kidzdoc's No Fluff Zone, Act 7

Wassily Kandinsky, Blue Crest (detail), 1917. This is one of the works Fliss and I saw in the Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London two weeks ago.




Currently reading:

    

Human Acts by Han Kang
Madrid: The History by Jules Stewart
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Completed books: (TBR = book acquired prior to 1/1/16)

January:
1. Nutshell by Ian McEwan
2. A Question of Power by Bessie Head TBR
3. The Assault by Harry Mulisch
4. Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verlhurst

February:

March:
5. The Speed of Light by Javier Cercas
6. I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin

April:
7. The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
8. A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman
9. The Plague (after La Peste) by Albert Camus, adapted by Neil Bartlett
10. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
11. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
12. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
13. Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg

May:
14. Lonely Planet Pocket Bilbao & San Sebastian (Travel Guide)
15. Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre
16. A Basque Diary: Living in Hondarribia by Alex Hallatt
17. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky

Books acquired and purchased:

January:
1. The Lives of Things by José Saramago (1 Jan, Verso e-book ($1))
2. Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe by Charles Glass (1 Jan, Verso e-book ($1))
3. Human Acts by Han Kang (12 Jan, LT Early Reviewers ARC)
4. Attending Others: A Doctor's Education in Bodies and Words by Brian Volck (25 Jan, Kindle book ($9.99))
5. Miss Jane by Brad Watson (30 Jan, Kindle book ($12.89))

February:

March:
6. Lonely Planet Pocket Bilbao & San Sebastian (Travel Guide) (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
7. Time Out Edinburgh (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
8. I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck by James Baldwin (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
9. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
10. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
11. Swing Time by Zadie Smith (24 Mar, Posman Books (Atlanta))
12. War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans (24 Mar, Kindle e-book ($12.99))
13. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg (26 Mar, Kindle e-book ($2.99))
14. Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou (27 Mar, Kindle e-book ($7.99))
15. The Practice House by Laura McNeal (29 Mar, Kindle e-book ($0.00))
16. Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas (29 Mar, Kindle e-book ($1.99))

April:
17. The Golden Age by Joan London (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($9.99))
18. Compass by Mathias Énard (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($13.35))
19. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($12.99))
20. The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($14.04))
21. A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman (7 Apr, Kindle e-book ($12.99))
22. How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul (8 Apr, LT Early Reviewers book)
23. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee (13 Apr, Blackwell's @Wellcome Collection (£8.99))
24. How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France (13 Apr, Blackwell's @Wellcome Collection (£20.00))
25. I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong (13 Apr, Blackwell's @Wellcome Collection (£17.00))
26. The Plague (after La Peste) by Albert Camus, adapted by Neil Bartlett (15 Apr, Arcola Theatre (£5.00))
27. Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz (20 Apr, Joseph's Bookstore (£8.99))
28. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (20 Apr, Joseph's Bookstore (£8.99))
29. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£10.99))
30. Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£12.99))
31. Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£14.99))
32. The Traitor's Niche by Ismail Kadare (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£16.99))
33. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (20 Apr, London Review Bookshop (£14.99))
34. Selected Poems by Linton Kwesi Johnson (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£9.99))
35. The Cattle Killing by John Edgar Wideman (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£16.99))
36. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£15.99))
37. Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer's Awakening by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (20 Apr, New Beacon Books (£14.99))
38. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (24 Apr, The Old Vic Theatre (£9.99))

Classic 20th Century Novels from the African Diaspora

Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange
Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes
The Emigrants by George Lamming
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (re-read)
The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt
Maps by Nuruddin Farah
Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston
Native Son by Richard Wright
Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
A Question of Power by Bessie Head
Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau

Notable 21st Century Literature from the African Diaspora

Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney
The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
The Drift Latitudes by Jamal Mahjoub
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
Foreign Gods, Inc. by Okey Ndibe
Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Juice! by Ishmael Reed
Ladivine by Marie NDiaye
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Pym by Mat Johnson
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Wading Home: A Novel of New Orleans by Rosalyn Story
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Nonfiction from the African Diaspora

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Beyond Black and White: From Civil Rights to Barack Obama by Manning Marable
Black in Latin America by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W.E.B. Du Bois
Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
If They Come in the Morning … : Voices of Resistance, edited by Angela Y. Davis
In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture by K. Anthony Appiah
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole
Letter to Jimmy by Alain Mabanckou
The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City by William Julius Wilson
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis
Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Tradition and the Black Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Autobiographies, Biographies and Memoirs from the African Diaspora

Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey
I Never Had it Made by Jackie Robinson
The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Mingus Speaks by John F. Goodman
Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim by Justin Gifford
Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson by Wil Haygood
Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire

2017 Booker Prize longlist: TBD

2017 Man Booker International Prize longlist
(*shortlisted title):



*Mathias Énard (France), Charlotte Mandell, Compass
Wioletta Greg (Poland), Eliza Marciniak, Swallowing Mercury
*David Grossman (Israel), Jessica Cohen, A Horse Walks Into a Bar
Stefan Hertmans (Belgium), David McKay, War and Turpentine
*Roy Jacobsen (Norway), Don Bartlett, Don Shaw, The Unseen
Ismail Kadare (Albania), John Hodgson, The Traitor's Niche
Jon Kalman Stefansson (Iceland), Phil Roughton, Fish Have No Feet
Yan Lianke (China), Carlos Rojas, The Explosion Chronicles
Alain Mabanckou (France), Helen Stevenson, Black Moses
Clemens Meyer (Germany), Katy Derbyshire, Bricks and Mortar
*Dorthe Nors (Denmark), Misha Hoekstra, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
*Amos Oz (Israel), Nicholas de Lange, Judas
*Samanta Schweblin (Argentina), Megan McDowell, Fever Dream

Iberian Literature and Nonfiction

A Bad End by Fernando Royuela
The Calligraphy of Dreams by Juan Marsé
Catalonia: A Cultural History by Michael Eaude
The Dolls' Room by Llorenç Villalonga
Fado Alexandrino by António Lobo Antunes
The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla
The History of Catalonia by F. Xavier Hernàndez
The Inquisitors' Manual by António Lobo Antunes
Life Embitters by Josep Pla
Monastery by Eduardo Halfon
The New Spaniards by John Hooper
Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga
Paris by Marcos Giralt Torrente
Private Life by Josep Maria de Sagarra
The Selected Stories of Mercé Rodoreda
The Speed of Light by Javier Cercas
Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile
The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares

Medicine, Illness and Public Health

AIDS at 30: A History by Victoria A. Harden
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine by Howard Markel
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby
Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Katharine Arnold
Death in a Small Package: A Short History of Anthrax by Susan D. Jones
Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders by Dan Bortolotti
Jonas Salk: A Life by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr
The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times by Barbara Taylor
Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine by Andrew Scull
Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad-Doctors & Lunatics by Roy Porter
The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care by John Foot
Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder by David Healy
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues by Martin J. Blaser, MD
The Price of Silence: A Mom's Perspective on Mental Illness by Liza Long
Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and Their Doctors by David Mendel
States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness by Wellcome Collection

The Rise of Populism and Related Current Affairs

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
Listen, Liberal: Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank
The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics by John B. Judis
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

Reading Globally

Quarter 1: Works by writers from the Benelux countries



The Assault by Harry Mulisch
The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans
Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verhulst
Rituals by Cees Nooteboom
Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom
Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Georges Simenon

Quarter 2: Travel writing by non-European and non-North American authors



The European Tribe by Caryl Phillips
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir by Binyavanga Wainaina

Quarter 3: Works by writers who write in what are considered minority languages within their own country

Quarter 4: Writers from the Scandinavian countries and associated territories

Voices of Color/Social Justice

Al' America: Travels Through America's Arab and Islamic Roots by Jonathan Curiel
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones
A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner
Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America by Tiny, aka Lisa Gray-Garcia
To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War by John Gibler
Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid by Joseph Nevins
The Ethics of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America, edited by Rubén G. Rumbaut and Alejandro Portes
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
For the Muslims: Islamophobia in France by Edwy Plenel
The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla
A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America by Óscar Martínez
The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah
How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi
Howard Zinn on Race by Howard Zinn
Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation by Ray Suarez
Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South by Mary E. Odem
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson by Suleiman Mourad
The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror by Arun Kundnani
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham D. Aidi
Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties by Karen L. Ishizuka
Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques
Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move by Reece Jones
We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities by Anouar Majid
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness by Alice Walker
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam by John L. Esposito
Who Are We: And Should It Matter in the Twenty-First Century? by Gary Younge

2017 Wellcome Book Prize longlist:



*How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
*When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
*Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal (alternate title: The Heart: A Novel)
The Golden Age by Joan London
Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant
*The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
*The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
*I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

*shortlisted title

2016 Wellcome Book Prize shortlist:



Playthings by Alex Pheby
It's All in Your Head by Suzanne O'Sullivan
The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink
Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

2015 Wellcome Book Prize shortlist:



The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being by Alice Roberts
My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Planned reads for May (subject to change):

Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer's Awakening by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Compass by Mathias Énard
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddharta Mukherjee
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
How to Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France
Human Acts by Han Kang
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa
Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

Congratulations to the French author Maylis de Kerangal, whose novel Mend the Living, which was published in the US as The Heart: A Novel, was chosen as the winner of this year's Wellcome Book Prize on Monday. I attended the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch on Sunday and heard her talk about her novel, along with three others, and even though she spoke English only modestly well I enjoyed her 15 minute talk (more on this brunch later).

Happy New Thread, Darryl! I also want to read The Gene: An Intimate History, although, sadly I have never read his cancer book.

Happy new thread, Darryl, I love the Kandinsky at the top!

I am glad your London visit was so good that you will return there in June.
April was a good reading month for you, reading more than in the 3 (busy) months before.

Happy new thread, Darryl! I just ordered Bodies of Light through Abebooks. I ordered the second, newer one, too but it was cancelled as the seller had sold out. I will try again

>13 msf59: Thanks, Mark. Siddharta Mukherjee was one of the featured speakers at Sunday's Wellcome Book Prize Brunch, and his 15 minute talk was compelling and thought provoking. I've only just started it, but it's good so far. His first book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer was brilliant, and well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize that it received.

>14 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. That work by Kandinsky was one of my favorites of that exhibition.

I wasn't originally planning to return to London in June, but a conversation I had with my friend Kim on Easter Sunday reminded me that my most enjoyable and memorable vacation days occurred when I spent time in conversation with good friends. Claire and I had a very nice lunch on Monday, and that conversation helped me decide exactly what to do in June. I'll make basic flight, train and hotel reservations by the end of this week.

I think I've regained my reading mojo, but only these past few days. I had a very good reading day on the plane yesterday, as I finished two short books on the flight. I also read Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors, which was chosen for this year's Man Booker International Prize shortlist last week, but it was a slog to read and wasn't enjoyable at all. Many readers on LT and Goodreads gave it 2 stars, as did I.

>15 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. Bodies of Light was superb, and I'm eager to get to the sequel, Signs for Lost Children, later this year.

I am shocked that you bought so few books on this latest trip. Clearly you will have to buy extra to make up for it when you are back in June.

Glad you made it safely back to Atlanta. I hope you enjoy your days off and find work calmer than when you left it.

Continuing with the London travelogue: Last Wednesday Paul Harris (a former member of Club Read who hasn't been active on LT the past two years) and I met at Finborough Arms, a pub in Kensington, and had drinks before the evening performance of Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy at the Finborough Theatre, a 50 seat pub theatre that is one of the most highly regarded ones of its kind in London:



The pub, which is close to the Earl's Court and West Brompton Underground stations, was founded on the site in 1868, and the award winning theatre, which sits directly above the pub, opened in 1980. This photo, from The New York Times article London's Pub Theatres Still Thrive, shows the interior of the theatre from its back row:



The play, which I had only casually heard of, is entirely set during 1941 in a holding room in Vichy, a city within the portion of southern France that had previously been free of German occupation, in which several men have been detained on the streets of the city and taken a routine document check. The men exhibit a variety of reactions to and opinions about their detainment, ranging from the casual annoyance of a businessman who is most concerned about an afternoon appointment, to the abject terror of a young painter, who fears that the authorities will find out that he is Jewish and send him to a concentration camp.



The small and austere stage fit this play perfectly, as it helped create a sense of claustrophobia and extreme tension that the men experienced during their ordeal. The play lasted 90 minutes, and I was riveted to my seat from beginning to end. This was a great experience, seeing my first play in a pub theatre with Paul, and I'll definitely plan to return there and check out other pub theatres in London in June.

BTW, does anyone know if we have similar pub theatres in the US?

After the play Paul and I enjoyed a splendid dinner at Meejana, a Lebanese restaurant on Old Brompton Road that I passed as I walked from my hotel, across the street from Gloucester Road station, to the Finborough Theatre. It's menu looked appealing, and we weren't disappointed.

Grilled halloumi (me; sorry for the poor picture quality):



Kibbeh lahme: lamb and cracked wheat shells filled with seasoned minced lamb & pine kernels (Paul):



Sawdat djej: chicken livers marinated in pomegranate sauce and flambéed in lemon & garlic (Paul):



Samke tagine with saffron rice: sea bass served with a tagine sauce (sesame-based) with fried onions and pine nuts (me):



Meejana is my latest addition to my favorite restaurants in London, along with Café Route in Dalston, and I'll definitely return here in June.

>17 Sakerfalcon: Ha! The 16 books I bought is roughly half of my usual book haul, which won't make Rachael happy, either. Fortunately I was able to fit all of them into my rucksack, which made it easy to travel from my hotel to Heathrow yesterday, as I only had to carry my rucksack on my back and wheel my one piece of luggage onto the Piccadilly Line and from Heathrow Terminal 1, 2 & 3 station to the Departures area at Terminal 3.

I've definitely become much better at bringing the smallest amount of items with me when I travel, particularly during the last two years when I visited two or more countries at a time in June and traveled on planes and especially long distance trains where you are limited to the size of luggage you can bring on board and there are no porters that can store your items in separate cars.

Last Thursday was our Book Buying Bonanza, as Paul and I hit three bookshops that afternoon. Sustenance was required first, so we initially met at Café Also on Finchley Road in Temple Fortune, roughly one mile north of Golders Green station, which is where a large group of LTers, including Paul and Hani Cranswick, met last September.

Spinach and cream cheese pancakes in tomato sauce (me):



Shakshuka with courgette (Paul):



Roasted plaice (a European flounder) with grilled courgette and a flaky potato filled pastry:



After lunch we visited Joseph's Bookstore, which is affiliated with and connected to Café Also and specializes in fiction and nonfiction Jewish and Israeli books. I came away with two books:



Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz (I hadn't heard of or seen this book by one of my favorite writers before, and Paul highly recommended it)
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (chosen for this year's Wellcome Book Prize longlist and highly recommended by several LTers)

Our next stop was to the Cake Shop within the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury, stone's throw away from the British Museum, where we met Rachael (@FlossieT, who is the first LTer I ever met but hasn't been active in this group for roughly five years) for a quick tea before her meeting in the basement of the bookshop. It's rude and unbecoming to set foot in a bookshop without buying something, so I reluctantly bought a book there:



Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer (Man Booker International Prize longlist)
Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg (Man Booker International Prize longlist)
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors (Man Booker International Prize longlist)
The Traitor's Niche by Ismail Kadare (Man Booker International Prize longlist)
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (recommended by Rachael)

Hmm. I guess that's five books. I blame Rachael.

From there we went to Finsbury Park and visited New Beacon Books, on Stroud Green Road a short walk from the Finsbury Park Underground and National Rail station.



Founded in 1966 by the cultural and political activist John La Rose and his partner Sarah White, New Beacon was the first bookshop in the UK that was dedicated to the works of writers from the African diaspora, and it was the first independent publisher for Caribbean and Black interest fiction and non-fiction in the UK as well. It came close to closing late last year, but a well publicized fund raising effort that successfully concluded earlier this year has put it back on stable financial footing, at least for the time being.

The shop was staffed that day by Lillith, a lovely and very friendly British woman of Trinidadian and Jamaican descent, who eagerly and entertainingly told us about the history of the bookshop and its current status. I came away with four more books (but I could have easily tripled that amount):



Selected Poems by Linton Kwesi Johnson (this is a replacement for the collection by the famed dub poet that I originally bought at Foyles when I attended LKJ's interview of Caryl Phillips several years ago, but seem to have lost since then)
The Cattle Killing by John Edgar Wideman (I have most of his books, save for his most recent ones, but I hadn't heard of this one before)
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (wishlist)
Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer's Awakening by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (wishlist)

Paul and I compared books over coffee at a Costa café in the station, then bid each other farewell.

I'll finish catching up later today or tomorrow.

Happy New Thread, Darryl!

Love that Kandinsky up there. And all the photos - wow. That pub theater sounds great. I don't know of ones in the U.S., but it does remind me that Chicago Shakespeare Theater, now a cultural mainstay here, started on the roof of the Red Lion Pub on Lincoln Avenue. I hope founder Barbara Gaines does her memoir some day.

Debbi really wants to go to a show at the Finborough Arms next time we're in town.

>23 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. The exhibition at the RA was a very good one, and I'm glad that Fliss suggested it, as we saw it on the last weekend that it was on.

There will be more photos, particularly from the walk in Southwark (Lambert North and Elephant & Castle) that Bianca and I took last Friday. A friend of hers recently gave her the third volume of the book London's Hidden Walks Vol 3, and we followed one of those walks. We both enjoyed that book, and I suspect that you and Debbi would as well.

Nice to know that about the origin of the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. That counts as a pub theatre in my book.

I definitely want to see another performance at the Finborough Theatre later this year. IIRC the two of you went to a pub theatre last year, right?

Emory University announced on Tuesday that the Irish author Colm Tóibín has been chosen to give the Richard Ellman Lectures in Modern Literature from November 12-14. These lectures, which require tickets but are free to the public, have been given annually or biannually since 1988, when Seamus Heaney was the first lecturer. Past lecturers include David Lodge, A. S. Byatt, Salman Rushdie, Mario Vargas Llosa, Umberto Eco and Margaret Atwood. I saw Mario Vargas Llosa give a lecture on campus not long before he was given the Nobel Prize in Literature, and I'll try to go to as many lectures as I can by Tóibín this year.

Colm Tóibín to deliver 2017 Ellmann Lectures

>24 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. I passed on the London Hidden Walks book rec to Debbi. We haven't been to a pub theatre yet. The closest is Debbi performing at Upstairs at the Ritz in Brixton, but that's storytelling, not theatre. Looking forward to trying that next time we all get together there.

>26 jnwelch: You're welcome, Joe. Ah, I had it wrong; I thought that you two had gone to a pub theatre. Hopefully we can all go to a performance at the Finborough Theatre next year, and I would love to see Debbi perform!

Congrats on your shiny new thread, Darryl. What a great topper.

>28 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara!

From the last post: Maybe Jim's next project could be a rapid transport system that would cut travel time from distant places like Atlanta and Christchurch down to two hours or less.
Hope that secret project (code named: Star Trek) is well on the way by now! London would be a good place for a mega LT meet up. I say we just book out the entire floor of a hotel....

>22 kidzdoc: what a lovely shop, and a lovely story. 4 books sounds very restrained, and that top cover is gorgeous.

>25 kidzdoc: awesome. That sounds like a great event. You guys really have the pick of events like that in the States!

Continuing the discussion of accents from the last thread -

I grew up overseas. When we came back to the States, our first residence was in a suburb of Boston, which famously has an accent lacking Rs (pahk yoah cah in Havahd Yahd). My little sister was 6. We got hooked on Star Trek - hadn't seen it at all overseas (this was Kirk et al, in syndication). A year later we moved down to Virginia, and my sister was worried that she wouldn't be able to see "Mr. Spark" down there... it took some family discussion to realize that she meant Spock - she was just doing the usual family thing, putting an R into a word that those around us didn't.

And oddly enough, the only two people in my family who use textspeak (on our smartphones) are that sister (the youngest in the family), and my mother. I have no idea why Mom does that - I certainly don't (though I did on a T9 keyboard, it saved thumbs).

>30 LovingLit: I think we would have to book an entire hotel if all of the LTers who wanted to meet up in London were all there at the same time, Megan!

I hope that New Beacon Books remains financially stable now that it has been rescued from bankruptcy. I hadn't heard of this bookshop before I read an article about it earlier this year, and I'll be sure to lend it my support whenever I visit London.

Emory has a very strong English department, and the Ellman lectures are very enticing, although my work schedule has kept me from attending most of the lectures in past years. The university, the Carter Presidential Center and the Margaret Mitchell House routinely host author appearances and lectures, and I should pay more attention to these events, as all three sites are short drives from where I live.

>31 jjmcgaffey: I can understand why people use textspeak when using a T9 keypad (I had to look up what that was) or if their messages are limited to a finite number of characters.

>32 kidzdoc: Did you use one, and just not know that name for it, or did you only start texting when phones had real keyboards? I had a flip-phone for possibly 4 years before going to smartphone, so I didn't use it long, nor did I text much. But the clever/stupid idea of multiple letters per number key lives on, on printer controls and some smart TVs. It does make it possible to enter text with a ten-key keyboard, but it's a PAIN to use. And yes, a one-character version of a three or more character word is great, using that. But I don't understand why my mom, who never (as far as I know) texted before she had a smartphone, uses it all the time.

Happy new thread, Darryl!! I have two of your May books on my TBR soon list: The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddharta Mukherjee and Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance for my RL bookclub. I will look forward to your thoughts. Welcome back and have fun planning your return trip to England.

>24 kidzdoc: I've been buying the Hidden Walks books for my brother-in-law, should check if he's done any yet!

I'm looking forward to Tóibín's new novel this year.

Great to catch up on your new thread, Darryl and to follow your cultural journey across London.

Pleased also to see that you managed a meet-up with Paul H whose company I enjoyed so much last year and that you revisited the haunt at Golders Green which has pleasing memories for us too.

I am loving all the London pictures, Darryl. Color me extremely jealous!

#33
I knew what it was! (I am the kid in the room waving her arms widely trying to get the teacher's attention because I know the right answer!) Knowledge about it might be a function of age or of job. Lots and lots of clerical types would know what it was - or least how to use it, if they didn't know what it was.

Here is one (deranged) man's tribute to Cheeto Jesus's visit to Atlanta today (with profound apologies to John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie):

You better watch out, you better siddown
Better not pout, or you'll be sent down
donald trump is comin' to town
He's making a list and checking it twice
Gonna find out who's Muslim or nice
donald trump is comin' to town
He tweets when you are sleeping
He knows when news is fake
He'll get passwords to your accounts
So shaddup for goodness sake!
You better zip it, 'cause Hillary lost
And as a result we'll all bear the cost
donald trump is comin' to town.

>39 kidzdoc: - Haha, clever

Alrighty...after spending a good part of today doing research and communicating with fellow members of a private travel group on Facebook and my British LT friends I've come up with a basic outline of my holiday in June. I'll leave Atlanta on June 1, arrive at Heathrow the following morning, fly from London Gatwick to Bilbao, ES on June 17, and fly from Madrid back to Atlanta on June 28. I've made flight reservations (ATL-LHR, LGW-BIO and MAD-ATL) and booked a hotel in London, but it will take me another day or two, at least, to sketch out details of my visit to the Basque Country (Bilbao, San Sebastián and Guernica), and decide if I'll spend any significant time in Madrid or not.

Now that I'm finished for the moment I'll catch up here briefly, then finish Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg.

>33 jjmcgaffey: I did own two or three clam shell mobile phones, Jennifer, but I hadn't heard of the term "T9" until you mentioned it. My last phone of this type was a Motorola Razr, which I thought was great until I started to use it for text messaging with its T9 keypad. The final straw came one day when I was at London Victoria station in, I think, 2011 or 2012, and contacted Rachael to arrange a time to meet for tea. She had a smartphone by that time, so it would take her 10 seconds for her send me a message, and several minutes for me to reply back. Within a month after I returned to Atlanta I purchased a Blackberry smartphone!

>34 Berly: Thanks, Kim! Now that I've decided to spend a week or more in the Basque Country I'll alter my reading plans somewhat. I'll definitely read The Gene: An Intimate History, but I'll probably read The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation by Mark Kurlansky, which I ordered from Amazon not long ago, instead of Hillbilly Elegy. I also purchased the Kindle edition of Martutene by Ramón Saizarbitoria one of the most highly regarded Basque novelists, as I learned this afternoon, which was recently translated from the Euskara into English. Not much of Basque literature has been translated into English, in comparison to Castilian or Catalan literature, and the best known Basque author in the English speaking world is, without question Bernardo Atxaga. I own two of his books, Obabakoak and The Accordionist's Son, and I'll try to read at least the former novel in May.

>35 Caroline_McElwee: Nice, Caroline. I'll be curious to find out if your BIL has taken any of those walks.

I didn't know that Colm Tóibín had a new novel coming out this year; I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

>36 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Paul Harris and I had a great evening last Wednesday and a splendid afternoon the following day. Fortunately my visit coincided with his week off from work and his plans to stay in London with his parents in Croydon. He lives in Wales, as you probably know, so his visits to London have to be planned in advance. His band played a gig on Saturday night; I wasn't able to go to it, as I scored a return ticket for The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui that evening. Bianca was interested in going, but she wasn't feeling well on Saturday morning and we had to cancel our plans to participate in the March for Science in London that day. I've been dealing with a sinus infection since late last week, along with an asthma flare up, so I stayed inside on Saturday until it was time to leave for the play.

Now that I have my London dates set for June I'll create another Facebook Messenger group thread, to discuss meet up plans.

Speaking of London, and the UK, Claire posted a hilarious article about British food to my Facebook timeline early this morning, which has generated a lot of comments:

British Food, Explained For Americans

>37 alcottacre: Thanks (and apologies), Stasia! I'll finish posting the rest of the photos and descriptions this weekend.

>38 benitastrnad: Knowledge about it might be a function of age or of job. Lots and lots of clerical types would know what it was - or least how to use it, if they didn't know what it was.

I suspect that most of us knew how to send text messages on clam shell mobile phones, but I doubt that the term "T9 keypad" was in wide use, at least amongst average people. The same holds true in medicine, of course, and other specialized fields.

>40 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. Cheeto Jesus was in town this afternoon to speak at this year's NRA (National Rifle Association) annual conference, which I only found out about yesterday, and when the phrase "donald trump is coming to town" popped into my head that sordid rendition of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" followed soon afterward. I made that up almost entirely myself, although I'm sure that I heard the line "Gonna find out who's Muslim or nice" previously.

ETA: Just so it's clear, that "Muslim or nice" line is not meant to denigrate Muslims, but to decry trump's wrongheaded and prejudicial view of them.

Happy new thread! Thanks for the travelogue - it's fun to visit London vicariously.

>41 kidzdoc: Great to see that your travel plans for June are becoming concrete! Maybe we can organise a day in Brighton to get you some fish and chips.

Also, you might be interested in this:
Wozzeck at the Old Vic

Happy Saturday, everyone! I just finished reading Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg, which was chosen for this year's Man Booker International Prize longlist, but not the shortlist. It was a good read, and I'll give it 3-1/2 stars for now.

I'll get dressed shortly and go out to buy groceries at Publix, now that I've decided what to cook this weekend. I'll post photos from last Friday's South London walk with Bianca and cinema and theatre reviews later today.

>43 drneutron: Thanks, Jim. I enjoy reading about others' travels, and I'm glad to share my love of London and my good friends who live in or outside of the city.

>44 Sakerfalcon: Right, Claire! Thanks again for your ideas over lunch on Monday, which gave me the kick start I needed to put the plans in motion. I enjoyed our day out in Brighton with Karen, and I would be happy to return there in June.

Yes, I did read about Woyzeck at The Old Vic a couple of weeks ago, and I definitely want to see it! Thanks for the reminder.

>39 kidzdoc: I like the poem. I just heard Trump say, that these first 100 days, were the most successful in presidential history. But, of course he would say that.

Happy Saturday, Darryl! I am having a great time with Autumn:A Novel. She is a heck of a writer.

>46 msf59: - I just heard Trump say, that these first 100 days, were the most successful in presidential history. But, of course he would say that.

I believe that would be fake news...

>46 msf59: Thanks, Mark. That was created in a moment of inspiration, or possibly lunacy, and hopefully there will be no further examples any time soon.

Trump did say this:

"My fellow Americans, I truly believe that the first 100 days of my administration has been just about the most successful in our country's history," Trump said during his weekly address. "Our country is going up, and it's going up fast."

However, he also made the following statement to a reporter from Reuters this week:

“I love my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life,” Trump said. “I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a … I’m a details-oriented person. I think you’d say that, but I do miss my old life. I like to work so that’s not a problem but this is actually more work.”

So, what are we to make of this? I would say that he is correct in that first statement, and his comments in the second one give us hope. The American people somehow elected the most unqualified person in their opinion as POTUS in modern history (see the graph below), yet the country hasn't yet become a puppet state of Russia or gone to nuclear war with North Korea. (Yet.) Our economy is chugging along, if not vibrant, and we still have a functioning health care system, at least for the time being.



This graph is almost as mind boggling as the fact that 53% white women voted for an avowed p*ssy grabber who is hell bent on restricting their reproductive rights and hard earned protections in the workplace, public settings and the home. A clear majority of Americans thought that trump was unqualified to be president, but they elected him anyway?! If someone smarter than me can explain this I'm all ears.

The second statement is a hopeful one, in that trump could conceivably decide to return to his past posh and mentally untaxing life if we keep up the pressure. That leaves us with Pence as POTUS, but at this point I think anyone short of Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann would be an improvement (and I'm not fully convinced that either of those two would be worse leaders of our country than the current one).

>47 jessibud2: I would say that trump's comment was actually not fake news, Shelley, as I believe that this mental midget honestly thinks that is the case. Sad!

Last Friday Bianca & I met at the Duck Egg Café in East Dulwich, a neighborhood in South London not far from where she lives. That was my third or fourth visit there, and I can unhesitatingly claim that it's my favorite place to have breakfast or lunch in the city. It's considerably off the beaten path from central London, but it is easily accessible via public transportation; I had to take one Underground train (District Line from Gloucester Road to West Brompton), two Overground trains (West Brompton to Clapham Junction, Clapham Junction to Denmark Hill) and a Transport for London bus (Denmark Hill to North Cross Road stop in East Dulwich) to get there, but it was absolutely worth it. I love duck eggs, and the Duck Egg Café prepares them at least as well as any other place I've dined in.

I had eggs Cumberland: two poached duck eggs over veggie sausages and an English muffin covered with Hollandaise sauce, along with tomato and a hash brown, which was as tasty as it was visually appealing; it was almost too pretty to eat!



Bianca had lubbly bubbly: a fried duck egg over beans with veggie sausage and tomato, which also looked delightful. I tried to take a photo of it, but managed to take a three second video instead, which I don't think I can post as an image. (I just checked, and I can't. You can see it on my Facebook timeline, though.)

The Duck Egg Café, along with Café Also, where Paul Harris and I had lunch the previous day, are perfect examples of my favorite places to eat: small friendly neighborhood cafés that are unpretentious, hidden gems, which serve outstanding food for a reasonable price.

After an immensely enjoyable long lunch spent in good conversation Bianca & I traveled by bus from East Dulwich to the exterior of Waterloo Station, as she proposed taking one of the walks found in London's Hidden Walks: Volume 3, a book that a friend had given her earlier this month. She proposed the walk that passed through Waterloo, Lambeth North, Elephant & Castle and Borough, which began with a visit to St John's Church, Waterloo:



The church, which sits directly across from the BFI (British Film Institute) IMAX and a short distance away from Waterloo Station, was completed in 1824, and serves as a source of inspiration and support for the multicultural community in Waterloo, including its homeless population. It has a lovely garden in back, which I imagine only a small percentage of the untold thousands of Londoners and visitors who pass by this church have seen:







A view of Waterloo Station from the garden, with a train approaching Waterloo East Station in front of it:





Our next particularly notable stop was a visit to the building which formerly served as the home for the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women, which is now part of the London campus of the University of Notre Dame (which surprised me!). According to Wikipedia, "The hospital was founded in 1816 as the Universal Dispensary for Children. This was changed in 1852 to the Royal Infirmary for Children and Women. The hospital underwent its final name change to the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women in 1875." For 160 years it served as the second major children's hospital in London, after the better known Great Ormond Street Hospital in Bloomsbury, closing for good in 1976.





Also nearby were campus buildings from King's College, London, where Bianca studied, including this one:

We next passed through the neighborhood behind St John's Church, and saw houses that were built in the Victorian area for working class families, which the guidebook told us are selling for well over £1 million now, despite their modest size (location, location, location):



We saw this classic Citroën DS from the early 1970s:





The Stage Door, which originally was known as the Half-the-Way Inn when it first opened in 1665. It was a favorite pub of Samuel Pepys, who is best known for his Diary that described the Great Plague of London in 1665 and the Great Fire that occurred the following year:



Since 1936 the Imperial War Museum London has been located within Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, which was dedicated in 1934 to the "splendid struggling mothers of Southwark", a phrase that amused the two of us. I didn't realize that this building was the third location of Bethlehem Royal Hospital, also known as Bedlam, which was completed in 1814. The original Bethlehem was built in 1247 near Liverpool Street Station and the former Bishopsgate, and it was the first institution dedicated to the care of the insane:



Yes, that is Bianca in the lower left hand corner of that photo!

Interestingly, The Tibetan Peace Garden, which was opened by His Holiness The Dali Lama in 1999, also sits within this park, a short distance away from the Imperial War Museum:







A few tree peonies were blooming in the park:

7

We hadn't finished our walk, but it was getting dark and quite chilly, so we completed the Elephant & Castle portion of the walk, and took a bus back to Waterloo Station. We had a quick dinner at the Southbank Centre Food Market, another of London's great food markets, then went to the nearby BFI Southbank to watch that evening's showing of I Am Not Your Negro, the documentary film about James Baldwin that was composed and directed by Raoul Peck (more on this later).

The two of us had planned to participate in the March for Science - London on Saturday. However, Bianca wasn't feeling well, and due to her brutal work schedule and need for rest she decided to stay home. I wasn't as eager to go on the march by myself, and I was also starting to feel under the weather, due to a combination of allergic rhinitis and sinusitis, so I stayed home as well. I wasn't going to miss that evening's performance of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, which starred Sir Lenny Henry as Arturo Ui.



This satirical farce is set in Chicago in 1931, and its main character is a gangster who rises to power by controlling the city's cauliflower distribution and forcing its grocers to pay him protection money to keep "immigrants" from destroying their livelihoods. Brecht originally conceived this play in the mid 1930s, when Hitler was chosen as Chancellor of Germany and was consolidating his power over its citizens, but it wasn't performed until 1941, when Brecht fled Nazi Germany and was eventually able to reach the United States. The new interpretation by Bruce Norris transforms Arturo Ui from a 1930s Hitler into a modern day donald trump, as the play contains several trumpisms uttered by Ui, and a large banner is unfurled just before the conclusion of the performance, in which the words "MAKE THIS COUNTRY GREAT AGAIN" appear in white letters on a red background.

Sir Lenny Henry was utterly brilliant in his role as Arturo Ui, and the supporting cast was also superb. This was an entertaining and thought provoking interpretation of one of Brecht's lesser known works, and I am thankful that I was somehow able to book a return ticket for it, as its entire run sold out before it opened at the Donmar Warehouse on 21 April, the day before I saw it.

I'm getting sleepy, as I've been up since 3:30 am, so I'll take a nap now, and finish the rest of the travelogue and write a review or two later today or tomorrow.

Hi Daryl--Lovely description and pictures of your walk from Waterloo. When I lived in England in 1967/68, I took the train into Waterloo from Surrey every day to go to school in London. I remember afternoons running through Waterloo to catch my train home, but always stopping at one of the tea ladies for a strong cup of milky tea.

I read and enjoyed The Heart: A Novel, winner of the Welcome Prize, and I think you mentioned you had read it too. I don't remember the other contenders for the prize--do you think it was deserving of the prize?

I plan to get to The Gene this month too. I loved The Emperor of All Maladies. My younger daughter will be getting her Ph. D. in genetics this fall, and I hope to pass the book along to her. Our whole family, all five kids, three spouses, 1 boyfriend, and 4 grandchildren will be getting together in NYC/JC over Memorial Day weekend--coincidentally it will be my husband's and my 46th anniversary.

I had a relatively quick trip (9 days) to London and Paris earlier this month. It was with my art study group friends, so we concentrated on the museums, and mostly art up through the Renaissance, though in Paris we had visits to both the Pompidou and the Musee d'Orsay. We did get a chance to see one play in London--probably a bit too low-brow for you--the rather silly and Monty Pythonesque farce "The Play That Goes Wrong."

I'm glad to see that your work schedule has calmed down and that you are able to get back to some good reading.

Your trip sounds like fun. Great photos and I love the play review!

>51 kidzdoc: - Darryl, do you think that the juxtaposition of placing the Tibetan Peace Garden so close to the Museum of War, was deliberate? Is there any plaque or signage that explains this? Interesting....

I am looking forward to your review of Raoul Peck's film. I have yet to see it although I am hoping to remedy that soon. Right now, we are in the middle of the Hot Docs Festival, a festival of documentary films from all around the globe. I saw 2 yesterday, 2 today and my next one will be on Wed. *I Am Not Your Negro* will likely be around somewhere in the city for awhile so I am not too worried about missing it but I do pan to see it sooner or later.

Saw a place selling curry chips today thought of you & Paul ...

I love all that London architecture.
My town centre is still 1/4 vacant lots, and the roads still chocked with road works. And the earthquakes were 6 years ago!!! Crazy. Those intact old buildings are just lovely.

Happy Sunday, everyone! I'm still feeling under the weather, due to a lingering case of sinusitis; these infections normally wipe me out, and leave me feeling tired, intermittently nauseous and not very hungry. I did go shopping yesterday morning and had planned to cook two meals, but I didn't make anything and, for the third straight day, I didn't eat dinner, either; I only had a salmon burger, a handful of macadamia nuts and a banana for lunch. I do need to make at least two meals today, though, so I'll make another batch of Avocado Tuna Salad for lunch (which is making me hypersalivate just thinking about it), and Chinese Crunchy Chicken Salad for dinner. I also bought ingredients to make Xi Jong Shi Chao ‘Jidan’ (Chinese Tofu Scramble), but I'll probably make that during the work week. I'm working Monday to Friday, and next Sunday I'll fly to Philadelphia to spend a week and a half with my parents, who I haven't seen since Thanksgiving Week.

On the reading front, I'm about ¼ of the way through Hadriana in My Dreams by the Haitian author René Depestre, who is revered in his own country but not well known outside of it; I won this book from the LT Early Reviewers program. It's a quick read, so I'll probably be able to finish it this morning. I'd also like to read We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie today to close out the month. I've owned the Kindle version of it for awhile, but a conversation I had with Claire about it on Monday has pushed it to the top of my reading list.

>53 arubabookwoman: Thanks, Deborah. Did you visit Waterloo Station while you were in London? I imagine that it must be quite different nearly 50 years later, although recognizable as well. I've seen photos of Paddington Station and King's Cross Station from the Victorian, and the exteriors, at least, are essentially identical from 150+ years ago. Here are two images of the main entrance to King's Cross, from 1853 and the present:





I did read The Heart: A Novel last year, and I did enjoy it. I heard Maylis de Kerangal speak at the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch last Sunday as well (more on this shortly). It wasn't my favorite book of the three shortlisted titles I've read so far, and I (and Rachael) were hoping that The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss would win, but I have no problem with it being chosen the winner. The Wellcome Book Prize has now become my favorite literary award, as I can't think of any books that were chosen as finalists for the prize I've read that haven't been at least very good.

I'll definitely read Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene: An Intimate History next month, as I also loved his earlier book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. He spoke at the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch as well, and his talk IMO was the most compelling of all four speakers.

Hopefully one of these days we can meet up in NYC, or in my home town of Jersey City. I'll almost certainly visit NYC during the second week of May, but I'll be in Atlanta for Memorial Day weekend. I hope that you have an enjoyable visit with your family.

I didn't realize that The Play That Goes Wrong was playing in London! I had originally planned to see it at the Cambridge Arts Theatre with Rachael last week, but I was pooped that day and didn't go (fortunately she was able to sell my ticket, as it was sold out there). I do generally prefer serious and dark plays (or, as Fliss says, depressing ones), although I did enjoy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which Caroline and I saw at The Old Vic on Monday (that was less than six days ago, but it feels as though a month has passed since then!).

I'll look at your thread shortly to see if you've posted anything about your London and Paris trips.

>54 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda. It was a great trip, although it felt a bit incomplete, as I didn't spend as much time with or see as many friends as I usually do. I particularly missed meeting up with Fliss and Rachael in a pub for dinner and drinks in Cambridge, as we can talk for hours on end until shortly before the last train to London leaves Cambridge Station just before midnight. Fortunately I'll return to London in barely over a month, and spend another two weeks there.

>55 jessibud2: Good question, Shelley. According to the Tibetan Foundation's web page (http://www.tibet-foundation.org/page/peace_garden), "The Tibetan Peace Garden has a unique location. The park in which it is built houses The Imperial War Museum and so attracts large numbers of visitors from all over the UK and abroad. It is within walking distance of Waterloo Station and is close to the Houses of Parliament, Lambeth Palace, the London Eye, the South Bank Centre and Tate Modern." The Southwark Council donated a portion of the park to the Tibet Foundation to build the Peace Garden, but I don't know if the council's and foundation's decision to do so was directly linked to the presence of the Imperial War Museum. The museum building is massive, centrally located within the park and can't possibly be missed, whereas the nearby peace garden is smaller, quieter and set off to one side, which seems fitting as well.

Interestingly I found out this morning that Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, the park in which the museum and peace garden are located, was gifted to Southwark by Harold Harmsworth in 1934, who named it in honor of his mother. He was a Nazi sympathizer, who used the newspapers he owned, the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, to advocate an alliance with Germany in the 1930s, visited and corresponded with Adolf Hitler during the early years of his reign, and sent his a congratulatory telegram after Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938. Thus, it seems even more appropriate to have a peace garden within that park.

Reading the Wikipedia page about Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park provided me with information about one other picture I took there:



I wondered what type of tree this was and asked Bianca about it, but she didn't recognize it and her guidebook didn't mention it. According to Wikipedia, "On 30 October 2004, two Araucaria araucana ('monkey puzzle') trees were planted near the park's eastern gates in memory of two Chileans who were forcibly 'disappeared' in 1974 following a military coup in Chile. The plantings were part of the Chilean Human Rights International Project's 'Ecomemoria' campaign." It has very interesting leaves, which I didn't take a photo of, and I had never seen anything like it. I'll almost certainly return to the park in June, as the hotel in which I'll be staying is next to the Lambeth North Underground station, which is close to the park.

>56 roundballnz: Ick. There goes my appetite...

>57 LovingLit: I love all that London architecture.

Same here, Megan. In the US we have a tendency to tear down or significantly modify buildings that is more than half a century old, and since we're a toddler of a country compared to mature European ones I also love visiting historical buildings and sites and seeing architecture that you wouldn't find stateside. London is excellent for that, but the city that completely took my breath away on my first visit is Barcelona; I've remarked to friends numerous times that I spent my entire first week there with my mouth hanging open in awe.

My town centre is still 1/4 vacant lots, and the roads still chocked with road works. And the earthquakes were 6 years ago!!! Crazy.

Wow. Do the frequent earthquakes in Christchurch have anything to do with this?

Several neighborhoods in New Orleans have blocks and blocks of vacant lots, although not in the downtown area (the Central Business District), the French Quarter, the Garden District and Uptown, which were relatively spared from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Those barren areas are in poorer neighborhoods that lie as much as six feet below sea level, whereas the nicer neighborhoods are generally above sea level.

>60 kidzdoc: - Thanks for that, Darryl. Interesting. I wonder if many visitors to the War Museum know of, or think to visit the Peace Garden.....

If you google images of the monkey puzzle tree, as I just did, you can see closeups of those *leaves*. In your pic, I guessed that it was an evergreen of some sort, and I always thought of coniferous trees as having needles rather than leaves. But in those google closeup images, they really do look like leaves, similar to some succulent plants I've had only, of course, much larger

Hiya, Darryl.

Welcome back to the States!

Great photos up there.

We're back in your old stomping grounds, Pittsburgh. Spent a great afternoon in the City of Asylum area, including the City of Asylum bookstore, and the Mattress Factory with all the installation art.

I saw Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speak in Toronto last week and I read We Should All Be Feminists and had her sign the book! She is an excellent speaker. If she is in Atlanta for any book talks - I would highly recommend seeing her.

>64 torontoc: - Oh no, how did I miss that? Pout...

>65 jessibud2: I had to buy tickets quickly after I got the email notice- the tickets were sold out.

Happy Sunday, Darryl. Sorry to hear about the sinusitis. I hope it clears up quickly!

>61 kidzdoc: Here I was thinking it was your favourite thing in the whole wide world :) Back to work ? Hope That sinus has cleared up

Stopping by to say hi, Darryl. My nephew, as I have mentioned is nearing his 2nd year at Cambridge in the UK. He is there working on a research PHD. My sister told me the most hilarious story about Alex, her son , last night. As part of his research , he has to go to Lund ,Switzerland and do 2 months of research/ study ( whatever he does ) . So Alex set off by train to Gatwick Airport and decided that instead of going straight to his airport hotel, he'd have a look around the Gatwick airport area. Well, he got lost and could not find his way back, dragging along his laptop and a big suitcase full of what he would need in Lund. Finally he found another hotel/ motel that drove him to his booked Gatwick hotel , at 1:30 am. His flight left at 6:30 am in the morning:) He then flew to Copenhagen, took the train to Lund, found his " digs' and decided to leave his new digs, but accidentally left the key in the flat. He had to go to the the landlord to get a master key to let him back into his flat at about midnight. My sister said she is so glad she was unaware of his wandering around Gatwick (which she regards as not the best area ). Anyway, Alex has a great sense of humour and we hope he settling into Lund with his flatmates now. He is one fun nephew - just 27, but doing well.

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to the UK so much.

Not a chance I'm going to be able to catch up, so I'll just pop by and say hi.

I've seen Monkey Puzzle trees in Vancouver and they grow quite large. Well, here they do anyway but our vegetation grows like it's on steroids. I love following along on your travelogue, Darryl. The link to British Food, for Americans was a hoot as was The Play that Goes Wrong which I saw when I was in London in 2015, although, at the time, it seemed a bit over the top.

I love the restaurant and food stories that you post on here. I love to cook and seeing all the places you eat and pictures of the food takes me along with you.

I can't wait until your tour of Spain to see what you come up with for restaurants. Especially in the Basque country. Some of those coastal towns are said to have food that is out-of-this-world delicious.

>51 kidzdoc: Lovely pictures of The Tibetan Peace Garden, Darryl, especially the tree peonies.

>60 kidzdoc: Should have asked me ;-)
The Araucaria araucana is called snakepine over here, is sometimes seen in gardens, across the road there is one in a front garden.
I had his smaller relative, Araucaria heterophylla, for years as a houseplant.

>60 kidzdoc: I first ran into mention of monkey puzzle tree in a book - Gone-Away Lake, a great YA. I finally saw an actual tree when I moved here to Alameda, CA - took me three or four views to decide that's what it was, nice to have it confirmed. In the book, it was explained that it would puzzle a monkey to climb it because all those sticky-out leaves are sharp and tough enough to double as thorns - ouch!

I just saw a play that seems rather similar to The Play That Goes Wrong, just from the title. The one I saw is Laughing Stock - a small summer-stock theater in Vermont decides to put on three plays in repertory: a new version of Dracula, Charlie's Aunt, and King Lear (though the last changes to Hamlet shortly before they start). Fascinating bunch of characters, all misfits of one sort or another, and disaster after disaster in the plays. But a happy ending for just about everyone. There were a lot of in-jokes, for actors and frequent play-goers; I caught some, my dad caught a lot more. Laughing Stock is pretty new, I believe, but it was a great play. I hope others put it on.

>60 kidzdoc: I didn't see this picture or I too would have been able to enlighten you! They grow very tall when mature, and the trunk is bare with all the branches at the top. My mum's parents lived in the seaside town of Bournemouth and Karen and I spent our summers there as children; the town is full of monkeypuzzle trees so we learned to recognise them from an early age.

Another monkey puzzle fan here. I'd love one at home but they just grow too big. I love the idea of a tribute in the form of a tree, a powerful idea.

Thought you'd be interested in this Darryl:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39791505

>77 Caroline_McElwee: - Yikes. I don't think I'd be able to sit through that, and yes, I bet he'd want to have a shower, at the very least. Probably trauma counselling, too!

Darryl, question: do you think it's necessary to read Sarah Moss's books in order of publication? Are any of them sequels to previous ones? I ordered 2 through Abebooks, but only Signs for Lost Children was available (it just arrived today). The other one I ordered (Bodies of Light apparently sold out just after my order went through and so the order was cancelled. I just wondered if I should hold off reading this one until I've read some of the others. I don't even actually know the publication dates of any of the others. This one is 2015

>77 Caroline_McElwee: Lenny Henry has sort of morphed from a comedian to a more serious actor recently and seems to be revelling in the new roles.

Have a great weekend, Darryl.

Happy Saturday, everyone! I finished another tough week at work last night (I'm still surprised at how busy we are this year), and after this short work stretch I'm now off for nearly two weeks. I'll fly to Philadelphia tomorrow morning to spend a week and a half with my parents, and earlier this morning I finished making the essential (flight, train and hotel) reservations for my June trip to the UK and Spain. I'll arrive in London on the 2nd, fly to Bilbao on the 17th, take a short bus ride to San Sebastián on the 22nd, travel by train to Madrid on the 25th, and fly back to Atlanta on the 28th.

I've done very little reading this week, but I do want to finish Hadriana in All My Dreams today.

Oof...I'm very sleepy all of a sudden (I typed the above paragraphs nearly 20 minutes ago). I'll take a nap, make lunch, and check back in later.

Hi Darryl. I keep meaning to tell you that I made the Tuna Avocado Salad you posted a while back and it was truly delicious! I will certainly be making that for lunch again soon.

I am envious of your frequent travels to the UK and Spain and other parts of the world. On the other hand, I do get to live vicariously and enjoy your photos and stories of your adventures.

I'm kind of interested in your response to >79 jessibud2: Shelley's question, too. I have wanted to read Sarah Moss but have wondered about a good starting place.

I hope you are able to rest up and recover from your hard work week before getting on the plane for Philly. And I hope you have a great visit with the folks.

June will be here before you know it, Darryl, especially with all the time you spend traveling in the meantime. It's hard to keep up with you and I am only reading about it! Have a great weekend.

61 Do the frequent earthquakes in Christchurch have anything to do with this?
Well, contrary to what people must think, earthquakes are no longer a frequent event in Christchurch. The last one I felt was in December last year. But yes, the city centre is still characterised by vacant lots because of the series of earthquakes we had 6 years ago- of which only 2 or 3 were actually significantly damaging to buildings. The road works are still occurring as the underground pipes (sewage, water and other utilities) were the last thing to be tackled; building works have been seriously held up because of insurance company delays and developers sitting on land and waiting for some sort of tipping point in regards to people "flocking back" to the central business district.
But there are also heaps of interesting new buildings, (and the usual tilt-slab concrete constructions- cheap and ugly- as well). It is just taking so much time!

>81 kidzdoc: enjoy your time with your parents!

I made it to my parents' house in suburban Philadelphia uneventfully on Sunday morning, and I'll stay with them until next Tuesday afternoon. I almost certainly won't go to NYC during this trip, due to the problems with tracks in and close to Penn Station, but I'll probably go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Thursday or Friday. I'll treat my parents to a play on Saturday afternoon, and the four of us, including my brother, will go to Center City on Sunday afternoon to see the (relatively) new Barnes Foundation museum, which moved from its old location several years ago, and have lunch before or afterward.

My mother found some old photos of her, my father, my brother and me that I hadn't seen before, and that they hadn't seen in many years.

My father as a young man; this was probably taken in the early or mid 1950s, as he was born in 1934:



My mother holding the cutest baby in the world:



Stop looking at my butt! 😡

Me on the right, looking disdainfully at the new intruder (my younger brother David) who is challenging my natural superiority:



Okay, alright...I guess he's pretty cute as well:



Dave may have been cute, but he drove my parents out of their minds for most of his childhood. This photo shows my mother leaving our apartment in Jersey City, in an unsuccessful attempt to return him to Macy's in Herald Square NYC, where he was purchased on sale, for a refund. Unfortunately the department store wouldn't take him back:

>62 jessibud2: I wonder if many visitors to the War Museum know of, or think to visit the Peace Garden...

Good question, Shelley. I'll bet that many of those who live near the park or visit it often know about the Tibetan Peace Garden, but I doubt that the infrequent visitor would know to look for it without a guide, or would easily find it, as it's off to the side and considerably less impressive than the Imperial War Museum...which seems fitting.

I do remember what the leaves of the monkey puzzle tree look like, and if I expand the image on my iPad I can see those leaves. There is a good chance that I'll return to the park next month, as I haven't visited the Imperial War Museum, and I'll take a better picture of it, as I'll bring my camera with me to take photos in England and Spain.

>63 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. It sounds as though you and Debbi had a great time in Pittsburgh. I don't think that the City of Asylum and the associated bookstore was there when I lived there (1993-97). That area was familiar to me, though, as friends and I would go to see plays at the Pittsburgh Public Theater on Allegheny Square (I think that's the name of it), close to Allegheny General Hospital, and James Street Restaurant, which is close to the hospital off of East Ohio Street, was one of my favorite places to eat (Louisiana cuisine, as I recall) and listen to live jazz.

I had heard of the Mattress Factory Museum, but I'm all but completely certain that I haven't been there.

I'll almost certainly return to Pittsburgh in mid September (14th & 15th) for my medical school class's 20th year reunion, which is just before the start of the annual national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Chicago (16th-19th).

Your trip to Barcelona should be coming up soon, right? One of my work partners was there last week, with her husband and impossibly adorable young daughter. I don't know if they are still there or not.

>64 torontoc:, >65 jessibud2:, >66 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel. Claire was also very impressed with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie when she saw her speak in London recently. I have We Should All Be Feminists on my Kindle, and I plan to read it this week. I hope to see her speak in Atlanta or elsewhere in the near future.

>67 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia. Thankfully my case of sinusitis is a thing of the past, although I'm still having mild allergy and asthma symptoms. (Note to self: refill allergy and asthma medications before the trip to London.)

>68 roundballnz: I suppose I'll have to try curry sauce on chips, although I'll try someone else's before I order it myself.

>69 vancouverdeb: Umm...I must say that I have absolutely no idea what your nephew was thinking, Deborah! I've flown into or out of London Gatwick (LGW) 8-10 times, either on Delta flights to and from Atlanta before it transferred its operations to Heathrow, and twice on flights from London to Barcelona. The airport is fine, certainly not dangerous or seedy, but there doesn't seem to be much of anything in the area surrounding LGW, as is the case for essentially every moderate or large sized airport I've ever been to. Why in the world he would wander around LGW, carrying luggage and basically asking to be robbed, is completely beyond my understanding!

He then flew to Copenhagen, took the train to Lund, found his " digs' and decided to leave his new digs, but accidentally left the key in the flat.

Yikes. Are you sure it's safe for him to be on his own?!

>70 lunacat: Hi, Jenny!

I'm a fan of chips with curry sauce. Lots of curries contain potatoes, so it's really not that odd...

>71 Familyhistorian: That makes sense, Meg. From what I saw, monkey puzzle trees in the US are limited to the Pacific Northwest. I'll have to show the photo I took to my parents, to see if they remember seeing one.

That 'British food for Americans' article was hilarious, and it generated dozens of comments after Claire posted it on my Facebook timeline last month.

I think Debbi & Joe saw and enjoyed The Play That Goes Wrong in London two years ago as well.

>72 benitastrnad: Thanks, Benita. My neighbors, one of whom works in the ER at Children's, and another colleague at work, all of whom are Latinx, are familiar with the Basque Country, and I'll ask them for recommendations on places to eat, preferably ones that aren't filled with too many tourists. I plan to make some day trips as well, particularly to Guernica and Hondarribia, before I leave for Madrid.

>73 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. If I was thinking properly the first person I should have asked was Paul Harris, a former member of Club Read who I met twice two weeks ago, who is an arboriculturist in Wales. He may have been the first one to identify that tree.

I've been racking my brain to figure out what to do either before or after my trip to Edinburgh for the Festival in August; I'll be there from the 18th through the 25th. One option would be to fly from Edinburgh to Amsterdam and spend a week there after the festival, or fly to Amsterdam from Atlanta and then go to Edinburgh from there. However, if I can find a hotel and reasonable transportation I may go to the Marciac Jazz Festival in France before I go to Edinburgh; one of my Club Read friends lives nearby, and it would be nice to go to concerts there with him.

It's almost 1 pm, so I'll start making lunch now. Back later...

In case you missed my question, Darryl, here it is: >79 jessibud2:

>85 kidzdoc: - I love looking at old photos! Cute pics, and I can totally relate to your feelings about the *intruder*! LOL! I had just turned 4 when my brother intruded on my queendom. I had been an only child and only grandchild up to that point and liked it just fine that way, thank you very much. ;-)

It's a week and two days until we leave for Barcelona, Darryl. We're busy studying our Darryl notes. :-)

Finishing up...

>74 jjmcgaffey: Thanks for that interesting tidbit about monkey puzzle trees, Jennifer! I wondered about that odd name, but that description makes perfect sense.

I'll have to keep my eye out for Laughing Stock. However, as Fliss rightfully says, I prefer serious and/or morbidly depressing plays, although well written plays with comedic elements such as The Threepenny Opera, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead are highly appealing to me.

>75 Sakerfalcon: That's interesting too, Claire. I don't think we have those trees in the eastern US at all, and I was struck when I saw the pair of monkey puzzle trees in the park. Seeing them reminded me of the first time that I saw New Zealand Christmas trees in San Francisco nearly 20 years ago.

>76 charl08: I agree, Charlotte. That tribute to the two 'disappeared' Chileans was very fitting, as the monkey puzzle trees are native to Chile (and Argentina) and, from what I understand, they grow quite high and have a long life.

>77 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for that BBC article about Arturo Ui, Caroline. As it mentioned Sir Lenny did utter several trumpisms during the play, and there was a story about trump in the programme. I hope that you and others are able to see it at the Donmar Warehouse or elsewhere.

BTW this weekend I created a group thread on Facebook Messenger to discuss plans for next month, and I included you as well. Let me know if you can see it or not; otherwise I'll do my best to keep you in the loop via PMs on LT.

>78 jessibud2: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is a comedic farce, Charlotte, which was laugh out loud funny in dozens of spots and highly entertaining. I think most people would enjoy seeing it, and hopefully it will be broadcast via NT Live to theatres in and outside of the UK.

>79 jessibud2: Shelley, I can only comment about Sarah Moss's last three novels. Signs for Lost Children is the sequel to Bodies of Light, so I would definitely recommend waiting to start the former until you have read the latter book. The Tidal Zone is completely distinct from either of those books. Weirdly enough the last time I checked, Signs for Lost Children is or soon will be published in the US, but there was no publication date for Bodies of Light! I had intended to ask Sarah Moss about this after the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch last month, but she was surrounded by friends and well wishers and I was eager to get to Borough Market to have lunch.

>93 kidzdoc: - Thanks for that info, Darryl. I will try again via the Abebooks website to see if another vendor might have a copy of Bodies of Light and will hold off on the sequel until I get my hands on the first one.

>80 PaulCranswick: I hadn't heard of Lenny Henry before, but I was very impressed by his performance as Arturo Ui, Paul, and grateful that I managed to finally get a ticket to see a play at the Donmar Warehouse.

>82 EBT1002: I'm glad that you liked the avocado tuna salad, Ellen. My parents loved it, and they were surprised that something that simple could taste so good.

I am envious of your frequent travels to the UK and Spain and other parts of the world. On the other hand, I do get to live vicariously and enjoy your photos and stories of your adventures.

Thanks! I loved reading about your recent trips as well, and I thoroughly enjoy living vicarously through others' travels, especially those that take place abroad.

In my mind, my recent trips to Europe represent delayed gratification for the 18 years I spent with my nose to the grindstone working full time and taking college courses at night to get my undergraduate degree, working in a research lab while taking graduate courses and studying like a fiend for the MCAT (Medical College Admissons Test), and grinding out the seven years of my medical training (four years of medical school and three years of residency). In those nearly two decades I took one vacation on my own, when I spent a week in San Francisco visiting classmates from medical school at the end of my intern year. I also waited until my student loans were paid off before I took my first trip abroad in 2007, at the ripe age of 46. Others may disagree, but IMO I've earned it! 😎

I'm glad that I've encouraged several of my friends at work to take "adult vacations" abroad, as one of them said to me last week, as at least half a dozen younger colleagues planned trips to Europe or South America after being inspired to leave the country by me or other mutual friends who are terminally afflicted with wanderlust. If I didn't mention so already, my neighbors just returned from a two week trip to Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, one of my partners has already been to Thailand and South Africa (and San Diego) this year, and another one is, I believe, still on holiday in Spain.

>83 Familyhistorian: You're right, Meg. I fly to London in just over three weeks, and I'm sure that time will pass very quickly.

Now that my travels are concentrated in a six to eight month period it does seem, to me, my friends, family, and colleagues at work as though I only return to work long enough to pick up a paycheck for my next trip, as one of my dearest partners says! That certainly is the case at the moment: off for three weeks, work for one week, then off for two more weeks.

>95 kidzdoc: Darryl--You have certainly put the time in and have earned your work schedule now. Love the photos of you as a little munchkin. Such a cutie!! Hillbilly Elegy was a very worthwhile read; you should get back to it when your travel plans allow. My RL book group is discussing it tomorrow night, so more later...

>84 LovingLit: Well, contrary to what people must think, earthquakes are no longer a frequent event in Christchurch.

Well, that *is* contrary to what I thought! Thanks for setting me straight, Megan.

>88 katiekrug: I suppose putting curry sauce on chips is no weirder than dousing them with ketchup to Europeans. I'm willing to try at least it, but since I'm far from convinced that I'll like curry sauce (or, for that matter, mushy peas) I'll taste someone else's first.

>90 jessibud2: Ha! I'll have to ask my parents, but I think I did adapt to the intruder relatively well, and vice versa. I do remember being somewhat traumatized when my mother went to the hospital to give birth and my father accompanied her. I suspect that I stayed with one of my mother''s sisters in Jersey City, or less likely my maternal grandparents in the Bronx, but I remember being very relieved when they finally returned with my baby brudda.

>91 jnwelch: Woo! As crazy at it may sound I'm nearly as excited about your upcoming first visit to Barcelona as I am about my upcoming first trip to the Basque Country, Joe. I look forward to detailed descriptions of your trip, and photos while you're there, or after you return. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about anything.

One thing I may or may not have mentioned is that taxi drivers in Barcelona traditionally (or at least reportedly) speak little or no English. Bianca and I did take a taxi from BCN to our hotel in the city, and I spoke to the driver entirely in Spanish and translated back and forth between him and Bianca. I'd suggest writing the name and address of your hotel, B&B, etc. on a piece of paper to serve as a reference for your driver. I assume that you two won't take public transit from BCN, but if you are let me know, as I did that the first two times I visited Barcelona.

Did Bianca or anyone else mention Runner Bean Tours (http://runnerbeantours.com/barcelona-free-tours/) to you or Debbi? We both went on the Antoni Gaudí tour, and she also went on an evening tour, I think the Dark Past Night one.

I assume that you two will have paella mariscos (seafood paella) while you're there. I would also highly recommend paella negra, which is seafood paella that is cooked in squid ink and contains squid, octopus and sometimes prawns. It may not look as appealing as paella mariscos, but it tastes fantastic and I like it better:



There was a nice restaurant in the Plaça Comercial close to the Mercat del Born and not far from the Museu Picasso and the Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar that made an amazing paella negra that I had three or four times on my first two visits to Barcelona; I think it was called El Rosas. I was crushed when we went there last year, and found that it had either closed or moved.

>94 jessibud2: You're welcome, Shelley. The Book Depository is currently selling Bodies of Light to US customers for $7.92 with free shipping.

>96 Berly: Thanks, Kim! I suspect that I won't get to Hillbilly Elegy until July. I look forward to your group members' thoughts about it.

The battery on the keyboard I use with my iPad is out of power, so I'll finish catching up with others' threads later tonight or tomorrow.

>97 kidzdoc: Many thanks, Darryl. I've passed that on to Debbi and stored it.

I know Debbi plans to send you a question or two, and I also may. One I have right now: did you go to CaixaForum, with the art exhibits? If so, what did you think?

>98 kidzdoc: -Thanks Darryl. Signs for Lost Children arrived with a Book Depository bookmark so I will assume that it came from there. When ordering through the Abebooks site, a book can come from any number of vendors and although my original order for Bodies of Light was accepted, it was only a matter of hours before I got an email letting me know that my order had been cancelled for that one as the vendor had sold out. I will definitely try again, though. I generally select a book by looking first at the price, and shipping costs, rarely noting the vendor until after the fact

>97 kidzdoc: Interesting that you prefer paella negra. I love my paellas but prefer paellas that combine chicken and seafood even though that is heresy to some.

>99 jnwelch: You're welcome, Joe. I've passed by the CaixaForum several times, particularly when I walked from Plaça Espanya to and from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), but I've never visited it.

Did I mention the ArTicket BCN to you? For 30€ it provides you with entry to six of the city's museums, three major and must see ones (MNAC, Museu Picasso, Fundació Joan Miró) and three smaller and non-essential but still nice ones (Fundació Antoni Tàpies, MACBA, CCCB). The ArTicket BCN pays for itself if you only visit the first three museums, and having it allows you to skip the often long lines for general admission.

>100 jessibud2: You're welcome, Shelley. The Book Depository will ship books from the UK to the US and other countries for free, and the books are generally discounted by 20% or so from list price, with no minimum purchase required. It sounds too good to be true, but I've ordered from them numerous times, and they are legit.

>101 Oberon: I love my paellas but prefer paellas that combine chicken and seafood even though that is heresy to some.

Noooo!!!

*grabs torch and joins mob headed to Minnesota*



Nopenopenope. Similar to jambalaya I don't like paella in which meat and seafood are mixed together. A couple of years ago my father or brother asked me to make chicken and shrimp jambalaya, instead of my usual chicken and Andouille sausage jamb, but I didn't like it at all. Fortunately they did.

Have you had paella negra, Erik? I know that you've visited Madrid, but have you also been to the Basque Country?

Hey Darryl, loved the pictures and your comments about returning your brother to the shop made me laugh. There are plenty of pics in the family collection with me looking disgruntled at the young interlopers...

I'm reading Fever Dream which I see you have already read. It's going over my head at present, I fear. I'll come back and check out your review once I've finished, and see what I missed!

>104 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte. My mother told me that she found many more old photos that she is slowly going through, which I'm eager to see. My brother was particularly pleased by the photos I posted on Sunday, since he hadn't seen as many of him as a baby in comparison to yours truly, the Golden Child.😎

Fever Dream was confusing at first, and I wasn't that fond of it, as I only gave it 3 stars. I'll try to catch up on reviews later this week.

>103 kidzdoc: I refuse to recant my heresy.

I have not been to Basque Country. My time in Spain was in Madrid and then most of Andaluscia so I never had a proper paella negra. My best paella story is as follows: I stayed with a host family in Malaga on my first trip to Spain (2 months long). One weekend we went to a small family house in the mountains north of Malaga. When we arrived (around 11AM) there was an enormous paella pan outdoors over a wood burning fire. Tending the paella and fire were several grandfathers - several families had gathered. While the mothers and grandmothers cooked various things throughout the day no one touched the paella but the grandfathers. Mainly, they passed around a number of botas of red wine, drinking and debating the paella. They would occasionally taste the paella and frequently dump some of the wine from the botas into the paella.

The paella itself had rabbit (the first time I had eaten it), chicken, squid and I believe langoustines. I don't recall if there were mussels on top or not. No one ate the paella until after dark when the grandfathers declared it ready. I think I stood around that paella drinking wine for eight plus hours so it is possible that my fondness for the paella was influenced by the alcohol. That said, it was a fantastic cultural experience and I continue to regret that my spanish was so poor that I struggled to carry on all but the most basic conversations with the men around the paella. I suspect that I missed a great opportunity to learn a lot about Spain and cooking. I have a hard time viewing mixed paellas as inauthentic as a result because I do not believe I have had a more authentic cultural experience in any of my travels that compares to those old men drinking wine, cooking and debating for hours on end.

>106 Oberon: That's a great story, Erik! You told it very well, as I can imagine that setting and the anticipation of waiting until the paella grande was finished. The thought of having rabbit cooked over many hours is making me swoon!

I thought about taking advantage of an offer to stay in a hotel in San Sebastián and earning how to make pintxos from a local chef, but I decided against it, since I'll probably want to explore the town and possibly make a day trip to Hondarribia. If I like the Basque Country as much as I expect to then I'll definitely return there, and I can learn how to make pintxos then.

>106 Oberon: BTW, how did you like Málaga?

Did you happen to watch the PBS Frontline report last night on low-income housing in the U. S.? It was very well done, and I would recommend it to anybody who is thinking of reading Evicted the Matthew Desmond book on the housing crises in the U. S. As a life-long renter, the report was right on target with my experiences. There are apartments and houses not being lived in, but those who need housing can't get it. It angers me that so many of us in the country can't see that we are only a paycheck or two away from the disasters that happen to so many of us. The fact that the low-income housing vouchers can't be redeemed was a real shocker to me. Especially since the reason is that nobody wants "those" people living in their neighborhoods.

The whole report was very eye-opening.

>108 kidzdoc: I liked Málaga but I wound not rank it as one of my favorite cities in Spain. Much of it was architecturally drab. The Alcazaba (a moorish fort) is impressive and picturesque and the beaches are spectacular though were quite hot for this poor Minnesotan. That said, Granada with the Alhambra, Sevilla with the its cathedral and Toledo were all more picturesque. I also stayed for a time in Cadiz which I enjoyed a lot.

Málaga seems to have changed a lot since I was there in the early 90's with a number of art museums opening. I would like to go back and see it again.

>109 benitastrnad: The New York Time magazine had an interesting piece on how mortgage interest tax deductions impact low-income housing and just how much of a subsidy is provided for home owners. A good read on an inter-related subject. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/magazine/how-homeownership-became-the-engine-...

>109 benitastrnad: I didn't see that episode of Frontline, as I ran out of gas and went to bed just after 8 pm. I'll have to ask my parents if they watched it. I'll also check to see if it's being broadcast later this week by one of the PBS stations that serve the Delaware Valley.

>110 Oberon: Thanks for your opinion about Málaga, Erik. Despite living in Atlanta for nearly 20 years I'm not fond of hot weather either, and Andalucía in late June was not pleasant for me. I think I'll enjoy the weather in Bilbao and San Sebastián much better. Having said that I definitely want to return to Sevilla in the near future.

There are plenty of cities I want to see on future trips to Spain: Córdoba, Toledo, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Valencia and Segovia come to mind immediately.

>111 Oberon: Thanks for that link, Erik. I bought the NYT on Sunday but I haven't read it yet.

>102 kidzdoc: Thanks for the tip on ArTicket BCN, Darryl. We're taking a guided tour of the Picasso museum that gets us in "free" and skips the queue. We do plan to go to the Miro museum, so we'll look into how cost and convenience balance out.

We'll report back on CaixasForum. It sure looks like our cuppa.

>110 Oberon: I agree that Malaga is a tad drab. When I was cycle racing I stayed for three weeks in the seaside town/resort of Nerja for a late January training camp. I have happy memories of that place; a glass of red wine, the occasional sherry and paella cooked for hours on the beach (I don't recall any meat in it though).

It's so fun to see all the Spain talk over here, given TheBF and I have totally fallen in love with it. Thankfully we both love the heat, though he tolerates it more than I do. I adore it, my body doesn't. He is a lizard who will happily carry on in 45C temperatures if given half a chance!

He wants to take me to Basque country as well. We were considering a roadtrip right up through Spain, starting in Malaga or Marbella (the flights are ridiculously cheap from the UK) and wandering our way north. We'd like to spend some more time in Cadiz, visit Ronda and the area around there for longer. Our list of wishlist places to go in Spain is ridiculous to be honest.

Jerez de los Caballeros to see where they read the pigs for Iberico ham, chorizo, lomo etc.

Zahara de la Sierra to see the white village.

Setenil de las Bodegas for the cave village, and its amazing chorizo.

Grazalema and Villaluenga del Rosario because we've fallen in love with the cheese they produce, Payoyo.

Go back to Arriate (just outside Ronda) where there is one of the best restaurants we've ever been to, run by a Dutch man called Frank. And stay in the amazing hotel five minutes from there, run by an entirely separate
Dutch man called Wilbert! We fell in love with the whole area round Ronda: the plains, the hills, the driving. It was absolutely fantastic.

Back to Seville, because we adored it.

Drive through the Sierra Nevada (but not go skiing because of TheBF's fear of heights!).

Do the coast road from Valencia, having stayed there a few nights, to Barcelona, stopping off wherever we felt like.

Drive from Jaen up to Madrid.

Drive from Madrid over to Salamanca, sampling the countryside and wonderful little villages along the way.

The other road trip that would be amazing is to start in Santiago de Compostela, which TheBF says I'd love, and head west to east, stopping off in Bilbao, San Sebastien, Pamplona etc, and ending in Barcelona.

Alas, finances, TheBF's limited holiday time etc, mean that I think it will take us quite a long time to tick all these off. And there are other places in the world we want to go as well. Currently we have a trip to Moscow, for a wedding, pencilled in at the end of November, and TheBF wants to do a boat race adventure thing from Zanzibar to the coast of Tanzania over the New Year. I will be planning on chilling out on a beach while he does that! Another dream holiday is a horseback safari.

Excuse me while I go and daydream for a while, before the real world brings me back to earth with a bump ;).

>112 kidzdoc: I can vouch for all of those except Tarragona and Zaragoza. Segovia and Toledo are personal favorites.

>116 lunacat: I don't know about Jerez de los Cabelleros but Jereze de la Frontera os renowned for its sherry and is well worth the stop.

>117 Oberon: We did Jerez de la Frontera on our recent trip there and loved it. Well, I assume we loved it, I recall wandering the town at midnight having spent the previous 4 hours in a sherry, flamenco and tapas bar ;).

#111
That article is part of what the Frontline show addressed.

#112
Read the NYT magazine article and you will get about 15 minutes of the Frontline program.

I finally made my way through your thrad. Great photos of you and your family. Glad to hear that you can spend some time with them. Your June plans sound fantastic. Happy Wednesday, Darryl.

Love the family photos Darryl.

Will check out the Facebook thread soon. I so rarely paddle over there. I'll get back to you.

>114 jnwelch: You're welcome, Joe. Since you already have a ticket to the Museu Picasso the ArTicket BCN may not be cost effective, unless you visit three other museums. The general admission lines at Fundació Joan Miró weren't long the three times I've been there, but the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya can be moderately crowded at times. A visit to MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona) is worthwhile IMO (I just looked at its website, and there are two exhibitions currently showing that I would be interested in seeing), and although I wasn't particularly fond of CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) the two times I went there are at least two enticing exhibitions on now.

I'm eager to get your take on CaixasForum.

Debbi did touch base with me yesterday with a question about Barcelona. I'll try to think about other basic tips about the city. One thing I should mention is the public transit system: the Barcelona Metro goes nearly everywhere, but, as I remember saying a couple of years ago, I suspect that it was designed by Salvador Dalí. Many of the lines, especially L3 and L4, the ones I used most frequently, meander in all four directions like a lazy river. Several of the major transfer stations, especially Passeig de Gràcia, have very long distances between one line and the other. If you're pressed for time it would be quicker to take a taxi, tram or even a bus. You can get a detailed transit map, including bus, tram, metro and commuter rail lines, at the Information Desk at BCN airport.



BTW are you planning to visit the Teatre Museu Dalí in Figueres, his home town? I loved that museum, and you can get to Figueres from Sants Estació, Barcelona's main railway station, in less than an hour.

I don't think I mentioned two of the greatest early 20th century creations by the architect Lluís Domènech, the Palau de la Música Catalana, the fabulous music hall near La Rambla, and the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul), the stunning hospital campus that replaced the 500 year old Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu that was completed in 1401 and currently serves as the Biblioteca de Catalunya, the National Library of Catalunya. If you have time all three sites feature stunning architecture, and the concert by the Sinfónia Juvenil de Caracas that I attended at the Palau de la Música Catalana was an unforgettable experience.

Sigh...when are you leaving again?

>122 kidzdoc: Ha! Thanks so much, Darryl. We leave a week from today.

Right now we have no plans to go to Teatre Museu Dalí, but that might change, particularly given your enthusiasm.

>115 PaulCranswick: Nerja sounds like a nice place to visit, Paul. Bianca and I avoided the highway that runs along the Costa del Sol last year when we drove back to Barcelona from Granada, as we were on the road on a summer Sunday morning and afternoon.

>116 lunacat: Yikes...45 C is inhuman, Jenny! Your BF may be a reptile after all.😎

That's an outstanding Spain wish list! There are other countries I eventually want to visit, but practically every place else pales in comparison to spending more time in Iberia, including Portugal.

>117 Oberon: Segovia and Toledo are very high on my wish list as well, Erik. If I had more time in Madrid I would visit those two cities, and I suspect that my next trip to Spain will be a return visit to the center of the country, either in late fall or early spring.

>117 Oberon:, >118 lunacat: Bianca and I drove south from Sevilla to Jerez de la Frontera before heading east and stopping in Arcos de la Frontera on our way to Ronda. We didn't pass through Jerez, though. Arcos de la Frontera was lovely as well.

>119 benitastrnad: Thanks, Benita.

>120 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I'm glad that I had the time off to spend with my parents, especially since this coming Sunday is Mother's Day. We may not do much that day, as my mother isn't up for a trip to the city (Philadelphia) due to her painful right knee. We are going to a play at a local theatre on Saturday afternoon, though.

>121 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline.

Let me know if you have problems viewing the group meet up thread, which is on Facebook Messenger. Roughly half of the group is inactive or only minimally active on LT currently, so IMO it makes more sense to discuss plans there than on LT, and Facebook Messenger's functionality makes it easier to use than a thread in the LT Gatherings & Meetups group. Other than the 8th & 9th nothing has been set in stone yet, but we're getting to the point where we'll start making definite plans soon.

>123 jnwelch: Sounds good, Joe. I could spend a month in Barcelona and not see everything I would ideally like to in the city, and in Catalunya.

This poem by Netta Wilson is in memory of H.M., my original favorite patient, who died earlier this week.

I Lost My Child Today

I lost my child today
People came to weep and cry
as I just sat and stared, dry eyed
They struggled to find words to say
to try and make the pain go away
I walked the floor in disbelief
I lost my child today.

I lost my child last month
Most of the people went away
Some still call and some still stay
I wait to wake up from this dream
This can't be real, I want to scream
Yet everything is locked inside
God, help me, I want to die
I lost my child last month.

I lost my child last year
Now people who had came, have gone
I sit and struggle all day long
to bear the pain so deep inside
And now my friends just question Why?
Why does this mother not move on?
Just sits and sings the same old song
Good heavens, it has been so long
I lost my child last year.

Time has not moved on for me
The numbness it has disappeared
My eyes have now cried many tears
I see the look upon your face
"She must move on and leave this place"
Yet I am trapped right here in time
The song’s the same, as is the rhyme
I lost my child.........today

--Netta Wilson, written in memory of her daughter Caprice Cara Wilson, who was killed in an auto accident (December 2, 1968 - November 20, 1994). Printed in the newsletter of The Compassionate Friends, Atlanta, May-June 2001

http://www.consolatio.com/2008/02/netta-wilson-i.html

{{Darryl}} So sorry to hear of this loss, Darryl. I worked with severely disabled students over my years teaching and we also lost more than a few, over that time. A few from my own classes, and wow, I cannot even begin to imagine the families' pain.

Excellent poem

>127 kidzdoc: So affecting, Darryl. So sad when a young life is lost. Take care Doc.

>128 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. H had a severe form of a chronic and rare disorder that slowly progressed from birth and ultimately claimed her life. As I mentioned on my Facebook post she was terminally ill and it was all but certain that she would die soon, but her death still came as a surprise to those of us who knew her. I first took care of her in the hospital shortly after I started working there in 2000, and although she became too chronically ill for me to manage her condition once it was diagnosed she and her family would always look for me whenever she was admitted, and I would visit her after rounding on my patients. I saw her dozens of times over the years, and I'm sad that I'll miss her funeral this week.

>129 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. H greatly suffered due to her terminal condition over the years, and ultimately she is in a better place. She left her mark on those of us who were blessed to know her, and as Peggy said the world is a poorer place now that she has left us.

>127 kidzdoc: Whoa. Thanks for posting that, Darryl. Very moving.

Our number one goal was, and is (to the extent we have any say about it) to keep the kids alive and healthy.

>131 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. The one thing that should never happen to any parent is that he or she outlives one of their children. Unfortunately the death of a child occurs regularly in children's hospitals such as the one I work in, although all of these losses are deeply felt by those who work there.

Book #16: A Basque Diary: Living in Hondarribia by Alex Hallatt



My rating:



Alex Hallatt is a British cartoonist who moved to the Basque town of Hondarribia, just east of San Sebastián, with her partner Duncan and their dog Billie, where they lived for two years. This book is a description of Hondarribia, their experiences living there, a month by month guide to activities, local customs, and recommended restaurants, shops and nearby towns. Included are her own drawings, links to useful websites, and information on how to best experience the Basque region like a local. Ms Hallatt's love of Hondarribia shines through this small gem of a book, and I will refer to it when I make my first visit to the Basque Country next month.

>127 kidzdoc: Thanks for posting that Darryl. It made my cry. One of my best friends lost her son in a car accident last year and it moved me so much I reposted it on his page on the website Forever Missed. Sorry for your loss.

>134 Berly: You're welcome, Kim. I'm sorry to hear about your best friend's son.

It is sad to lose someone you care about, especially your child I would think. The poem is beautiful and your posting it, a lovely tribute.

>127 kidzdoc: I am sorry, Darryl, it is a touching poem you posted in her honor.
(((hugs)))

Just stopping by to wish you a restful weekend, Darryl.

I wish a Happy Mother's Day to all moms, but especially to those who stand unflaggingly by their sick, injured or chronically ill children when they need them the most. Not all mothers are created equal, but the vast majority of them act heroically in these times of crisis. I've been blessed to meet thousands of these mothers (and fathers) in my career as a pediatric hospitalist, and working alongside them to care for their sick children regularly restores my faith in humanity.

If you know of any mothers like these, please remember and thank them today.

Remember the mothers of sick children

>136 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba.

>137 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita.

>138 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. It has been a nice weekend so far. Yesterday as a washout for most of the day, as we had moderate rain in the Philadelphia area from early morning until mid afternoon. Thankfully the rain has passed in time for Mother's Day, and my brother and I will treat our parents to lunch at our favorite local restaurant, which serves an excellent Indian buffet, and an afternoon play at a local theatre. Tomorrow morning Judy, Zoë and I will meet at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC, and I'll fly back to Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon.

Morning, Darryl! Happy Sunday! Hope you are enjoying your time with the folks and especially your Mom on her special day.

Thanks, Mark. Yep, we'll have a nice day out today, and even though it was rainy we enjoyed several hours of good conversation on Sunday. I hope that you and your wife have a splendid day as well.

Book #17: We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie



My rating:

This outstanding work, which was based on a 2012 TedxEuston talk given by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, provides a redefinition of what feminism should be in the 21st century in Africa and the rest of the world, when most women in developing and developed societies continue to experience external gender discrimination and internal self doubt and feelings of diminished worth based on cultural expectations and limitations placed on them. It's a short work that can be easily read in 1-2 hours, but its observations and ideas deserve to be frequently re-examined, particularly when the rights of women are being threatened and curtailed in the United States and elsewhere by men in elected and appointed positions of power.

>143 kidzdoc: Wow, adding that one to the WL, Darryl. Well done, concise review. Thumbed.

>143 kidzdoc: >144 jnwelch: What Joe said!! ^^ I consider myself a strong woman, but a little bolstering and re-examination never hurts. Thanks!

>140 kidzdoc: Sounds like you have an excellent day planned. Have fun today with your mom and with the meet-up tomorrow.

>143 kidzdoc: I am glad you gave it a glowing review, Darryl, I read it earlier this year.

>143 kidzdoc: Oh, you got me with that BB! (We Should All Be Feminists) I am thrilled to see the term lose any negative connotations!

Karen O.

Okay...that one is on my "to read" list. Thanks for the great review!

>143 kidzdoc: I thought that was an excellent book as well, Darryl. Have you read the sort-of followup, Dear Ijeawele? It came out recently and I thought it just as good.

Edited to get the touchstone to take.

>144 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. There was a lot more that I could have said about We Should All Be Feminists, most importantly that it's a book that we should all read, particularly men who care about all of the girls and women in their lives. I liked Adichie's last two sentences of the book:

"My own definition is a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better."

>145 Berly: You're welcome, Kim.

Yes, we did have a splendid day on Mother's Day with her, my father, my brother and myself, and yesterday's meet up with Judy and Zoë, followed by a visit to my mother's sister's home with my parents in the late afternoon, was also enjoyable (more to follow on both days). Today will be somewhat bittersweet, as I fly back to Atlanta late this afternoon. It's been a great visit, but my parents, especially my mother, will be quite sad to see me go (and I'll be sad to leave them).

>146 FAMeulstee: We Should All Be Feminists packs a punch that is far greater than its short length. I just found a YouTube video of Adichie's 2012 TEDxEuston Talk of the same title, which I'll watch later this week:

https://youtu.be/hg3umXU_qWc

>147 klobrien2: Excellent, Karen! Yes, the term "feminist" should be reclaimed and re-embraced, and based on Adichie's definition I am proud to call myself one.

>148 tangledthread: You're welcome, tangledthread.

>149 bell7: I haven't read Dear Ijeawele yet, Mary, but I will soon.

BTW, the Kindle version of We Should All Be Feminists is currently being sold for $2.99 in the US.

Yesterday Judy, Zoë and I met in Manhattan to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and have lunch, as Judy lives there and Zoë had an appointment in the city. Judy and I are members of MoMA, so we were able to enter the museum starting at 9:30 am, one hour before the general public can. You can always tell when it's 10:30 am there, as the quiet and relatively empty exhibition rooms are suddenly swamped by waves of mostly young visitors! BTW, MoMA members can get $5 guest passes for their family members and friends.

We visited one exhibition, Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction, which focused on the leading female modern artists from 1945-1968. Here are a few photos from that exhibition:



Magdalena Abakanowicz, Yellow Abakan, 1957–58.



Ruth Asawa, Untitled, 1955.



Lee Bontecou, Untitled, 1961.



Hedda Sterne, New York, VIII, 1954.

After we saw that exhibition we went to the 6th floor to see Monet's Water Lilies:







We also saw works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joan Miró, and Jackson Pollock:

After we left MoMA the three of us went to the Le Pain Quotidien restaurant near Grand Central Terminal; its address is 340 Madison Ave, but it's actually located on 44th St, between Madison & 5th Aves. Claire had introduced me to this chain of upscale Belgian bakeries in London, and I remembered reading that there were several in NYC as well.

The three of us in Le Pain Quotidien:



Judy's gazpacho:



Zoë's granola:



My prosciutto, ricotta & fig tartine:



It's time for breakfast, so I'll finish catching up later today or tomorrow.

>152 kidzdoc: Judy lives in MoMA?!! Cool.

Can you tell I recently finished Mary Norris' Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen?

>154 tangledthread: Ha! So I should have written that sentence this way, correct? "Yesterday Judy, Zoë and I met in Manhattan, to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and have lunch, as Judy lives there and Zoë had an appointment in the city."

I would be happy if my MoMA membership allowed me to live in the museum, and I suspect that Judy wouldn't mind, either.

>154 tangledthread:, >155 kidzdoc: I take it you are both familiar with From the mixed-up files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler? I suspect that MoMA would not make quite such a comfortable home as the Metropolitan Museum!

>156 Sakerfalcon: Ha! I'm not familiar with that book, Claire. Yes, I think a case could easily be made for the Met being a more comfy place to live than MoMA.

I am no copy-editor...in fact, it seems to me such a job would ruin one forever for pleasure reading. However, I would replace "Judy lives there" with "Judy lives nearby"...but that is just me.

Since reading that book, I am constantly trying (with limited success) to edit myself.

Hmm...must look up Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler...it sounds vaguely familiar.

Actually I wouldn't say that "Judy lives nearby" in that sentence is accurate! Based on the well known (at least to New Yorkers) statement that 20 (north-south) streets equals one mile, Judy lives over two miles from MoMA. On the other hand I would say that about Atlanta Symphony Hall, which is less than three blocks from where I live.

BTW, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal in 1968.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is one of my very favorite Newbery winners! So good.

>160 scaifea: Thanks, Amber; I'll see if I can find a copy of this book online or in my local library.

>253 lovely, another meet up. I often go to Pain Q in Victoria, or on the Southbank Darryl.

>252 some great art there.

Right, Caroline. I hadn't planned to meet anyone on this trip, as I wanted to spend as much time with my parents as possible, especially since Sunday was Mother's Day. I didn't learn until Friday that Zoë, who I've probably seen more often than any other LTer in the US, was back in the NYC area and wanted to meet up with whomever was available. I was free on Monday morning, as was Judy, so it worked out perfectly.

Claire introduced me to Le Pain Quotidien two or three years ago, as there is a branch close to where she works. I knew that it had come to NYC, and suggested dining there to Judy and Zoë; fortunately there was one within walking distance from MoMA in the direction that they needed to go for their afternoon appointments. I was also pleased to see that there are now three branches in Philadelphia; hopefully it will come to Atlanta soon.

BTW three of us have made plans to see the matinée performance of Life of Galileo at the Young Vic on the 3rd. Now that my visit to Philadelphia has come to an end I'll be able to focus on meet up plans for London in two weeks.

>163 kidzdoc: I think I went to Le Pain Quotidien in New York before I discovered the London branches! I don't go there often but when I do I always enjoy the food.

>161 kidzdoc: I can always lend you my copy when you are over. You'd be able to read it in a day or less, I think.

>164 Sakerfalcon: Interesting! I looked at Le Pain Quotidien's Wikipedia page, which mentioned that its first branch in Manhattan opened in 1997. That surprised me, as I thought that they only recently began to appear there.

TYIA for your offer. Yes, I would like to borrow it from you.

Hi Darryl! It looks like lots of fun adventures--I would really like to get back to MOMA.

I was also a fan of The Mixed-Up Files as a child--it really hit at that childhood fantasy of independence.

Great to see you giving NYC a taste of the Darryl medicine over London, Amsterdam and Spain just this once. I can think of few better travel partners than you would be mate. Books, food, travel in abundance and an appreciation of the arts.

Morning, Darryl.

I can confirm Paul is right in >167 PaulCranswick:. :-)

Word for the day: Paella

Hi Darryl, I was in Dalston today to see Richard III and spent an hour reading in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, before revisiting Route en route the theatre. Sara Powell was in the play as well. Richard played by theatre stalwart Greg Hicks, who I used to see a lot at the National Theatre in the '80s. He was in their iconic masked production of The Orestia.

>85 kidzdoc: that last photo of your mum, she *does* look like she is over it! I bet all parents have moments when they wonder what the heck it is they were thinking when deciding to have children. There are some hilarious tweets out there on that (one I remember seeing issued a warning not to based on the fact that she had just witnessed a toddler tantrum because of her not being able to escape her own shadow!! My nephew had a mega-tantrum because his mum said to him that he couldn't go to the moon. LOL!

>152 kidzdoc: Hedda Sterne, New York, VIII, 1954.
Wow. I love that one.

And wow- MOMA! I remember going there and crying when I turned a corner to see a famous Picasso work- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon- I think it was). I went by myself ti NYC as a 22 or 23 year old for 5 nights on my way to the UK where I lived for three years. I still remember a lot of it particularly the oddballs I saw on the subway!!!

Hi Darryl. It has been a while - okay, a long while - since I last stopped by your thread.

Monkey puzzle trees are fascinating! They grow here on the island where I live and while they would make very unusual Christmas trees, they are an interesting addition to a landscaped piece of property.

Very sorry to read about the loss of your original favorite patient.

>139 kidzdoc: - A truly wonderful Mother's Day post.

>152 kidzdoc: - Wonderful pictures of the exhibit. Thank you for sharing.

>152 kidzdoc: Thanks for sharing the pictures of the exhibition, Darryl. I love the New York painting by Hedda Sterne and of course Miro and Pollock.

Woo! My six day work week (Friday-Wednesday) is over, and I'm off from work for the rest of the week. I'll work Monday-Wednesday and I leave for London next Thursday. At the risk of sounding like a broken record it was another busy week at work, and I'm glad to put it behind me.

I'm still reading A Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky, which I'm reading for my trip to Bilbao and San Sebastián next month. I'm a little over halfway through it, so I should finish it by this weekend. I should also be able to finish Human Acts by Han Kang, an LT Early Reviewers book that I received earlier this spring.

I'm now getting very sleepy after a Moe's burrito with chips and a large screwdriver, so I'll catch up on my thread now and visit others tomorrow.

Uh...I'm too brain dead to catch up now. I'll come back tomorrow morning.

Happy (no work) Thursday, everyone! I'm still groggy from my work week, and from having to wake up early to finish my progress and off service notes, but I'm happy to have four days off to unwind and continue making preparations for next week's trip. I'm sure a late morning or early afternoon nap will be required, and I'll probably stay inside today and go out tomorrow.

Now to catch up...

>166 banjo123: Hi, Rhonda! I had a nice time with my parents the past two weeks, and I'll see them again in the second half of July, as I'll be off for two weeks then.

MoMA is one of my favorite museums, and I have to start going there more often. I'll certain make at least one and probably two trips there in July. The same holds true for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is superb.

I'll see if there is interest for an LT Philly meet up in July, now that I know what dates I'm off from work (July 15-28).

>167 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the compliment, Paul! NYC and Philadelphia are essentially home courts for me, since I've lived just outside both cities for most of my life. I don't think to take photos in those cities, but I'll plan to do so from now on.

>168 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe!

Word for the day: Paella

Amen, brother. I sent the following text to one of my colleagues, a gastroenterologist and fellow foodie and lover of Spain, on Friday:

"Hi Olga, I have a consult for you: 56 yo M with Spanish wanderlust and malnourishment due to severe paella deficiency. Please provide recommendations on places to eat in the Basque Country and suggestions on when he and you can meet to have paella."

There is a small restaurant chain called Barcelona Wine Bar that has two locations Intown, both of which are close to where I live. Olga, Clair (one of the physician assistants on the GI service) and I usually meet there once or twice a year to have tapas and paella, but we haven't been there since last summer. We had originally planned to go last night, but Olga had a prior committment, Clair couldn't make it, and I was too tired from the work week. I may go there for lunch tomorrow, and Clair & I will probably have dinner there next week.

>169 Caroline_McElwee: How was Richard III, Caroline? I see that's on at the Arcola Theatre.

The Facebook Messenger thread to discuss meet up plans for next month has been quiet for the past couple of weeks. I'll return there shortly to see if we can make additional arrangements. I think I mentioned that Rhian purchased tickets for her, her husband & I to see Life of Galileo on the afternoon of the 3rd. Several people are interested in seeing Woyzeck at the Old Vic, including me.

>170 LovingLit: Ha! My brother actually did drive my parents crazy for most of his childhood, Megan; he was a very fussy eater, routinely threw temper tantrums and was often in trouble at school and at home, and wasn't a good student until he got to high school. Not to give myself too much credit, but my parents, aunts and uncles have always said that I was a model child, as I was quiet, a good eater, sought to please everyone, and was at or near the top of my class in grade school (I was the valedictorian of my graduating 8th grade elementary school class) and high school. He did well in high school and college, and has had a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry since then.

I did drive my parents crazy when I went to Tulane University (in New Orleans) after high school, though, as I fell in love (with a classmate who has become a crazy ex-girlfriend in the past 6-8 years), neglected my studies, lied to them about how poorly I was doing, and ultimately was kicked out due to my poor grades. Fortunately I got my life back together after I returned home, as I got a full time job within two months, enrolled in night classes at Drexel University (Philadelphia) and subsequently Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey), where I excelled again, worked in a research lab at NYU Medical Center and took graduate courses, and successfully completed medical school and residency at Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) and Emory University (Atlanta). I don't know of any other college drop outs who became physicians, although my path is not one I would recommend to anyone!

Nice story about your visits to MoMA and NYC, but I'm sorry that you saw so many oddballs on the subway! There are far more of them on the Atlanta metro (MARTA), though.

>171 lkernagh: Hi, Lori! It's good to see you here.

>172 FAMeulstee: You're welcome, Anita. I'll probably revisit the Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction exhibition in July, as it's on at MoMA until mid-August.

>175 kidzdoc: I thought Richard III very good Darryl, though it isn't my favourite Shakespeare play. Almost three hours, so I was glad to have remembered my cushion.

I am hopeless at Facebook, I'll try and check out the thread at the weekend Darryl. I'll pass on the Young Vic, as it's a theatre I find the seating very uncomfortable, so I have to be desperate to see something, to go there.

Looking forward to catching up sometime during your visit.

>176 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I'll consider seeing Richard III, but there are several other plays that are currently on that are more appealing to me.

Thanks for letting me know about Life of Galileo. Lesley, a friend of Rachael's who isn't a member of LT but has seen two or three plays with me, is interested in seeing Woyzeck at the Old Vic on June 5, 6 or 7. Any of those days work for me, but I'll wait until Claire has a chance to weigh in before I suggest a particular date.

Most of the group meet up discussions will take place on that Facebook Messenger thread that includes you. Fliss, Rachael & I generally communicate by email, although those discussions only involve the three of us. I'll keep you posted as best I can.

>143 kidzdoc: >150 kidzdoc: I think Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has some interesting things to say, BUT is very problematic on who can be called a woman or a man .....

>178 roundballnz: I wasn't aware of the row over Adichie's comments until Claire mentioned it to me when we talked about We Should All Be Feminists last month. Claire went to a talk that she gave in London earlier this year, and Adichie addressed the matter, seemingly to the satisfaction of the audience. I'm not sure what she said, though, nor am I sure that her statements have completely mollified the members of the transgender community. I'm certainly open to finding out more about what she said, and based on what I've just seen I don't agree with her past comments.

Here's an article in The Guardian from March about her response:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on transgender row: 'I have nothing to apologise for'

>179 kidzdoc: Thanks, I know the article, I guess I am one of those peeps not convinced. time will tell on this one, but I think the first statement is what she really thinks & only made the apology to appease, i.e. did not listen & take on board the critique.

Happy Saturday, everyone! I've just finished breakfast after shopping at Publix supermarket and buying bagels. My refrigerator is as empty as I've seen it in years, so I'll cook at least two meals today. I bought ingredients to make three favorite recipes, Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad, Avocado Tuna Salad, and Chicken & Andouille Sausage Jambalaya, along with four Southwestern salmon burgers (Publix's salmon burgers are usually made with dill and chives, so I hope I like this variation of them).

It will be a hot and steamy weekend, so I may not go to the Atlanta Jazz Festival as I had intended to. I also need to start making final preparations for my June vacation to England and Spain, as I'll be gone for nearly four weeks and I have to be very thoughtful about what I bring with me when I leave on Thursday.

With that in mind, these are my planned reads for June:

A Bad End by Fernando Royuela
Compass by Mathias Énard
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddharta Mukherjee
Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Human Acts by Han Kang
Madrid: The History by Jules Stewart
Martutene by Ramon Saizarbitoria
Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga
Paris by Marcos Giralt Torrente
Rain Over Madrid by Andrés Barba
The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen
The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares

Fortunately most of these books are on my Kindle. I'll bring The Gene: An Intimate History, Human Acts (unless I finish it before Thursday) and Obabakoak with me, and I'll need to purchase The Unseen soon after I arrive in London. I'd like to finish the Man Booker International Prize shortlist before the winner is announced in mid June, and with only Compass and The Unseen left to read that should be very doable. Most of the rest of my planned reads are books based on where I'll stay in Spain; Obabakoak and Martutene are classical works of Basque literature, and A Bad End, Paris and Rain Over Madrid are recent novels set in the Spanish capital.

I should finish The Basque History of the World by tomorrow. It's been a good read so far, and reading it has been a great preparation for my visit. On the same note I'll probably read Madrid: A History while I'm in London, or at least before I leave for Madrid on the 25th.

>180 roundballnz: I'll have to look at Adichie's original statement, and her subsequent follow up comments. I wasn't aware of the controversy until Claire mentioned it to me last month.

>181 kidzdoc: I only have Compass on that list Darryl, but it's likely to be a couple of months before I get to it.

Happy packing. Don't forget your collapsible book-case for transporting your acquisitions!

I have Compass on my Kindle, so I'll probably start reading it shortly after I arrive in London.

I don't plan to buy many books on this trip, as I don't want to lug a bunch of them from London to Bilbao to San Sebastián to Madrid to Atlanta. Last year I managed to limit my luggage to a suitcase that would fit on Renfe (Spanish) trains and a rucksack, and I'll use those same two pieces on this trip, especially since I'll take a Euskotren to go from Bilbao to San Sebastián and a Renfe Alvia train to go from there to Madrid. If anything I would want to give away or leave behind the two or three novels I'll bring with me, particularly in case I decide to buy any books in Spain.

While you are at the NT on 5 June, don't forget to see the 'Bright Young Tings' photography exhibition about Black theatre in London, 1979-82. Exhib runs to 10 June. Will try and see it myself, but I'm already out that day.

>185 Caroline_McElwee: Right! I saw a link about that exhibition when I booked NT tickets yesterday, and I do plan to see it on or before the 5th.

>182 kidzdoc: One thing I forgot to say, was this view is not unusual in some some feminist groupings, still distasteful but .... The shock here was more that Adichie was a darling of the left, where such views if you have them are not made public. Anyway she is young time will tell .....

I've been eying The Gene, so will be looking forward to your review!

>187 roundballnz: I also find this distinction distasteful, and it seems to defeat the overall purpose of the women's rights movement. Hopefully Adichie will moderate and make amends for her comments in the future.

>188 drneutron: Siddharta Mukherjee, author of The Gene: An Intimate History, gave a very nice talk at the Wellcome Book Prize Brunch that I attended in London last month. The brunch was held as a joint effort of the Wellcome Trust and 5x15, in which 5 people speak to an audience for 15 minutes each, although there were only four speakers at this brunch, three authors whose books were shortlisted for the Prize, and the younger brother of the late Paul Kalanithi, whose memoir When Breath Becomes Air was also shortlisted. The talks are videotaped and can be viewed on 5x15's web site. Here's a link to Dr Mukherjee's talk, which runs just under 14 minutes:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/214969910

I haven't touched The Gene: An Intimate History in several weeks, but I'll get into it in earnest by the coming weekend.

Some friends of mine have just left for Amsterdam and Berlin leaving from the Atlanta airport. They drove over from Tuscaloosa, and parked their car at a friends. The friend took them to the nearest MARTA station, from where they took MARTA straight to the airport. She texted me and said that using MARTA was so easy. Of course, they timed it so that they were at MARTA at noon. Not exactly rush hour. She said that they aren't going to fight traffic to the airport again. MARTA worked.

I have other friends who use MARTA when they go to Atlanta for football games. They park at the Douglasville MARTA station and so avoid the traffic.

Book #18: The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky



My rating:



The Basque Country, also known as Euskal Herria, consists of the four provinces of the Basque Autonomous Community (Euskadi) in northern Spain (Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa, Alava and Navarra) and three adjacent ones (Labourd, Basse Navarre and Soule) in southwestern France (Pays Basque). The Basque people are believed to be one of the oldest European cultures that are still in existence, and Euskera, the language spoken by the Basques, is the oldest surviving pre-Indo-European language in western Europe and has very little in common with Castilian Spanish or French. The Basque people, especially those in the Spanish portion of the region, have longed and fought fiercely for independence and, more importantly, self governance for centuries, using the Fueros, or regional civil laws, that were agreed upon nearly 500 years ago. The region is known for its cultural traditions including the sport of jai alai, the stunning beach resorts in San Sebastián and Biarritz that are popular tourist destinations, and its outstanding cuisine, particularly pintxos, chorizo and salt cod, which all originated there.

The American journalist Mark Kurlansky's fondness and knowledge of the Basque Region shines in this excellent book, which traces the history and traditions of Euskal Herria from its earliest known days to the end of the 20th century, including its major figures such as Ignacio de Loyola, the priest and theologian who founded the Jesuit religious order; Sabino Arana, the founder of Basque nationalism; and Bernardo Atxaga (Joseba Irazu Garmendia), the first Basque author to receive worldwide acclaim for his work, most notably Obabakoak, a collection of short stories set in the fictional Basque village of Obaba. Kurlansky also describes the region's rich whaling and shipbuilding traditions, the 1937 bombing of the town of Guernica (Gernika) by German planes, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the Basque separatist and terrorist group that has maintained its cease fire agreement with the Spanish government since 2010, and the foods that are unique to the region, including at least half a dozen recipes. The focus of the book is on the Spanish Basques, although he does dedicate one chapter to the Pays Basco, who are much more integrated into French government and society.

The Basque History of the World is a readable and entertaining look into this fascinating culture, which was a reasonable length at 400 pages. This was a perfect introduction to my upcoming first visit to the Basque Region, and I highly recommend it to anyone who plans to travel there or is interested in learning more about its people.

Hola, que tal, Darryl?

Oh, I'm glad The Basque History of the World turned out to be a good one.

Man, are we getting educated on Catalonian nationalism. I had no idea.

We had a great time today at the Sagrada Familia and Gaudi's La Pedrera. Remarkable how he was able to create so many shapes and designs that still functioned well. An artlistic architect - those don't come along too often, do they. One of the audio tours said that when he graduated from architecture school, one of his teachers said that he didn't know whether they were graduating a genius or a madman.

We're also going to see his Casa Batlló, and tomorrow we take a guided tour in that Gaudi park.

>192 jnwelch: Bona tarda, Josep! Estoy bien, gracias, ¿y tú? (Sorry, I'm mixing Catalan and Castilian.)

The reviews I read about The Basque History of the World weren't overly encouraging, but I liked it more than I thought I would. Rick Steves recommended reading it before one's first journey to the Basque Region, and so would I.

I was impressed by the pride expressed by Catalunyans when I made my first visit to Barcelona in 2014, which corresponded to a momentous period in Spanish history. Shortly after I arrived Juan Carlos, the King who was appointed by Generalísimo Francisco Franco in 1975 toward the end of his dictatorship, abdicated the throne, and his son Felipe became the new King that day. I watched some of the abdication and installation ceremonies on La 1 in my hotel, and although I didn't see any I heard the protests against the monarchy by Catalunyans that took place that week.

You've probably noticed by now that many of the web sites for museums, restaurants, etc. in Catalunya end in ".cat" instead of ".es". I've similarly noticed the same thing about Euskadi (Spanish Basque) web sites, which often end in ".eus".

I've probably mentioned it already, but I would highly recommend a visit to the Museu d'Història de Catalunya, especially if you want to learn more about the history of Barcelona and Catalunya. I didn't go in 2014, but I did the following year, and it was so rich and interesting that I paid two visits on consecutive days there.

I'm glad that you liked La Sagrada Familía! Are you planning to see more of Gaudí's works?

ETA: Ah, I just saw your edited comments in >192 jnwelch:. I remember someone mentioning that "genius or madman quote" while I was there!

Good for seeing Casa Batlló; I've seen it, but only from the outside. Bianca and I loved our visit to Parc Güell last year.

I knew about the Catalonia National movement because for many years I could watch DWTV (Deutsch Wella TV) here in Tuscaloosa. That station was my morning news station. It provided lots and lots of news a cultural programs from Europe. Of course, these were from the European point-of-view. This viewpoint allowed me to have a different window on the world from most of the U.S. news. DWTV provided large scale coverage of the marches and protests held in Barcelona (and from Madrid when King Juan Carlos was being indicted) when the vote for succession was upcoming. I also watched a program on there about the language differences around Spain.

Sadly, DWTV has been dropped from our local listings and even though I have written comments to Comcast (our cable company) it has not been restored.

Oh - I first heard about EuroVision on DWTV. Then I happened to be in Ireland while the contest was being broadcast. Let me tell you, those broadcasts were watched diligently by all of my Irish friends, and in every hotel and pub all over Ireland! It is a BIG deal in Europe and I would never have known about it without DWTV.

I firmly believe that we Americans need these alternative viewpoints. For that reason I am in favor of Al Jezera being allowed to broadcast. I know there are reasons not to have them, but we need to know those alternate viewpoints. We don't get them from our own hegemonic news.

>194 benitastrnad: I've very occasionally watched DW-TV in English, which IIRC was (or maybe still is) part of my parents' Comcast cable package. Many of the European hotels I've stayed it show it as well, but I think in German language version only. When I'm abroad I'll most often watch the BBC, France 24 in English, or CNN International, which is far more intelligent and less sensational than the pathetic version that we get in the United States. I've started listening to BBC Radio more often, especially on the urging of Fliss and other British friends, particularly Radio 4, which has a good variety of cultural programs.

I enjoy getting a different viewpoint of the US from outside the country, and especially from my European friends and others I meet abroad. Even better, I love being outside of the US entirely!

I firmly believe that we Americans need these alternative viewpoints. For that reason I am in favor of Al Jezera being allowed to broadcast.

I completely agree, and my father would as well. He misses watching Al Jazeera on television far more than I do. Other than listening to NPR on an almost daily basis and reading The New York Times daily I largely ignore dumbed down US media outlets.

>195 kidzdoc: Much of the Media down under has become centralised & broadcasts particular voice - I they to balance this out listening/view RNZ, Al Jazeera, BBC Radio (Radio 4 when i can locate it or podcasts of the same)

>177 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl, I had to send you an email because Facebook wouldn't play this weekend. 6th or 7th of June (slight preference for the 7th) are good for me to go to see Wozzeck.

>197 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for letting me know, Claire. I'll post a message to Lesley on the Facebook Messenger meet up thread now, to be sure that the 7th is still okay for her. I can reserve tickets for the three of us.

I'll look for your email message now.

>196 roundballnz: National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) are, IMO, the most balanced sources of radio and television news in the US, although the current crop of extreme right wing Republicans, including our fake POTUS Доналд Трумп, wants to cut all funding to these public media.

I'm assuming Доналд Трумп means 'may he live forever' :-) .

>200 Caroline_McElwee: "Доналд Трумп" is Cyrillic for "Donald Trump", the premier of the Soviet Republic of America.

D--Looking forward to your thoughts on The Gene; I have it near the night table and hope to get to it soon. If RL would only calm down a little. Countdown 'till the next trip...!

>202 Berly: Thanks, Kim. I'll definitely bring The Gene: An Intimate History with me, and read it while I'm in London. I leave tonight, and will arrive at Heathrow at 10 am tomorrow.

Safe travels Darryl!

I was about to say the exact same thing that Anita just did! Safe travels, and have fun! What's on the itinerary this time, I forget?

>204 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I arrived at London Heathrow a little over 1-1/2 hours ago, and I'm sitting in the Caffè Nero in Terminal 3, killing time until I can check into my hotel. I had a good overnight flight, as it was quiet and I was able to sleep for roughly six hours out of the 7-1/2 hour flight. I'm not sure how this happened, but we managed to arrive on time (5 minutes late) even though we took off an hour past schedule!

>205 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley! I'll be in London until June 17th, fly to Bilbao that evening, take a train to nearby San Sebastián on the 22nd, take another train to Madrid on the 25th, and fly back to Atlanta on the 28th. As usual lots of meet ups with LTers are in the works, starting with lunch and a play with Rhian and her husband on Saturday, and dinner with Fllss and Rachael & her family in Cambridge on Sunday.

It's nearly 1 pm, so I can now leave Heathrow and take the Underground to my hotel. I'll create a new thread later today.

Glad you have arrived safely, and had a good kip on the journey Darryl.

Thanks, Caroline. I just updated my PM on your home page to reflect the latest plans that have been made. With one or two minor exceptions plans are largely complete.

Thanks Darryl. Maybe I can catch up with you on 14 June at the Southbank. Haven't decided whether to see the play, but maybe lunch before.

>209 Caroline_McElwee: Sounds good, Caroline.