tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61093464021813917752024-02-06T21:02:27.306-08:00Write Rite Wright RightM. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.comBlogger196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-53460207220890038602017-05-06T09:57:00.000-07:002017-05-06T09:57:26.016-07:00Mozart<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart (1756-1791)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“He was physically restless, quick-witted, sociable,
flirtatious, and obscene,” New Yorker music critic Alex Ross wrote of Mozart.
“But he often gave the impression of not being entirely present, as if his mind
was caught up in an invisible event.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Donald Jay Grout’s ponderous History of Western Music echoes
the impression: “Mozart lived his real life in the inner world of his music, to
which his everyday existence often seems only a troubled and shadowy parallel. There
is a touch of the miraculous, something both childlike and godlike, about this.”
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Separating the myth of Mozart from the facts is difficult
when so much—including a great deal of fiction--has been written about him. Some
impressions of the composer are based on Milos Forman’s 1984 film “Amadeus”, an
award-winning cinematic treatment of a play by Peter Shaffer which the
playwright himself called a “fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri.”
Alexander Pushkin wrote a play about Mozart and his contemporary Antonio
Salieri in 1830, and even Rimsky-Korsakov was drawn to the subject, writing a
seldom-performed opera.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mozart was the son of a respected Salzburg musician and
teacher, Leopold, who early on dropped all other activities to educate and
promote the boy. Has there ever been such a prodigy? By the time he was six
years old, he was a virtuoso on the clavier, and he soon became a good organist
and violinist as well, though the viola was always his chosen instrument to
play. He wrote his first symphony before his ninth birthday, his first oratorio
at eleven, and his first opera at twelve.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Biographies write of Constanze Weber, the giddy girl Mozart
married—after months of pleading for his father’s permission-- in August of
1782. Less well known is the fact that the couple had six children, four boys
and two girls, in their nine years of marriage, and that only two of these
survived infancy. By most accounts, Mozart and Constanze were happy despite their
profligate spending, which led to their being constantly short of money. They
moved 12 times in their nine years together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Certainly Antonio Salieri—despite the implication of the stage
plays and film-- had nothing whatsoever to do with Mozart’s death and was
hardly even considered a serious rival. Both Constanze and Wolfgang were
frequently in ill health, hers complicated by constant pregnancies and his by
overwork. What does seem to be true is Mozart’s premonition about the
commissioned Requiem on which he was working when he died. He said that he had
the curious sensation that he was writing his own funeral mass.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mozart was buried in an anonymous communal grave in Vienna.
For those who would mourn his early passing or celebrate his singular life, he
left the deathless memorial of his perfect music. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-26327598234631739262017-03-16T11:37:00.000-07:002017-03-16T15:42:47.029-07:00DRAWERS<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBJ1HKuzZjltFsZ5FDmPzTBqaUY3McPt_NCyZ9orXWJoWd39xwWwuwpBJF2K_YWMEQDyDR3V7Yo_DOsoXO9OD6Nm8WieXdfG3f2rOJVlUpdhNcAnQo3ffYvocAdz9XbXTeF0OszLUgQ/s1600/Scan.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBJ1HKuzZjltFsZ5FDmPzTBqaUY3McPt_NCyZ9orXWJoWd39xwWwuwpBJF2K_YWMEQDyDR3V7Yo_DOsoXO9OD6Nm8WieXdfG3f2rOJVlUpdhNcAnQo3ffYvocAdz9XbXTeF0OszLUgQ/s1600/Scan.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #252525; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt; text-align: right;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="text-align: right;">Alvin Toffler’s 1970 book </i><span style="text-align: right;">Future Shock</span><i style="text-align: right;"> spoke of</i><i style="text-align: right;"> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="text-align: right;"> “too </i><i style="text-align: right;">much change in too short a period of time"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="text-align: right;"> and coined the </i><i style="text-align: right;">term “information overload.”</i></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I need new
underwear,” he said. He was rebinding an old philosophy book, but he put down
his tools and pulled at the waist of his trousers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What’s
wrong with your old underwear?” she asked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s too
tight around the middle,” he said. “I need a bigger size.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’ll order
you some from Amazon,” she said. “Large instead of medium.” She was not very
skilled with modern technology, but she did know how to send e-mail and ask
Google questions and order things from Amazon.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amazon, it
turned out, had thousands of types of men’s underwear. She looked at page after
page, trying to find something like what he usually wore. He didn’t want boxer
shorts or white Y-fronts, so that left something called briefs. Some of the
offerings were suggestive and others were downright naughty. She was fascinated
(and a little scandalized) by the offerings. Finally she found something that
seemed like what he was used to wearing and ordered four pairs in Large.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When the
package arrived, two days, Amazon Prime, he opened them, liked the colors, and
held up one pair to his waist. Then he looked at it more carefully.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It doesn’t
have a, well, you know.” The briefs were designed with a decisive curve in the
front seam, but no front opening.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, how
are you supposed to go to the bathroom?” she asked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It looks
like they’re more interested in showing off the little man than accommodating
him,” he said. “Could you maybe sew an opening or something?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She raised
her eyebrows. “That would be pretty complicated. I mean, you can’t just cut a
hole in them. You have to have more fabric and stuff.” After a moment, she
asked again “What do you suppose people do? Is this some new thing?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She went to
her computer to Google it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How do men use the bathroom when their
drawers don’t have a fly?</i> She typed, not really expecting an answer. But
there were lots of answers. She read posts on one thread, explaining various
techniques for men urinating while wearing briefs with no front opening. Undo
belt or don’t undo belt. Right hand hooks around the elastic while the left
takes aim. Sit down. There were many arguments for and against various types of
men’s underwear and many helpful technical hints, one even using the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">micturition</i>. She was torn between
surprise and hilarity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I can’t
believe what I’m reading,” she said. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Maybe they
don’t make the regular kind any more,” he said, sadly, in a voice that had
lamented the gradual demise of many different regular kinds of things: Woolen dressing
gowns, trans-Atlantic ocean liners, dial telephones.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
repacked the underwear and took it to UPS. He went to a nearby Ross store and
found some drawers that had the proper front opening. They were enormous,
however, so he used his bookbinding cord and needles to take some tucks in the
waistband.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well, you
are nothing if not resourceful,” she said. “You might have used staples.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Staples
would rust,” he said.<o:p></o:p></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-43663711381017742752017-02-11T11:51:00.000-08:002017-02-11T11:51:42.443-08:00THE DAY THEY BURNED MY BOOKS<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was a
sign on the front of the house saying we were quarantined. Nobody but the
family was allowed inside because I had scarlet fever.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Scarlet
fever, a strep throat with a rash, is rare now, but there were no antibiotics
back then, and the disease was contagious. There must have been a public health
nurse around somewhere to make sure we were observing the quarantine, and it
must have been she who said my books had to be burned.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSVZmjeSb1hDUGwVfAtTmXt12X4b8Am2eCfRCscnMmELoI_zQ8SE2w4lRNZxWOJ-JTvMhyoDbwWUVeOfboGxudbN-aQEIeBl-zAVzVPQg5jHIi3PkaL5VMhvPpgmuYbDAf8TOCeyMkWg/s1600/Scan.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSVZmjeSb1hDUGwVfAtTmXt12X4b8Am2eCfRCscnMmELoI_zQ8SE2w4lRNZxWOJ-JTvMhyoDbwWUVeOfboGxudbN-aQEIeBl-zAVzVPQg5jHIi3PkaL5VMhvPpgmuYbDAf8TOCeyMkWg/s1600/Scan.jpeg" /></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I had
learned to read the year before, sitting in Miss Ella’s lap at Miss Ella’s
kindergarten, and I must have loved my books, though I don’t remember feeling
sad as my parents and I fed them into the big old coal stove that heated the
house in Leitchfield, Kentucky.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>1942 was an
eventful year. At school, we collected scrap metal for the war drive. Since I
could read, the teacher took me out of first grade and put me in second, where
I was utterly bewildered. There was a tornado that pulled up the fence in the
back yard. Big Jo, an orphaned relative only a few years younger than my
mother, came to live with us. My little brother was bitten on the face by a
neighbor’s dog. He and I got measles, whooping cough, and then the scarlet
fever. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
retrospect, it could have been a real plague year. It must have been tough,
supporting five people on a teacher’s salary. But Daddy went fishing sometimes,
and once he brought home frog’s legs which Mother fried, screaming when they
jumped in the pan. There was a cherry tree in the back yard. Daddy built
whatever we needed, and Mother made most of our clothes. We must have had a
garden for vegetables.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So many
years later, knowing how it all turned out, it would be easy to read emotions
into all those events. But in actuality, a child’s view of reality did not (and
does not) contain many innate judgments. The books were burned; I can remember
how the flames in the old stove ate up the pages, brown, black, orange fire,
ash.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I imagine
some kind of serene detachment, backed up by promises of new books to come. But
in reality, the day they burned my books was just like any other day, filled
with wonder, never quite long enough.</div>
<o:p></o:p>M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-6083959150236624242016-11-13T18:33:00.000-08:002016-11-13T18:33:25.078-08:00A Scandal<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_mFIh42XRGwkxz7JnHdme4tvI7VIsIJ5w6IOkuGz5bpmz54sgYN4T9zXh2gN00Wo4vpyDNT-DNRBo1ESRYcMyasCN_UDDvaSgforkh-ciBNFj07kPnHj7mcD7RTieVXBfxl1dfT3kDQ/s1600/220px-Freedom_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_mFIh42XRGwkxz7JnHdme4tvI7VIsIJ5w6IOkuGz5bpmz54sgYN4T9zXh2gN00Wo4vpyDNT-DNRBo1ESRYcMyasCN_UDDvaSgforkh-ciBNFj07kPnHj7mcD7RTieVXBfxl1dfT3kDQ/s320/220px-Freedom_1.jpg" width="159" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The final
edition had hit the streets, and the newsroom at the News-Sentinel was down to
night staff: The news editor, the wire service men in their own cubicles, a
copy boy, me on the copy desk, editing teletype stories and wondering if the baby-sitter
would get my note about dinner.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Across the
room, a phone rang. In a few minutes, Ralph Millett, the news editor, came
toward me, looking all around, waving a piece of newsprint. “You need to go
interview this girl in Lenoir City,” he said. “She’s Bobby Baker’s secretary,
visiting her parents for Christmas.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Me?” I
asked. I wasn’t a reporter any more. “I don’t have anybody else to send,” he
said. “Jack will drive you. Jack!” he called.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What’s
this about?” I asked. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Scandal at
a high level. Nobody has said a word so far.” Then looking at me under his
bushy eyebrows, he said in the best Hollywood newspaper-movie fashion, “Get
that story.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Early in
1963, Bobby Baker, a protégé of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lyndon
Johnson and a major power on Capitol Hill, had come under investigation by the
Senate Rules Committee for allegations of bribery and arranging sexual favors
in exchange for congressional votes and government contracts. FBI chief J.
Edgar Hoover and Attorney General Robert Kennedy were involved peripherally in
the investigation, as was Johnson himself, though the vice president’s name was
dropped from the inquiry after John F. Kennedy’s assassination November 22,
1963.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Carole
Tyler, Tennessean and former Miss Loudon County, was Bobby Baker’s personal
secretary and lived in a house owned by Baker in Washington.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I had Jack
stop at a drugstore on the 30-minute drive to Carole’s parents’ home. I bought
holiday boxes, giftwrap and ribbon, made up several cheerful-looking packages,
only hesitated a moment once we arrived at a modest-looking house in Lenoir
City.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGniViqta56ctqs8CfOu6srpBiyZbSIGvf35QupOue0_mVG8ZMdqisqIQVQZ1Ad9cuaFIwJk7d1b2i_pWoj3hFKA0eXN-vkW3GMHG4DFKn3KhlKUremPnczqNTHtEbyytiywyxwW1iNg/s1600/JFKtyler1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGniViqta56ctqs8CfOu6srpBiyZbSIGvf35QupOue0_mVG8ZMdqisqIQVQZ1Ad9cuaFIwJk7d1b2i_pWoj3hFKA0eXN-vkW3GMHG4DFKn3KhlKUremPnczqNTHtEbyytiywyxwW1iNg/s1600/JFKtyler1.jpg" /></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Since I
looked for all the world like a friend bearing gifts, when I asked for Carole
at the door, a relative let me in. A pretty but tired-looking woman in a satin
dressing gown came out<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of a back room,
accompanied by a little dog that immediately jumped on me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Kukla!”
the woman scolded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Ah,” I
said. “A Greek name. It means ‘doll,’ you know.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Who are
you, anyway?” the woman asked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Carole?” I
asked. She nodded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m from
the Knoxville paper.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, no.
No, no.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You don’t
really have to say anything,” I said quickly. I put the fake presents down and
showed her that I wasn’t carrying a note pad or pen. “We just wanted to see how
you’re doing with all this.” She sank on to a sofa nearby and picked up the
little dog.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After a
half hour or so, I went out with my empty Christmas boxes and got into the
staff car. “No way to get a picture?” Jack asked. “No, I don’t think so,” I
said. Jack drove fast while I wrote down everything I could remember that
Carole had said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One thing
she told me, wistfully, was how she had posed for repair work on the model for
the 19-foot-tall statue of Freedom that stands atop the Capitol building. “So
it will have my arms,” she said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Even though
it wasn’t hard news, the story got lots of attention because of the seedy
nature of the investigation and the way the principals had been so
closed-mouthed about the whole thing. It was on the front page of the
News-Sentinel with a picture of Carole in front of the Capitol (you could
barely see that there was a statue atop the building.) The Associated Press
picked it up and Newsweek mentioned it, along with my name. There was a bonus
in my paycheck that week. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Journal, our rival newspaper, complained on its own front page that a spokesman
denied Carole had given an interview. (We had gone through elaborate steps to
hide the story until it was in print, since the two newspapers used the same
technical crew.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You were
really there, right?” the news editor asked me. “Of course I was,” I said. And
Jack, who had waited outside in the car, verified that he saw me go in the
house and stay a half hour or so.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
On the strength of the mention in
Newsweek, I took the Greyhound to New York City and applied for a job on the
Herald-Tribune. Managing Editor Murray Weiss had seen the story. He said I
would be the Tribune’s first woman copy editor. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
But the job never materialized. I
moved to New York, but there was a newspaper strike, a hiring freeze, the
Tribune was in trouble…and I took a much tamer writing job at one of the United
Nations delegations, researching puff stories at the New York public library.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In February
of 1964, Carole Tyler was questioned at the Senate hearing. She took the Fifth
on every question. Never said a word. In May, 1965, she was killed when a
single-engine biplane in which she was a passenger crashed into five feet of
water only 200 yards off the Maryland coast.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I still
feel guilty about manipulating my way into the woman’s house with my fake
Christmas presents. It’s the sort of thing a paparazzo might do without a
second thought, but I was (and am) mild-mannered and anxious not to offend. I
can’t even imagine where the idea of the wrapped boxes came from. I think it
was probably a matter of my being more afraid of the news editor than I was of
tricking an unknown woman. A woman who died at 26 years of age. A woman whose
arms are replicated on the statue of Freedom.<o:p></o:p></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-9842237064322439182016-09-18T10:21:00.001-07:002016-09-18T10:21:56.036-07:00Cops and Nobles<div class="MsoNormal">
British detective thrillers, whether in novels, films or on
PBS Masterpiece Mystery, are sometimes mystifying to non-Brits in an odd way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For starts, there are all those acronyms: CID, MI5 MI6, all
the letters before the police officers’ names. Does everyone know that MI
stands for military intelligence? Or that the CID is Crime Investigation
Division? Or that the ranks of police officers ascend from PC or DC (police or
detective constable) through DS (detective sergeant) to DCI (detective chief
inspector)? Calling a DS a DC might cause offense.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are reading, as I am, Elizabeth George’s Inspector
Lynley books, you have the additional problem of figuring out which Lord or
Lady is up to whatever mischief, since sometimes the characters’ given names
are used and at other times they are called by their titles. Lord Asherton, for
instance, is DCI Lynley or simply Asherton, or Tommy to his friends.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjUXiI0a0oBJHn4jgKY5n6_CSbIqQTVCrDaS1Kt25jyARmB_wJ12qgGM8xHh2bYnKQyNzoipnJFxgIhxJ5lzA06EJysCYX_HgChVrhv_0bjiKY87eOu8OjaAYcZxdQd4u-S76fFqZ_kQ/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjUXiI0a0oBJHn4jgKY5n6_CSbIqQTVCrDaS1Kt25jyARmB_wJ12qgGM8xHh2bYnKQyNzoipnJFxgIhxJ5lzA06EJysCYX_HgChVrhv_0bjiKY87eOu8OjaAYcZxdQd4u-S76fFqZ_kQ/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>
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Here is the cast of characters for Payment in Blood, the second of George's 19 Inspector Lynley books--very helpful when, on page 300 of some 430, you can't remember who Denton is (he's Lynley's servant.) Of course, you might prefer just to read the book or watch the video and assume that eventually everything will be understandable. But in the interest of de-mystifying some of the roles and titles, I give you the list of Cops and Nobles.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. DCI Thomas Lynley, Eighth Earl of Asherton.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. DC Barbara Havers, demoted from DS, Lynley’s partner.
Lives with her parents.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. Lady Helen Clyde, daughter of the Tenth Earl of Hesfield (ongoing
love interest).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. Simon Allcourt St. James, forensic scientist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5. Deborah Cotter St. James, photographer, his wife,
daughter of his valet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6. Francesca Gerrard, widow, owner of mansion on Loch
Achiemore, Scotland.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7. Philip, her late husband, buried on an island in the
Loch.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
8. Stuart Rintoul, Lord Stinhurst, “Midas of the Theater”,
Francesca’s brother.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
9. Marguerite, Countess of Stinhurst, his wife.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
10. Alec Rintoul, deceased, their son, loved by No. 12.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
11. Elizabeth Rintoul, their fortyish daughter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
12. Joy Sinclair, playwright (deceased), sister of No. 13,
cousin of No. 19, former lover of No. 16.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
13. Irene Sinclair, former actress, previously married to No.
16.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
14. Joanna Ellacourt, famous actress, married to No. 15.<o:p></o:p></div>
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15. David Sydeham, her husband and manager.<o:p></o:p></div>
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16. Robert Gabriel, famous actor, formerly married to No. 13,
now sleeping with No. 12 and many others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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17. Geoffrey Rintoul (deceased), brother of No. 8, grave
discovered in odd place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
18. Jeremy Vinney, journalist, drama critic for the Times.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
19. Rhys Davies-Jones, theatrical director, presently lover
of No. 3. Prime suspect.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
20. Gowan Kilbride, handyman at the mansion of No. 6.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
21. Mary Agnes Campbell, maid at No. 6.<o:p></o:p></div>
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22. Hannah Darrow, deceased, subject of a book by No. 12.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
23. John Darrow, publican, her husband.<o:p></o:p></div>
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24. Teddy Darrow, their son.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
English police: Chief Superintendent Hiller; Superintendent Webberley,
Lynley’s superior; DC Raymond Plater (Mildenhall); DC Winston Nkata.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scottish police: DI Ian Macaskin of the Strathclyde CID; DC
Kevin Lonan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Military Intelligence: William Vassall, Sir Kenneth
Willingate, Sir Andrew Higgins.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Servants: Denton, Lynley’s valet. Caroline Shepherd, Lady Helen’s
maid. Cotter, valet to St. James (No. 4) and father of Deborah St. James (No.
5).<o:p></o:p></div>
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M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-29236440248029976692016-08-18T12:42:00.001-07:002016-08-22T10:35:49.977-07:00The Translator<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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It could have been from a prequel to Star Trek,
the earliest stages of the Universal Translator. It stood about four feet
high, slightly askew on its post, and had buttons for selecting a dozen
languages. It looked a little like the jukebox selectors in the booths of old
diners. The bottom button was labeled “more languages.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The Translator robot stood next to
the reception desk at the local hospital where I went for some routine lab work
a few days ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhweCGwsq0yQDymYg2siWZrmXJLqT9a_qrq0E2mq8QPMxBIfBzTINM0YMHDQB-79g4fFy8C4Gvn86GyVomQjnV_ZzHBehyphenhyphen4rdN4MfGpxjsWpAM3k2f5yM6ruLvUGz7c1YXlFrLeScxOjA/s1600/Big+World+Network.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhweCGwsq0yQDymYg2siWZrmXJLqT9a_qrq0E2mq8QPMxBIfBzTINM0YMHDQB-79g4fFy8C4Gvn86GyVomQjnV_ZzHBehyphenhyphen4rdN4MfGpxjsWpAM3k2f5yM6ruLvUGz7c1YXlFrLeScxOjA/s320/Big+World+Network.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Big World Network</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I always wanted to be a translator
when I grew up. I came close a couple of times. At the English-language Athens
News in Greece, we had to edit stories that were submitted in French or Greek.
At that point, I could at least tell the difference (the Greek alphabet has
different characters, duh.) At Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, a
friend asked if I knew enough Greek to help him evaluate a stroke victim, to
tell whether his speech was slurred. When I greeted the patient, he immediately
said “<i>Ta dontia mou. Pou einai ta dontia mou?</i>” (By that time, my Greek was
better.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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“He wants his teeth,” I told the
medical student friend. “He asks where his teeth are.” “Is his speech slurred?”
Harold asked. “Not at all,” I said, “but it will probably be better when he
puts his teeth in.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
At the United Nations building,
near the office where I worked, I sat in the galleries and watched the
translators up in the glass-fronted booth instantly interpret whatever was
being said on the floor in dozens of languages. In my hippie days, I chose the
name “Talking Bridge,” again thinking about translating. And in a way, I think
all my teaching and writing has been a matter of translating. Certainly I have
discovered no new thing either in music or discourse, but sometimes just the
way something is expressed can make the connection between the abstract and the
useful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I have made some pretty funny
gaffes along the way. On a deadline in Salonica, I thought I was yelling
“Hurry! Hurry!” when actually I was shouting “Rape! Rape!” I thought my maid’s
name was <i>Askimoula</i> (Little Ugly One) when in fact it was <i>Asimoula</i> (Little Silver
One.) I complimented her on her worms (<i>skoulikia</i>) when I meant to say something
about her earrings (<i>skoularikia</i>.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Anyone who has dealt with Google
Translate or any of the other Internet translators knows the perils of
word-by-word translations, which can be Byzantine at best and even dangerous at
worst.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Here’s a recent example from Greek
which was poetic but which made sense in the original: “<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sometimes only lift his gaze and watched city
people who swiftly sinking in darkness. Hasty and smelling nice, tired of
crawling, others in small groups discussing. Had a weird atmosphere the city
every dusk and asked her to hide and be quiet. Smelled glorious past and
decadent nobility. A nostalgic permanently strolled through the narrow streets
with the palm trees are swaying to sunburnt and parked outside the time and the
wear and tear.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
California hospitals must provide a
translator for patients who don’t speak English, and I was talked into
translating for an elderly Greek stroke victim in the long-term care wing of
the local hospital. My brief career as a translator is described in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caryatids</i>, my book of short stories
published by Amazon’s CreateSpace in January.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Obviously the local hospital wouldn’t be needing
my services as a translator any more. But I thought about<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> the first thing I
had to translate for my little old lady.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“Ask her if she is in pain,” the
nurse had instructed me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“<i>Ehete pono pouthena?</i>” I asked. Do
you have pain anywhere?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The little lady answered with the
Greek “No”, a sharp tip of the head backward and a tongue click (think “tsk”.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I really doubt that the new mechanical
translator robot could handle that one. Why, it didn't even have a head.<o:p></o:p></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-11999782570835642612016-05-03T12:12:00.000-07:002016-05-03T12:19:12.806-07:00An Intimate History<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaC0Ck-MCs6SiPcL1IORQTqhqrbEKtin2UhijytoCnJ0oeXpwXyrXUqLTHsXnVTOK5t9gofLX9zoyIUUixVWzaniYVLKSMXX8XIbAE21hEtb3D0mnh6ciFSlbalJlCQgnYJM4cSAC-g/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaC0Ck-MCs6SiPcL1IORQTqhqrbEKtin2UhijytoCnJ0oeXpwXyrXUqLTHsXnVTOK5t9gofLX9zoyIUUixVWzaniYVLKSMXX8XIbAE21hEtb3D0mnh6ciFSlbalJlCQgnYJM4cSAC-g/s200/images.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the
kids were grown, I decided to go back to school and finish the degree I’d
started 25 years before. A college-level Biology class was being offered in
town, and though I hadn’t taken many science classes before, I signed up.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I never
realized that studying Biology would be a religious experience. Nor that the
idea of DNA was as difficult to comprehend as the sound of one hand clapping. I
could barely get my mind around the idea before it would vanish—a disappearing
revelation.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now I learn
(through the New Yorker) that there’s more to the stuff our selves are made of
than just the double helix. Things that happen to us are recorded on a cellular
level, permanently, on those little ladder things that bridge the strands of
DNA.<o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They are
called histones, and modifications to them can change the activity of the gene
without affecting the sequence. They are epi-genetic, over-genes, and they are
the way a cell can record experience.<br />
<br />
All this is
discussed in a book by Siddhartha Mukherjee to be released this month, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gene: An Intimate History</i>.
Mukherjee, a professor at Columbia University’s medical school, won the Pulitzer
Prize in 2011 for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Emperor of All
Maladies</i>, a book about cancer.<br />
<br />
So
Epigenetics is the hot new field of study in the biological sciences, and what
is already known raises some revolutionary questions as well as posing some
evolutionary problems. One question is whether those cell memories can be
inherited. This possibility seemed to be resolved back in the nineteenth
century when Darwin’s theories pretty much got those of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
(giraffes got those long necks by trying harder) laughed out of Science. Now
the possibility—albeit remote-- is there again, since whatever happens to us is
recorded on a cellular level. The cells multiply with this amended information,
and our genes are of course passed on to the next generation.<br />
<br />
Identical
twins, such as Mukherjee’s mother and her sister, can become a great deal
different from each other over time because of epigenetic information. A lot of
things had been recorded in my histones between the 1950s in Tennessee and the
1970s in California. I was, as “The Music Man” had it, a sadder but wiser girl.
So when we say “Oh, he’s a different person now,” we are speaking a scientific
truth at a very fundamental level.<br />
<br />
“Genes form
the thread of the web (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jaal</i>) Hindu
philosophers described as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">being</i>,”
Mukherjee writes. “The detritus that adheres to it transforms every web into a
singular being. An organism’s individuality, then, is suspended between genome
and epigenome. We call the miracle of this suspension ‘fate.’ We call our responses to it ‘choice.’ We call one such variant of one such organism a
‘self.’”<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That
paragraph alone might well have earned the Pulitzer Prize.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-181674510259387742016-04-15T10:36:00.003-07:002016-04-15T16:43:53.282-07:00Write On<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikFuLyzd-IHlqOY4KaCYW8omxV1xe0fxiFA6FikDzQfXKP9yvmVgGR2oezVlHNE4VWurREaqMX4QCUeY1xO0IRsfQBnjSMPmC1jUEEFgv1p6R-twnlC05_saJulOozZeaV2mVEXFFgOw/s1600/Scan.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikFuLyzd-IHlqOY4KaCYW8omxV1xe0fxiFA6FikDzQfXKP9yvmVgGR2oezVlHNE4VWurREaqMX4QCUeY1xO0IRsfQBnjSMPmC1jUEEFgv1p6R-twnlC05_saJulOozZeaV2mVEXFFgOw/s1600/Scan.jpeg" /></a></div>
I think you
should write your book.<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“But who
would read it,” you ask?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Well, you
never know.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I have been
transcribing my old journals, intending to put them on a disc and leave them
around somewhere. Partly I’m doing it because I want the shelf space all those
diaries are using, and partly because I’m coming up to an 80<sup>th</sup>
birthday and I can’t last forever.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I found
this entry for September 17, 1965: Letter from Henry Waters. “No one in the
Waters family has written a book since Grandma Scott wrote Korno Siga in 1889.
This is the story of Korno Siga, a mountain chief in the hills of Assam, where
Great-Grandma Scott was a missionary. It had a very limited circulation!”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On a whim,
I Googled the title. After all, how many books could there be with that name? I
found a book called Korno Siga, the Mountain Chief—Or Life in Assam. The
author, however, was one Mrs. Mildred Marston, not Grandma Scott. I ordered the
book anyway, and when it arrived, someone had written “pseud. Anna (Kay) Scott”
under Mrs. Marston’s name.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The book, a
facsimile edition put out by something called “Forgotten Books”, was 200 pages
describing the life of a lady physician, a medical missionary, in the
mountains of India where the Biblical St. Thomas had met his end. Dealing with
cholera, snakebite, addictions to various drugs, “Mrs. Marston” had also to
teach sewing and cooking at the mission school. “Mr. Marston” had to deliver
her three children, using tips from a midwifery book.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
especially gripping scene had Mr. Marston walking into a group of vicious men
who wore skeleton necklaces and brandished spears. He whipped out his violin—which
he just happened to be carrying into the jungle—and played a hymn. The heathens—Grandma
Scott’s word—fell to their knees, believing that the missionary was a god and
that the violin was alive.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was
lots of religion in the book, as one might expect, but also some surprising
information on medicine, botany, Buddhism, and politics during the British rule
some 50 years before Gandhi began actively working for Indian independence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So almost
150 years after Grandma Scott hand-wrote her account, on the wildest
coincidence, it was reproduced and read by another grandma in Montara,
California.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My Aunt
Ruth, who gave me my first diary when I was eleven or twelve, was very big on
communicating. “Just write letters,” she told my mother. “If you can’t think of
anything to say, say what you had for dinner.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I think it’s
important. Say that you were here on this earth, and say who you were. It’s a
bit like a message in a bottle. You never know who might find it and read it.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br />
<i>(My latest book, </i>Caryatids<i>, is available in Kindle and print editions through Amazon.com.)</i></div>
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<br /></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-63141520501978399992015-12-17T15:43:00.001-08:002015-12-17T18:45:48.461-08:00A Not-So-Merry Christmas<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>This
post is for the people who have too recently lost someone dear to them, or who
are sick or in trouble, or who feel alone while all about them the halls are
being decked and ho-ho-ho is in the air: The people for whom this Christmas and
the winter holidays are really not all that merry</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
***</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinstkx0uiIUKSDQDBbDdrxv2bsYsZCrmMsxHV0DPYzhziNvEHOG7SqQb9bRYjfpeEXR0M6WlIWgrERmHvUz8zjEeXUztQc4rctCr7DJ4WAgEam2gFyjMQW1unXl8giCvfn-t2-kuo85A/s1600/Xmas+blog+2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinstkx0uiIUKSDQDBbDdrxv2bsYsZCrmMsxHV0DPYzhziNvEHOG7SqQb9bRYjfpeEXR0M6WlIWgrERmHvUz8zjEeXUztQc4rctCr7DJ4WAgEam2gFyjMQW1unXl8giCvfn-t2-kuo85A/s320/Xmas+blog+2015.jpg" width="172" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There
must have been a tree and stockings and presents the Christmas of 1943, but if
there were, I can’t remember them. The country was at war, and my little
brother was dying of leukemia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That
was the year I learned about shame when I wet my pants at school and had to
walk all the way home in soggy socks and squishing shoes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It
was the year I learned about anger when I, who had never been beaten, had never
hit anyone, punched a schoolmate in the nose and was sent to the principal’s
office.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It
was the year I learned the big word sacrilegious. Helping my father dig a
garden, I found a cluster of roots that looked like a beard, and I was
assembling a twig crucifix with a bearded Jesus when my father put down his hoe
and went to get my mother to deal with me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It
was the year of my disillusionment when Mother told me the dancing lights I was
seeing in my room were definitely not fairies. My parents wouldn’t discover how
nearsighted I was for two more years. And somebody at school had told me that
there was no Santa Claus, a fact my distracted mother and father could not or
would not confirm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I
don’t associate that Christmas with Joy To The World or Silent Night. Instead,
for some odd reason, that December brings up the serious and sober strains of
Beethoven. Specifically, the Allegretto of the Seventh Symphony, where the same
repeated note of melody rides atop the minor harmonies. Where did I hear that
piece of music? Certainly not at home.
But in response to my begging, I had begun piano lessons, so maybe my
teacher, Miss Ethel, had played the theme for me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
worst thing of all, the thing that never should have happened, was when my poor
mother in her grief said that I had made my little brother sicker by yelling at
him when he took my doll. Certainly she didn’t mean it, would have taken those
words back if she could have, forgot saying them the moment they were spoken.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But
I became convinced that she was right, that I was killing my brother, that my
parents didn’t love me any more, that I was a bad girl, a dirty, sacrilegious,
guilty and violent seven-year-old.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There
is an expectation that we should have some kind of amnesty from tragedy and
misfortune during the holidays. “How horrible,” we say in response to sickness,
death, homelessness, poverty, “especially at this time of year.” But hardship
and dismay do not take vacations. Surely it must seem to some people that everyone
except them is happily celebrating while they are alone in their misery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Verse
20 of the <i>Tao Te Ching</i> says “Everyone
else is busy, but I alone am aimless and depressed. I am different.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But
maybe we should just let the holidays float over us without any expectation of
what they might be like, should be like.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There
was a moment of grace during that frightful Christmas. Staring out the window,
as miserable as I was, I could see small lights in the dark, lights which
became beautiful flickering hexagons, shifting and glowing. They were not
fairies; my mother had been very definite about that. But despite everything,
somehow I was filled with the sweetest sensation that something good was about
to happen.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
My new collection of short stories, <i>Caryatids</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, is available at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=caryatids&sprefix=Caryatids%2Caps%2C281">http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_9?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=caryatids&sprefix=Caryatids,aps,281</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-70668453093849671812015-10-27T11:05:00.000-07:002015-10-27T11:05:04.434-07:00Sound and Fury<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i style="font-size: 10pt;">“It is a tale told by an
idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (</i><i style="font-size: 10pt;">Macbeth)</i></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i style="font-size: 10pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVbcG6qZrKXtOA1B-pGTJMpoUR-kyPsZMeA66nA1dG4tR-4eDVxW90ZIYHh8EsASe-O7BfHEaEsCOf9WaCwTM2wI45EtzOgXxrbWiQJmC2fgnLJ0enhJetGTT5xBg7v8-eTkiq8a1Qg/s1600/Beep+Beep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVbcG6qZrKXtOA1B-pGTJMpoUR-kyPsZMeA66nA1dG4tR-4eDVxW90ZIYHh8EsASe-O7BfHEaEsCOf9WaCwTM2wI45EtzOgXxrbWiQJmC2fgnLJ0enhJetGTT5xBg7v8-eTkiq8a1Qg/s200/Beep+Beep.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
</i></blockquote>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
sounds of chainsaws, leaf blowers, snoring and jackhammers aren’t exactly music to
our ears. But the ghostly noise that drove me wild was none of these.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It
started at six o’clock Saturday morning. Beep-beep-beep, then pause and repeat.
Like the warning of a truck backing up, except that it went on and on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“What
kind of alarm goes off at six in the morning?” I fumed. “Surely there is some
kind of noise ordinance about things like that.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When
work started at the home construction site nearby, the beeping seemed to stop.
Some kind of security alarm, I thought. The hapless workers at the site were
already on my hate list because of the horrible two days of sawing and chipping when they
cleared trees to make room for the new house.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
sound was back early Sunday morning. Beep-beep-beep. I posted a complaint on
NextDoor, which is Complaint Central on the Internet. None of the neighbors had heard
the noise, but they advised me to call the sheriff.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When
the beeping started again Monday morning, I was fit to be tied—or to call the
sheriff. I went out front and glared at the construction site. I tried to make
a video documenting the noise. I went into the back yard to see if it was
louder there, and it was.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
noise was coming from my garden shed, from a plastic bag. Omigosh, an old smoke
alarm, ear-splitting, and I couldn’t get it apart to remove the battery.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So
I turned the hose on it, and it was like the scene in 2001 Space Odyssey, where
the dying computer Hal sings “Daisy, Daisy” and says “I’m afraid, Dave.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
smoke alarm gasped and sputtered and then just clicked, tick-tick-tick, until I
put it in a bucket and filled the bucket with water. The thing had been beeping
on and off for at least 48 hours.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
was really glad I hadn’t called the sheriff.<o:p></o:p></div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-63393597441531463332015-04-04T10:30:00.001-07:002015-04-04T13:22:16.229-07:00Extra, Extra: Read All About It!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcGAJmYdRYfVbgTola5cmN6-unLLreR_0qIk_jp_w1CNCg3pF4L06m2kR9Q4tPTkTKmX1enT9gOri3_mRe8oeopsoDQeCDRsbMcta6o0chJZcAM4LvBriII9WRka57_ECF21uJFmqXvg/s1600/Byline+art+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcGAJmYdRYfVbgTola5cmN6-unLLreR_0qIk_jp_w1CNCg3pF4L06m2kR9Q4tPTkTKmX1enT9gOri3_mRe8oeopsoDQeCDRsbMcta6o0chJZcAM4LvBriII9WRka57_ECF21uJFmqXvg/s1600/Byline+art+3.jpg" height="147" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I discovered that the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the newspaper
that formed the model for the fictional Knoxville Times of my novel, <i>Byline</i>,
had an alumni page on Facebook. Although I didn’t recognize any of the member
names, I asked to join the closed group and was accepted. I posted an image of
my American Newspaper Guild card on the site.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scrolling through the posts, I found dozens of pictures of
co-workers from the mid 1950s and early 1960s, pictures of newspaper people
whose descriptions and traits I had borrowed for my book. Here was the
sweet-natured cartoonist. There was the scary news editor. Here was the smiling
face of the morgue—now called the library—manager.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So many of my colleagues stayed on after I left, first for
Spokane, Washington, then to Greece, New York, San Francisco. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was a sobering discovery to learn that almost all of them
have died. The one live person I knew was a red-haired photographer who was
only a couple of years older than I, and he proved to be the website’s
administrator. I remembered his strolling out of the teletype room, waving a
piece of paper and saying, irreverently, “Pope’s pooped” when Pius XII expired.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This fellow drove me, in 1963, to get an interview with
someone involved in a Congressional inquiry. She was visiting relatives at
Christmas, and I faked my way into her house by carrying wrapped gifts, as if I
were a family friend. The story was picked up by the wire services, Newsweek
and Time magazine, with my name. It was my Brenda Starr moment...such a big
deal at the time, and such a forgettable deal 50 years later. The photographer
didn’t even remember me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the alumni website, I saw pictures of the old copy desk,
the newsroom, the composing room, the pressmen with their newspaper hats. I saw
pictures of the presses being moved with heavy equipment when they became
obsolete. I saw the typewriters go and the computers come in, saw copy boys
become writers and editors, marry, have children, retire. Saw the assimilation
of the rival newspaper, the move to a new campus, the launching of an on-line
edition.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The old News-Sentinel had four editions every day, back in
the day. When a big story broke—the death of the Pope and Kennedy’s
assassination both happened when I was on the copy desk—an Extra would be put
out. The newsboys on the street really would shout “Extra, extra, read all
about it,” just like in the movies. The paper’s circulation was huge, among the
top one hundred nationally.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can only assume that the newspaper, like all newspapers,
has downsized. One alumnus, responding to a photo of the old pressmen in their
newspaper hats, remarked that the broadsheet newspapers are now too narrow to
make those hats...but then there are no ink-spattered pressmen either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I wrote my novel, I drew a map of the old newsroom and
made a list of all the editorial employees, pretty surprised that I remembered
those things when I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday. I am glad I
wrote my novel, trying to describe how it was in the glory days of newspapers.
But I found all the information on the alumni page disquieting. I was left with
mixed emotions, as if I had experienced some odd sort of time travel, more than
fifty years of the road not taken.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(The novel <i>Byline</i> is available on Amazon.com)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-50272278705758208832015-03-05T16:18:00.002-08:002015-03-05T16:18:31.418-08:00No Strings Attached
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQqCbsWDrroWgxNJElnSh79kan1GXHfAfN8jzVjlenE4zo9YPHqu74Dnx7JeULbEy1wov6cGTOj9ORBU3jiReneX_VVDRnvn2JvNkJPudjgTO68vAR5P-l8xoH9RTuDAHNgw1534x0uA/s1600/Violin:stripped.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQqCbsWDrroWgxNJElnSh79kan1GXHfAfN8jzVjlenE4zo9YPHqu74Dnx7JeULbEy1wov6cGTOj9ORBU3jiReneX_VVDRnvn2JvNkJPudjgTO68vAR5P-l8xoH9RTuDAHNgw1534x0uA/s1600/Violin:stripped.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve always been amazed at how some string players can be
both attached and detached from their instruments. They may love their fiddles
and bows as if they were family members. Sometimes I think of Nicodemus’s cello
as his wooden wife. But on the other hand, the same players will casually hand
over a valuable violin or cello or bow to another player, saying “Try it for a
while.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Case in point: N has made about 15 cello bows. Materials are
expensive; the pernambuco wood alone costs about $300 a pop, and the hours he
spends planing, sanding, polishing and bending are uncountable. He doesn’t do
the hair, so he has to pay someone to put that in. He has sold a few of these
bows, has kept a couple, and the rest he has just given away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We had a nice violin on which I had a few lessons before I
gave up. Someone had almost ruined it with polyurethane and gave it to N in a
fit of pique. He refinished it and sent it up to Carlos to fit it out with
bridge, sound post, tail piece and new strings. Then he handed it over to one
of the Coastside Community Orchestra scholars, saying “Use this for a while.”
So that scholar gave his own violin to a younger player, who returned his
loaner.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another orchestra member had an extra violin. Still another
violinist saw it at our house and traded it for his old Sears violin. The Sears
violin—intended to be “my” violin if I ever get back to Go Tell Aunt
Rhody—sits, partly sanded, in a battered wooden case left over from when N
assembled the Frankenfiddle for yet another young player.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is small-time trading. In the big-time string world,
there are few major orchestras which don’t have players using borrowed
instruments, instruments often valued in the millions of dollars. Jascha
Heifetz’s priceless Guarneri violin has been regularly played by concertmasters
of the San Francisco Symphony. In the off-season, you can see the beautiful
“David” in its glass case at the Legion of Honor Museum and listen to a
recording of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto, which had its premiere on that same
violin in the nineteenth century.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I only know of one instance where someone took advantage of
the no-strings-attached trust. Eventually, Interpol was called in and the
instrument was found and returned to the person who had lent it. The owner was
so disgusted by the theft that he said he didn’t even want to look at the
violin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The yogi Subramunya used to urge his students to practice
affectionate detachment, and string players, I think, are past masters in
detachment of a high order. But I am no string player, and I was attached to
that violin N gave away, even if I couldn’t play it.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-73489628616777472832014-11-06T09:54:00.002-08:002014-11-06T09:54:50.846-08:00Critics
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcz6kOhJVHeA57Ps1H6ZRYX-_RfQpcS3WVPfImmAwE9s-ajMb29ReGxs0kfHTTjgSc2DGAt7aX30w0FJPIYfTUEirwDkzxmCmvacckVHbKdwaLVb3gWZ8rQiuDCmRhkZQgkWkNmweCxQ/s1600/Critic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcz6kOhJVHeA57Ps1H6ZRYX-_RfQpcS3WVPfImmAwE9s-ajMb29ReGxs0kfHTTjgSc2DGAt7aX30w0FJPIYfTUEirwDkzxmCmvacckVHbKdwaLVb3gWZ8rQiuDCmRhkZQgkWkNmweCxQ/s1600/Critic.jpg" height="200" width="148" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After he had told me everything he thought was wrong with my
book, he suggested I should withdraw it from publication, rewrite it, and try
again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At first, he had not known what became of one of the
characters. I e-mailed him a list of page numbers which described the
character’s demise. Then last night, he said he thought I had published BYLINE
too soon. The characters were not developed, he said, and there was no suspense
in the book, and why didn’t I do more with the villain’s grandmother? He didn’t
find anything to like.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was curiously unmoved. “So what do you think?” he asked.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I think I’m done with that book. I’m already working on
something else,” I said. The whole thing made me glad I had not agreed to do
any book signings.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have had some generous five-star reviews from my friends.
And I’ve had suggestions from others. The main character was too ingenuous, one
said. She had worked on school newspapers; she should have known more about the
big metropolitan newspaper. The story about the centaur was too long, another
said. I killed off her parents too soon, someone said. There were too many
characters. Who were all those people? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It should have been longer, someone said. A few people read
the book in one sitting; others apparently couldn’t finish it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It made me think of a college production of Mozart’s Don
Giovanni a friend once directed. He made the opera a Gothic horror story,
murky, dark, sinister. Nobody understood what he was after, and a lot of people
had a lot of criticism to offer. “Nobody once asked me what I was trying to
do,” he said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“What did you learn from this experience?” Last night’s
critic wanted to know.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I learned that everybody reads differently,” I said. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I thought about something my friend Sue said in response to
an earlier spate of criticism. “I suppose you didn’t write the book he wanted
to read,” she said, kindly.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-24060813636825174832014-10-03T09:20:00.000-07:002014-10-03T09:20:57.026-07:00The Girl With Many Names
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I
am pushing eighty now and am beginning to think about how many writing projects
I’ll be able to finish before I forget how to type. One of these is a kind of
autobiography with the working title “The Girl With Many Names.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
I divorced my third husband (yes; I learned my modest people skills the hard
way) some 25 years ago, I asked the judge to restore my maiden name. I had to
ask twice. I still get Christmas cards addressed to various old names, and
while I am glad to be remembered, I think 25 years is sufficient to accommodate
a name change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Partly
I wanted to go back to my original name because my father, not realizing that
it would hurt my feelings, said something about having only one male descendent
to “carry on the name.” Partly it was because I was tired of being married and
tired of having my name indicate I was somebody’s property...though it wasn’t
as bad as the Greek system of a wife’s having her given name followed by “of”
and both the husband’s names.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
Nicodemus and I got married sixteen or seventeen years ago, Father Anthony of
blessed memory put us through weeks of premarital counseling and made us go
over and analyze every failed relationship we had ever had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took us a long time to get it right,
and we don’t plan on marrying anybody else. Although Father Anthony was a
traditionalist and didn’t truck with the maiden name business, I persisted in
keeping my last name and nobody ever challenged it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
is a tribute to Nicodemus that various stores call HIM by my maiden name and
that he doesn’t particularly care one way or another.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
son Ed recently applied for a passport and had to produce the document he has
instead of a birth certificate, a statement from the American consulate in
Thessaloniki certifying the birth of a child abroad to an American citizen. “It
says my middle name is Anthony,” he said. “I always thought it was Antonios.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well,
now you’ve had an Ellis Island moment,” I said, thinking of all the new
Americans whose names were too foreign for the clerks at the famous immigration
office to pronounce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The consulate
officer had translated “of Antonios” into “Anthony.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
just-released novel, BYLINE, has an Ellis Island moment when an editor changes
the heroine’s Greek name into something that’s “easier for the people.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
I won’t even start on my first name, which I have to explain to someone almost
every day. It’s just plain old MY-KUL, I tell them. Like David’s first wife in
the Bible. Not Michelle or Mikaela or, as a childhood playmate once essayed,
Mackerel.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-36775901696910068622014-09-07T11:10:00.000-07:002014-09-07T11:10:49.492-07:00BYLINE, Post-Partum
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_CyyYs9SH66V2kacRdActXxqFPiNMudbEhARPN3kUji6DlX1K5ZKBfcXDaZMlhiMQNLPmKf4RhC2T3Pkh6QLzRJYh0b0_PLym17VcAtymPBT02bDhsbh2pn-gnFto01dnUtWFDRrow/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_CyyYs9SH66V2kacRdActXxqFPiNMudbEhARPN3kUji6DlX1K5ZKBfcXDaZMlhiMQNLPmKf4RhC2T3Pkh6QLzRJYh0b0_PLym17VcAtymPBT02bDhsbh2pn-gnFto01dnUtWFDRrow/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So
Amazon has published my little thriller, BYLINE. My East Coast writing buddy
Susan has posted a five-star review, the friends have expressed support and
congratulations, and a few copies have been sold.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After
reading and re-reading manuscript, proofs and revised proofs, I am a little
tired of my own opus, especially when I find typos and things I could have done
better. It’s not as if I thought I was writing about eternal verities or
anything, but I thought I’d be more thrilled to have my shout-out living its
own life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Twice
this week I’ve talked with a reporter from our local newspaper, which will be
running an interview about the book this week. She is young and pretty, but she
has written for the paper 26 years, she said. Both of us have always loved to
write and have tried pretty much every way of putting words together.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
wanted to know how I jumped back and forth between playing the piano and trying
to write news stories, poetry and fiction. I had to think about it, because
certainly it seems that I flit from one thing to another, halfway between doing
paying work and indulging myself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
newswriting and music program notes, I thought, you tell about something. In
fiction, of course, you try to show rather than tell. In poetry, you play with
the musicality of language, and in music you deal with the musicality itself. “But
what do they have in common?” she asked, knowing, of course, the answer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sue
and I correspond almost daily about our current writing projects, but it was
lovely to sit at the table and chat with someone else who thinks wordsmithing
is worth while.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
reporter and I reached a comfortable silence. We looked out the window at
Montara Mountain. “It’s great living near the ocean,” she said, “but I have to
confess that I’m really a mountain kind of girl.”</div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-35576753306298118202014-06-18T17:08:00.000-07:002014-06-18T17:08:02.559-07:00Alice
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyajrps1N74Hku0GICg7MDKlgNO6bC_fABkcVn8jz_ZhFiAkfzM7nvPndInFBUTOJwO-4pHgM1tlCXVU_tCCy-TPiXi6Hb7F7RG4nsuhp4CUL8g1W7Julyi4S-y6s3BIQOP1ibhnuowA/s1600/20140617__epac0618beeker~1_GALLERY.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyajrps1N74Hku0GICg7MDKlgNO6bC_fABkcVn8jz_ZhFiAkfzM7nvPndInFBUTOJwO-4pHgM1tlCXVU_tCCy-TPiXi6Hb7F7RG4nsuhp4CUL8g1W7Julyi4S-y6s3BIQOP1ibhnuowA/s1600/20140617__epac0618beeker~1_GALLERY.JPG" height="200" width="134" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alice
hated being alone so much that as a youngster she did her homework on a park
bench in order to have people around her. She died this month on her 91<sup>st</sup>
birthday, on Pentecost Sunday. We had the same birthday, but this year for the
first time I didn’t send her a birthday card, as if I already knew she had
other plans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We
couldn’t have been more different. She was 13 years older, sociable, cheerful,
confident, bossy. But we recognized something in each other the first time we
met. She was a family counselor and I was going through the Valley of the
Shadow. Alice knew that what I most needed right then was to feel safe and be
left alone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
I finally began to feel like myself again, I stood up to a neighbor who warned
me not to plant anything near the fence which might shade her yard. “You mean
like a giant sequoia?” I said. Alice thought that was about the funniest thing
she had ever heard and she repeated the story more than once.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Long
after I graduated from therapy (with heart-shaped balloons and a party) Alice
would call me up or send <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>me a
card. She once confessed that she prayed for her clients, a surprising
admission.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Alice
never got very far from the church. She was a Dominican nun, then a nurse, then
an associate of Holy Names, a teaching order. She once asked me to convert a
set of tape-recorded religious lectures into compact discs. I could hardly
believe anyone could listen to 20 hours of lecturing, but Alice was delighted
to have the tapes preserved and sent me two silk scarves as a thank you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
gave away almost everything she had when she moved to St. Anne’s home in San
Francisco, where she spent the last several years of her life. A friend and I
took her to lunch at the Palace of the Legion of Honor one day, wheeling her
around in her chair, laughing and joking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Someone
at St. Anne’s found my telephone number among Alice’s things and called me to
tell me about the memorial service. “Alice really liked you,” the caller said. Hearing
that was almost as good as getting to say goodbye in person. </div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-31837607858929805012014-03-03T16:08:00.002-08:002014-03-03T16:08:50.023-08:00Channeling Theodora
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijXmFGJZHXUAsNGppUspLAYc_Z8UnwYggCVrGArHBV6q_qJXj8ubnGYGK5gcjLzuBj1KoPpeSpR9T79w-D7jOyMUvlt9zASieGKiD5UnqirWJUwGAgLgdsqYpOREJPtmphTvuNTrljlA/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijXmFGJZHXUAsNGppUspLAYc_Z8UnwYggCVrGArHBV6q_qJXj8ubnGYGK5gcjLzuBj1KoPpeSpR9T79w-D7jOyMUvlt9zASieGKiD5UnqirWJUwGAgLgdsqYpOREJPtmphTvuNTrljlA/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She was the daughter of a bear wrangler. As a child, she was
probably a beggar and in her teens was some kind of entertainer, which in Sixth
Century Constantinople no doubt meant prostitution. In a caste-defying miracle,
she married<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the heir Justinian and
with him in 527 became the most powerful ruler in the Byzantine empire, which
extended from north Africa to Rome to present-day Turkey.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most people have heard of Cleopatra, who lived some two
thousand years ago, but few have heard of Theodora,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>500 years nearer us in time. Hagia Sophia, the cathedral in
present-day Istanbul whose building Theodora supervised, still stands, a world
heritage landmark. Her political and military influence affected the course of
history. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mosaics at the Church of San Vitale at Ravenna in northern
Italy completed the year before Theodora’s death show a serious dark-eyed woman
framed by the extravagant gold and gem-encrusted decor which came to
characterize Byzantine art.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Years ago, I read <i>The Female City</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, a book written about Theodora and the city of
Constantinople, written in the 1950s by one Paul I. Wellman, an American
journalist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tried for a long time to find another
copy of the book<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and finally on
eBay last month I found and bought a well-worn edition offered by an Australian
book store. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Theodora was becoming much better known while I was
searching for that book. Unknown to me, Wellman’s book dropped the “City” from
the title and was reissued. No fewer than three books about Theodora were
published in 2013: <i>Theodora of</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><i>Constantinopl</i><span style="font-style: normal;">e by Elizabeth Elson, </span><i>The Secret History</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> by Stephanie Thornton, and </span><i>The</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><i>Bear Keeper’s Daughter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> by Gillian Bradshaw.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have these three on my list to read, but frankly, I am not
hopeful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Historical fiction can be a little like Classic Comics or,
in the case of Dan Brown and Nikos Kazantzakis <i>(“The Last Temptation of
Christ”),</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> sheer fantasy. On the other
hand,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it can be so convincing (as
in the case of Mary Renault and Patrick O’Brian) that it seems to make a case
for some kind of extra-sensory perception. Mary Renault’s books set in Crete
were consulted during restorations of the ancient sites. Readers of O’Brian’s
21 Aubrey-Maturin seagoing novels find it almost impossible to believe that
someone with that detailed knowledge of tall-ship sailing never spent any time
at sea.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How Theodora came to reign almost single-handedly over all
Byzantium is a bit of a mystery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wellman paints Justinian as an indecisive recluse who in his later days
wore a monk’s habit and spent his time reading the book of Revelations in hopes
of understanding why his empire was beginning to self-destruct. He was happy,
according to <i>The Female City</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, to let
Theodora make the decisions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Female City</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> has
all the names and dates right, but it seems old-fashioned and almost
voyeuristic in its attention to the lives of Constantinople’s working women.
Wellman’s central female characters spend most of their time bathing, dressing
up, and plotting their next conquest. Interestingly, all<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his other books were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>set in the American West. Some were
made into cowboy movies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While it is a wonder that a writer could have researched
this material as meticulously as Wellman did decades before Google and the
Internet, what he clearly intended as praise of the central character often
seems patronizing and trivial: Three cheers for the little lady. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the end of <i>The Female City</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Wellman writes “A man, though he be nothing himself, may be called
great through chance fame, or position, not power. But being a woman is far
more fateful and important, not only to herself, but to the world. A woman is
judged always as a woman, no matter what she does or is, aside from that
all-important fact. So this grave injustice has been done by history: though
Justinian, far her inferior in mind and spirit, has come down to us as ‘The
Great’, the only title given to Theodora is ‘The Notorious’.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Justinian is indeed known in history books as “The Great”,
but far from being called “The Notorious”, the empress Theodora was canonized
as a Christian saint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was
buried in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>548 in the Church of the
Holy Apostles, one of the edifices built under her direction, and her feast day
is November 15. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-45500486740168286382013-09-06T11:08:00.002-07:002013-09-06T11:08:46.012-07:00Stranger in a Strange Land
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let
us assume that you have been dragged, as I have, kicking and screaming into a
world dominated by gadgets. Cyberspace. The virtual world. A Strange Land.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unless
you live in a convent or go to extraordinary lengths to isolate yourself, it is
barely possible any more to get by without a computer or a mobile telephone. In
addition to this, your automobile, clocks, printer, electronic reader, sewing
machine, kitchen range, coffee maker, television and microwave all operate on
some kind of computer system which may (and usually does) go wrong. The sewing
machine, for instance, must not get below 50 degrees Fahrenheit or the computer
will not work until it is warmed up again. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>New
gadgets will appear minute by minute, and the pressure is on for you to have
the most recent versions of the various gadgets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There
are manuals to all these things. They are filled with errors and flat-out
misstatements and are sometimes only available on line, which is not much help
when it is your computer which is acting up. There are also help lines
available by telephone; good luck. If you are very patient and your computer is
still working, you may be able to get a chat window where a person in a distant
land will eventually politely offer to assist you. It is the prepositions which
give these people away. They do not know that “in the wireless gateway” is
quite different from “on the wireless gateway.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
vocabulary for all the devices is ever-changing and non-standardized. Waiting
in the electronics section of a department store, we asked the clerk “What do
you call the device which records from the television. It isn’t a VCR any more,
we know.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh,
you mean a DVR,” the clerk replied.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“O.K.,”
we said. “Can we buy one of those?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No,”
he replied. “That’s only available from your cable company.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Clue:
Most of the gadgets are known by initials. Nobody knows what the initials stand
for.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Add
this to your list of things obvious to natives of the Strange Land but maybe
not to the rest of us: When entering letters on your new telephone handset
(just purchased, because the expensive three-month-old telephones were not
compatible with the new wireless gateway): Each number on the keypad (where you
punch in the phone numbers) has three or four associated letters. Say you would
like to have the airport taxi number on your quick-dial. To enter the first of
these letters, press once. To enter the second of these letters, press two. So
if you want to enter “cab”, you press three times, then one time, then two
times. You may have to manually move the insertion point, but then maybe not.
Something so obvious nobody would dream of mentioning it. The way “a space is a
character” came as a computer typing revelation when somebody told you about it
off-handedly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Your
friends do not want to help you with this. It’s just the way they got tired of
helping you move the piano in the old days. They figure if they had to suffer
through useless manuals and unending bad music while being on hold for the help
lines, you can jolly well do your own suffering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Clue:
Sometimes turning everything off and starting over will work. Or you can do as
the teenagers do and just try anything which occurs to you until something
works. You may, however, have to get a technician to re-install your system if
you get too wild.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
got my first computer because I wanted e-mail. The computer stayed in the box
for a week because I was afraid to hook it up. I joined Facebook because I
wanted to find out what my grandchildren were doing. But you see what a
slippery slope the Strange Land can be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You
are like your brother Les,” Nicodemus says. “You like your gadgets.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
do not like the gadgets,” I answer. “I can’t figure out how to do without them,
is all. And you don’t want anything to do with them.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes,
well,” he says.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’d
rather have two tin cans and a string,” I say, peevishly, trying to figure out
how Skype works so he can talk to his friend Michael in England. (The new
wireless gateway does not support 10-10-987 calls, which was the cheap way to
go when we had a land line.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
used to talk to my friends with tin cans and a string,” he says.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It
would have to be a really long string to reach to England,” I answer.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-92033556272133867132013-06-26T09:53:00.000-07:002013-06-26T09:53:30.828-07:00James Gandolfini
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>James
Gandolfini could have created the role of Tony Soprano without any dialogue at
all. He had an uncanny ability to express the entire spectrum of human emotions
on his unlovely face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The eyes
alone told you what he was thinking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
was such a fan of James Gandolfini, who died this week at the age of 51. I
think his television character Tony Soprano in the Home Box Office production "The Sopranos" will join the likes of Candide,
Blanche DuBois, Lieutenant Kije, Willy Loman and other figures in our drama,
music and literature who have had a life beyond fiction. Maybe even Hamlet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Most
of the media response to Gandolfini’s death at the age of 51 seems to think
that age 51</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgczx4z4GXKQvYMsyzLVhZck4jkobcjaQC_3sNBbT9TQ_QYUQuzYBeYAxMdVQytPEHe4iaqrea-6_IlSpGH9B6m9yNKIreWSRvJgsAi_HpnNuBzkBD9N_CkLg-5WE-Jvc5Tbwj-J0-r9Q/s1600/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgczx4z4GXKQvYMsyzLVhZck4jkobcjaQC_3sNBbT9TQ_QYUQuzYBeYAxMdVQytPEHe4iaqrea-6_IlSpGH9B6m9yNKIreWSRvJgsAi_HpnNuBzkBD9N_CkLg-5WE-Jvc5Tbwj-J0-r9Q/s200/images-1.jpeg" width="163" /></a></div>
was too young to die and that if the actor had taken better care of
himself, he’d still be with us. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song
“Temporary Like Achilles” again, expecting to see some reference to the Iliad
and the choice of leading a short life full of glory or a long life full of very
little. The title, however, was about all Dylan had to say on the subject. The
lyrics could have been made up on the spot.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some
of the news stories used Gandolfini’s death to preach about the virtues of a
low-fat diet. (The actor had eaten paté and shrimp for dinner.) I’m sure
somewhere there were sermons mentioning his obesity or his cigar-smoking. But
we don’t know enough to judge Gandolfini or others whose lifestyles may have
contributed to an early death. Maybe their choices were what allowed them to
reveal themselves to us in such a public way. Maybe the choices were crutches.
Maybe their minds were just elsewhere. Who knows? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
don’t think the death of a genius should be used as an occasion for
sermonizing. I think we should be grateful for what we got, not what their
longer life might have given us (look at J.D. Salinger.) I think their spouses
and children should be grateful and not blame them for spending time and energy
on extending their earthly days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
brother Les, speaking about a talented departed friend with bad habits, said
“We respected his right to live his life as he wanted to live it.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Really,
we owe them that for the moments of revelation they gave us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-57344111949357336522012-12-06T11:43:00.000-08:002012-12-07T07:15:21.331-08:00Fruitcake<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgRmdfJEakPQCoLn2Gh9mS_My9FdEijs95atFhIDauDZ2ZhHSWWQzIus6KJVaqpwCdQcoOWYTwUm5QQr6XPAxmGIUC1Wm8F9f7DUlYO8CM72SauKBvXqlq2Cm1R8cSi_idbyakC9U2nw/s1600/Fruitcake.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgRmdfJEakPQCoLn2Gh9mS_My9FdEijs95atFhIDauDZ2ZhHSWWQzIus6KJVaqpwCdQcoOWYTwUm5QQr6XPAxmGIUC1Wm8F9f7DUlYO8CM72SauKBvXqlq2Cm1R8cSi_idbyakC9U2nw/s320/Fruitcake.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
was my first Christmas in Greece. Christmas in Athens in those days was a minor
holiday; there were no carols, trees or decorations to speak of. I was pregnant
and homesick and couldn’t understand much of anything. The kind Trimis family
called me their nyphi—their bride—and used another word which sounded like
Ka-ee-men-ee. When I began to understand Greek, I discovered that the word
meant “poor little thing.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
had dismayed the family by having to excuse myself from the dinner table when I
saw the treat they had prepared<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in
my honor for American Thanksgiving: Octopus. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now
I wanted to redeem myself by making an American treat for them: Fruitcake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With
a great deal of help and with notes scribbled in phonetic Greek, I assembled
all the ingredients. I had<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>karidia
(nuts), phrouta (fruit), zahari (sugar) voutero (butter) and alevri (flour.)
There was no Greek word for baking powder, which was simply called bay-ek-keen.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
enormous kitchen was well-appointed, with a European range and oven, a
point-of-use water heater, and a real ice box for which a block of ice was
delivered every week. I mixed my ingredients according to a recipe I had come
by somehow, put the cake pan in the oven, and was perplexed that the heat
settings didn’t go as high as 350 degrees.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
family suggested I use the highest setting and cook the fruitcake a little
longer, but after about twenty minutes, it became obvious that something was
burning. That’s how I learned about the difference between Celsius and
Fahrenheit. 350 degrees Fahrenheit is 662 Celsius.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Trimises were very sorrowful that my American cake looked like a very large
charcoal briquette. I wrapped it up in a napkin and took it to my room.
Sometimes I would nibble on it, occasionally finding a piece of candied fruit
which had survived the cremation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-54164093148456793812012-09-26T19:21:00.001-07:002012-09-26T21:09:36.066-07:00Dragon<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
The Dragon and I are just beginning to become acquainted.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
I resisted the idea of voice recognition software. My way of writing involves a fair amount of back-and-forth about word choice. I'm not as bad as Flaubert, who supposedly rolled on the floor, gnashing his teeth, searching for just the right word. However, I do like the sensation of trying out words, rather than composing entirely in one's mind and dictating the result. When I'm writing poetry, I actually have to do it longhand because it is such a slow process.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
The Dragon for me is a byproduct of carpal tunnel surgery. Because my problems with carpal tunnel syndrome involved years of piano playing and typing, my surgeon suggested getting voice recognition software in order to reduce typing and therefore to reduce some repetitive motion. "Save your hands for the piano," he said.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_g5sLuYEkx5dUTFCdGqeh0sgTWi_MIfH58WrH7rbWZe914hPwvwOD43WhMKAAcpAnWU5u0Iiz34JybIQkG5T3kemvU1M4rs8R_UwJ9-BryIMDvfaFio0LEStusDMYpRxwua7bQM-pQ/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_g5sLuYEkx5dUTFCdGqeh0sgTWi_MIfH58WrH7rbWZe914hPwvwOD43WhMKAAcpAnWU5u0Iiz34JybIQkG5T3kemvU1M4rs8R_UwJ9-BryIMDvfaFio0LEStusDMYpRxwua7bQM-pQ/s200/Unknown.jpeg" width="200" /></a>Coincidentally, I am looking at a news article which says SAT reading and writing scores have dropped to a 40 year low this year. The College Board, which administers the test all college-bound students must take, estimates that only 43% of SAT takers in this year's freshman class were well prepared for studies at four-year colleges. Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, said when “when less than half of kids who want to go to college are prepared to do so, (the preparation) system is failing.”</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
My Dragon is quick, accurate, can spell correctly. Even if it did make Mr. Caperton "Mr. Coppertone" before I corrected it.. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Sometimes, playing a really good, responsive piano, I get the impression that I am dealing with a frisky animal which is anxious to please. My initial impressions of Dragon are the same. I think it is trying hard, even though I know that a team of clever engineers has tweaked it and tweaked it until it could pretty much type what the user spoke.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Imagine, however, if some of those students making such miserable scores on the SATs were able to compose their essays with a voice recognition program.They could give the impression of being literate when in fact they are not.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
In such a hypothetical case, you might even call voice recognition software a an attractive nuisance.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
As for me, I am willing for a while to try being a talker rather than a writer.</div>
M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-76043675349303515692012-09-03T10:36:00.000-07:002012-09-03T10:36:16.086-07:00Another Side of Mother
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
She
could only play one song on the piano: “Home, Sweet Home.” But she played it
with both hands and an Alberti bass.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
a little girl, she liked to draw and write poetry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
played in a ukulele and harmonica band in grammar school.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
knew all the words to “The Prisoner’s Song.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DrRySQ6ccew31v3VynA3nCprwWJNIKnBGorTJq7J91cVvVbRwqNyhZees_7OJ6xMGAo44tbptMHXPCd-IbbtwzFT3lBQsAOXv2pS1Xhx79KCF6oiwjMoYJrRcQvNj_E8dyRpBWEBpw/s1600/Mother1947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DrRySQ6ccew31v3VynA3nCprwWJNIKnBGorTJq7J91cVvVbRwqNyhZees_7OJ6xMGAo44tbptMHXPCd-IbbtwzFT3lBQsAOXv2pS1Xhx79KCF6oiwjMoYJrRcQvNj_E8dyRpBWEBpw/s400/Mother1947.jpg" width="140" /></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
kept a scrapbook on the Status of Women for her WSCS Methodist group long
before anyone ever talked about feminism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Her
purse smelled like chewing gum because she kept treats for a child who grew
bored at church.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
would have been valedictorian of her high school class except for me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
it was, she was voted the Flappingest Flapper.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
ran away to marry Daddy when she was 17 years old on August 4, 1935. They were
married 50 years.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
named me for her sister Elizabeth and for a Civilian Conservation Corps boy
named Michael who was allowed to walk her to church. She said she just liked
the name and didn’t care whether it was a girl’s name or a boy’s name.
Elizabeth had too many syllables, so it was shortened to Lysbeth. She called me
both names when I was in trouble.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
I repeated a racial epithet I had heard at school, she said in her scariest
voice “I don’t ever want you to say that word again.” I still can’t say it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
strongest word I ever heard her use was “Criminy.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
was little, but she was brave and physically strong. She could lift boulders.
And she could be fierce, a quality I have admired all my life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
listened to Roosevelt’s third term inaugural address on the radio. She cried
when he died. She hardly ever cried.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
never really got over my brother Lindle’s death.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
only had one cookbook.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
drew the line at cleaning fish. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
didn’t care for off-color jokes. She couldn’t really tell a joke because she
always garbled the punch line.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
read every Erle Stanley Gardner mystery ever written.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
my sophisticated college boyfriend said he thought she had good taste, I was
astonished. I didn’t know she had any taste at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
overheard her having a political discussion with a smart lawyer. “You can’t
beat City Hall,” she said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
had three older sisters with college degrees, but she had us instead. When I
asked her what she would have studied in college, she said “Why, History, of
course.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On
my 76<sup>th</sup> birthday this June 8, she phoned me up and said “I just
wanted to tell you that I think we did a good job with you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Frances Ensor Benedict, May 16, 1918-September 2, 2012)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-47605709489310322772012-08-11T11:20:00.000-07:002012-08-11T11:20:11.298-07:00Writer's Block<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dZDo4bVEjmlNtlw8bMlhJKYHAulCw6eddtITohC7KoDqlWPzbkJmtVSjAe98uYQQczIWvbBzInSgEXqbQw4C2423LxvI32yaE9grOGvPqKbshDC3blhnJpEvv0GQYWWOAp1BI4scQA/s1600/MLB-NS55%3F2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dZDo4bVEjmlNtlw8bMlhJKYHAulCw6eddtITohC7KoDqlWPzbkJmtVSjAe98uYQQczIWvbBzInSgEXqbQw4C2423LxvI32yaE9grOGvPqKbshDC3blhnJpEvv0GQYWWOAp1BI4scQA/s320/MLB-NS55%3F2.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What’s
that in the bowl?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
journalist friend and I were looking at a photo taken at my first real job,
when I was a copy boy at The News-Sentinel in Knoxville. I was the first female
copy boy they’d ever had, so the reporters often shouted “Boy! I mean Girl!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s
a paste pot,” I said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“A
PASTE pot?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We
pasted the pages end to end and cut off the bottom with a column rule. I was
probably doing television listings.”<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well,
we all had to do television listings,” she said, laughing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
couple of years ago, I started a mystery novel set at a big newspaper in the
old days. I have a large binder full of notes, lists, and false starts. The
story is about a crazed concrete worker who wants to be a famous artist, and a
cub reporter who winds up naked in a vat of plaster of Paris.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What
I really wanted to write about was how newspapers used to be in the days before
computers, in the days where almost everybody read newspapers and most people
took them seriously. The crash of the Linotype machines, the sucking sound of
the pneumatic tubes which delivered things between the newsroom and the
composing room, the throb of the presses: That's what I wanted to write about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
first poem I had published was about those sounds. Graphic Arts Monthly bought the poem and sent me a check for what it called my “filler.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
don’t much care about the story line of the mystery, and it shows. The reporter’s
name has changed several times, her grandmother has moved from Knoxville to San
Francisco and back, and even the seasons have progressed rapidly from spring to
winter. I have a dozen Chapter Ones.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We
had five deadlines a day at The News-Sentinel (as well as a policy that the “T”
in “The” had to be capitalized.) I pestered C.W. Orcutt, the managing editor, for
a job while he was on the Home Edition deadline, and I think he hired me just to
get me out of his chair. I joined the Newspaper Guild. Once a week I picked up
my paycheck, $49 minus Guild dues, for five eight-hour days a week on swing
shift.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
still dream about The News-Sentinel. Sometimes I have been away on assignment
and haven’t been paid for a long time. Someone in the newsroom tells me where
the cashier is located, since the building has changed. Sometimes I have moved
back to Knoxville and the paper has hired me back, the way they did when I came
back from Greece. Some times I am worried because I have lost my notes or
missed a deadline.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe
that’s what I need in order to finish my mystery novel: A deadline. Or maybe a
paste pot.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-26489599996709280482012-07-25T12:13:00.000-07:002012-07-25T12:13:22.028-07:00Queen Anne's Sign<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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In the days when newspapers were known as the Fourth Estate,
copy editors sat around a U-shaped desk, cutting, clarifying and checking
whatever the reporters and news services put out.</div>
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We were known as the Masters of Little Known and Useless
Facts...such as the fact that the word restaurateur has no “n” and people from
Ghana are Ghanaians, not Ghanans.</div>
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I have accumulated any number of new little known and
useless facts since I started doing crossword puzzles (the definitions of
“olla” and “etui” among them), and during a game of Bananagrams last week I
learned that there are names for the Solfège notes between Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La
and Ti. Imagine!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCM9XOrmCIeTOeh33F_f91PZg5zqoZm2UPa74gcyZPQkmFTSVmNuF521m6Snod8jwAyNQ3hobrrNcOwdryf0V6PsM33ur1E0-bIA2IPe-ZrOkVl3TKJnp6jNcx0lfcKs2xSEHeGxBi8Q/s1600/220px-Anne_of_Denmark_in_mourning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCM9XOrmCIeTOeh33F_f91PZg5zqoZm2UPa74gcyZPQkmFTSVmNuF521m6Snod8jwAyNQ3hobrrNcOwdryf0V6PsM33ur1E0-bIA2IPe-ZrOkVl3TKJnp6jNcx0lfcKs2xSEHeGxBi8Q/s200/220px-Anne_of_Denmark_in_mourning.jpg" width="154" /></a></div>
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But the most interesting useless fact I’ve come across
recently concerns Queen Anne’s Sign or the Sign of Hertoghe. It is the thinning
or loss of the outer third of the eyebrows, a sign of hypothyroidism often disguised by women with a clever stroke of the eyebrow pencil. Wikipedia
demonstrates Queen Anne’s Sign with a 1612 portrait of Anne of Denmark.</div>
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The Fourth Estate, the press, by the way, came after the
First Estate (clergy), the Second Estate (nobility), and the Third Estate,
commoners. The term implied an importance and dignity which not everyone would
accord newspapers since journalism became media.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6109346402181391775.post-7417524797488479762012-05-25T10:19:00.000-07:002012-05-25T10:19:02.588-07:00Precious RamotswePrecious Ramotswe, the creation of Alexander McCall Smith, is one of my favorite fictional characters. She's right up there with Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey, E.F. Benson's Lucia and Dostoyevsky's Myshkin.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXmDpokqB3eBqkFyS1VxDhwHfpxYrVUJqxm0oDmucXv4fKvj4HUbvKgUnbMHWIKLKDVAdLMYYWvKYQp0ntI8iwKKhhLCSGk-w8B8YT1a96HgcQZCrCJCXYGILUO2QCt68unKEirTMcQ/s1600/Limpopo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXmDpokqB3eBqkFyS1VxDhwHfpxYrVUJqxm0oDmucXv4fKvj4HUbvKgUnbMHWIKLKDVAdLMYYWvKYQp0ntI8iwKKhhLCSGk-w8B8YT1a96HgcQZCrCJCXYGILUO2QCt68unKEirTMcQ/s200/Limpopo.jpg" width="131" /></a><i>The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection</i> is the latest in McCall Smith's series which began with <i>The</i> <i>No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency</i>. In Mma Ramotswe's Botswana, nobody dies; they instead may become late. An orphan farm figures prominently in the stories, but the thing which has created so many African orphans is never named. Instead, we hear how house mothers try to take care of all these children of late parents and how Precious steps in to solve the mystery of a board member who wants to replace the households with a dormitory to save money...and get a kickback from the contractor.<br />
<br />
The books are full of quiet courtesies, kindness, good versus evil, sanity and wisdom.<br />
<br />
Preparing to go out into the bush in search of the orphan farm matron who, despairing, has gone back to her lands after being fired by the crooked board member, Precious tries to reassure her husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, that she will be fine despite the dangers of driving her ancient little van to the edge of the Kalahari desert.<br />
<br />
"I have known many cars that have died out in the bush," Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni says. "And that has meant a very long walk for their drivers."<br />
<br />
"That is a risk we shall take," Precious replies. "It is the same with people. People can become late at any time--just like that. But that does not mean that we should not do anything and not go anywhere just because there is a possibility that we may suddenly become late."<br />
<br />M. L. Benedicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06068858412257568960noreply@blogger.com0