Bluecat

Oh good grief, man!

There's a mind-blowing post-apocalyptic novel by Russell Hoban called "Riddley Walker", written in a kind of post-apocalypse British dialect. Once you get over the strangeness on the page it really inhabits your head. "A Canticle For Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller is pretty fine too. PD James wrote "The Children of Men" about another kind of apocalyse (also made into a film). Margaret Atwood has written at least 2 "speculative fiction" novels about post apocalytic societies: "Oryx and Crake" (which I haven't read) and the wonderful "The Handmaid's Tale". When I was in the States it had just come out and a lot of people told me they could really see something like that happening there (it hasn't, yet) and now I live in the Arabian Gulf I can see some parallels with contemporary Gulf society...

Someone gave me a copy a few years ago, and I tried but just could not get into it. I may try again some time.

My attitude to disability is that it's entirely in my interest and everyone else's. Just because I'm not disabled at the moment doesn't mean I may not be... There are 2 good autobiographical books by Simon Weston OBE (disfiguringly injured in the Falklands War) "Walking Tall" and "Going Back" The novel for young adults "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" by Mark Haddon, has as its narrator a young man with Asperger's Syndrome (an autism-spectrum disorder). It is never actually stated in the book that this is what he's got, but it becomes apparent as you read on. Readers with the same thing (and their families and friends) tend to get a big tingle from the recognition factor. These books are quite British in setting and language, though Curious Incident is very readable. In Ursula K Le Guin's wonderful Earthsea books, the final book, Tehanu, has a severely abused and disabled character who has a surprise in store... unfortunately it is for other reasons the least good book in the series. Rainman (the film) is based on a combination of traits found in a number of different actual people, described in Oliver Sacks' collection of essays The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. Not an easy read but very illuminating. This link has a readng list (possibly for younger readers, but there may be more than I've had time to check). http://www.wordpool.co.uk/ccb/disability/main.htm What on earth could one consider them, other than as a disability? A fashion statement?

"Race is fictitious, but racism is a fact." I forget who said that, but I agree with it. Do you think they are mutually exclusive categories, Ed? "Going back" is not really an option for those who are born in (for example) Canada, but are identified by others (based on their physiology or whatever) as different from the mainstream groups. Surely by that reasoning all Canadians should "go back" to wherever their ancestors came from? Send the First Nations back to Siberia if they don't like it...

Rev Ed!!!

Many early Christians thought these were deceptions. Many others believed they were glimpses of the truth, slightly mis-managed revelations - the best a non-Christian could aspire to, but much better than nothing. This is why Virgil guides Dante through the Inferno. V's poem celebrating the birth of a saviour through whom all creation would be restored was seen by many medieval theologians as a pagan's glimpse of the truth. Actually it was written to celebrate the birth of some dim Roman aristo (laying the praise on rather thick) but happened to coincide roughly with the supposed birth of Jesus.

A good book for looking at the Judaeo-Christian tradition and how it developed over time is Karen Armstrong's 'The Bible: A Biography'.

According to Frank Kermode in "The Sense of an Ending" it is something to do with narrative. We like a beginning, a middle and an end, and so much the better if we can position ourselves within it. Otherwise, it's is just one darn thing after another.

Great links Veri - gosh they were busy bunnies in the 16th century, weren't they? I'm tickled to find there is an Institute of Millenial Studies - presumably with 902 years before they next have to report. As far as I can find out, the argument in favour of 2012 as the end of the world is because that's how far the written Mayan Calendar goes. I have a written calendar in my kitchen which only goes up to 31st December 2008.

It's good to recycle!

Homemade apple pie with properly stewed Bramley apples, cooked firm, a couple of cloves and some cinnamon and brown sugar with the apple and maybe a few plump hot sultanas. In other words, as made by my Mum from our own apples, in about 1970. Or homemade apricot, not too sweet, with ground almonds in the paste. (Haven't had a good apricot pie in years: the best I've had were in France). Homemade cherry pie is great if you don't oversweeten the cherries. A nice piecrust and some jersey cream or custard poured over...

No peanuts for me - not an allergy, just don't like them. I'm not as keen on chocolate as I used to be, except once in a very long while, and if I fancy chocolate it usually means my period is due. But if the timing is right, a small quanitity of intense dark chocolate, possibly with orange, or peppermint, or rum and raisin, is an acceptable offering.

Clothes are fun but fashion is facile. Ideally mine are cheap but look expensive, stylish but not in fashion, suitable to my work and location, and comfortable. They almost certainly came from a charity shop.

yes. Now that I'm fostering 3 kittens, now weaned and in need of permanent homes, I'll probably start the conversation by begging them to help.

I have been reprimanded in the past for being a bit too frank - someone asked me an unexpected question and I gave a natural answer. It depends a bit who is asking and who is listening.

I'm sorry to hear it. My thoughts are with her.

Did I accuse you of anything? Sorry if that's how it sounded. I'm not entirely sure how questions can appear like accusations, mind you. I was raising questions about the definitions and the limitations of this term "the war on terror". I do not suppose that you coined the phrase. Your definition of the "war on terror" as being, in reality, a war on a particular religious subgroup, seems to me to be begging the question though. I see. Insofar as I understand your argument, it appears to somewhat undermine it. That's ... er... one reason why I pointed it out. Sorry! But the definition that you give (not what the coiners of the "war on terror" often attempt to define the term as, incidentally) does instantly raise the religious question. Inaccurately in my opinion... and it appears also in yours. I'm not offended, thank you. It's actually quite hard to offend me - assuming anyone would wish to!

Does that mean that acts of terrorism perpetrated by people who are NOT members of that particular subset of that religion, are not considered terrorism under the terms of this war on terror? Where does that leave, for example, those Hindu subsets which were and are involved in the Tamil Tiger bombings in Sri Lanka and India (suicide bombers before any Muslims were), the long-running IRA terrorism whose perpetrators were overwhelmingly the avowed members of a Christian subset and claimed to be acting for their co-religionists, the terrorism perpetrated against them by and on behalf of a Christian subset which felt itself threatened by them... and so on, ad nauseam (but it sometimes seems, also ad amnesiam)? Not to mention state-sponsored terrorism. Considering how short people's historical memories are, one would think from the debate that Muslims invented terrorism and are uniquely connected with it. Considering some of the arguments I've heard and read about tactics that 'the war on terror' is supposed to justify, it can't be terrorism if we (or our allies, clients and assigns) are doing it.

Well, it's never worked for me! When Tony Blair and Madonna try to prole up their accents to sound like one of the people, we Brits tend to object too. (It's known as mockney).

Start with a revelation or three, convince some folks to follow you, and you kind of go on from there. If things don't work out, try to avoid siege situations, group suicide, etc. The followers bit may be easier than you'd think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Join_Me

May he be blessed, and may his family and friends find consolation.

Reverend William Fogle - saw you were looking, saw it was your birthday... Soooooo..... And to captmac, isisthor, as123200, imightbekia

My stepfather... just found out today that he died before Christmas. I first knew him when he was courting my mother. I was 18, he and she were both in their late 50's. He was then a civil engineer in the nuclear power industry and had several inventions patented - owning a company called "Activated Sludge" for example. Oddly, it seemed to me, he was learning to play the cello as a beginner. But within 6 or 7 years he was playing in an orchestra. Before that, he'd decided to learn to paint. So he took some classes, painted for a few years, had exhibitions and sold paintings, until he decided he'd done enough of it and it was time to try music. He had left school at age 14, when his father went for a walk and never came back (a postcard arrived some months later from Australia, but they never heard from him after that) and his mother, not having any qualifications or job experience, could only find work scrubbing floors. James signed up as an apprentice in the merchant navy: any country you could mention, if it had a port he'd been there. He started listening to classical music while following the printed score on these journeys and that was how he taught himself to read music. Taught himself: that's an expression you often found yourself using around James. When I was home after my mother died, he and my aunt were talking about how wasteful of water washing machines etc are. He suddenly said "I was sitting in the bath one day and I thought, here I am paying for good clean water to flush down the toilet." So he had designed and installed a water system that collected bath water, pumped it and put it through the cistern. I asked him how he'd got the plumbing done. he said (this is a man in his early 80s, mind you) "Plumbing? I got a book from the library and did it myself..." He'd also taught himself Latin - enough to read the Vulgate New Testament - and Greek. A rather isolated figure in later life, he became very deaf which unfortunately stopped his participation in music. It also made it tricky to stay in touch: he could no longer hear the phone ring. He spent a lot of time with his three daughters and his seven granddaughters, and was staying with his youngest daughter when he died.

Splendid stuff.