Bluestones Sarsens Druids

This winter season my sister Marcia and her husband Art decided to take the opportunity to come to the United Kingdom to have a pre-Christmas celebration.

In their ten day whirl-wind tour we decided that going out to Stonehenge would be a brilliant idea for several reasons: a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, a much speculated yet indefinable place, rumours of strange goings-on, and it was December 20 (close enough to Winter Solstice to perhaps spy some modern day Druids).

Upon further investigations the London Walks group has special visits to Salisbury (including Cathedral) and Stonehenge for the solstice and equinox occasions. They are a group of professionals who walk you for 2 hours around London and stop at pre-determined places to tell you about the architecture, noteworthy people, history and stories of the city. Quite delightful and addictive. We joined their tour and had a fantastic day.

There are many theories why Stonehenge exists, one of many arranged groups of over-sized rocks around the UK. What makes these various stone piles interesting? The stone is not often not native to the area (Bluestones, Sarsens), they are gigantic and heavy, and organized in an intricate pattern. One can deduce that they have therefore been moved to this location by people, who used technology for movement, and arranged them according to their needs. By whom? How? For what? These are unanswered and highly speculative questions with no decisive answers.

I was most interested in our Guide's statement that the two of the stones form a window in which the setting sun peers through during the Winter Solstice.  An alignment of which the makers of Stonehenge were perfectly aware.  This I was going to see! The group disbanded for some free time and I walked towards a small bridge, then stood ready to test this alignment of the setting sun. The only place to poise oneself was on a small bridge linking two small ridges over a slight dip. The bridge was squished with other interested people, but we were all so captivated by the joy of nature and history that body parts touching each other did not concern us. The employees kept yelling, "There are too many people on the bridge!  Please take your pictures and move on so others can take one as well." I obeyed after taking 84 pictures. I was in the right spot as the sun began to set and I was not moving until I had captured the movement of that sun in the stone frame, surrounded by glorious colours. There it was, the sun slowly sinking into the earth right in between the two middle stones before it hit the horizon.

The sun then moved away from the centre of the stones and completely set 10 or so minutes later. Nature added a more beautiful sky by providing clouds in the landscape. Perhaps we can thank the three caravans of Druids already camped out, 36 hours before the actual solstice was to occur. An experience I am not likely to have again, but am glad that I had at least once.

2009 Is Dead

Accomplishments This Year:
1.  Found peace by letting go and starting again.
2.  Travel, enjoy the world around me.
3.  Spending time with family and friends.
4.  Deleting non-essentials from life.
5.  Get suckered into the world of blogging.
6.  Develop photography abilities.
7.  Meet many strangers who sometimes offered me strange advice; sometimes good.
8.  Take in as much art, theatre, plays, museums, and culture as humanly possible.
9.  Start using my critical, intellectual brain to improve my life, every day, many times over.
10.  Begin finding a balance between the consumer world of 'filling up' and fulfillment without consuming.


Crap, Didn't Get Around to That:
1.  Solve world poverty.
2.  Maintain healthier eating habits.
3.  Cow tipping.
4.  Learn how to play the banjo.
5.  Begin meditating every day.
6.  Begin a Master's Degree
7.  Dance every month.
8.  Kiss someone passionately every month.
9.  Learn how to use the colon more effectively. (Not my physical colon, the : and the ; in my writing.)

Which leaves me to commence my 2010 New Year's Goals list.  Numbers 6, 7 and 8 on the 'Crap' list, I am definately keeping.

Gift of the Season

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge. - Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects

During this season of gifts I am offering you the freedom that I have newly acquired.

This freedom may:
- reduce personal guilt
- improve your skills of judgement
- identify phony, concocted mind gobbledygook
- increase the money in your bank account
- enlarge available space in your medicine cabinet
- remind you of what you already know, by may have forgotten

All this from a book, the blessed place where a soul and mind can develop gracefully.

BAD SCIENCE by Ben Goldacre is the book and he is a practicing public health doctor working in London, UK. He also writes a column for the Guardian to help the common person stop their idiocy and return to a smarter place.

Questions:
Are you concerned when you attempt to purchase a multi-vitamin, by the number of choices, that you fondle 10 – 15 bottles before taking one home?
Perhaps you are tired of the late night news telling you about one more thing you should do to reach optimum health?
Frustrated with the remedies friends email you with when word gets out that you have the sneezing, coughing, head-so-stuffed-you-can’t-think illness?
Surprised that the diet industry makes 600 billion dollars per year and that you yourself may have contributed? (Please exclude the pills you needed to take for your strong health.)
What of all those remedies, needles, natural supplements, massages, hot stone therapies, drinks, potions, etc. Tired of those too? Or guilty that they have not succeeded as well as they were supposed to.

For my part, after years of hearing about them, I began a simple cleanse of natural pill supplements that was supposed to last for 2 weeks. Three days into it, my body said “no” in a definite way physiological way. I emailed the company to see if what I was experiencing was normal. I was told it was not and I should stop taking their product and return it to the store for a full refund. The guilt I have encountered because of my great inability to physically complete a cleanse (a necessary experience in today’s health world), has not been life altering but significant enough. After having read Bad Science, the guilt has disappeared altogether.

For a peak into the world of health without craziness, here are a few of the best bits from the book:

All too often this spurious privatisation of common sense is happening in areas where we could be taking control, doing it ourselves, feelings our own potency and our ability to make sensible decisions; instead we are fostering our dependence on expensive outside systems and people...But what’s most frightening is the way that pseudoscience makes your head go soggy. – p. 19

Trials have been done on homeopathy, and it seems that overall, homeopathy does no better than placebo...People do experience that homeopathy is positive for them, but the action is likely to be in the whole process of going to see a homeopath, of being listened to having some kind of explanation for your symptoms, and all the other collateral benefits of old-fashioned, paternalistic, reassuring medicine. – p. 58+

The fairy tale of antioxidants is a perfect example. Sensible dietary practices, which we all know about, sill stand. But the unjustified, unnecessary over complication of this basic dietary advice is...one of the greatest crimes of the nutritionist movement...I don’t think it’s excessive to talk about consumers paralyzed with confusion in supermarkets. – p. 129

...sold one compelling message: that you need to take pills to lead a healthy normal life, that a sensible diet and lifestyle are not enough in themselves, and that a pill can even make up for failings elsewhere. ..this generation of schoolchildren, reared on pills, will continue to bear rich fruit for all the industries [including the pill, big pharmaceutical companies]. – p. 154 – 155

These corporations run our culture, and they riddle it with bullshit. – p. 233

...this fascinating brand of scholarship [nutrition] – is now penetrating, uncriticised, unnoticed, the heart of our academic system, because of our desperation to find easy answers...in a world that has apparently forgotten the importance of critically appraising all scientific claims. – p. 178

Economists and doctors talk about ‘opportunity costs’, the things you could have done, but didn’t, because you were distracted by doing something less useful. – p. 336

‘Communal reinforcement’ is the process by which a claim becomes a strong belief, through repeated assertion by members of a community. The process is independent of whether the claim has been properly researched, or is supported by empirical data significant enough to warrant belief by reasonable people. – p. 253

This is the quintessential message of the book: what do you believe that on second thought is ridiculous but you have heard it so often, you forgot to truly process this piece of information? Ben Goldacre also reminds us that health crazes are just that, crazy; homeopathy is not scientifically based medicine, with proper research, critiqued by peers, then published in academic journals; pharmaceutical companies use people as guinea pigs and care about money; we have stopped using our critical assessment tools and we need to begin dissection the news stories we hear concerning science and health; we should research statistics that people regurgitate around us; most news stories are written by generalists to sensationalize; what ‘evidence-based medicine’ actually is; what ‘regression to the mean’ looks like when we are ill; what bullshit looks like; asks us to further deepen our understanding of our own bodies and the world around us. Most importantly Ben reminds us that:

People aren’t stupid. Anybody can understand anything, as long as it is clearly explained – but more than that, if they are sufficiently interested. – p.335

This book kept me ‘sufficiently interested’ and has reminded me that I am smart, that I never really did nor will I ever believe most of the information I hear about health, wellness and science in popular culture. May you also take the opportunity to read this phenomenal book and take the time to research more from Ben’s website: http://www.badscience.net/

Good intelligent health to you all!

Regressing to the 80's

I went to see my old favourite 80's band this past week:  Depeche Mode.  Tonight I return to see another: Pet Shop Boys.  Here is the video of their new song.  Seems to be all about not needing things and a certain look to have a fantastic life.  Seems good to me.

How Are You In the Darkness?

The darkness. 

Do you sleep in it?

Sit in it and think?

What do you do when you are in it?

Avoid it altogether?

For me, I have always disliked the dark. My older brother was in charge of babysitting us on occasion, and when those times occurred, he dragged his four younger siblings (me included) into the basement to watch scary movies. Due to one such occasion When a Stanger Calls has been burned into my long term memory and shall never leave.

Other than this, I have always had a vivid and active imagination; constantly over engaging scenes and expounding on creative thoughts in my mind. This includes Freddy Krueger under my bed as I sleep; green slobbery ghouls in my closet; strange, creepy men trying to break into my home; dark creatures ripping open the shower curtain as I attempt to wash my hair. See?!? My imagination, one of my loopier sides.

You might have thought I grew up, but no. As an adult I still do not EVER sleep in the dark. While at university for the second time, I slept in my Aunt’s house in a bedroom with no window, and in order to sleep at night I had to purchase and use a nightlight. Darkness is too creepy for me.

This past week I went to the Tate Modern Museum in London and stumbled upon an enormous, black, dark, empty, box. To enter or not to enter....that was the question. Upon further investigation the ticket agent mentioned he liked the box, and went to hide in it during his lunch breaks. With this knowledge I realized it was time for me to face my fear of the dark, and enter the blackness of the gigantic, installed shipping container titled How It Is.

Before entering the box of fear I read the curator’s description (Heather Sainsbury, Kathy Noble):

HOW IT IS

Artist: Miroslaw Balka

" 'How shall I move forward?' you might ask yourself, as you stand at the threshold, confronted by the darkness ahead. Many of us learn from an early age to fear the unfamiliar or unknown. If the unknown is also without light, it can become unjustifiably terrifying. How you approach the unknown is unique, as your first encounter with anything can only ever be as an individual. Staring ahead into the black void of How It Is may make you wonder whether to move ahead at all. How Is It simultaneously embodies the unknown and the familiar; the darkness is contained in a structure mimicking both the architecture of the Turbine Hall and a contemporary shipping container, luring you inwards through its recognisable form.

'It's fine', you reassure yourself, 'what can actually be inside?'

How It Is is only complete when you, the viewer, enter. Yet rather than forming a stage or spectacle, the container focuses you inwards, both physically and psychologically, as you enter into the darkness. In choosing how to move ahead - to march in fearlessly, or to skirt along the walls, probably surprised by their soft, furry touch - you create your own journey. But, as you bump into others, or mistakenly grab a stranger's shoulder, your trepidation eases and you collectively navigate the void."

I entered with confidence, then quickly skirted toward the walls. Felt its softness, used it as a guide, regained my confidence and stepped out again into the blackness. I could make out two human shapes in the distance, but I did not grab onto their arms. My legs just began stepping one in front of the other, slowly becoming accustomed to the black I had always feared. It was so incredibly enjoyable! I left the container, then returned proud as I was not yet done in the black box. Here are my illegal pictures of the black box.

Face your fears. The dark is not as horrible as I thought. Freddy Krueger did not appear. But I shall still sleep with a nightlight to illuminate the complete and utter darkness of a windowless room. My imagination is sure there are still monsters out there.

If the darkness does not help you, perhaps this might:  On Becoming Fearless by Arianna Huffington.

New Year Celebrations!

Feminist 50th Invitation

To celebrate the “50th birthday party” of 2nd wave Canadian and Quebec feminism.

Date: 1 January 2010.

Why 1 January 2010?

Feminist historians have earmarked 1960 as the year that ushered in an unprecedented upsurge of feminist activities characterized as the “2nd wave” of feminism in Canada and Quebec. So it seems only fair to take 1 January 2010 as a symbolic marker for “our 50th birthday.” Some women, who may not be able to participate on 1 January 2010, may want to select other dates to celebrate – in the month of January, or indeed any date at all in the year 2010. Fiftieth birthdays deserve to be stretched out. But we want to kick off the 50th year with a big bash on January 1st.

Why Celebrate?

These are not the best of times for feminists. The world around us grows more discriminatory and troubled every day. Yet a 50th is a momentous point to pause and to reflect on our experience, our accomplishments, our strategies, our futures. Things are so bad that we could weep, or we could party. We need to party. Even if we may be celebrating with a few tears thrown in.

Who’s Invited?

All feminists who want to celebrate – including women from the 1st wave, 2nd wave, 3rd wave etc etc. This is a time to come together to reminisce, laugh, and kick up our heels over what we accomplished, and share our dreams of changes still to come.

Where’s the Party?

Across Canada. Location of your choice! Size and number of the parties limited only by the imagination and energy of the party-planners.

What are the Party Plans?

Some of us aspire to book whole restaurants to hold celebratory dinners for over-flow crowds. Others want to invite feminist friends and their families for brunch. Some want to shape their events around concerts, theatre, art. Some want to rent halls and dress up in costume for the occasion. Some want to create intimate dinner parties in their own homes. Others want to stage gala public events to honour special groups or individual feminists amongst us. We hope the parties will be as wonderful, varied, and eclectic as our movement has been over the past 50 years. Our goal is to put the 1st of January 2010 on the map as an unforgettable, fabulous “Feminist 50th.”

Who is running this?

This is a bottom-up initiative. It lacks a centre, an edge, a funder, and an organizing association. We remember with fondness the days when our movement existed on the grass-roots venues of coffee klatches, potlucks, ad hoc committees, and fly-by-night activism. In the best spirit of feminism, we want to encourage a thousand different initiatives, to cheer the hearts and spirits of feminists everywhere.

What can you do?

* Circulate this message: This invitation needs to be “glitzed” up by those with more expertise than we have in the ways of glitz. Add all the spangles & stars you want, and then circulate this to whomever and wherever you think it might find a receptive reader.

* Make plans: Conspire with feminist sisters to create the 50th of your choice. From gala balls to potluck dessert parties, go wild with the party of your dreams.

* Information sharing: It would be wonderful if someone could volunteer to help start collecting information locally, provincially, or nationally about various plans underway, to inspire others with great ideas, and to link the parties together.

Canadian Please!

This is a hilarious video that is brief and enlightening.  You will learn why you want to be Canadian!

Canadian Please!

Here is the short 2 minute news update from London, Ontario as to why Andrew and Julia made the video above.

London, Ontario News

Andrew also has his own website and videos on YouTube which offers you the choice to vote about the ending.

Andrew and a Lady

Julia has melodic and lovey songs on her website.

Both very talented CANADIANS!

Pine Nuts: Are We Nuts?

Greg (my father): Do pine nuts, like the bag full of them on the cupboard, come from pine trees?

Wyona (my mother): Her head whips from side to side, me to my dad. I don't know.

Me: I am not sure either. I never thought about it.

Greg: OK, I'll look it up. He proceeds to the laptop and searches for the answer.

Greg: Hey, it says here that pine nuts do come from pine trees.

Wyona: What kind of pine trees. All of them or just some?

Greg: Begins to quote Wikipedia aloud, 'Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines. Family, Pinaceae. Genus, Penis.”

Wyona: WHAT!?! Ha ha ha!

Tonia: Are you kidding? As is kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species? The only biology I remember. That genus penis? Ha ha ha!

Greg: Yep! Ha ha ha! OK, maybe it is ‘peh-nis’ are ‘pI-nus’. I am not sure.

Wyona: Wasn’t there someone who had a joke about that?

Me: Yes Trent’s (my brother) friend Nathan was in the States trying to convince people that there was a place in Canada called Regina. No one believed that anyone would name a city Regina, a word that rhymed with vagina, so one guy said, ‘That is like calling a place Pehnis, Utah!’ Yep. Yep it is. And yes Regina exists.

Wyona: Ha ha, that’s right.

Greg: Continues quoting pine seeds info on Wikipedia, ‘About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of great value as a human food.”

Me: Just like some penises.

Wyona: TONIA!

Greg: Ha ha ha!

Wyona: Ha ha ha! Well, genus penis.

Do Something Different

Tonight I went to see something completely different. Instead of attending another classical concert, I headed to the Barbican to see the latest hip hop dance group Boy Blue, perform Pied Piper. Having never been to a live hip hop performance, the price was right and I attended. The whole cultural mystique from which the dance form has been derived is not my life experience, as I am a Caucasian, middle class, Canadian, swing / two-step / tango / social dancer. Not so good at the hip and the hop. The enormous amount of talent I saw on stage however, made any life experience barriers fall aside into an abyss of dance joy.

In the show the Pied Piper is hired by four money laden bureaucrats to clean up the UK streets from the 'hoodies' (people in hooded sweat shirts causing chaos to reign). The Pied Piper enters several different lairs of evil (snakes, vampires, etc), and conquers them one by one. One of the best moves was the traditional run up to a wall, leg pushes off wall, legs flip over head, and person lands upright on floor. Only the Pied Piper was the wall, four men held him still, and one man did a back flip off his chest and another off his back at the same time. Stupendous! Then there were the flips, and air spins with half turns, and feet moving so fast that there seemed to be six feet where there should have only been two. The speed and gravity defying dancing caused me and the audience to ‘oooo’ and ‘ahhhh’ for much of the performance.

In true fashion, I noticed that there was a good mix of ethnicities on stage as well as a strong mix of women and men. Most of the Hollywood hip hop dance movies show predominately male groups in competitions, and perhaps one token female group. This group did not delineate between genders, skin colours or ethnicities. All those who passed the audition, were on stage breaking a sweat while entertaining the audience.

During the applause I am so glad I broke away from my norm and did something different (the Barbican's motto).  My only critique would be the amount of dancing that represented fighting, whereas I had always been told that the Pied Piper played a wee flute and danced the rats out of Hamelin. No flutes in this performance, but much dancing!

If you have a chance to attend a Boy Blue show or any hip hop event, add a little flair to your life and see the dancing live instead of in a movie. You may even go home and try a few of the lighter moves. (No wall attempts please.)

A Boy Blue Peak

Pied Piper Longer
This is slightly different than the one I saw this evening.  Less hootchie from the ladies who wore more clothing.

Blessed Evolution

Today as I took my morning 'I Hate Running, I Would Rather Walk Longer' charge through Regent's Park I noticed an animal. A canine. I am not fond of dogs or cats or pets in general. Money can be spent elsewhere more effectively in my life, but I digress.

This dog, I am sure, had owners nearby, but I could not tell because the dog lingered at a thin tree for an exceptionally long period of time. It began moving away from the tree then returned. Sniffed more. Once again turned, and moved on.

Enter Tonia's head:
'Ahhhhh!...it must smell some delightful post urine deposit of an appealing dog'

Tonia enters canine's head:
'Oh sweet delight of lusciousness...she leaves behind a scent of lamb, barley and a little apple...what a health conscious and natural potential lover...a dog good to make babies with...I shall return for one divine, last, deep sniff...then find her in this vast green place...come little pretties, let me sniff your behind in order to find my true mating love...'

Back to Tonia's head:
'Ha!...what if humans found mates like dogs...we went around sniffing peed on trees to assess possible mates...rather than walking, I would deftly approach a tree...lean in gently...inhale deeply...no, nothing here...there, another tree...run to it....lean in...sniff once more...perfect...musky, pure, with a hint of sandalwood...Ooooooo...my ears would perk up...my eyeballs enlarge...the hunt has begun! My day would be spent in the green space and beyond, sniffing potential human mates. FREAKING PEOPLE OUT, until at last, my pee mate had been found!

Dude, I am SO glad I am not a dog!’

Back to walking.

WICKED

Having read Gregory Maguire's book several years ago, and being led to deep contemplation while watching the musical several times in London; I offer you my favourite quote from Mark Platt, one of the co-writers of the musical.

The Grimmerie 

The Wizard has no power.  He has to exploit the fear and ignorance of others.  That is a theme in history that repeats itself over and over.  How many times have we seen leaders and dictators who prey on the differences in others in order to galvanize a group of people?  It happens all the time in history, repeatedly.

Along this same vein of thought, I have added one link on the right 'Abuse Prevention & Assistance', that will connect readers, who are experiencing abuse, to Canadian local, provincial and federal groups.  The misuse of power is an issue for us all.

Tradition is Really History's Last Great Idea

On Leadership

Life requires that you search, seek and attend in order to be learn-ed (say it like Homer Simpson).  When I realized that Susie Orbach was in London, ticket purchase quickly ensued.  Having read her book "Fat is a Feminist Issue" 15 years ago (so many articles, do a personal search for reviews), knowing the brilliance that is her mind, she delighfully stirring up the body image pot, and living her ideas outloud, without exception my attendance was required at this event.

On the evening of November 30, I arrived early (shocking) and with great joy.  I realized upon my arrival that this was to be a casual disucssion with Orbach and Marin Alsop.  Who is she you and I might ask?  The first woman to be appointed as the principal conductor to a major United Kingdom orchestra (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, 2002), then in turn, the first to a United States orchestra (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, 2007).  The cheers in my soul errupted but due to social constraints of being with strangers in public, they did not explode out of my mouth. 

Add to this Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty a Human Rights organization, as moderator and oh what an evening I was about to have!  I was relishing in having one amazing person on stage and here were three!

Digression: For those individuals who have never heard an academic feminist speak you are missing a piece of your intellectual soul.  I have been attending such lectures since 1991 and the way in which these women weave their words into ideas, that meander and plant seeds in the listeners mind, produce such incredible perspectives on existence.  Enthraling.  Go!  You must!

This night I was blessed with three and what was 1.5 hours, felt like 20 minutes.  Not enough time, words or questions.  I, as the rest of the audience, would have sat in gracious awe for another 2 hours.

I shall share with you the notes I scribed as they discussed Leardership, which you can read as a package deal with individual thoughts:

• Alsop - 'Do not be afraid of losing what you have but stand up and address the issues.'
• Alsop - 'I am appalled that 2007 is another first for women.  In the 21st century we are still doing firsts?!  That is tragic.'
• Orbach - 'What is the difference between the divine parts of leadership and the bog, everyday standards of leadership?'
• Orbach - How do you do excellence?  As a woman, how do you take up your space, and do what you need to do without alienating and being alone?
• Alsop - 'Now that we have one [female conductor], are we going to stop?  Are we as a population going to say, 'now there is one, and that is enough.' '
• We all have limited time.  If so, do we spend it influencing, leading, matching, and mentoring?
• Also - 'Try not to be discouraged.  [Leadership is] emotionally draining work.'
• Orbach - 'Young women who are in positions of power do not believe that they have earned the right to be there.  I counsel many of them and they just don't feel that the public space they take up, is deservedly their own.' (paraphrased)
• Orbach - 'In the 1960's we wanted to change the terms of engagement, and to open the influence and possibilities.  We were a collective, struggling together.  Now the struggle has been privatized again.  We have returned to individuals struggling alone.'
• Orbach - Men have always had the emotional support of a woman - mother, wife - and they are then able to go and take over public spaces.  How is this experience different for women?
• Alsop - 'As a women who has achieved a first, it has been interesting for me to watch what kind of women have been allowed to pass through the system.  And it is very controlled .'
• Chakrabarti - an audience member mentioned the Guerrilla Girls in New York, and Chakrabarti briefly told the audience who they were.
• Alsop mentioned that Anna Quindlen was one of her heroes and a friend.
• Alsop - 'You should never take people's advice.'
• Alsop - 'Tradition is really history's last great idea.'
• Alsop on her vision for her orchestra - 'As a leader I share my vision and it is not democratic.  It is my vision and you agree or go.'
• Orbach - 'The president of Harvard, Drew Faust, was asked how she leads, and she said that she has to repeat the same message over, over and over.'

I announced a mentorship program for the orchestra and I told every musicuan that I expected 100% participation.  If you look at a list of people who are satisfied with their jobs, happy at the top, not happy at the bottom, musicians in orchestras are second from the bottom.  So this added responsibility with no monetary compensation was not taken well.  For an entire year I, and others, listened to every objection, complaint, concern and worry.  Then, one year from my original annoucement, we began the program having altered it according to the musicians needs.  We now regularly sit with a child beside us during rehersals as we mentor them.  It is now one of the highlights of every orchestra members' job. - Alsop

The evening reminded me that I adore academic people.  I have missed the academic community and want to continue being, spending time, and enjoying the great minds of academic and non-academic people all around me.

Additional Websites for your enjoyment:

The Bernstein Project

Naxos Music
Alsop was one of the first conductors to begin working with Naxos.

Too Fat for Fashion
Sometimes you don't have to start a blog when life pisses you off, because someone already did it for you.  :)

Thin and the Third World
Imagine living in poverty and believing one type of beauty is only acceptable form, and it is the unattainable Western form.

Body Typed: A Movie in Physical Perfection

Christmas Cooking Video

He he!  Just in case you need more to do this Christmas, and you have not discovered the plethora of Christmas at Costco, here is some entertaining cooking for you.  It includes a visual on Christmas Pudding. 

Speaking of Christmas Pudding, I heard a comedian say once that there was really only ONE Christmas pudding/cake in the world.  A person or family receives it, offers a fake 'thank you', rolls their eyes in despair, and holds on to it for 364 days, then re-gifts it to you.  The next year, you do the same.  One Christmas cake, the entire Western planet.

Delia's Classic Christmas

Enjoy!