Seth's obituary

Here is a link to Seth Garwood's obituary in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, including a "guest book" feature where people can leave condolence messages.

Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception

This no-holds-barred polemic against the Iraq war. which does not shrink from calling Bush and Blair war criminals, is on the usually more conservative Newsmax website. I probably would not have put it this strongly, but there really isn't anything I can disagree with in it.

Last Thursday

Rev. Seth Garwood, the minister of my church in Minneapolis, died quite suddenly and unexpectedly (he was young middle-aged) last Thursday. I was notified by e-mail, for which I am grateful, grateful that we have this e-mail connection which means so much to us absentee members. It is so painful to lose someone suddenly anyway, but when you cannot even grieve, except alone in your house thousands of miles away, it makes it worse, in a way. The only ripple on the www is this obituary on the Methodist Annual Conference website; no picture yet, but I am trying to obtain one.
Whenever I get news of someone dying who was a friend back in Minnesota, it sharply increases my sadness at being separated from that wonderful community of friends I enjoyed there, which is not something I expect ever to experience again in my life. (I can hope, of course.) Anyway, even though I missed the memorial service today, my thoughts and prayers are with my beleaguered little church in Minneapolis, and the family and friends of Seth.

The slowest-motion train wreck in history

The slowest motion train wreck in history is the unfolding horror show of GM technology. (Disclaimer: I am not a Luddite, nor am I opposed to all "tampering with nature", nor am I an ill-informed granola-cruncher with knee-jerk oppostion to "evil GM". This is serious stuff here, and I am quite serious about it.) The reality of GM testing and its commercial deployment is so far from the cynically glib pronouncements of its deluded proponents that it leads one to begin to doubt literally every word they say. They mouth platitudes about careful testing and scientific consensus about safety, when they know that no such things exist or could even be faked up if required. The thing is, they probably won't be required. This is because the main community relations effort of the giant headless chicken corporations that produce the actual GM products consisted of a very effective pre-emptive smear of anyone who opposes GM technology for any reason. Now we have a scenario where they roll out GM rapeseed to a few willing UK farmers (surrounded by a small horde of vociferous protesters and a vast, worried but quiescent public) blandly assuring us that gene transfer to create "superweeds" is a billion-to-one improbability (note the scientific precision of that; they obviously did tests far too sophisticated for us to understand.) Within a mere three years there is the news of the discovery of a GM superweed that herbicides cannot kill. It rates a few anxious paragraphs and the world goes back to its nap. Meanwhile, in the jungles of South America, GM trees are the latest untested and almost unimagineable threat to the vital rainforest.

Last Friday

The fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. I have been obsessed (a bit) with this ever since the story broke last Friday. DH and I have desultory half-arguments about it; neither of us wants to take a strong position, but he tends to be more forgiving to police (in general) than I am. I am interested in hearing from American bloggers, readers and friends as to how much coverage this gets in the US and what the general opinion is about it.

Food for thought

"Obesity craze spreads to pigeons." And . . . "Tattoo craze spreads to fruit." These were the twin headlines topping my Kitchen Gardners International Newsletter in the e-mail inbox. Sign of the times, both of them.

Take the BBC Brainsex quiz

The Brain Sex Quiz will tell you how female your brain is. This is related to a series on the Beeb called Secrets of the Sexes. It's better than the usual dumbed-down science fare on TV. At this site you can also read about the accuracy (or not) of intelligence tests, which celebrities have high IQs and the latest thinking on - um - thinking.

Blogkeeping - my life

Yesterday I missed work to go and be evaluated at The Priory, Sketchley Hall, in Hinckley. I have been recommended to a great programme they have there called "Functional Restoration". It's basically an intensive get-fit thing that lasts 2 weeks and corrects muscle-and-joint problems that may have been caused by accident, injury or neglect (or all three in my case.)
Today I attended the Nottingham Bookcrossers Meetup at Costa Coffee in Nottingham. I released eight books and caught three. I shopped a little and came home on the train.
Ah, the train. There used to be a direct train from Hinckley to Nottingham but it was discontinued about a month ago. Now, the first leg of my train journey (to home) is generally from Nottingham to Leicester and the second is from Leicester to Hinckley. The second leg is only on Central Trains but the first can be Midland Mainline, which is travelling to London via Leicester. Except not today, because there is a track-side fire outside of Luton, one of the stations it goes through, which "involves gas canisters". Therefore my second train was packed with people trying to get to London. They were bound for the next stop after mine to catch a Virgin Train to London Euston, which does not go through Luton. Everybody was quite cheerful about it; they were just glad it wasn't a bomb.

WWII Memorial celebrations link past and present for Londoners

The Times and other news sources covered the weekends WWII Memorial events in the same spirit they were presented, somehow simultaneously linking London's present-day terror attacks to the Blitz and the threat of world-wide fascism in the 1940s and still giving superior honour to the veterans of the Second World War. The Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury and even the veterans themselves all followed the same theme, amidst the flypasts, mass marches and pageantry that the British do so well (dropping millions of poppies from a Lancaster bomber for example, and the seven Books of Remembrance with the names of all the wartime civilian dead).

In Iraq, as in London

Aslam, of the blog methinks [mythic flow], has a post about his love for NYC, Madrid and London. Then he puts it in perspective, quoting William Rivers Pitt of Truthout, and I nod my head sagely and pass it on:

In Iraq, they call events like this "Tuesday".

(Actually, I would have said "Thursday", but then I didn't think of it, did I?) The Truthout.org editorial goes on to say:

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and wounded in Iraq by way of deadly bombings that have been taking place every single day. These Iraqi people are no different from the Londoners who perished today. Their skin is darker perhaps, and they pray to a different God, but they have families and children and dreams and they die just as horribly as their British counterparts. Yet they earn perhaps a few sentences on the back page of the paper, and virtually no comment from the members of the international community which ginned up the invasion of Iraq in the first place.

Coverage of London terrorist attacks

There are a number of sources of information about the terrorist attacks in London earlier today. Web sources do not tend to be as up-to-date as the TV and radio, but if you are at work or not near a TV, it may be your best bet. Sky News has a good selection of stuff on the web, including this summary of public transport and traffic conditions. My first checkpoint at work was Google News UK, and although it was a little slow getting the news at first, there is a lot there now. I see from the Guardian that the US has raised the HSA threat level to orange. (It is my perception, by the way, that the British take this sort of thing in stride a lot better than Americans; there is a remarkable air of sang-froid and getting on with it, and not letting the terrorists win by shutting everything down and going into full panic mode.) The Guardian also has a story about the possible perpetrators, and the level of planning that would have been required for this type of attack. The choice of time for the offensive is chillingly brilliant strategy, with the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, in Singapore for the IOC meeting, and much of the nation's security force focused on Gleneagles and the G8 Summit.

It all depends on what you think "of" means

Nightlife - New York in the 70s

This is a smashing collection of photos of New York arty and queer and rock-and-roll society in the 1970s. The photos are all copyrighted by Allan Tannenbaum. I stole this link from Pete. And like he says, these are NOT work-safe pix so look at them late at night in the privacy of your study. Or with an open-minded friend.

Riverbend talks back

Baghdad Burning's point by point reply to George Bush. It's nothing you haven't heard before, but dammit, we just have to keep saying it.

Blogkeeping

Or not, as the case may be. I have been very remiss, I know. I have just come through a re-organisation of the division of the company I work for. I have "come through" in the sense that I have kept my job, by basically re-applying for it. A number of us were forced to go through a selection process involving tests and interviews. I think about 2/3 of the project team I am on did not make it, which does not bode well for the stress-free completion of the project. This reorganisation was forced upon us by economic necessity, and the management layer was hit at least as hard as the lower tiers, so there is not much point in moaning about it. Still, British people do like a good moan, and redundancies are never painless, so the stress levels have been high and are not going to go down very soon.
We recently took a little day trip to Ludlow, a place I have wanted to visit for a while, because of its foodie reputation. It was nice. We bought some foods. We had company in the house yesterday and overnight. DH made a smashing cassoulet with venison (from Ludlow) and chorizo (from the local supermarket) and flageolet beans and fresh tomatoes. My buffalo wings, made with free-range chicken from Ludlow, got lots of compliments, but were very easy to make. You can read more about Ludlow and our recent food and drink explorations on Deborama's Kitchen.
What with all this going on, I have also had to miss out on a bit of book-crossing activity. The Unconvention in Birmingham is just now drawing to a close, but I missed all of it, as well as the mini-meetup in Beeston two weeks ago. I was sorry to miss both of these events, just as I was getting into the BC spirit. I did manage my first release, a controlled-release to two non-BC friends from the train, of a really wonderful book that DH and I both liked a lot: The Last Family in England. Look for a review at Deborama's Book Reviews soon.

US acknowledges torture

The Information Clearinghouse website has a story from Agence France Presse that concerns the first official admission by US officials that torture by American personnel has occurred. The documents given to the UN committee against torture admits to torture of prisoners in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan, but says that all such acts were committed by low-ranking military personnel and were not approved by their superiors. Well, I guess it's a start. This, combined with more recent news that the American public is finally beginning to register some disapproval of the administration's pursuit of the Iraqi occupation, may in fact signal a long-overdue turnaround in the past three years of flagrant abuse of power on the part of America's ruling party.

Help save our rescue centre

Leicester Animal Aid, which runs the really excellent dog (and now also cat) rescue centre in Huncote, Leics, is facing the possibility of closing down at the end of this year due to a severe funding crisis. As the link explains, the organisation is entirely funded by donations (money and in-kind) and volunteers. The future survival of over 100 dogs and cats is at stake. Please visit the website and donate what you can to help. Our Sandi, who passed away about a year ago, and our current only-dog Desmond (pictured), both came to us from LAA at Huncote, as did Cassie, our Akita who died in 2000.

Baghdad Burning

Because I have not been keeping up with my blogging and, more importantly, my blog reading, I missedRiverbend's blistering rebuttal of Thomas Friedman's ill-informed (and as Riverbend says, incredibly arrogant) NY Times article Outrage and Silence. Don't you miss it, too; this is really vital reading.

Blogkeeping - Bookcrossing and more

I have finally got a few books registered at BookCrossing.com. You may need to join (free) to see this. Most of the books are in the "available" category, but two in "To be read" and two in "Permanent collection". Now I can go to book-crossing meet-ups with something to offer!
Other personal news - DH and I went to Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield today. It was quite exhausting. (It is also 75 miles away.) I bought tons of clothes, though. For work, and the possible upcoming job hunt. More later on that, as I am under a gag order at the moment.

Howard Zinn on the scourge of Nationalism

I found this link (from The Progressive) at Whole Wide World of Fat Buddha. It echoes my feelings on the subject perfectly. In my heart, I belong to a nation called "None" and our anthem is "Don't Fence Me In."

News of the Weird

This is a story I would think was a hoax, except who could make up such a thing? And I must ask, how many mayors, whether controversial or not, love their city so much that they want to import poisonous snakes within its boundaries?

Blogkeeping

I have been so bad that my page hits have drastically declined. I haven't done any actual blogging for over a week, but you may notice a change nevertheless. I have amended my template here to remove the button for meetup.com. meetup.com began charging for its "services", which is not so bad in itself, but what they are charging is absurd - 9 USD a month per group. It appears that people are leaving in droves. I was in 10 groups, some of which were struggling to become active, only one of which was really robust and every single one of them is either disbanded or abandoned. I have added in its place three new buttons for the current focus of my online community-building: tribe.net, Google groups and especially Bookcrossing.com.
Bookcrossing, Nottingham, was the one really active meetup group I was (am) in. It has migrated to a mailing group in yahoo.co.uk. But all the real action is in the bookcrossing-uk group and the Bookcrossing site itself. I just received my release kit from their US supply store this morning and I plan to get really involved with it.
I migrated my East Midlands Webloggers group, which has still not really got off the ground, to Google Groups, and Jay followed suit with the Midlands American Ex-pats group which she moderated. And I am still to be found hanging out on tribe.net sometimes. I wish it would get more participation in the UK (apart from London) because it is most useful and meaningful in its local dimension, with the possibility of f2f meetings, job seeking, swapping, and other activities. But it's still serendipitously interesting, for all its flaws.
I have also changed the template a bit over at Deborama's Books; I added a link to a great auxiliary Bookcrossing site called Wren's Crossing. I will soon (I hope) be putting up a small flood of new book reviews, including some books got through Bookcrossing.

Blogkeeping

I get political at Deborama's Kitchen.

Everyone Goes to the Mercado

Here's more of my "homesick for Minneapolis" blogging, courtesy of City Pages. This will be cross-posted at Deborama's Kitchen due to the obvious food-related content.

Sunday Times on Gorgeous George

Focus: Zero to hero in today's Sunday Times attempts to put George Galloway into context and answer the question is he a friend or a foe of Saddam Hussein? The answer they come up with is a little bit of both, and is best summed up by GG's own statement during an earlier phase of his besiegement by press and less radical lefties: “My opposition to American imperialism is greater than my opposition to this or that tinpot dictator with whom American imperialism from time to time falls out.”
While it is true that Galloway visited Saddam in 1994 and again in 1998, and that he made a sycophantic speech to him in 1994 and that he refused to condemn him in the harsh tones demanded by the establishment, but instead praised him with faint damns, it also true that he marched, demonstrated and spoke out harshly against Saddam from 1980 to 1993 (even though he also opposed the 1991 Gulf War.) In fact, in his own ultra-leftist way, Galloway has been quite consistent. The one thing the American people (including especially the Senate) will never understand is that there other standards of ethical public behaviour than their own, and there is a long and not yet defeated (despite what all the uber-patriots may wish) tradition of international anti-imperialist socialism which stands unashamedly in opposition to them. The British Labour party knows all about this tendency, but has no truck with it; but New Labour has no consistency or principles at all. If Galloway's actions in 1994 were so repellent, why did they wait until 2003 to expel him? I think we all know why: he has a following and he wins elections.

More Wal-Mart news than you can shake a big stick at

LabourStart, the excellent online news source and organising tool, has a dedicated Wal-Mart page. Get all the hottest late-breaking news about those corporate buzzards that bring you Asda supermarkets. Along with scofflaw child labour practices, political ads comparing their opponents to Nazis, and health-care benefits for their workers that are so lacking that in most states Wal-Mart workers get their only health-care from state benefits (if they exist in their state that is, otherwise, nada.)

Galloway vs. The US Senate: Transcript of Statement

Thanks to Joani (via e-mail) for this link. Joani, ya oughta get a blog, you are so very on the ball. Via Common Dreams, this is the entire transcript of George Galloway telling the US Senate exactly where they can put it and how hard to shove it up there. Respect!

Stress at work costs economy £100bn a year, says Mind

A story in the Guardian cites the charity Mind in saying that one in five people in Britain are too stressed to go to work. I can readily believe it. I think three of the remaining four are nearly as stressed, but can't face the hassle of trying to sign off work, or the added stress of losing their job and having a reduced income. The one in five remaining is simply too stupid to be stressed, and he is usually made the manager of the other four, which is why they are so stressed. So it's really stupidity that's costing the economy £100bn a year, but just try getting funding to prove that.

Permanent power to the non-elected

A Guardian comment piece, The rise of Tony Zoffis, shows just what an appallingly un-democratic thing is going on, has been going on since 1997, with New Labour's education policy. Now the naked power play is in the open, with ennobling of Andrew Adonis to be supposedly a junior minister in education, but obviously he is still calling the shots, "ensuring total obedience from his nominal boss, Ruth Kelly", as Francis Beckett says in the Guardian. Unlike in America, where the legislative and executive branches are completely separate and the President appoints the entire cabinet from non-elected citizens, in Britain all cabinet members must be members of one of the houses of Parliament. This means that non-MPs must be brought in through the Lords. The really sick thing about this, is that even if Tony B. is ousted soon from power, and Adonis's moment of cabinet glory is decently brief, he will always be Lord Adonis, and always eligible to sit in the House of Lords, exerting some power however limited over the people who never elected him and never would have done.

Nuclear energy battle looming

Margaret Beckett is accused of blocking the government from considering building new nuclear power plants as part of its strategy for achieving carbon emission reductions. On one side of the argument, some government policy wonks think solar and wind energy are "unproven" and too expensive, and say nuclear power has the "potential" to be green. But committed environmentalists will never buy that. How can a technology be called "green" if it produces deadly wastes? I myself would have to come down on the no-nukes-ever (what part of "no" don't they understand?) side of the argument.

The best news always comes from Minnesota

Another rural Minnesota high school in the news, not for a mass shooting this time, but for a good old-fashioned pro-American free speech protest. In the best tradition of Minnesota liberals and feminists, two high school girls were sent home from school for wearing "offensive" T-shirts from the "Vagina Monologues". This came after a rally was held outside the school with numerous students wearing similar T-shirts in support of one of the girls, who had been threatened with expulsion for wearing a button purchased at the show that read simply "I [heart] my vagina". At the rally, girls wore T-shirts with the same slogan and boys wore T-shirts proclaiming "I support your vagina". Most of the students turned their T-shirts inside out to hide the slogans before returning to school, but two girls who wore theirs the right way were sent home for a day. "We consider public education to be the backbone of America. And we have to draw the line. If you let this in, what's next?" said the principal of the school.

Those wacky MIT guys

From the Guardian:

One of the strongest arguments against time travel is that we are not overrun with curious tourists from the future. A university student in Boston plans to change that, by inviting budding Doctor Whos to the world's first time traveller convention this weekend.
The organiser, Amal Dorai - a masters student in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - aims to test the theory of time travel by inviting people from the future to the event.

Dorai says: "Of course, no time travellers doesn't rule out the possibility of time travel, they could have just decided not to come to our convention." Hmm - yeah. But it gets better.

Physicists believe some kind of time travel is theoretically possible, but it will take hundreds or even thousands of years to work out the technical details.
Concerned that people will have forgotten his convention by then, Mr Dorai is urging volunteers to publicise the event to future generations by carving the details into clay tablets and burying notices in time capsules. He has slipped invitations on long-lasting paper inside dozens of obscure books in the MIT and Harvard University libraries.

Blogkeeping

I have just added a couple of new recipe-finding links at Deborama's Kitchen. One of the many things I love about the internet is the recipe swapping community. Where would I be without it? And where would all these chatty housewives with the great recipes be without it?
Over at Deborama's Book Reviews there is finally some action. Besides the Labour History sale on (see previous post), I have reviewed not one but three books today. Two are in a double-header (Hey, Nostradamus and Vernon God Little) and one stands alone: Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, by Amanda Foreman. You will find that the book reviews/store has a new look, with new "high tech" links on all today's books. I am not all that crazy about it, but blame Amazon.co.uk. (You can still do the old style links, with a lot of faffing, but then they penalise you for it on the commish.) Sorry about that.

Buy a book for International Labour Day

I have set up a tribute to May Day on my book review and bookstore blog. A personally selected list of 21 excellent books on labour, philosophy and labour history are posted for your perusal, in the new improved Amazon associates format. I added a few of them to my wish list, too, I must confess.

Defrocked lesbian minister wins appeal

Elizabeth Stroud, the lesbian Methodist minister defrocked by a close verdict in a church trial, has won an appeal on the grounds that the Methodist Book of Discipline had failed to define "open and practicing homosexual".

This Flickr thing is addictive

Of course, I had to create : Grand-daughter Gallery - a photoset on Flickr.

My Name is Rachel Corrie

Speaking of the deaths of activists, which I was doing just recently, there is now a play about the life and death of Rachel Corrie. It's playing at the Royal Court theatre, and the script is based on Corrie's own letters and e-mails.

Atlanta pictures on Flickr

I decided to use Flickr as my photoblog site and here is the album of Atlanta pictures I have created there.

Deconstructing Hitchens

Here is a wonderfully meaty article about the astonishing and disappointing change of heart of former leftist pundit Christopher Hitchens. I got this link from Ethereal Girl, who in turn got it from Altercation.

Pictures from Atlanta

I have put the pictures on my website, but they are, like before, not especially user friendly. This link will get you the index, and clicking on the individual names will display the pictures in full size, one at a time. I am going to also put them on a photoblog in a bit; Carey is using a thing called TextAmerica (this is his blog and this is Alix's) so, although I don't like the chauvinistic name, if it proves easy to use I will set it up there. More on that later. I am off to an event of some kind in Cropston with my yoga teacher. I don't know what to expect, so more on that later, too.

The truth behind the picture that shocked the world

This story is from last Sunday's Observer. It tells the story of the woman whose body was found hanging from a tree near Srebrenica, and of the fate of her husband, which led her to this grim suicide. It also tells the story of her two children, who did not know where she had gone when she disappeared from the refugee camp and then, traumatically, recognised her from the picture when a journalist showed it to them six months after it was published.

Death of an activist

Christopher of Back to Iraq 3.0 has a touching tribute to his friend Marla Ruzicka, an activist in Iraq who was killed Saturday by a suicide bomber. He says of her "She was so many things to so many people, but for the journalists who knew and loved her she was, ultimately, our heart and our conscience." Her organisation, CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict) can accept donations in her name at this website.

Riverbend on the weird unreality of the American media

I missed this post on Baghdad Burning almost three weeks ago; it was when I was having a combination of stressed out overwork and a dodgy computer problem, so my blog reading was severely curtailed. But it's worth referring back to. I was in America myself last week, and even being in Britain for years and being used to British newscasts (which Riverbend would probably also find to be quite sanitised) has caused me to look askance at the American news that I used to assume was normal. It's not normal, though, it's annoying, puerile and mostly pointless. I can only imagine what it's like to people in a place like Iraq. Yet another abysmal failure at winning hearts and minds, I'm afraid.

Blogkeeping

I have been intensely busy since returning from Atlanta, and with little time to catch up on sleep. I am not totally unpacked, but that's because the airline (Delta, yucky food too) lost one of my bags and I didn't get it until Tuesday. And I haven't had a chance to post, mainly because my computer at home was acting squirrely, but DH fixed it last night. I have got my Atlanta pics uploaded to my computer, but not to my website yet; I hope to have that done this weekend. On Deborama's Personal Page, you will see a new quiz result - what personality disorder are you? I may be a little histrionic, it says. Well, duh. Anyone could have told you that.

Blogging from Atlanta - Part III

This will probably be my last blog post from Atlanta, as I am flying home tomorrow. Wednesday evening I went to a concert with Carey and Alix - Iron and Wine at the Variety Playhouse in L5P. I got to try a martini at the Sweet Lime restaurant (see previous Atlanta post) and I opted for the Thai Tea Martini which was quite nice. I had more crab, more tofu-corn-cakes and then just some edamame, which I shared with Alix, who was also having shushi. This was before the show. Afterwards we went to the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club (note: there are no yachts and indeed no navigable waters within many miles of Atlanta) because it was about the only thing open. I had two vodka-limes. I was hung over the next day. Which was yesterday, a busy and exhausting day. It started with brunch with my very old friend Charles, proprietor of the Atlanta Book Exchange. (He's probably not net-savvy enough to appreciate that I just gave him a link. He says the inventory is online but I couldn't find it; I'll post it later if I can get it from him.) Then we went by the bookstore to chat with employee Jim, an almost-as-old friend and there we bought a few books. Then we went around photographing places we used to live. Then Carey dropped me at a Marta station and I went downtown and visited GSU, my alma mater, and Underground Atlanta (I say don't bother) and then, fool that I am, I walked all the way to Peachtree Center in my new achey-painy but rather sexy sandals. Ow, my feet, my back! I Marta'd back to Inman Park, where Carey picked me up and then we went on a marathon grocery shopping. Then we went to Carey's place, which he rents from and where he lives with Stephen, my godson and his sort-of step-brother. Also living there is John, Carey's uncle. Stephen was out but had promised to come by to see me, and he did, but only for about 15 minutes. When I finally got back to my motel at about 10:30 pm I was beat. Tonight I am making dinner for Carey and Alix in the motel suite kitchenette. Tomorrow is the last day and I don't have much planned, just packing, checking out, hanging out with Carey and starting the long flight home.

Blogging from Atlanta - Part II

Yesterday, Carey and I went to Little Five Points (L5P), a neighbourhood with which we both have history, mostly Carey, from his days of living there, aged 10 to 13 or so, with his father, and his father's mistress, D, who is the adopted parent of his "brother" Stephen, my godson. Yes, it is all very incestuous, which is more or less why I left Atlanta in 1984 for the relative sanity of Minnesota. (Where I was lucky enough to have primary custody of Carey until 1989, when his father took primary custody by a prior arrangement.)
But to get back to L5P, as we walked through the area, Carey pointed out things - Junkman's Daughter has expanded and moved, and the location where it now is used to be a little ghetto supermarket, where Carey and Stephen walked to after school to buy 69-cent burritos and, no doubt, sugary treats. Sevananda, the venerable health-food co-op, has also moved, but it shrank. Ababdabba is still in the same place, and I bought some high-tech walking shoes there and changed out of my painful sandals. We went to a Japanese restaurant called Sweet Lime with dollar sushi, and I made a complete pig of myself eating the most fabulous dinner, to get fortified before the long dusty walk to the brand new Target store on Moreland Avenue. I had two sushis, smelt-roe and salmon, then tofu-corn cakes with chili sauce, then a soft-shelled crab, tempura-fried with a light soy-citrus dipping sauce, and then seared but otherwise mostly raw tuna with soba noodles and two-seaweed salad. Carey had the other of the two crabs and Hawaiian shrimp, which was tempura shrimp with a sweet sauce and veggies and jasmine rice. I had an iced tea and Carey had two Japanese beers, and he used the bottle to give me a quick lesson in Katakana. It was all fabulous, and we were too full to have the yummy-sounding ice cream. They also have martinis, which I would have tried but was too tired to risk drinking.
After becoming even more laden with purchases at Target, we took a taxi, first to drop Carey off at his house SE of Atlanta, then me to my motel here in Buckhead, about 10 miles in the opposite direction. The bill was $45! (Thank heaven for the weak dollar.)

Unitarian Jihad!

This is priceless. Here's a little snippet to whet your appetite:

We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.
Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day.

By Jon Carroll, from SFGate.com. I received this from a friend on a mailing list.

Blogging from Atlanta - part I

It appears that my motel here has a "business centre" with a computer guests can use for free. There is only the one, and of course, this morning, some guy was totally monopolising it. But anyway, I can easily and freely blog from here. I got in yesterday about 3 pm (plus 5 hour time difference, after getting up at 4 am to be driven by long-suffering DH to Gatwick.) So by 10 pm when I finally tried to sleep I had been up 24 hours. I got to meet my son Carey's girlfriend Alix, who is of course very nice. We went out to dinner and I was craving veggies; Alix recommended a truly excellent restaurant (review to come later.) I went out this a.m. pretty early and after the motel "continental" breakfast, I walked to the Marta station, Marta'd to Midtown and then walked all over there. I have come up with this silly idea of photographing all the places I ever lived, even though a few aren't there anymore. I got 3 so far. Then I had lunch at Mary Mac's tea room, where I also bought DH a cookbook and a feedcap. Then my feet hurt too much to walk anymore so I got a taxi back here. Trivia for the day: The AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) had an almost Brit-worthy headline for the royal nuptials - a Windsor knot.

Going away again

Again (sounding like a broken record here (hey, is anyone who reads this old enough to actually remember what a broken record sounds like?)) I am sorry to neglect my few loyal hopeful readers. I just wanted to note that I will be out of town and not blogging for about a week starting this Saturday. I may find something to say between now and Saturday, but if I have things to say between the 9th and the 16th, it will have to wait. I shall be in Atlanta, visiting my son, my god-son and a very few old friends. (I have about 1% as many friends in Atlanta as I do in Minneapolis, but alas no family living in Minneapolis any more.) I hope to come back with gorgeous photos.

The Doctor is not in

The BBC is furious at Christopher Eccleston. After making one series of the widely heralded return of Dr. Who, he has quit, for what appear to be, quite frankly, rather prima donna reasons. ("I don't want to be typecast," he whinged. Too late for that, I think.) Could it be that his co-star, Billie Piper, was said by at least one TV critic to have "acted the socks off" of the more credited Eccleston? Part of the BBC's issue with the premature departure has to do with money. The Beeb badly needs good "income streams" and they have already invested heavily in promotional gear with Eccleston's image. "What child is going is going to want to buy a Doctor Who action figure of an old Doctor when a new one is already on the television?" They have also had to re-shoot the final scenes of the show to pave the way for a new star to take his place, said The Daily Mirror. Writers were forced to hastily improvise a new cliffhanger, rumoured to show the doctor disappearing into the ether.