various beechwoods. Mabey starts with the Chiltern beeches he grew up among, and the patch, Hardings Wood, that he bought himself to save as a natural woodland open to the community. This brings in his main theme: trees and woods are self-regenerating -- we interfere and manage them not for the trees' benefit, or for nature, which can do fine just left to themselves, but to impose our own purposes. Trees don't need us to plant them -- they'll seed themselves. Mabey was one of those who, in the wake of the great storm of 1987, campaigned that fallen trees are important in woodland ecology and should be left where they fall, not cleared away. They may throw up new growth from their roots and along their trunks, and as their dead wood rots down, it becomes home to a myriad of burrowing and hole-nesting creatures, including insects, fungi and other mini/micro-life that decompose it to the rich leaf and wood mould of a forest floor. Mabey's an engaging writer, a philosophical rambler: I hadn't realise that, back when there were more timber trees around, beech was valued primarily as a fuel wood that burns hot and clean, and regarded as pretty rubbish timber. I hadn't realised that bodging of beechwood chairs and other furniture just arose in the nineteenth century, supplying the cheap end of the new industrial-cities market. Beech is one of the species being affected by global warming -- its broad plate of shallow roots (that often writhe picturesquesly above the surface) suffers in hot dry summers (though the 'dry' part of that prediction isn't borne out by the last three summers), so it will need to move northwards and up to cooler or higher ground -- as in southern Europe, where it grows as a mountain tree. (Comment on this)
8:35 am	#23: Mastering Swimming, Montgomery and Chambers Once you get past the kinda off-putting inspirational puffery of the opening chapters, the meat of it is useful low-down on stroke techniques, approaches to serious training to improve swimming performance, and warm-up/cool-down exercises. So my next three (four? five?) challenges down the pool will be: 1) have another go at what they call 'flip' (tumble) turns, following their step-by-step guide and using a swirl of the arms to help you around; 2) try using dolphin or 'double-leg' kicks into and out of turns, and have a go at adding butterfly stroke arms; 3) try out the new-style 'wave' breaststroke, which uses the bringing back of the arms as the power phase; 4) do more speed lengths, using the pace clock to time them; and 5) actually do warm up and cool down stretches before and after. I could (should?), of course, be in the pool now instead of sitting at this machine... Tomorrow... (Comment on this)
8:32 am	#22 At My Mother's knee, by Paul O'Grady 'At My Mother's knee: and other low joints' Normally, I avoid celeb tv and celeb spin-off biogs -- I've never actually watched Paul O'Grady nor his erstwhile alter ego Lily Savage. But the normally curmudgeonly Private Eye gave this a thumbs up (which it claimed was its second ever non-ktf review), so when I spotted it in the local Oxfam, I thought I'd give it a go. O'Grady's a natural storyteller, and the Savage sisters of Birkenhead are his star characters. There's his clever Mum who was sent off into service at 15, not allowed to take up the scholarship she'd won to carry on at school, who fiercely cherishes her beautiful garden, knows all the Latin names, and wages war on the neighbourhood cats that despoil it, and who later on in life when she finds a plug of hash in Paul's jeans put out for washing, shocks him by wanting to try it and see what all the fuss is about. There's Auntie Chrissie, always immaculately turned out, a clippie who runs a tight bus, chain-smoking and cynically wise-cracking, and lives with Auntie Annie. The early chapters play out around their two terrace houses, with verbal guerilla warfare of neighbourhood oneupmanship, (mostly) polite feuding and occasional rallying-around. Once young Paul's survived school and launched into an insecure series of bar then clerking jobs, we're in the swinging sixties, and he discovers the gay scene around the Liverpool docks, where he picks up the nickname Lily. So there's the stage all set up for the diva to emerge in the next volume. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
7:07 pm	#21 Seeds of Change, Henry Hobhouse Sub-title: Six plants that transformed mankind. I think this was the first of the 'commodity' histories: focus is largely modern European mankind -- starts with quinine which opened up the malarian tropics to European empire-builders; then sugar -- an addictive drug whose production destroyed lives of Africans captured and traded to slavery in the West Indies, and destroys the teeth and metabolism of those who consume it; tea -- temperance and pushing opium to the Chinese as forced trade for the refreshing camellia leaves; cotton -- slavery in the Southern states, the Civil War and Industrial Revolution's satanic mills; the potato -- from the Andes to the Irish famine and diaspora; and finally, the sacred coca leaf of the Royal Inca rendered into addictive white powder, fuelling a massively violent illegal crime wave -- but unsafe to legalise either. Hobhouse writes well pursuing the strands of how his selected species have woven their way into key paradigm shifts in the development of what we call (despite all the evidence to the contrary) western civilisation. So whereas Beerling's 'Emerald Planet' deals with how plants changed the world, Hobhouse takes a more limited scope -- and his sub-title fairly modestly reflects this. Though the domestication of cereal crops was the threshold that tipped human development from the Mesolithic to Neolithic in the Middle East and Europe (wheat, barley, oats), and rice in the Far East, was the first and most fundamental 'seeds of change' transforming human history. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
7:06 pm	Writer's Block: It Is What It Is What oft-repeated quote or common cliché do you find the most annoying when someone says it to you? View 540 Answers Different strokes for different folks. Enjoy! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
7:16 am	4 km swim yesterday -- 160 lengths in 140 mins! Particularly pleased that I wasn't knackered afterwards, but able to settle down to 'working at home' -- with laptop on a tray across my knees, in my upstairs study comfy chair, with view of back garden and lots of little birdies playing around the bird feeders. Meanwhile, this is harvest season: masses of lettuce, runner beans, raspberries. Some blackberries. Tomatoes just starting to come ripe (a race against the blight which is taking hold on their leaves). Main job down the allotment is transplanting broccoli and cabbage seedlings so they can grow big and fat for winter harvest. Freezer already stuffed full -- but we think its time we got a new (energy efficient) fridge, and we've spotted one that offers an extra, fifth freezer drawer... Anyone got experience of whether Beko is a good/bad reliable/unreliable make for fridge-freezers? (Comment on this)
Monday, August 10th, 2009
6:00 am	# 20 The Emerald Planet, David Beerling Sub-title: How Plants Changed Earth's History. Not human history, but what we might call the Gaian evolution of life of earth, interacting with the deep geophysics and geochemistry of the planet: the environment shapes plants, and plants shape the environment. Beerling starts his story with the late Cambrian through to Carboniferous: a carbon-dioxide rich greenhouse atmosphere encouraged the development of the large photosynthesising structures we call leaves, whose proliferation sucked in so much CO2 that the atmosphere flipped to an oxygen-rich cooler state, which allowed us the emergence of us oxygen-breathing animals. The new oxygen-rich Carboniferous atmosphere allowed giant flying insects to evolve, and giant skin-breathing amphibians. But he skips over just what may have caused the fall in oxygen levels that is implicated in the Permian extinction. The chapter I recall most vividly is the most recent: the rise of grass. Its new CD4 photosynthetic mechanism makes more efficient use of water, which gives it a competitive advantage in drier conditions At the start of the Cainozoic, the age of mammals, where lightning strikes set fire to the forests that previously dominated, this new low-growing grass stuff took hold in the dry, sun-exposed clearings. These dry clearings had higher albedo levels, producing hot dry micro-climates, which more readily caught fire and spread the fire into surrounding wet forests when lightning struck -- with grasses claiming the burnt areas and so spreading. Whereas forests were systems for holding water and creating shade, thus cooling the planet, the grasslands were systems that heat and dry the areas they occupy. The existence of this new grass stuff created a new ecological niche, for grazing animals -- thus the rise of ruminants, ungulates, elephants as major animal classes. And of the carnivores that hunt on the open plains - lions, cheetahs, hyenas, and humans in our African origins. (Comment on this)
5:58 am	#19 Making Money, (Sir) Terry Pratchett As the new Global Depression hit the headlines some months back, I pulled this out of our bookshelves to check what insight the Discworld might shed on financial shenanigans. Discussing them of course gives away the plot, but it's no spoiler to give away that Pratchett goes straight to the basic point: put a conman to the job of running the banks and making money. Various other plots spin out the story for the sake of keeping the reader entertained, several of which could be summarised as 'money leads to madness.' As fiction, these are all too obvious storylines -- so why didn't we all spot just how true they are in real life, eh? (1 Comment |Comment on this)