Nepenthe

“O fold me away between blankets . . .” O fold me away between blankets And leave me alone. And let the door of my room be locked forever – Never to be opened, even for you, should you come. Red wool and soft bed. Every chink definitely sealed. Not a book by my bed – no, not one book. Instead, at all times, there, just in reach, Gorgeous patisseries and a bottle of Madeira. Because I can’t take any more. I don’t even want toys. What for? If I had them, I wouldn’t know how to play. What are they doing to me with their precautions and their attentions? I’m not cut out for a fondling. Hands off! And leave me alone. Let there be night in my room. The curtains always closed, And I – tucked up neatly in my nest, all warm – what a darling! Yes, to stay in bed forever, never to stir! To grow mouldy! At least, it would be a complete rest . . . Nonsense! The best of lives. If my feet hurt and I don’t know how to walk straight Why should I insist on going to parties, all dolled up like a lor...

I love to nap. When after-lunch grogginess hits and my eyelids start to droop, nothing makes me happier than finding a comfortable spot and drifting off to sleep for half an hour. But to my wife, my napping is the sign of a basic character flaw. "You're napping again? I can't believe how lazy you are!" She's not alone. To be an enthusiastic napper in 21st-century North America is to be out of step with your time and place. In most of the industrialized world, a nap is seen as a sign of weakness, either physical or moral. The very young and the very old nap. Sick people nap. Bums nap. Healthy, productive adults do not nap. We are a culture that celebrates action, doing, achieving, an attitude that leads to a disdain for sleep in general. We stay up late and get up early. We pull all-nighters. We'll sleep when we're dead, and in the meantime there's always a Starbucks on the corner. It's a misguided attitude. A good nap is one of life's great ple...

Where's Ralph Steadman, you can imagine Hunter S. Thompson asking in his bullet-point snarl, swear words not far behind. Where's that “illiterate bastard,” that “filthy twisted pervert,” as he called his gonzo co-conspirator in letters reprinted in Steadman's new memoir, The Joke's Over, about the two of them. Thompson would have said this with his usual mix of bullying and affection, which still brings a laugh from Steadman to this day. “Don't write, Ralph. You'll bring shame on your family,” is another Thompson quote Steadman is fond of. But where indeed is Steadman these days, that co-creator of early 1970s drug- and booze-drenched gonzo journalism as the artist who sketched Watergate-Middle America grotesqueries to accompany Thompson's words, and who decades later helped to shoot Thompson's ashes out of a 150-foot cannon? Where's Steadman when we need his satire the most? Comfortably at home in England, thank you. “I was playing with my gr...

We have been talking about motherhood for just a few moments when Juliette Binoche starts to cry. She is recounting a documentary that she saw, she thinks in 1998 when she was in London, about an old woman who had survived the sinking of the Titanic. "She was talking about what happened to her when she was a child. She was on the boat, and it sank and there were little boats to save some people, and she was in there and her mother was there with her and all of a sudden ..." The words have been tumbling out, but then her voice cracks and she trails away to nothing and, astonishingly, she's in tears. "I can't talk about it, it cracks me up. There was a child ... Some other people were supposed to get on the boat, and they couldn't because it was too heavy, there were too many people on it. And the mother decided to drown" - she is wrestling with sobs now - "put herself in the water, to let the other children live. That for me is amazing." She fal...

The screenplay, interestingly, will not be an adaptation of the book Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley , by David Browne, but Sun, according to Guiden on the official site's FAQ about the film, will consult with Browne in writing the script. If you're not familiar with the enigmatic musician and why anyone would care about a movie about him, you can check out the official MySpace site devoted to Buckley , as well as the official website that his mother is deeply involved in maintaining. Buckley's 1994 album, Grace , is listed as one of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." An expanded edition of the album was released by Columbia in 2004. Guiden doesn't speculate on the site about casting yet (though she is insistent that Brad Pitt is not now, nor has he ever been, interested in playing Buckley himself), but no doubt Buckley's many fans out there have their own ideas about who should play the lead role. Buckley wa...

There was a small yelp when I spotted him through the window. No, not from me - from my husband, who spent the rest of our dinner either hanging about on the pavement like a collie in need of a lamp-post, or making urgent forays into the garden, desperate to lock steely eyes with a certain José Mourinho. Until recently, Portugal's cultural reference points - golf courses in the Algarve, and Mateus Rosé - weren't exactly aspirational. But with Mourinho, overcoated, excitingly surly and rugged, in one man embodying more style and machismo than the entire Italian peninsula, surely now anything is possible. "Has there been a Mourinho effect on the sale of Portuguese wine?" I ask Danny Cameron, outgoing chairman of the Association of Portuguese Wine Importers. He smiles wryly. "Not exactly, though when Mourinho gave Sir Alex Ferguson a bottle of 1964 Barca Velha [the iconic Douro red], we generated more wine PR than we managed in the whole of Euro 2004. But mostly we ...

Billy Connolly is the voice talent for McSquizzy. Can't wait :)

This is a travel story. This is a drug story. This is an epic, drug-fueled travel story about chewing psychotropic foliage in the worst place on earth. Are you ready? Let's go.

A L'Oreal entregou ontem, na Academia das Ciências, em Lisboa, pelo terceiro ano consecutivo, "Medalhas de Honra L'Oréal Portugal para as Mulheres na Ciência", distinguindo quatro jovens cientistas, seleccionadas pela relevância que a sua pesquisa poderá trazer à evolução das "Ciências da Vida". A iniciativa - que tem como parceiros a Comissão Nacional da Unesco e a Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - visa galardoar investigadoras com menos de 35 anos. Este ano as galardoadas são: Filipa Mendes, 30 anos, bióloga, a fazer pós-doutoramento no Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge, em Lisboa, pelo trabalho mecanismos moleculares associados à Fibrose Quística, ou Mucoviscidose; Leonor Sarmento, 33 anos, bióloga, investigadora do Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, em Oeiras, pela investigação sobre a proteína RAG (Recombination Activating Genes) e a sua influência no desenvolvimento da Leucemia; Patrícia Figueiredo, 33 anos, doutorada em Neuroimagiolog...

Some of the celebs on the list are icons, like Elvis, and their earning power continues at a steady place. Others, like musicians and actors, depend on how their estates have been managing things. A freshly printed "greatest hits" album could get them back on top, while in an off year they might not even come close to the $7 million or so needed to be considered a top earner. 1. Kurt Cobain - $50M 2. Elvis Presley - $42M 3. Charles M. Schulz - $35M 4. John Lennon - $24M 5. Albert Einstein - $20M 6. Andy Warhol - $19M 7. Dr. Seuss - $10M 8. Ray Charles - $10M 9. Marilyn Monroe - $8M 10. Johnny Cash - $8M 11. J.R.R Tolkien - $7M 12. George Harrison - $7M 13. Bob Marley - $7M By Forbes via Luxist

Prospero, duc de Milan déchu de son trône pour avoir préféré la quête du savoir à celle du pouvoir, se voit forcé à l'exil avec sa fille Miranda. Après quelques années passées sur une île mystérieuse, un alignement inusité des astres lui permet d'orchestrer une tempête qui fait échouer sur le rivage l'ennemi responsable de sa chute, le roi de Naples, accompagné de sa suite. Profitant alors des vertus magiques de l'île et des ruses de l'esprit Ariel, Prospero entraîne ces naufragés dans un dédale d'illusions, dans le dessein de se venger. Ses machinations porteront fruit, mais non sans l’avoir obligé, au terme de cette aventure, à quelques renoncements. De cette pièce-testament de Shakespeare, traduite et adaptée ici par Normand Chaurette, les créateurs multimédias Michel Lemieux et Victor Pilon, en collaboration avec la metteure en scène Denise Guilbault, offrent une lecture des plus inspirées. Sortilèges, apparitions et poésie créent, grâce au virtuel, une temp...

"As pessoas nascem para aprenderem a ter uma vida boa, a gostarem das outras pessoas e a serem bem comportadas, certo?" ...e o rapazinho de quatro anos continuou... "Bem, os cães já nascem a saber fazer isso, portanto não precisam de ficar cá tanto tempo como nós."

Do see and read all :) Via Blog dos Bichos , sempre extraordinário :)

Now that habeas corpus and other basic rights, including the right not to be tortured while interrogated, have now been deemed unnecessary, more Americans than ever have been thinking of getting out the door while they still can. Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Books, January 2007) provides an informed consideration for all potential expats: where to go, how to get there, and how to live best outside the U.S. An emigrant to Berlin himself, author Mark Ehrman breaks down the top 50 expat countries and offers true-life tales from American expatriates worldwide, documenting their experiences and compiling all the best tricks to help the process go as smoothly as possible. Getting Out is the second volume in Process’ Self-Reliance Series, a new series aimed at helping urbanites make smart choices to live sustainably and self-sufficiently in the 21st century. ___________ I know habeas corpus was suspended during the American Civil War, but now ? Why? Jeez

Pearls from Martin Amis' review of Bob Woodward State of Denial : "Two misleadingly comical anecdotes reveal the abysmal depths of coalition unpreparedness. Having allowed the dispersed Iraqi army to stay dispersed, the American viceroy started building a new one, catchily called the NIC (or New Iraqi Corps). It was pointed out, after a while, that this was the Arabic equivalent of calling it the FUQ. Similarly, when Frank Miller of the National Security Council joined a Humvee patrol in Baghdad (March 2004) he was heartened to see that all the Iraqi children were giving him the thumbs-up sign, unaware that in Iraq the thumb (shorter yet chunkier) does duty for the middle digit." "GEORGE W. BUSH HAS prevailed in two general elections because, very broadly, male voters feel that he’s the kind of guy “you can have a beer with”. Whereas in fact George W. Bush is the kind of guy you can’t have a beer with, under any circumstances: as they say at AA, he has come to treasu...

It has never been easier to see the world - or to destroy it. You can now fly to Hong Kong for just £75, pumping out greenhouse gases all the way. But what if you want to travel more responsibly? Can you still go the distance if you stick to trains, boats and buses? And will it cost you a fortune? In green travel special, Guardian staff head for the Med, the Middle East and Asia to find out Karin Andreasson makes the long trip to Thailand I start my journey to Koh Chang island, Thailand, at London Waterloo. Stepping on to the Eurostar to Brussels, knowing that I am about to travel 8,000 miles overland, feels mind-blowingly epic. At Brussels, I connect to another high-speed service that gets me to Cologne later in the evening. I have a couple of hours to while away in Cologne HauptBahnhof before embarking on the 36-hour service to Moscow. It is not a bad place to be killing time; there is a cathedral outside and a food mall downstairs. When I board the train to Moscow,...

Bombarded by petty rules, bossy advice and celebrity tittle-tattle, we have forgotton how to be adults. It's time we grew up, says Michael Bywater I imagine myself to be a grown-up, as, presumably, do you. You think that because you negotiated puberty and developed secondary sexual characteristics, and got qualifications and opened a bank account and subjected yourself to the scrutiny of anti-terrorism laws and anti-money-laundering laws and learned to drive and got a job and perhaps a spouse and maybe children, and quite possibly even pay your taxes, you are a grown-up. Sometimes, things strike you as a bit odd. It strikes you, for example, as out of kilter that between getting off the plane and reaching the outside world at London Heathrow there were, at last count, 93 notices telling you off for things you hadn't done or which it hadn't even occurred to you to do. The plain fact is that you are being treated like a baby. You, I, all of us are on the receiving end o...

The Bridge More people choose to end their lives at the Golden Gate Bridge than anywhere else in the world. THE BRIDGE offers glimpses into the darkest, and possibly most impenetrable corners of the human mind. The fates of the 24 people who died at the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004 are linked together by a 4 second fall.

The human species has been breastfeeding for nearly half a million years. It’s only in the last 60 years that we have begun to give babies the highly processed convenience food called ‘formula’. The health consequences - twice the risk of dying in the fi rst six weeks of life, five times the risk of gastroenteritis, twice the risk of developing eczema and diabetes and up to eight times the risk of developing lymphatic cancer – are staggering. With UK formula manufacturers spending around £20 per baby promoting this ‘baby junk food’, compared to the paltry 14 pence per baby the government spends promoting breastfeeding, can we ever hope to reverse the trend Pat Thomas uncovers a world where predatory baby milk manufacturers, negligent health professionals and an ignorant, unsympathetic public all conspire to keep babies of the breast and on the bottle. More... Lengthy... and very good

It's on on Hollywood and it's out on DVD. Brian Cox is Lektor (yep), Tom Noonan is the best Dollarhyde, a very young Joan Allen is Reba, and a very, very young William Petersen (who? CSI :) is Graham. I like everybody in Red Dragon, nonetheless (and why not?) And the music is overpowering prog-rock... And Goth?

Independent bookshops are supposedly on their knees - so what would drive a lawyer with no retail experience to open one? Introducing a regular blog on the trials and tribulations of the book trade, Nic Bottomley, proud co-proprietor of Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, explains his decision . Eight months ago I worked my final day as a finance lawyer in the Prague office of a large law firm. My wife, Juliette (also a disaffected lawyer), our Czech dog, Vlasska, and I moved into our new house near Bath and began plotting our new careers as independent booksellers. Joining us in our venture was Juliette's brother, Harvey (a disaffected forensic accountant), newly returned from a year of travelling in Asia. We have no retail experience. We love books, but have never before attempted to sell them. But all three of us wanted a new challenge, to escape office life and to be motivated by our work. Most of all, we wanted to create a bookshop that focused on the pure indulgence of r...

The Animals We Love, The Animals We Eat A s I write this, one of my cats is sitting on my lap. If a cat is not on my lap, or playing chase across the keyboard, or meowing for attention; if a cat is not calling for more food or fresh water, or seeking the warmth and tickle of my hand and the sound of my voice saying, “Yes, you are a lovely cat,” it is because all three of them have finally wandered away to warmer corners of the house for their naps. Principessa, my clumsy and rambunctious collie, stays outdoors. If she were inside, she would make it impossible for me to do anything besides entertain her and provide her with constant reassurance that she is loved and noticed. Her favourite trick is to run circles around an unsuspecting human, and once her target is sufficiently overwhelmed, to flop on her back for a tummy scratch. There is no such thing in her world as too much attention. As a veterinarian with a practice in rural Quebec, I live and work with animals, but I still find ...