No Laughing Matter Educated as an engineer, Klava was working as a manicurist to pay the bills while she waited for permission to leave Brezhnev's Soviet Union. She was tending to her customers' fingernails one day when a longtime client sauntered in and tried to move to the head of the line. Klava explained that she would have to wait like everyone else, and while she waited, Klava and her customers swapped political wisecracks subverting popular Party slogans: "When we say Lenin, we mean Party," they said. "When we say Party, we mean Lenin. And this is how we deal with everything. We say one thing, we mean something else." After Klava had finished with her other customers, the unscheduled client told a joke of her own: "There was a competition for the best joke about Lenin. And the first prize is 10 years to where Lenin used to go," meaning jail or exile. The client, it turned out, was a KGB agent. "If I did not value you as my ma...
Mensagens
1. The drought in Spain is predicted to reduce the olive harvest there by as much as 30%, prompting dealers of extra virgin oil to raise their prices. Spain is one of the world's largest producers of olive oil, supplying a third of the world's supply to more than 100 countries. 2. The olive tree has a revered place in Ancient Greek mythology - the goddess Athena was believed to have created the first tree during her battle with Poseidon , god of the sea, for the city of Attica. Up on the Acropolis , it was decided that the one who gave the city the finest gift should become its patron. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident to create a spring, and Athena planted an olive tree . While the water in Poseidon's spring was salty, and therefore of little value, Athena's olive tree provided the people with food, oil and wood. The city was renamed Athens. 3. Olive oils are graded and judged according to their level of acidity. Extra virgin olive oil is the produ...
Grande Reportagem, premiada
Nesta colecção, ainda o Burkina Faso: A Colômbia: E a União Europeia: Obrigada ao sítio brainstorm9.com.br.
"[You for] the fragrant-blossomed Muses’ lovely gifts [be zealous,] girls, [and the] clear melodious lyre : [ but my once tender ] body old age now [ has seized; ] my hair’s turned [ white ] instead of dark; my heart’s grown heavy, my knees will not support me, that once on a time were fleet for the dance as fawns. This state I oft bemoan; but what’s to do? Not to grow old, being human, there’s no way. Tithonus once, the tale was, rose-armed Dawn, love-smitten, carried off to the world’s end, handsome and young then, yet in time grey age o’ertook him, husband of immortal wife." [Sappho's newly discovered 4th poem, several sources: TLS , The Guardian ...]
A juicio de los gatos, las personas no somos más que muebles de sangre caliente. Jacquelyn Mitchard There are 3 ways to get something done: Do it yourself Hire someone to do it, or Forbid your child from doing it”. Author unknown “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average drivers.” Dave Barry
Regarding Cervantes, Multicultural Dreamer Why was "Don Quixote" originally written in Arabic? Or rather, why does Cervantes, who wrote the book in Spanish, claim that it was translated from the Arabic? Much is being said this year about "Don Quixote," in celebration of the 400th anniversary of its publication. And indeed, much has always been said about this extraordinary epic, narrating the misadventures of a half-mad hidalgo who seeks to re-establish the traditions of knight errantry. Faulkner reread it annually; Lionel Trilling said all prose fiction was a variation on its themes. But aside from its literary achievements, "Don Quixote" sheds oblique light on an era when Spain's Islamic culture forcibly came to an end. Just consider Cervantes's playful account of the book's origins. One day in the Toledo marketplace, he writes, a young boy was trying to sell old notebooks and worn scraps of paper covered with Arabic script. Cervantes rec...
Dresden Mon Amour It is not revisionism, it's due remembrance of people and events. Famous writers whose works never had the credit they deserve, unknown authors who never saw the light of day, have been given the recognition of some of their peers in these several books about Germany's plight during WWII. From Hans Erich Nossack's Der Untergang: Hamburg 1943: I feel that I have been given a mandate to render an account. Let no one ask me why I presume to speak of a mandate: I cannot answer that. I feel that my mouth would remain closed forever if I did not take care of this first. Also, I feel an urgency to set it down right away, even though only three months have passed. For reason will never be capable of comprehending as a reality or preserving in memory what happened there. I am afraid that, if I do not bear witness now, it will gradually fade like an evil dream. Please read on from Bookforum
Airline stops all live trade for use in experiments British Airways has been accused of setting back medical research in the UK by enforcing a blanket ban on the transport of live animals for use in experiments. Government officials and leading scientists have expressed their dismay to the airline about the toughening of its stance which they fear will send the wrong message to scientists and pharmaceutical companies involved in animal testing, and could encourage s extremists who have been running a high-profile campaign to shut down the live animal trade. [At the Guardian ]
Russia, alongside the USA, the glorious victor of the Second World War, stands sixty years on as the great loser. After the collapse of communism and the fall of the Soviet Union, the phantasm of the Russian superpower has not only evaporated into thin air, but hopes for a better future in a civil society are still in vain. The only thing to cling onto is the old dream and its triumphant figure – Stalin. [Read on at signandsight ]