Fresh criticism of Pope's remarks
Criticism is still pouring in from Muslim religious and political leaders over the Pope's remarks about Islam.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/europe/5351324.stm

I'm disgusted but not surprised at the Muslim response. The Muslim attitude for the past 5 years or more has been WE are allowed to insult the West and the Jews and YOU are not allowed to say anything remotely critical of Islam or the Prophet Mohammed. But the West tolerated this outragous hypocrisy. And so it comes to this. I hope the Pope refuses to apologise since he did nothing wrong. I hope the West wakes up and tells the Muslin world that they will just have to deal with it, that the West allows people to speak their opinions.

I hope we ALL remember the following -

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

30 questions to elevate your awareness (and literacy) of the greater place in which you live:

1) Point north.

2) What time is sunset today?

3) Trace the water you drink from rainfall to your tap.

4) When you flush, where do the solids go? What happens to the waste water?

5) How many feet above sea level are you?

6) What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here?

7) How far do you have to travel before you reach a different watershed? Can you draw the boundaries of yours?

8) Is the soil under your feet, more clay, sand, rock or silt?

9) Before your tribe lived here, what did the previous inhabitants eat and how did they sustain themselves?

10) Name five native edible plants in your neighborhood and the season(s) they are available.

11) From what direction do storms generally come?

12) Where does your garbage go?

13) How many people live in your watershed?

14) Who uses the paper/plastic you recycle from your neighborhood?

15) Point to where the sun sets on the equinox. How about sunrise on the summer solstice?

16) Where is the nearest earthquake fault? When did it last move?

17) Right here, how deep do you have to drill before you reach water?

18) Which (if any) geological features in your watershed are, or were, especially respected by your community, or considered sacred, now or in the past?

19) How many days is the growing season here (from frost to frost)?

20) Name five birds that live here. Which are migratory and which stay put?

21) What was the total rainfall here last year?

22) Where does the pollution in your air come from?

23) If you live near the ocean, when is high tide today?

24) What primary geological processes or events shaped the land here?

25) Name three wild species that were not found here 500 years ago. Name one exotic species that has appeared in the last 5 years.

26) What minerals are found in the ground here that are (or were) economically valuable?

27) Where does your electric power come from and how is it generated?

28) After the rain runs off your roof, where does it go?

29) Where is the nearest wilderness? When was the last time a fire burned through it?

30) How many days till the moon is full?

The Bigger Here Bonus Questions:

31) What species once found here are known to have gone extinct?

32) What other cities or landscape features on the planet share your latitude?

33) What was the dominant land cover plant here 10,000 years ago?

34) Name two places on different continents that have similar sunshine/rainfall/wind and temperature patterns to here.

Have you ever seen a fox? A real fox, live, close up, in the wild so to speak, not behind a fence at a zoo.

They are not cute or cuddly. They are not beautiful, fluffy feline creatures. No. Not a bit.
Foxes up close are cold, creepy, predators. Much more doglike than one imagines after being raised on Disney animations of adorable foxes. Believe me, foxes are not adorable in any way.

They are killing machines and nuisances. They rip open your bagged rubbish, they kill the harmless small wildlife like squirrels. They attack and kill your small pets - kittens are favorite snacks of foxes.

I've seen foxes when I had the farm in Jeffersonville, NY. They are common in the Catskills. But yesterday I looked out my kitchen window at the back garden and there was a fox. Ugh. It had that same cold, predator stare. It would, it's a wild animal. It's not cuddly Disney fantasy.

But it was an interesting reflection on the nature of cities and life and survival to see one in a London back garden.

What's good for the Imams is good for the Pope.

Bravo to Pope Benedict, I say, for his courage in speaking out about Islam and the current conflicts, etc. I'm not surprised at the outraged response of Islamic leaders and communities. They are HYPOCRITES. I can't say that often enough. They want to insult and condemn the West and Israel with the most outragous insults and lies and accusations. But no one is allowed to say anything even mildly critical in response.

Let me repeat myself - Islamic leaders and communities are HYPOCRITES.

Anyone who knows me also knows I have little to no use for the Pope, the Vatican, and Churches in general. Hey, I read history, I know what they've done. But they have evolved and in general they accept that people will express critical views and should not be immediately condemned to death as heretics.

This time the Pope was spot on in his comments about Islam. And as usual, Islamic leaders and pundits and self-appointed spokespeople called out for the death of the West, the death of the infidels, force us all to accept Islam or die and how dare we express an opinion at all critical of Islam.

My message as a woman and an American is - suck it up, Islam. This is called Freedom of Speech. And as we all should know by now, Islam does NOT allow freedom of speech.

Think about that. Think about it very carefully.

9/11 - five years later

Humans are extremely good at getting used to things that were once unbearable. The site of the greatest mass murder of modern times no longer has the power to horrify those closest to it.

I allowed myself an all American treat for supper tonight- corn on the cob. Yum, with butter and salt, it was delicious. One ear of corn.

I know, my fellow New Yorkers are going to be laughing at this. One ear of corn? A treat? The thing costs 10 cents, how can that be a treat? It's cheap summer food.

Umm not here in London. Here it costs $1.20 an ear on sale. And it's not even the sweet and creamy fresh American corn. It's tasty but believe me folks, it's not sweet or creamy. It's more like canned niblets corn but still much nicer.

I can remember pinching pennies in NYC and buying fresh corn in season 10 for $1 because it was so tasty and so cheap.

Still it was a lovely, buttery treat.

Monday is 9/11 - five years since the WTC attack. My stomach churns painfully if I even think about that day but I continue to mentally replay my experience with a compelling morbid fascination. No matter what anyone says, unless you were there in NYC actually watching it happen - live - in front of your eyes, you weren't part of it. You may have lost friends or family or colleagues which is an absolute tragedy and an outragous offense to all decent, peaceful, broadminded people. But if you were watching it on TV, you weren't part of it, it's different for you.

In a typically non-creative media way, since they can't think of anything better, some of the TV channels plan to replay all their news coverage from 9/11 on Monday. They started that last night, in fact.

Nail salons

I was watching the morning show GMTV this morning and they did a special segment on New York City's "nail bars" (they are called nail salons but that's typical of the Brit News, sloppy on the details).

So they reported on the NY "phenomena" of women having frequent manicures and pedicures - often more than once a week. They noted how cheap and convenient the salons were and how strict the NY regulations were with all technicians licensed and strict sanitary requirements. As if this was something extroadinary. Well, yes it is very different from the practice in the UK.

But the choice moment came when the reporter couldn't come up with any juicy NY nail salon related horror story scandal so she trotted out some nonsense about Paula Abdul having a problem with a LA nail salon. Woah! Desperation. That's like a story on London trottting out an incident that occurred in Moscow. You could just see this on the face of the salon manager as this idiot Brit reporter rabbited on.

NY Nail salons and the pampered hands culture of NY are something the Brits just won't get.

84 Charing Cross Road


I'm watching the wonderful film, 84 Charing Cross Road at the moment. Wonderful, wonderful charming film staring Ann Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench. I've seen this film several times and it's always a delight.

I was curious tho, since I've been coming to London for many years and now live there, about the location of the book shop that inspired the film. Alan and I were just on Charing Cross Road last night. So I looked it up on a map and oh my goodness, I know 84 Charing Cross Road. I know it very well, been going there for years. But sadly, it's no longer a book shop. As long as I have known it, it has been Au Bar One, a wine bar. How many afternoons have Alan and I lounged on the huge leather sofas there, sipping vino verde, chatting, and reading books from Blackwell's just a snip down from the street.

If you haven't seen this film - buy or rent a copy and watch it. You'll thank me.

Today's Laugh of the Day -

Headline from today's LA Times:

EU Will Try to Clarify Tehran's Nuclear Stance

My take on this? I think Iran made itself extremely clear in it's response to the UN. They said no.

What part of NO does the EU not understand? What amusement they must be providing Tehran with their request for additional definitions of No.

I can provide a very clear explanation - They are saying, Fuck Off Infidel Crusaders. You will die soon.

Ah well, gatta laugh or else you'd cry.

Slough


Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

It isn't fit for humans now,

There isn't grass to graze a cow.

Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens

Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,

Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,

Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-

A house for ninety-seven down

And once a week a half a crown

For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin

Who'll always cheat and always win,

Who washes his repulsive skin

In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak

And smash his hands so used to stroke

And stop his boring dirty joke

And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add

The profits of the stinking cad;

It's not their fault that they are mad,

They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know

The birdsong from the radio,

It's not their fault they often go

To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars

In various bogus-Tudor bars

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care

Their wives frizz out peroxide hair

And dry it in synthetic air

And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough

To get it ready for the plough.

The cabbages are coming now;

The earth exhales.

John Betjeman

Blech! Alan's fridge just died. He was defrosting it this morning because although it's supposed to be a frost-free model, the fridge compartment was developing large icey areas. So he unplugged it and let both parts defrost, then did a good cleaning and restarted it. The freezer turned back on but the fridge is sitting like a silent lump.

Not A Good Thing.

It's raining today, so much for the August Bank Holiday. Chilly and raining.
Yesterday was lovely tho, warm and sunny. Alan and I ended up at the Red Lion again. What a surprise. It's such a nice local pub, quiet clientele, comfy sofas, lovely back garden, good bands in the evening a few times each week. We'll be going there tonight with Ron and Hilary to hear East of Eden again.

Anyway, there we lounged last night, talking about holidays we'd like to take in future when we are both working and can afford such. The trio sitting on the next sofa were having a discussion about grammar and how the English language has dropped many cases compared to other languages such as French. This is things like the pluperfect (for those of you who took French in high school, this will mean something.) and the past perfect subjunctive, etc. It was actually very interesting and sadly I was too polite to interject that American English has retained a lot of grammer that British English dropped about 200 years ago.

So we talked about holidays and our interest in taking some ferry tours which would allow us to take our car (the one we'll buy in future) with us. You can get ferries from England to places like Bilboa, Spain and Tunis in North Africa and Malta and Scandinavia. The prices are reasonable and it makes for a lovely, leisurely holiday. We also want to drive the Wine Route in Alsace and visit Basel. I would really enjoy visiting Basel again. It was a plesant and interesting place to live and would have been much more so if I'd had any money so I could have done more. So revisiting it when I'm working is a real must.

Now listen closely and pay attention. This is very important for you to know and understand.

There is no Great Coffee in England.

That's it and that's a tragedy.

I was out walking early this morning after having had my sacred first cup of the day. It was pretty good. It was arabica beans dark roasted to what they call an Italian roast here. As my grandma used to say, "by them it's Italian roast". I had made the coffee from fresh grounds, I just opened the vaccuum sealed bag from Waitrose. But even so, at its prime it just didn't reach New York City best standards.

I need Zabar's coffee. I need their darkest Italian roast beans, oily and fresh and indescribably fragrant. So fragrant that when you brew a pot of coffee, the scent fills the house and lifts your spirts. Next time I am in NYC, I'll not only buy a few bags of it for immediate use, I'll also buy a bunch of their specially vaccuum packed cans of it so it will remain fresh and keep me supplied for an extended period.

It's a real lack here. I have searched and researched and checked out leads from people who swear they found sources of great coffee but nothing comes close to the exquisite coffee sold so cheaply by Zabar's in NYC.

Damn, I need it.

Asti's birthday was yesterday and she had a get together for drinks at the George. Alan and I went and had a surprisingly good time. (Surprising because Alan was concerned that we'd be out of place with everyone so much younger than us. It turned out fine, programers are programers regardless.)

The George was an interesting pub to visit in any case.

You can read about The George here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_George_Inn,_Southwark

Anyway, we had a nice time chatting with Asti and her friends, a few of whom we knew from ACCU. Tati, Asti's neighbor from Basel flew over for the weekend so it was very nice to see her again.

We lucked out going home. Our leisurely stroll to the London Bridge tube station (only about 1 block really) was perfect timing. The Jubilee line train arrived almost immediately and got us to Waterloo station in a few minutes. Thinking we had a really long wait at Waterloo for the Isleworth train, we took our time making our way to the platform and voila! There was a train waiting there just about to depart. Kismet! We hopped on and 35 pleasant minutes later were getting off for the brief walk home.

Friday night was the start of August Bank Holiday weekend and several of our neighbours were still holding parties in their back gardens. The music wasn't loud enough to prevent our falling asleep so all in all a really pleasant evening.

The job search goes on. Nightmare.
Alan comes home from work and asks why am I sitting in the dark. It's not really dark, I just haven't turned on the lights. I'm still at my computer searching for and applying for jobs and there's enough light for that. I'm at the point where everything is now superfluous except hunting for a job. It's a race against time and money - both are running out. Perhaps have run out.
I have an interview on Wednesday, still applying for jobs, tho.

Job hunting is possibly the loneliest, most depressing thing there is to do. Soul destroying. You are putting yourself on the slave block and doing your best to sell yourself. Hoping someone will pick you. And each time you fail, you have no recourse but to smile, smile, smile, and do it all again.

One of the worst aspects of the ugly process is the sheer insanity of the reasons given for some rejections. I've been told I was too interesting, too bright, too work focused! Because the workplace culture here is more good enough and jobsworth, my Amercian values of hard work and can do, get it done might make co-workers uncomfortable.

Arrrgh! How do you make yourself seem stupider and lazier?

This week's winner of the most frustrating job interview is actually reasonably good but just frustrating. I've made it through the first interview and was called back for the short list, so to speak. Met with them again, including an additional higher up. That seemed to go ok, but there's no real way to know. It's all a guessing game. I'll know how well I impressed them if they call me back to come in for the final meeting they plan for this Friday. It's go-no go at this point. If I get that call back, I'll probably get this job. If not, not. So it's a get through each frustrating day wait now to see. Very, very stressful. This job is really a good match for me, the company is a great match for me. I like the people I've met, like their style and I think we'd work well together.

We'll see if they think so soon.

Stay tuned for more news as it happens. Same bat time, same bat channel.

Why Stereotypes are

So there were the French, you remember the French don't you? Those brave, honest people who condemned Dryfus because he was a Jew, and who volunteered to round up even the babies for the Nazis. Those people who -all- claim to have been in the resistance in WWII. Yes, those French, yes, the ones who actually invented the Inquisition (the Spanish only copied the French invention).

And now those lovely people, the French, led the call for a UN body of international troops to occupy Southern Lebanon and guarantee a ceasefire. The French have always insisted that they were the masters of diplomacy, the diplomats par excellence. They haven't been for over a century but why let facts intrude in nationailistic bombast. So there they were, charging to the fore, trying to regain their position as a real player, one of the big boys - declaring that they, the French, would lead the effort, their glorious French troops would show the way for all of us.

Big Talk. Big, big talk. The number 15,000 troups was mentioned. The number 4000 French troops immediately as the cornerstone was mentoioned, and more to follow.

And what do they do in the end? They send a team of 200 engineers. Huh? Engineers? What happened to the soldiers, mon ami?

From Reuters-
NEW YORK, 19 August (IRIN) - After the disappointing commitment by France of only 200 engineers to the newly tasked United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown appealed to the rest of Europe to provide troops for a "robust" force.

And -
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced in a statement on Thursday that Germany was set to send customs officials.

Oh beauty! Is this not right out of Saturday Night Live?

Stereotypes are, they simply are because they are.

Choucroute!

I'm watching a really excellent show on Alsace and at the moment they are showing how to cook the regional specialty Choucroute. We've made this dish in our family for decades but watching the original made in its home stamping grounds is interesting and instructional.

I love Alsace- beautiful, beautiful area. Lovely people, lovely wine, lovely food. I miss it. I need a car so I can drive there with Alan and wander around the vinyards and little villages and sit at a cafe table sipping local wine and ummmmmmmmm

Federation II

Wow - a player created this little video about Alan's game: Federation II.