March 2011
24 posts
March 1, 2011
IN PRAISE OF DAUGHTERS
Irshad Manji in her book “The Trouble with Islam” documents her life growing up in the Muslim culture and questions beliefs she feels are not only contradictory but squander the talents of women. She cites numerous passages in the Koran which seem to denigrate females and give them the status of chattels. Western women might cringe at the concepts she...
February 2011
23 posts
February 28, 2011
“OLD MAN AND THE SEA” AND THE GRAPEFRUIT DIET
A friend put me on to a mystery writer I’d never read and I’ve just finished the first in a series featuring a female detective. The author has a clipped style so the novel moves at a brusque pace. Some introspection dots the story but mostly it turns on surface information as we peer through the eyes of an investigator who is...
February 25, 2011
WHEN ART SHOULDN’T IMITATE LIFE
ART (courtesy: Castle Rock Entertainment)
Shakespeare’s “Othello” is one of literature’s many examples of a dark passion that ends in tragedy. Such plots make for riveting drama but are less exotic and more mind numbing when the violence leaves the airy plane of imagination and becomes real....
February 24, 2011
I MAY BE A NOBODY, BUT…
Emily Dickinson wrote a poem I’ve quoted before because it always brings a smile to my lips: (Blog: October 25, 2010) It begins with:
“I’m a nobody! Who are you?”
Today, I’m giving the question some thought because it was raised by a book I’ve finished, “An Eye for People” by Hart Day Leavitt. The work is out-of-print...
February 23, 2011
THOUGHTS OF WEATHER, BIRDS AND HAPPY BABIES
The weatherman is predicting snow in the next few days and he’s probably correct. The science has become more credible than it was when I was a child. The percentage of forecasts that are right as opposed to those that are wrong seems to have shifted in the weatherman’s favor. I suppose technology has made the difference.
But despite the snow...
February 22, 2011
I HEARD A SAW BUZZ
On my way to the park, a tall cottonwood tree stands, so tall it does damage to the clouds that pass overhead. I’m told it is almost 200 years old and I’ve been watching it cycle through the seasons for years. Yesterday I heard a buzzing in the neighborhood, louder than any bee, and when I investigated, I found the cottonwood was surrounded by trucks and heavy equipment...
February 21, 2011
A WORD TO BAGHDAD FROM AN AMERICAN TAX PAYER
A friend gave me a book called “The Ghost Map” by Steven Johnson which chronicles the cholera outbreak in London in 1854 and the efforts of two men, a physician and a local curate, to find the cause. It’s the sort of book that satisfies all kinds of interests, being at once a history, a biography and a mystery. Of greatest fascination to...
February 18, 2011
“Wherefore O, Summer Day”
– “The Bee is not Afraid” by Emily Dickenson
T. S. Eliot wrote that April was the cruelest month, (“The Waste Land”) but sometimes, on a day like today, when the sun shines but provides little warmth and the ground is barren and damp, I think February is the guiltier of the two. On such days, despite the calendar, my thoughts turn...
February 17, 2011
CARPE DIEM
In my blog post of February third, I commented on the bravery of journalists who put their lives on the line to keep the nation informed of news at home and abroad. Little did I realize days later I’d be reading about the brutal rape and beating of Lara Logan, CBS reporter, who was covering events in Tahrir Square, Cairo. Like Logan, 140 journalists have been attacked since the ...
February 16, 2011
EGYPT AND TUNISIA – WELCOME!
“Uhuru” is the title of a novel written in the 1960s by the American writer, Robert Ruark which deals with the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya that were intended to free the country from British rule. The word means “freedom” in Swahili and as I was in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) at the time, I can testify that the word spread across Southern and Eastern Africa...
February 15, 2011
THOUGHTS ABOUT SPECIAL DAYS
As yesterday was Valentine’s Day, I began to think about all the different forms love takes. There are so many, I wonder if we need different words to express them the way Eskimos are said to have different words for snow. Yesterday’s holiday celebrated romantic love. But there is mother’s love, too, which is at once tender and fierce. The love between friends...
February 14, 2011
THE SWEET TASTE OF IMMORTALITY
On this day, I’m thinking of my friend, the husband of a married couple who lies in a hospice, clinging to his life in the hope he will live long enough to celebrate 63 years of marriage with his wife. What a bittersweet celebration that will be if he makes it… if he isn’t in too much pain. I’m guessing their love will make it happen. Given their unswerving...
To: Panchomanyeti
Thanks for the heart on my tribute to my mother. Liked the photo of Paris. Don’t know if you meant the irony, but to have it conjoined with the injustice being done to the petition signer makes a statement in itself between human injustice and environmental indifference.
February 11, 2011
THANK YOU DR. SHAW
My mother met my father in Panama in 1935. He was in the navy submarine corps at the Canal. My mom, Costa Rican by birth, worked in a soda shop near the base. Dad couldn’t speak Spanish and my mother couldn’t speak English, but she must have made a good ice cream soda because my father, an Indiana farm boy, went into the shop every day. He’d begin by ordering a cup of...
February 10, 2011
A LESSON IN DITHERING
Recently, I finished what feels the 100th draft of my third novel. I thought it was finished but the publisher wanted a slight change. It wasn’t a big change and I should have managed it without any pain, but when I opened the book for review, I couldn’t stop rewriting. I’ve always been that way. I’m in an endless search for the right word or the elegant phrase and as...
February 9, 2011
A THING CALLED BLISS
I hate to admit this, even to myself, but when one of my women’s magazines comes up for renewal, I’m going to let it expire. I can hardly believe I’ve made this decision as I’ve been a subscriber for years. But it’s time to accept I’ve outgrown it. I no longer care about the latest night creams or trends in makeup. To be honest, in the cold dry weather we’re having, I’ve...
February 8, 2011
ZUCKERBERG, HUFFINGTON AND THE FACTS OF LIFE
The February edition of “Vanity Fair” features an article about Arianna Huffington and two former friends who have decided to sue her now that her blog has been sold to AOL for several hundred million dollars. The two men charge her with failing to recognize their contribution to her venture. The quarrel has all the earmarks of that...
February 7, 2011
THE SIMPLE ACT OF DOING
I’ve finished the “How To Market Your Books” volume I mentioned earlier (Blog: 2/1/2011) and was underwhelmed by the amount of useful information available. There was a pretty good list of resources and some scant information on how to set up a blog. But for a writer many of the recommendations were off the wall: Hey! You wanna sell your books? Open a book store!
Not...
WatchFebruary 4, 2011
WHEN THE MASTER SPEAKS…
My blog of Monday, January 31, 2011 entitled “The Language of Rape” attempted to expose the effort of 175 co-signers in Congress to introduce a bill that would limit a woman’s right to medical coverage for an abortion to cases of “forcible” rape — as opposed to plain old vanilla rape. Jon Stewart took up the legislation recently on his...
February 3, 2011
“THE TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TYRANTS” – Thomas Jefferson
I watch with trepidation as the struggle for democracy unfolds in the Middle East. I wonder if freedom will prevail or if some other power broker will emerge as it did in Iran after the Shah was deposed. One political protester in Egypt’s Tahrir Square said the...
February 2, 2011
THE SECRET OF FRIDAY LUNCHES
Yesterday, I didn’t take my usual walk through the park. I walked to my bank instead. It took me through an area I seldom pass and I was surprised to discover the changes taking place. Several businesses, most of them restaurants, had sprung up and as I’m always looking for new places to take my mother for Friday lunches, I stopped at several to read the menus....
February 1, 2011
THOUGHTS ON WRITERS, LIFE AND BLOODIED KNEES
The other day, a newsletter from my local writers’ association provided the name of a resource book I thought might be worth looking into. I got it from the library but found much of the advice was pie-in-the sky. Example: a good way to sell my book is to get on the Oprah Winfrey Show (now defunct). Generally, I am skeptical about self-help books...
Panchomanyeti
Thanks for your comment on Jan 31. Not clear how to respond on your site. But have been watching your entries. You take me outside myself. Thank you.
