PAUL C WITH A CLEAN SLATE IN '22 - Part 8

SCENES FROM MY PAST

I spent almost six months at Sellafield in 1991 working on a project called the EPMF Building. Sellafield is a large nuclear re-processing plant and a source of some controversy. It is also set very close to the English Lake District. I did manage to spend a bit of time exploring the area, particularly by bike and rode the Hardknott Pass several times which I consider the toughest road bike climb in England.

The Opening Words

The American Author Challenge this month features a writer whose poetry I have read a little but whose short stories are new to me. Tess Gallagher. I am reading her collection The Lover of Horses



The opening tale is eponymous and begins:

They say my Great-Grandfather was a gypsy, but the most popular explanation for his behaviour is that he was a drunk. How else could the women have kept up the scourge of his memory all these years had they not had the usual malady of our family to blame? Probably he was both, a gypsy and a drunk.

Interested?............................

BOOKS READ

JANUARY

1. American Dream? A Journey on Route 66 by Khor Shing Yin (2019) 160 pp (AAC) - GN
2. The Forward Book of Poetry 2022 by Various Poets (2021) 155 pp - Poetry
3. Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne (1994) 274 pp - Thriller/Mystery
4. Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill (2008) 183 pp - (NF Challenge) NF
5. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (1998) 671 pp - (Asian Book Challenge{ABC}) Fiction; 1001
6. The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz (1962) 158 pp - (World Books/Food) Fiction
7. The Children Who Stayed Behind by Bruce Carter (1958) 216 pp - (BAC) YA Fiction
8. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021) 114 pp - Fiction
9. Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (2020) 343 pp - (ABC) - Fiction (?)
10. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (1982) 192 pp - SF/Fantasy
11. Days in the History of Silence by Merethe Lindstrom (2011) 230 pp - Fiction/Holocaust
12. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (1972) 208 pp - Fiction; Pulitzer
13. My Two Worlds by Sergio Chejfec (2008) - 103 pp Fiction/Rebecca NYC reads
14. Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine (2002) - 131 pp Non Fiction / Holocaust
15. Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin (2002) 384 pp Fiction / Asian Book Challenge
16. Up With the Larks by Tessa Hainsworth (2009) 278 pp Non Fiction
17. Cheryl's Destinies by Stephen Sexton (2021) 88 pp - Poetry
18. Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol (2001) 246 pp - Thriller/Mystery / Asian Book Challenge
19. The List of Books by Frederic Raphael (1981) 154 pp - Non Fiction / Reference
20. Disquiet by Zulfu Livaneli (2017) 163 pp - Fiction / Asian Book Challenge
21. Turkey : A Short History by Norman Stone (2017) 185 pp - Non-Fiction
22. Black Out by Ragnar Jonasson (2011) 247 pp - Thriller/Scandi
23. The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck (1992) 63 pp - Poetry
24. A Foolish Virgin by Ida Simons (1959) 216 pp - Fiction
25. Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (1928) 329 pp - Fiction / 1001 Books
26. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (1969) 224 pp - Fiction / Booker Winner

FEBRUARY

27. The Nest by Kenneth Oppel (2015) 244 pp - Fiction
28. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria (2021) 156 pp Non-Fiction/ABC
29. Redemption Ground by Lorna Goodison (2018) 164 pp Non-Fiction

Currently Reading

BOOKERS, PULITZERS, NOBEL WINNERS, 1001 BOOKS FIRST ED. & ETC

I have an ongoing challenge to read all the Booker Winners, all the Pulitzer Fiction Winners, something by each Nobel and all the 1001 Books First Ed Books. I will track my progress here:

BOOKERS READ BY DEC 31 2021 : 34 / 57
BOOKERS IN 2022 : 1 (35 / 57)
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens

PULITZERS READ BY DEC 31 2021 : 19 / 94
PULITZERS IN 2022 : 1 (20 / 94)
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

NOBEL LAUREATES READ BY DEC 31 2021 : 74 / 118
NOBEL WINNERS IN 2022

1001 BOOKS FIRST ED READ BY DEC 2021 : 319
1001 BOOKS IN 2022 2 (321)
My Name is Red
Tarka the Otter

GUARDIAN 100 BOOKS READ BY DEC 2021 : 349
GUARDIAN BOOKS IN 2022 1 (350)
My Name is Red

WOMEN'S PRIZE WINNERS READ BY DEC 2021 : 7 / 26
WOMEN'S PRIZE WINNERS IN 2022

BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE



January - YA - The Children Who Stayed Behind by Bruce Carter

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE



January - Graphic Books - The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66 by Khor Shing Yin

ASIAN BOOK CHALLENGE 2022

Here is the link to the General Thread
https://www.librarything.com/topic/337731#n7692635

These will be the monthly jaunts for the ABC challenge.

JANUARY - Europe of Asia - Turkish Authors link to thread
https://www.librarything.com/topic/338244
1. My Name is Red
2. Last Train to Istanbul
3. Hotel Bosphorus
4. Disquiet

FEBRUARY - The Holy Land - Israeli & Palestinian Authors
Link to thread : https://www.librarything.com/topic/339017

MARCH - The Arab World - Writers from the Arab world
APRIL - Persia - Iranian writers
MAY - The Stans - There are 7 states all in the same region all ending in "Stan"
JUNE - The Indian Sub-Continent - Essentially authors from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
JULY - The Asian Superpower - Chinese Authors
AUGUST - Nippon - Japanese Authors
SEPTEMBER - Kimchi - Korean Authors
OCTOBER - INDO CHINA PLUS - Authors from Indo-China and other countries neighbouring China
NOVEMBER - The Malay Archipelago - Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian Authors
DECEMBER - The Asian Diaspora - Ethnic Asian writers from elsewhere
1. Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar

I was able just about to cover the whole of the continent and I didn't include one for Russia as most of the authors are decidedly European in their ethnicity and leaning.

AROUND THE WORLD IN BOOKS SINCE 2021

Around the world in books challenge. I want to see how many countries I can cover without limiting myself to a specific deadline. Continued from last year.


1. United Kingdom - The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard EUROPE
2. Ireland - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde EUROPE
3. Lithuania - Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz EUROPE
4. Netherlands - The Ditch by Herman Koch EUROPE
5. Armenia - The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian ASIA PACIFIC
6. Zimbabwe - This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga AFRICA
7. United States - Averno by Louise Gluck AMERICA
8. Australia - Taller When Prone by Les Murray ASIA PACIFIC
9. France - Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrere EUROPE
10. Russia - The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov EUROPE
11. Denmark - Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard EUROPE
12. Democratic Republic of Congo - Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanze Mujila AFRICA
13. Canada - I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven AMERICA
14. Italy - The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri EUROPE
15. New Zealand - Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt ASIA PACIFIC
16. India - A Burning by Megha Majumdar ASIA PACIFIC
17. Libya - The Return by Hisham Matar AFRICA
18. Pakistan - Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid ASIA PACIFIC
19. South Korea - Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha ASIA PACIFIC
20. Morocco - The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers by Fouad Laroui AFRICA
21. Thailand - Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana ASIA PACIFIC
22. Norway - Echoland by Per Petterson EUROPE
23. Belgium - I Choose to Live by Sabine Dardenne EUROPE
24. Sweden - Still Waters by Viveca Sten EUROPE
25. Trinidad - Half a Life by VS Naipaul AMERICAS
26. Sudan - Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih AFRICA
27. Uruguay - Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti AMERICAS
28. Syria - My Country : A Syrian Memoir by Kassem Eid ASIA PACIFIC
29. Ghana - The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim AFRICA
30. Austria - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl EUROPE
31. Germany - Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass EUROPE
32. South Africa - No Turning Back by Beverley Naidoo AFRICA
33. Mauritania - Arab Jazz by Karim Miske AFRICA
34. Cuba - The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier AMERICAS
35. Nigeria - Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie AFRICA
36. Portugal - The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso EUROPE
37. Japan - Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe ASIA PACIFIC
38. Senegal - At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop AFRICA
39. Malta - The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi EUROPE
40. Chile - A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende AMERICAS
41. Lebanon - The First Century After Beatrice by Amin Maalouf ASIA PACIFIC
42. Spain - The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon EUROPE
43. Somalia - The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed AFRICA
44. Malaysia - Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw ASIA PACIFIC
45. Mexico - Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue AMERICAS
46. Latvia - The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaian Berlin EUROPE
47. Malawi - Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver AFRICA
48. Turkey - My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk ASIA PACIFIC
49. Egypt - The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz AFRICA
50. Argentina - My Two Worlds by Sergio Chejfec - AMERICAS
51. Iceland - Black Out by Ragnar Jonasson - EUROPE
52. Jamaica - Redemption Ground by Lorna Goodison - AMERICAS


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

January - Small Things Like These

BOUGHT AND READ IN 2022

1. Appaloosa by Robert Parker
2. The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.
3. Without a Claim by Grace Schulman
4. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
5. Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
6. There, There by Tommy Orange
7. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
8. Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin READ JAN 22
9. Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis
10. A Separation by Katie Kitamura
11. Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park
12. Free Food for Millionaires by Lee Min Jee
13. Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
14. The Lady from Tel Aviv by Rabai Al-Madhoun
15. Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon
16. Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
17. The Others by Sarah Blau
18. The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard
19. Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay
20. King Cnut by W.B. Bartlett
21. Dear Future Boyfriend by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
22. Ottoman Odyssey by Alev Scott
23. Has the West Lost It? by Kishore Mahbubani
24. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth
25. A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
26. Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely
27. Days in the History of Silence by Merethe Lindstrom Open Library Loan READ JAN 22
28. My Two Worlds by Sergio Chejfec (Open Library Loan) READ JAN 22
29. Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine (Open Library Loan) READ JAN 22
30. Benjamin's Crossing by Jay Parini
31. Outlawed by Anna North
32. Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
33. The Ruin of Kasch by Roberto Calasso
34. Roundabout of Death by Faysal Khartash
35. The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
36. Salt : A World History by Mark Kurlansky
37. The Greek Myths : The Complete and Definitive Edition by Robert Graves
38. Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
39. The Histories by Tacitus
40. Silent House by Orhan Pamuk
41. The Generation Game by Sophie Duffy
42. Wild Grass by Ian Johnson
43. This Living and Immortal Thing by Austin Duffy
44. Until I Find Julian by Patricia Reilly Giff
45. The Boy With the Tiger's Heart by Linda Coggin
46. The Day of Silence and Other Stories by George Gissing
47. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
48. The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
49. Beast by Paul Kingsnorth
50. The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe
51. Heading Inland by Nicola Barker
52. Rift by Beverley Birch
53. The Cry of the Go-Away Bird by Andrea Eames
54. Modern Gods by Nick Laird
55. Swing Hammer Swing! by Jeff Torrington
56. The Sands of Mars by Arthur C Clarke
57. Coromandel Sea Change by Rumer Godden
58. A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons by Geoffrey Hindley
59. The Profiteers : Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World by Sally Denton
60. In the Wolf's Mouth by Adam Foulds
61. Daydreams of Angels by Heather O'Neill
62. The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk
63. Opium by Salar Abdoh
64. The Nest by Kenneth Oppel READ FEB 22
65. Three Light-Years by Andrea Canobbio
66. Prague : A Novel by Arthur Phillips
67. The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig
68. The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
69. Academic Year by DJ Enright
70. Down Among the Wild Men by John Greenway
71. Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann
72. The Lover of Horses by Tess Gallagher
73. The End of the Day by Bill Clegg
74. The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan
75. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
76. Mad Boy by Nick Arvin
77. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria READ FEB 22
78. Sleeping on Jupiter Anuradha Roy
79. Son of the Century by Antonio Scurati
80. Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama
81. The Manningtree Witches by A.D. Blackemore
82. Vertigo by WG Sebald
83. In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova
84. Redemption Ground by Lorna Goodison READ FEB 22
85. The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
86. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
87. Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry
88. The Powerful and the Damned by Lionel Barber
89. The Better Half by Sharon Moalem
90. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
91. Downsizing by Tom Watson
92. Desert Flower by Waris Dirie
93. Common Ground by Naomi Ishiguro
94. The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa
95. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

ADDED : 95
READ : 7
BALANCE : 88

BOOKS BOUGHT IN 2021 365
READ IN 2021 : 35
READ IN 2022 : 8
BALANCE OF 2021 ADDITIONS : 322

BOOKS BOUGHT IN 2020 BALANCE AT 1/1/22 = 212
READ IN 2022 : 1
BALANCE IS : 211

BOOK STATS

Next one is yours.

Happy new thread Paul!

>14 quondame: Thank you Susan and well done on being first here.

The virtual bookshelf is yours:

>15 PaulCranswick: Woo, I have just the place for it!

>16 quondame: I am keeping a track of who wins my virtual bookshelves and I do intend to provide something soon to place upon them. :D

>17 PaulCranswick: Woo! Woo!

Happy new thread, Paul! From your last thread, sorry to hear about the car tire but glad you are okay!

Happy new one!

>18 quondame: Susan, you are the first this year to be first on my threads twice. Please PM me your address and I will send you something to place on that virtual shelf.

>19 bell7: Thank you Mary. I was far more cheesed off than anything else as it made me late for work and I have a lot to do these days.

>20 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita. It is always a pleasure to see you here.

And a happy new thread from me. Love the Lake district photo.

Happy new thread!

>24 Helenoel: Thank you, Helen. I am looking forward to my return to the UK and the Lake District is a place I will revisit very early into my return.

>25 amanda4242: Thanks dear, Amanda.

Happy 8th thread, Paul! Lovely topper!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

>27 Carmenere: Thank you, Lynda. Lovely as always to see you here. x

Happy new thread! The location in your topper looks like some of the scenery in my region of the US - lakes surrounded by mountains.

Your mention of The Books of Jacob is my first LT sighting of the book Paul. I was wondering why I wasn't seeing it on here. I'll be interested in your take.

>29 cbl_tn: Not such typical English scenery perhaps, Carrie, but it is the pride of the North West nonetheless. Always a pleasure to have you stop by, Carrie.

>30 brenzi: It may take a while, Bonnie. It is a pretty huge book to be honest! I did enjoy her Drive Your Plow which was a little strange but compelling also.

I changed my profile picture for you Paul. I have had the mug for I don't even remember how long. Maybe i was born with it. On the back are drawings of 4 pea soups - Buellton, Santa Nella, Carlsbad and Selma. Now there are 2. There was a story a year ago that PSA in Buellton was for sale.

>32 RBeffa: I am honoured, Ron! I will go and take a look. In English parlance "pea soup" normally applies to a dense fog, but your posts have made it clear - we should try more pea soup!

>33 PaulCranswick: As others have noted, the sourdough bread was fabulous. Dipping it in the soup, yum.

>34 RBeffa: Almost time for me to leave the office, Ron and you have done a great job and whetting my appetite for lunch!

Again managed to get through by the skin of my teeth:

Wordle 238 6/6

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This article on Pea Soup Andersen's is a bit long, but at the very bottom is the recipe for the original soup - vegan, no ham. https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/andersens-split-pea-soup/

>37 RBeffa: I will have my maid try it for me with a few little Asian twists. Thanks for that, Ron.

I am about to look at what six albums I want to listen to from 1972.

WEEKLY WEIGH IN

Weight at Start of Year : 273 lbs (124 kgs)

Weight at End of Last Week : 253 lbs (115 kgs)

Weight at end of Week Six : 253 lbs (114kgs)

Weight loss in week/year : 251 lbs (2 kgs)

Weight loss this year : 22 lbs (10 kgs)

Another steady week of gradual loss of weight. Did quite a lot of walking this week, but a couple of enforced slips.

How am I doing on my avoidance list.

1. No cakes I had a very small piece of cake to celebrate a colleague's promotion
2. No cookies STILL
3. No sugared drinks / carbonated drinks STILL
4. No potato / corn chips STILL
5. Had one dish this week of Erni's fried rice with sardines which is a long awaited treat
6. No alcohol - Had three beers with the boss of a key Subcontractor last night
7. No processed foods - STILL
8. No ice cream - STILL

Intermittent fasting started after booster doing 16/8 diet (since 4/1/22). Another successful week.
Reduced carb trying to eat "good" food.

Goal for upcoming week.

Under 250 lbs.

All in all though having lost 22 lbs in six weeks and I will not go back to my end of 2021 weight - ever!

1972 IN MUSIC - SIXTH WEEKEND

Mixed Selection of more albums from fifty years ago:

No particular order of preference :

JACKSON BROWNE - SATURATE BEFORE USING
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND - EAT A PEACH
HARRY CHAPIN - HEADS & TAILS
ARTHUR ALEXANDER - ARTHUR ALEXANDER
ARETHA FRANKLIN - AMAZING GRACE
JOAN BAEZ - COME FROM THE SHADOWS

>39 PaulCranswick: Congratulations, Paul! You are doing so well!!

Happy new thread, by the way.

I am reading The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop and came across this: "I am promiscuous when it comes to bookstores." That made me think of you for some reason :)

>41 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia.

The quote made me smile, Stasia, I guess I am close to being the Don Juan of book-shopping!

I know that the 70's music scene largely passed you by so this is for you. Jackson Browne with his first hit single : "Doctor My Eyes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq9rwBGn-gg

Happy new thread, Paul. Annoying about your car tire. Didn't you have another car related mishap just a little while ago?

>42 PaulCranswick: Hey, I have actually heard that one! No idea when I heard it for the first time, but I bet I was in my 20s.

You are definitely the Don Juan of book-shopping. I think I am the Donna Juana :)

>43 Familyhistorian: I did indeed, Meg and it was the same tyre! I am close to the team of site drivers so a couple of them took me home just now and took care of the tyre. They got to get to sample some of Erni's coffee and had some fried noodles (I had salad).

>44 alcottacre: Don Juana, I like that and the cap would surely fit!

About to put up my review of Redemption Ground.

>46 PaulCranswick: I am taking Redemption Ground slowly, like 1 essay a day. I do not think there is anything particularly groundbreaking in the book, but I do like Goodison's style.

I have put up 3 reviews(? I am not sure what you call that thing I do) today, if you care to take a look.

>47 alcottacre: As usual we come to the same conclusion about the book. I liked it but there was nothing unduly remarkable about it.

>48 PaulCranswick: Despite nothing groundbreaking in the book, I am not sorry to have read it. I am not sure what else Lorna Goodison has written, but I would not mind reading more of her work at some point.

>49 alcottacre: Me too. It was a very worthwhile read and I will certainly look up more of her poetry. She seemed very insistent upon that fact that luminaries such as Derek Walcott had recognised her as a poet which I think she overplayed a bit but she is clearly a talented writer and she came across to me as a very nice person too.

This is what RD referred to as book porn. Yesterday's additions without Hani even looking!

>50 PaulCranswick: I have not read far enough for Derek Walcott, whom I have never heard of, to come up repeatedly.

>51 PaulCranswick: For some reason I cannot see the picture.

>52 alcottacre: Derek Walcott won the Nobel Prize and was a poet from St. Lucia.

I can see it ok. Let me reload it and see if that helps.

Happy new thread, Paul!

>1 PaulCranswick: What a lovely place.
Wikipedia tells me that going up Hardknott Pass there are parts 33%, no way I would get up on a bike. Only can admire you did.

>54 FAMeulstee: It is a super difficult climb Anita and from both sides. There is an annual ride to raise money for cancer which I haven't ridden but would like to get into shape to ride again in memory of my mum. My target is to ride it next year in May 2023.

>53 PaulCranswick: Nope, I still cannot see it. It is probably something to do with my laptop. I will check again whenever I am up and around tomorrow.

>56 alcottacre: I can't see it either.

>56 alcottacre: & >57 FAMeulstee: It must be me. Let me try something else. I can see it perfectly well.

ETA
Tried it a different way. Hope you can see it now.

>58 PaulCranswick: YES! I can see the bookhaul now :-)
Of those I want to read The Books of Jacob. Somehow I am into reading big tomes this month, just finished two 800+ books, and two more 500+ to go.

>59 FAMeulstee: That is good, Anita. I'm not especially skilled at loading pictures if the most obvious way doesn't succeed.

The Books of Jacob is a baby at 965 pages! It also is unusual in counting the pages backward starting at 965 and going backwards to 1.

Hi, happy new thread, have a great weekend. I envy your book hauls. Book Envy! How many bookstores do you frequent?

>61 Kristelh: Thank you Kristel. I have one main temple of books in Kuala Lumpur which is the Kinokuniya Store in the KLCC Suria Twin Tower Mall.

Occasionally I will go to another large store nearby that sells discounted books but otherwise it would be via book orders (mainly book depo).

>61 Kristelh: This is 8 minutes long Kristel so you may want to skim it a bit, but this gives a guided tour of where I go to hang out every Friday lunchtime. I have bought some 4,000 books here in the last dozen years!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEYjokyTnEk

>63 PaulCranswick:. Wow. I do not think there is anything approaching that within several hours of me, and I am 2 hours from Baltimore or Washington and three from Philadelphia. At least I have not heard of such a store. But I like my local independent, who will order anything for us.

>63 PaulCranswick:. Wow, that is awesome. My granddaughter would love that manga section. Do you read in other languages as well as English?

>64 Helenoel: My favourite book store is probably Daisy Lane second hand bookstore in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, Helen, which is a really interesting place.

I love Blackwells in Oxford
Foyles in London and
The Poetry Bookshop & Richard Booth's in Hay-en-Wye.

I like my Waterstones stores and especially the one in York.

I am hoping that Caroline will help introduce the best stores in London when I am next back.

>65 Kristelh: I can read in Malay, Kristel, but because I usually do so for work via legal documents, I don't enjoy it too much. I can read Arabic but I don't understand what the words mean which doesn't help me too much!

This is Daisy Lane Books in Holmfirth. The antithesis of the modern store I go to every week in KL but my favourite place nonetheless.

>68 PaulCranswick: Looks like a place I'd enjoy visiting.

>69 thornton37814: You would, Lori. You definitely would.

>68 PaulCranswick: >69 thornton37814: Can I go too?

We can make an LT meet up there any time you like ladies - I would gladly show you round my home area of Yorkshire. The land of the Bronte's, J.B. Priestley, John Braine, George Gissing, David Storey, Ted Hughes, Simon Armitage, Joanne Harris, AS Byatt, Margaret Drabble, Kate Atkinson, Susan Hill, Stan Barstow, Keith Waterhouse, WH Auden, Barry Hines and Alan Bennett.

Happy weekend, Paul!

>68 PaulCranswick: Oooh, I could easily while away a few hours browsing there!

>73 bell7: One fine day, Mary!

I have no bookstores, chain or independent near me. The nearest is a Barnes and Nobles about 50 minutes away and I don't think they carry the variety I would like. I do most of my book buying online, used and otherwise. Sometimes I can find a book at something like friends of the library and University of women or League of Women Voters. I would love to visit UK and see all the bookstores and visit the locations that are read about in books.

I have to add, that buying online does not give satisfaction to the soul that walking around, near, and by books. Therefore I also love libraries.

>76 PaulCranswick: The bookstore in the video is about 10 minutes walk or given the climate about 5 minutes drive away.

It doesn't have close to everything I want but it does have a great variety of books.

Happy new thread! Glad your health project is progressing! And I always come for the music. Sorry to say I wasn't familiar with Arthur Alexander so thanks for expanding my horizons.

>77 witchyrichy: Nice to see you, Karen.
Interesting artist, Alexander with his fusion of country and soul.

>39 PaulCranswick: Very well done Paul and happy new thread to you. i loved the pic of Daisy Lane Books. In my new community there is one independent bookstore so that's where we go. I try not to order on line and of course I ❤️ the library! Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

>42 PaulCranswick: >44 alcottacre: You guys make me laugh. The Don Juan and Donna Juana of book shopping indeed!

Hi Paul, Happy New Thread mate. I love your thread topper photos and we have booked a few days away a short distance away from the Lakes and will be going up there, i want to visit Kendal and there is a nice book shop in Ambleside and i will pay a visit to Westwood Books in Sedburgh, it sells new, secondhand and antiquarian books as well as gifts and does coffee and tea (a bonus) among the 70,000 books on offer, i also want to pop into Penrith. The last time we went into Penrith was on the way back from holiday in South-West Scotland and it was the annual Pot festival weekend and we picked up a nice, large dish for the coffee table. Some of the Potter's were amazing and it was a big event with Potter's from all over the UK.

I will have to pay an overdue visit to Daisy Lane Books, we haven't been to Holmfirth for some time and they have a decent Oxfam bookshop as well.

Hope that you and Belle are having a good weekend mate, sending love and hugs to all the Cranswick Clan that are scattered across the globe.

>79 mdoris: I would love to have a good library nearby, Mary, but then again I am never satisfied. A running joke with Hani is that I keep pestering her to join Sheffield library and I guess she will fold at some stage just to make me happy.

>80 Donna828: Thanks Donna. I only wish I could read the books at anywhere close to the rate that Stasia dispatches 'em.

>83 PaulCranswick: Nice to see you as always John.

I don't recall the book shops up there but I must have been in them. The last time I was in Ambleside, I remember Hani being in a pretty bad mood, it being a week day, and not approving of my "wasting time" in the selfish pursuit of bookology.

It could only be a backwater like the South West of Scotland where a "pot" festival is actually about pottery!

Look forward to hearing of any trips to Daisy Lane.

Wordle 239 4/6

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Slightly more comfortable today. Still unbeaten.

Hi Paul! Happy new (again) thread!

Thanks for the tour of the Kinokonuya bookshop! Wow, it is immense. I could see myself browsing around it. Having a look at all the different sections. Stores in Amsterdam do have some manga for instance but not so much.

But I don’t need to complain, one can spend a good day browsing bookstores in Amsterdam. From the Waterstones to the American Bookshop, to Scheltema. And I wouldn’t mind visiting some in England as well.

>85 EllaTim: I have had the pleasure in my time on LT to walk through Kinokuniya with Rhian, Prue and Caro and I am sure that they liked the store too. It is a great resource for certain types of books - literary fiction is good, thrillers and Sci-Fi well represented, the classics and poetry less so but not terrible. History could be expanded but they do their best.

Let's make a pact when I return to the UK. Hani and I will visit the Netherlands and I'll spend a day with you in the bookstores of Amsterdam and I'll return the complement and introduce to you the bookshops in the North of England or London if you prefer. x

Happy new thread!

So sorry I missed the Grand Opening of your eighth thread here. But I was busy elsewhere yesterday.

I was pretty proud of myself with having read 13 books in January. Seeing your tally of TWICE that...leaves me speechless. Which is surely all to the good.

Behind with my reviews and I realise that I have forgotten to review this one:

BOOK #28



Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria
Date of Publication : 2021
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 258 pp

Fareed Zakaria writes well. He is often persuasive and sometimes very informative. He is not always right.

He rushed this book to publication and makes many good points, some fair criticisms, a number of excellent observations, some wise judgements and some conclusions that he may come to regard as embarrassing in the near future.

He makes the statement that "The United States and Great Britain are the first major countries to open up and begin entering a post-pandemic world." This is respectfully, palpable nonsense. He is unapologetically partisan in his views and I share a lot of them but his lauding of the current administration's handling of the pandemic is rose-tinted at best.

Of his ten lessons some of them are obvious. Globalisation, how do we approach future events, how to rebuild, listening to the science and the inevitable bipolarity of superpower-dom.

He equates an opposition to globalisation to selfishness but I think that that is flawed and simplistic. I agree with him that globalisation cannot be reversed but it can be sent sideways. We have allowed globalisation to be moved to manufacturing monopoly in favour of the distinctly repressive Chinese administration and that is the most urgent thing for the West to address TOGETHER. He correctly, if grudgingly credits Trump with looking to challenge this and just as correctly, but less grudgingly, criticises him for trying to address it alone and with an excess of hubris.

I am a glass-half-full man and I don't hold with the doom-sayers who think Western renewal is beyond us all but a concerted effort is needed to work together on a multi-national level to ensure that the world's supply chains are not ever as dependent on a single state again. Localised Globalisation is the oxymoron that must prevail if we are to thrive more than survive and it makes ecological sense too.

The main lesson that I have taken from this pandemic is that governments and its servants are not to be trusted - whether it is with our freedoms and certainly not with the truth. Politicians and scientists have never been trusted by the populace less than today and rightly so. That trust will take a generation perhaps to recover.

He also makes no mention of the rampant inflation that the world will need to face down as it looks at ways to rebuild and, of course, which he avoids as it may appear critical to his constituency. Personally I don't blame Johnson, Biden or other leaders entirely for the inflation that the pandemic has brought upon us - it is a result of 35 years of failed policies that imbalanced the world economy and an inevitable outcome of such a pandemic when economies are locked down in an unprecedented manner.

Given the present John Hopkins and other studies on the failures of lockdowns, Zakaria, makes a very prescient point:

Was it worth it? These are difficult decisions, but one cannot but think that in many developing countries, not enough thought was given to the calamities that would follow a lockdown.

Is this limited to the developing world? (whatever that is these days - and I believe that the populations of many countries such as the one I reside in have more faith in their government's decision making and are more apt to follow their directives without civil unrest). Statistics can be used to tell us anything if we are biased enough to interpret them in keeping with our prejudices and not every country reported hospitalisations and deaths with the same parameters as others, but studies do need to be made objectively as to whether the approach of Florida was more effective than that of, say New York or Illinois, without politics intruding into the discussion too profusely. I don't know the answer to the question but it is one we need to ask ourselves.

Finally he does not give any thought in a meaningful way of the real origins of the virus, accepting the rather increasingly suspicious dismissal that it evolved naturally in Wuhan. One lesson that should be learned from the pandemic is that the scientists should be watched and we shouldn't be throwing money at experimenting with our existence is such a cavalier manner.

All my above comments, notwithstanding this is a very good and well-intentioned book and I would recommend it to others to read with an open mind and have it help inform your own conclusions.

>87 drneutron: Thanks Jim.

>88 weird_O: I cannot envisage you being speechless, Bill, nor would I ever want that to be the case!

BOOK #29



Redemption Ground by Lorna Goodison
Date of Publication : 2018
Origin of Author : Jamaica
Pages : 164 pp

Read as part of series of group reads on Writers of Colour highlighted by Caroline.

This collection of short essays is very readable and it is very easy to like and admire Ms. Goodison. There is nothing overly academic about the work here and it is not unduly cerebral but she can be very effective in making her points.

I find the short essay on racism particularly adept at inspiring outrage at her personal anecdotes and her put down of a toilet cleaner who told a colleague that "a n&*%$r is in there" with the brilliant riposte that she understood why the lady could not rise above cleaning toilets, made me chuckle (not that there is anything wrong with that as a job when needs must).

She intersperses the essays with some of her poetry and I thought it interesting but not hugely exceptional. One point that jarred for me a little was her constant need to point out that she was recognised by a number of the great and good as "a Poet". Let your work speak for itself and it is certainly poetic. As someone who scribbles (far more humbly than Lorna Goodison I hasten to add), I don't recall ever referring to myself as a Poet as it is incumbent upon others to determine that surely. But still that is a minor quibble at what is an enjoyable collection.

>91 PaulCranswick: I have never met a person of significant achievement, who doesn't celebrate recognition by someone they class worthwhile in at least one or two immoderate instances.

>92 quondame: That is true to be fair, Susan. If Derek Walcott had introduced me as a poet then I would definitely be proud of the fact. I just thought she overdid it a little bit, perhaps because it was already clear from her writing that she is obviously a Poet.

Happy new thread, Paul. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

>94 AMQS: Thanks Anne. I am just slowly settling into my Sunday. Hope it is peaceful and productive book wise.

Hi Paul! I think I can squeeze in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay in April. Would that work for you?

>96 cbl_tn: You have a date, Carrie!

>97 PaulCranswick: :-)

I have a rather alarming 14 books on the go at the moment which explains why the number completed this month to date is so low.

I am actually enjoying pretty much all the books I am reading but cannot seem to decide which one to focus upon the most at the moment.

I have given myself a week to finish all 14. They are:

The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa
Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Fateless by Imre Kertesz
Out of Place by Edward W Said
Philida by Andre Brink
The Yellow Wind by David Grossman
Door into the Dark by Seamus Heaney
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
The Cunning of the Dove by Alfred Duggan
The Black Tide by Hammond Innes
The Others by Sara Blau
A Woman in Jerusalem by AB Yehoshua
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

I need to do something about my scatter-gun approach this month!

Happy new thread Paul! I missed you starting the new one.

>100 humouress: You are never too late, neighbour.

I saw Jim is heading this way late in the year. If I am still around at that time we MUST do something.

1972 MUSIC SIXTH WEEKEND .

Essential Tracks :
JACKSON BROWNE : Something Fine
This was an accomplished debut album. I played my favourite of his tracks for Stasia yesterday but this is a delightful song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itFXxDobKlI

JOAN BAEZ : Love Song to a Stranger
Joan could make rampant promiscuity seem magnificent and beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w50wWmpuGVE

ARTHUR ALEXANDER : Burning Love
This is the original version of the song made famous by Elvis Presley. I don't know how come Alexander is mainly forgotten today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8AHMp5Qhhw

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND : Melissa
A much tighter composition from the kings of jam - I like this live performance which features a guest appearance by Jackson Browne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0GiRGl2dIU

ARETHA FRANKLIN - Precious Memories
I am not a huge fan of gospel music but the power and clarity of Aretha's voice cannot be denied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i2Lf7UiWiI

HARRY CHAPIN - Everybody's Lonely
This is one of my favourite Chapin albums and I had a bit of trouble picking a track but this suits my mood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e5WiSENbO0

I hope you will enjoy these snippets of songs that originated on these 1972 albums.

>72 PaulCranswick: John Braine is such an underrated author!

>103 DMulvee: Room at the Top is one of the best British novels in the second half of the 20th Century don't you think?

>104 PaulCranswick: I read that almost 20 years ago and ended up buying copies of all of his novels. Someone who deserves wider recognition

>105 DMulvee: When I was a boy he was extremely well known and regularly on Yorkshire TV but his generation of authors seem to have been overlooked for some reason. Him, Sillitoe, Barstow, Hines, Wain. All were really good authors.

>106 PaulCranswick: I only know ‘Loneliness of the long distance runner’ by Sillitoe and just ‘A kestrel for a knave’ by Hines. I don’t recognise Barstow or Wain. What works would you recommend by them?

>107 DMulvee: Barstow's most famous book was A Kind of Loving and Wain would be Hurry on Down. Great snapshots of England just before the Beatles.

>89 PaulCranswick: I would never miss Zakaria’s writing when he wrote for Newsweek. He is an excellent writer.

Karen O

Had to pop by unusually on a Sunday, as I found another Gotobed! Currently reading The Nine Tailors - and voila! My Gotobed the Sexton.

Realise that's a rather cryptic message...

>101 PaulCranswick: Gosh, an actual meet-up? Excuse me, I just have to sit down for a bit.

>71 cbl_tn: >72 PaulCranswick: Maybe one of these years we can do it!

>109 klobrien2: I agree Karen he is an excellent writer. Don't agree with him on everything but he always argues his points well.

>110 BekkaJo: There are more than we thought! With a surname like that it is always possible to start a conversation. One of them in response would always be of course: "is there are question mark with that?"

>111 humouress: You can remain seated a while, Nina, cause he is planning on December!

>112 thornton37814: You never know, Lori. x

Wordle 240 4/6

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Thought today's was a tester.

>115 PaulCranswick: Well done. First two tries no hit at all? You are a day ahead, I just did nr 239.

Happy New Thread, Paul. Finally catching up with some of the threads. Love the topper.

Happy new thread!

>116 EllaTim: I think it is a time zones thing, Ella as my new day starts 7 hours before yours does!
I went ten letters without getting a single one which I have never done before and still got it in four. That is because my options were so limited it took me ages to figure out that the one I guessed was one of the only words it could possibly be.

>117 msf59: Nice to see you back safely and around the threads, Mark.

>118 banjo123: Lovely to see you Rhonda as always.

Very pleased to note that post 119 here was the 2,000 on my threads this year.

A big, big thank you to everyone who has posted here so far this year.

Interestingly over the last four years this is the fastest that 2,000 posts were reached:

2019 Week ending 31 March
2020 Week ending 14 March
2021 Week ending 28 February
2022 Week ending 14 February

Of course in the mega posting years of 2012-2014 this would have been even earlier but it is still quite an improvement. Overall posting is up even as group membership declines.

>121 PaulCranswick: Overall posting is up even as group membership declines.

Paul, do you think that this might be related to the slowing of the pandemic? I know for me, it has made me more amenable to participating on threads of others, and even starting new challenges, not to mention an overall increase in my reading...plus my enjoyment of reading that had waned over the years of pandemic, most likely due to depression and anxiety, has started to grow again.

>122 SqueakyChu: I have to be honest, Madeline, and say that I really don't know! I am, like you, more active this year both in reading and posting and I do think that we have or need to have an end in sight with the pandemic and hopefully most people see books and reading as part of their longer term futures.

>123 PaulCranswick: One of the things I find discouraging now is the lesser amounts of real books compared to ebooks. I know it’s my personal preference and doesn’t really mean I spend less time on computer screens as I type my thoughts onto my phone as I read each book. However, I noticed much fewer real books in Early Reviewer and more ebooks as offerings. I understand this is for economic reasons as well. However, I took a look at some offerings of books by Arab writers for next month’s ABC challenge and was dismayed to find few books of Asian Arab authors, but most were ebooks.

>124 SqueakyChu: As I am in the "wilds" of Malaysia only e-books are available to me as an Early Reviewer so I don't bother requesting them.
I am looking forward to the next month's challenge but then again I already have such a stockpile of books to go at. If you get stuck I will send you something.

>125 PaulCranswick: No need to send anything, Paul, but thank you. Mailing books overseas is outrageously expensive. I have one book on hold at the library for Saudi Arabia, and one I have to find somewhere in my house for Lebanon. Besides your challenge, I have my own challenge...plus I'll never run out of books to read as long as people keep coming to my door to make donations to my Little Free Library! :D

Reference to the Fareed Zakaria book which I reviewed above. I have been thinking of some predictions for the post-pandemic world.

Here are five predictions for fun (I hope that I am wrong on most of them but not the ones relating to Trump and Johnson) and we will see how well they pan out over the next three years:

1) Inflation is not transitory and will continue to rise it will get to double figures before a gradual correction.

2) Attempts will be made to reset the global financial system by entirely replacing cash with digital dollars/currency. This system will appear to be in the people's interest and will help states recover economically but at the expense of making people poorer. E-IDs will be ushered in. Personal freedoms and privacy will be lost as a result and will be a source of much public rancour.

3) A black market and barter economy will arise in many parts of the world from people attempting to evade the re-set system. Crypto currency will be seen as one such possibility and governments will come together to try to de-legitimise these as they cannot control them. The success of efforts to promote local supply chains will depend on political will.

4) Joe Biden will step down three years into his term due to increasing ill-health and Kamala Harris will have a short period as President before the Democratic party choose a different candidate for the 2024 election. Trump will not seek re-election or he will be prevented from doing so and it will be two Governors squaring off for the election.

5) Boris Johnson will be replaced as British Prime Minister after he resigns following receipt of two fixed penalty charges from the Metropolitan Police for attending parties whilst the British public complied with the rules. Jeremy Hunt will become the next Prime Minister.

>126 SqueakyChu: The mailing costs me nothing, Madeline, as I can send you via Book Depo with no delivery charge.

>51 PaulCranswick: Another wonderful haul! I have not read a single title there so I hope you enjoy them all.

I am 70+ posts behind and not even attempting to catch up, Paul. Have a wonderful whatever!

>129 alcottacre: Thank you, Stasia. I hope to start finishing some of the books I have on the go.

>127 PaulCranswick:. I do so hope you are off on your predictions but they really look to be right on.

>131 Kristelh: I believe on the cashless world that is being ushered in you will recall the trial runs they made during the height of the pandemic when outlets like Starbucks stopped accepting cash. People would lose control of their savings if this comes into effect.

Bill Gates has been working on these things for a while (as he was with the "need" to get a monopoly of vaccinations). See the following sites :

https://www.betterthancash.org/about/members
https://www.betterthancash.org/about/resource-partners

https://id2020.org/leadership

on Electronic Identity.

>131 Kristelh: Yes, I’ve been following some of these items and have real concern about how no one seems to want to challenge these “needs”.

Wordle 240 6/6

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Shocked at myself! THIS of all words!

>133 Kristelh: Exactly Kristel. There have been several resets to the American financial system that impacted the global system. Roosevelt in 1933 called in all gold coin and paid for it before removing it as legal tender. He then revalued gold increasing its value and in a troke dramatically reducing American government indebtedness. Nixon in 1971 removed the requirement that the gold reserve covered the issuance of money meaning that there needed henceforward to be no collateral for the printing of money with obvious consequences. Notably purchasing power was dramatically eroded in its wake.

>134 richardderus: Quite remarkable last guess save RD, but you did have three in place on guess 4. I thought it was a tricky one.

>135 PaulCranswick: Guess #5 was a hail-mary to see if I could get the one letter I wasn't sure of, and it worked, but it was an *ugly* win.

>136 richardderus: As the Rams can attest a win is a win, RD.

Happy Valentine's day Paul - hope you and Hani at least get to have a chat today.

If it helps, for Valentine's day I got a boy turning 11 and a 14 year old with Covid. FFS

Nuclear explosions planned in North Yorkshire.

No, not kidding.

>102 PaulCranswick: The first time I heard Harry Chapin's "Taxi" on the radio I was hooked. I bought the album as soon as i ran across it and I still have the original vinyl of this Harry Chapin album and one or two others. I probably mentioned this before but the first "Taxi" I heard was not the one on the album. The promotional single put out for the radio stations had a different version with more talking. I found it on the internet some years ago. It is probably still out there somewhere. Not terribly different, but different. There are various stories about Harry and Sue but I suspect this is the true one: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2016/03/22/scarsdale-woman-who-inspired-harry-c...

I like most of Harry Chapin's music. I'm overdue. I saw Jackson Browne in concert a couple times when he first broke out. He had David Lindley with him who was amazing on the slide guitar and electric fiddle among other things. Jackson paired with Linda Ronstadt was pretty great. 1972 was 50 years ago now. Sigh. I never saw the Allman brothers live but I played the Fillmore East album a ton with "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" my favorite track.

>134 richardderus: If you really want a challenge, here you have to solve 4 wordles at once - you get 9 tries:

https://www.quordle.com/#/

>138 BekkaJo: Thanks Bekka and the very same to you.

We do speak / video call every day at least twice and I think that she is a little bit down that Yasmyne hasn't yet made to to Yorkshire to spend time with her.

>139 richardderus: Particularly stunning in that report are two things:

1) The rank and crass stupidity of people running things; and
2) The USSR and the USA actually carried out what was envisaged for North Yorkshire in their own countries.

>140 RBeffa: Like you, Ron, I like most of Harry Chapin's stuff - not all of it, but most of it.
Jackson Browne's oeuvre is a little bit more patchy but his early stuff and his album from 1993 are highlights. I came to the Allman Brothers a little late but I do enjoy their work and they must have been a tremendous watch live.

>141 ChrisG1: You will tempt me with that, Chris!

Daily Quordle #22
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I did it!

I apologise in advance because I really didn't want to mention the Canadian trucker protests again but I couldn't not comment on Trudeau's move to "freeze" the bank accounts of anyone engaged in the protests under anti-terrorism laws and without a court order. That means no due process. Whoever the government there feels is against them Trudeau - now a terrorist himself - can declare a citizen a terrorist and take away their ability to eat.

Think about it?! I don't hold with blocking bridges and hooting horns 24/7 which has stopped as I understand it but peaceful protest is a basic human right in a decent democratic society. Because this coward doesn't agree with them he is going to try to starve them into giving up. Shame on him.

It is outrageous.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60383385

>145 PaulCranswick: I am heartbroken for my country. Just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse.

>146 mdoris: Dialogue and the giving of hope will solve this rather than trying to starve your citizens and paint them as a fringe or insurrectionists or terrorists. I saw his popularity rating has plummeted under 20% and I am not surprised. He could have engaged with the truckers when this was first mooted, listened to their complaints and set out a course for the future that took account of their concerns without necessarily caving to their demands. That he chose firstly to mis-characterise the protests, then to run away and then use the police to steal their belongings and now freeze their assets are the acts of a man not fit to lead a nation in a crisis.

I am very saddened by this too and especially as a person who sits on the left to see "my side" move against liberty and the exercise of peaceful dissent it is extremely sobering. The need to mandate and control is going too far. I am fully jabbed and according to most news outlets almost 90% of Canadians are too. That tells you that his level of unpopularity shows that this is not a simple anti-vax protest.

On a much nicer subject :
Wordle 241 5/6

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Win streak continues. I have not yet lost at this in what must be 30 goes.

On a much much nicer subject.
Happy Valentine's to my other and much better half. Here we were back in the day posing for "wedding photos" in Chinese garb. Yes, that really is me!

>149 PaulCranswick: What a lovely couple!

>149 PaulCranswick: Gorgeous photo!

>150 cbl_tn: Thank you, Carrie. I was (am) a lucky fellow.

>151 SqueakyChu: Thank you, Madeline. It is hard to imagine that that photo is taken from almost 26 years ago as I remember it as if it was yesterday. We got married in the March and Hani wanted "professional photos" taken to commemorate the event and the shoot was organised on a Saturday a few months later. She was in her element but the day dragged interminably for me with constant costume changes and posing directions. Still it is nice to look upon them at this distant remove and remember how young, happy and carried away by how much in love we were.
26 years on the relationship is profounder and deeper in so many respects - we know all about each other - our faults, foibles and frailties but also our strengths, solaces and secret thoughts . She makes me whole to be honest - drives me crazy when she is here but leaves such a gaping chasm in my life when she is away.

>144 PaulCranswick:, >141 ChrisG1: not looking not looking not looking not looking not looking

>128 PaulCranswick: You are so kind, Paul, but I have way too many books here to have purchased books shipped to me from afar! In the worst case scenario (like if I can find zero books to read for your March challenge), I'll take another look at the offerings from my public library. :D

>153 PaulCranswick: I hope the day comes soon when you can be together again with your entire family.

>154 richardderus: Thou dost protest too much, RD. Let me know how you get on with it when you stop not looking.

>155 SqueakyChu: I always take great pleasure in sending books to my friends, Madeline, even though there is occasionally something of a delay in my despatching them.

Thanks for the kind words. I also hope that Hani and I and the terrible trio can spend more time together in the near future.

>89 PaulCranswick: Great review and interesting thoughts on the post-pandemic economy and globalization. So many different opinions on where we are heading - one thing I’m sure of is that the current lockdowns in many places are overreactions.

>149 PaulCranswick: Great photo Paul.

>157 ctpress: It is a tough and awful situation, Carsten because as we know people are still dying, albeit the strain appears to have been weakened enormously.

I think the time has come to follow your country's lead and move truly into the post-pandemic phase.

>158 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. Hani grumbled that I only posted it here and not on her FB!

>149 PaulCranswick: Lovely picture, Paul, both great looking and SO young!

>160 FAMeulstee: We were young those days, Anita!

>161 SofiaTait: Did you catch the photos Sofia Taint?

Hi Paul, and a belated happy new thread.

From your last thread, I read with interest everything everybody said about the Canadian protests and government actions, and etc. I’m beginning to come around to the idea you expressed on Feb 7th: It is time to live with the virus and work out a viable and sensible plan to take everybody forward in a way that does not permanently alienate parts of the communities not in agreement with the mainstream. However, I do strongly believe that private businesses and organizations should have the right to require a mask and enforce that requirement and prosecute those who disrupt their businesses/organizations. I also believe that they have the right to enforce vaccination/boosters for their employees. No need to respond if you don’t want to…

Queen Camilla. *snort*

>39 PaulCranswick: Congrats on the fantastic weight loss for the year so far. You’re really coming along.

>51 PaulCranswick: Lovely stack of books.

>149 PaulCranswick: Thank you for sharing that picture – it’s heartwarming.

>159 PaulCranswick: How long is Hani staying in the UK Paul?

>163 karenmarie: I agree with you, Karen. Private businesses clearly have the right to set their own rules within the prevailing legal framework. Samsung for example sets its rules for working with them and we have to comply even if some personal opinions may differ slightly. Honestly and I am not just saying it we have had zero kick-back on the SOP (standard operating procedures) that were put into place. As one of the seven member senior management team for the project one of my roles was to advise upon the government's requirements (which were constantly in flux in the early part of the pandemic) and to make sure that our own procedures stayed within the law. Masking requirements and bi-weekly test requirements are in sync with the government directives (which have just been re-classed as guidelines) but I honestly think we would have done them anyway as we introduce monthly tests for all staff when it had only been a one-off start back requirement.

We do not employ anyone who isn't double jabbed and the boosters are required when the individuals are called by the government application for appointment. In our case this makes sense given the medical benefits we bestow upon staff, whatever the science about transmission.

>164 Caroline_McElwee: She should be coming home next month, Caroline. I hope Yasmyne will be with her too.

>145 PaulCranswick: I totally agree that anti-terrorism laws are being misused. Anytime the government asks for "extraordinary powers" to fight a particular threat, you can bet there will be mission creep such that it gets used in ways not originally intended.

I will, however, disagree with you about characterizing the protest as "peaceful." To me, peaceful protest is something that does not harm others - and the blocking of bridges, borders & streets, which shuts down substantial amounts of commerce - people's very livelihood! - is very harmful. I live in the Portland, Oregon area & we've had massive experience with allegedly "peaceful" protests that have damaged our community dreadfully.

That kind of "protest" is a form of bullying and intimidation & has no place in decent society. Trudeau had every right to break it up - and didn't really need to resort to all of the measures he used to do so - that's an argument worth having. But we need to get away from the idea that "protest" means you can do whatever the hell you want to do as long as it's in the name of your cause.

>166 ChrisG1: No Chris, I think my comments have been clear I don't agree with blockading the bridges or with hooting horns all night. I agree that that sort of behaviour goes beyond peaceful protest and should not be allowed and not supported. I have only advocated the rights of PEACEFUL protest.

What I object to is him wanting to freeze the bank accounts of anyone who is protesting - he has not limited it to those on the bridges. Anyone who gives money to the protests even are open to his "emergency measures". I don't hold with him trying to starve those protestors to submission - I don't agree with blockades or violence but it is clear Chris that the overwhelming majority of protests in Ottawa have been peaceful, though disruptive. The honking and any prevention of people going about their private business should not be allowed but, believe me, with the mainstream media bias against the protests had there been widespread acts of vandalism and violence we would have seen it.

Don't mix up the wider and original protest with the blockading of bridges which I have never posted any support of.

Wordle 242 4/6

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Pretty much my average score these days.

>149 PaulCranswick: What a lovely photo!

Happy whatever, Paul.

PS - I got more books in today :)

>169 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia. I do wish I still looked like that!

ETA I'm going over to the acre now to slowly turn green!

>170 PaulCranswick: Turn green?? With all your recent acquisitions, Juan??!!

>171 alcottacre: If I didn't cast greedy eyes at books everywhere I would hardly deserve my infamy, Juana. x

>172 PaulCranswick: True. Judging from the size of the BlackHole, I must feel the same.

>173 alcottacre: Incorrigible the pair of us when it comes to adding books but you do read them much faster than I do.

>174 PaulCranswick: I feel like we should be a sideshow act: "The Incorrible Juan and Juana," book collecting fiends!

>166 ChrisG1: I'm sure you are counting the days Paul.

>175 alcottacre: It does have a certain ring to it!

>176 Caroline_McElwee: I speak to Hani every day, but my daughter only when she feels the need and I haven't seen her for closing in on three years. Given that we were always so close it is really hard for me not to have them all nearer.

Hi Paul, i watched the video of your local bookstore and i must say that like you i would be in heaven, not only books but stationery including pens. I could see our bank account being severely depleted if i spent a decent amount of time in there, lol.

>178 johnsimpson: And I do spend more (much more) than a decent time in there, John.

>149 PaulCranswick: What a beautiful picture! Happy belated Valentine's Day!

>180 witchyrichy: Thank you, Karen. I remember we dressed in Malay, Japanese and western garb in addition to the Chinese costumes I showed you above. Let me see if I can find some of the others.

>180 witchyrichy: This is one of the traditional western type shots:

This is me in Samurai pose



And here as a Malay hero (this is our actual wedding day) - it is traditional for a Malay bride to kiss the hand of her suami so I wasn't intentionally being a sexist pig - anyway believe me the balance of power in our household is not quite as it seems on this photo.

>149 PaulCranswick: >182 PaulCranswick: >183 PaulCranswick: Woah, having all of those pictures taken was a major undertaking. I know parts of my husband's family believe an unphotographed event may as well not have occurred, but this is an even more elaborate custom. You do look like you were somewhat de-European-ized in post processing. Hani, of course, looks totally fabulous!

>184 quondame: Your comments made me smile, Susan. The main difference of course between the two pictures in >183 PaulCranswick: is that I had had a much closer shave in the above one.

Hani loves taking photos as you have probably guessed long before now.

Fabulous pictures of you and Hani. What a trip down memory lane!

Just catching up with you a little, Paul. I don't envy you juggling 14 books - I was having enough trouble with four! Hope you're able to focus on a few to finish them and get it to a more manageable number.

>186 mdoris: Thanks Mary - it sometimes seems like ancient history! Old Father Time has been far kinder to Hani than I.

>187 bell7: Thanks Mary. The good news is that I am not any longer handling 14 books but the bad news is that it has grown to 18! I expect 2 to be finished in each of the next five days which will help my numbers a bit.

>188 PaulCranswick: Eighteen! You are encroaching on my territory, Paul. Now get off! Lol

>188 PaulCranswick: Believe me, Stasia, I really do want to complete some of the books!

>190 PaulCranswick: Oh, I believe you. I know how it is when you are so very close to the end of a book but just not quite there yet.

>191 alcottacre: I am planning to get them down by concertedly knocking them off in sequence from tomorrow, Stasia. Let's see, but we could be seeing quite a number of reviews here shortly.

I know none of us like him but the cover up of the Clinton campaign's illegal spying on Chump is an issue that the legacy media will not be able to hide or keep silent forever.

The Durham filings reveal a clear attempt and a successful attempt to surveil the guy even when he was POTUS. The National Security Advisor should be stood down immediately.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-really-was-spied-on-2016-clinton-campa...

It is nothing short of despicable that the so called mainstream broadcast news services are not covering this story at all. These are court filings by Special Counsel appointed by bi-partisan agreement of congress. Does it not merit even a word of coverage just because it doesn't fit the narrative that he is the bad guy. Doesn't make him any better than the worst President in our lifetime but not addressing these issues and punishing those responsible - if crimes were committed and for which there is clearly a prima facie case to indict more people than those already indicted - will only add credence to his lousy presidency.

Bill Maher speaks a lot of sense. Like me he is of the left but similarly wiling to plough his own furrow and calls things as he sees it.

These are his comments on Trudeau.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Oo30mtuZM

I will quote Maher quoting Trudeau:

"They don't believe in science. they are often misogynistic, often racist, but they take up space and with that we have to make a choice. In terms of a leader of a country. Do we tolerate these people? They are holding unacceptable views."

Don't hold with people breaking the law (I mean the real ones not the ones he seems to be making up as he goes along) but by those words above it can be seen was intolerant, elitist, fascist is running that beautiful country. I'm sure glad he isn't my Prime Minister and we have that jerk Johnson instead.

Don't agree with me. Don't do what I say? Ok we will freeze your bank accounts and starve you into submission. And I am ashamed to say I was a strong and vocal supporter of his before.

Truckers / terrorists
well politically
Trudeau / toast.

>194 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - yes, starving and freezing accounts definitely violates personal freedom -

what EXACTLY would you have Trudeau do instead to hold onto Canadian Democracy?

Recent news reports state that a coalition of conservatives and truckers have been
meeting to overthrow that government.

>195 m.belljackson: Trudeau badly erred by letting this go on as long as he did and compounded his error by resorting to "emergency" powers. All that was needed was to bring in police (possibly supplemented with military) and tow trucks - that's the only act with any utility or meaning. That did not require emergency powers. The blocking of roads and bridges should never be tolerated & the best way to handle it is to stop it promptly, never allowing it to build up. I think they misjudged the protestors - somehow believing they were going to be violent. There was never really any reasonable basis for that other than the stereotyping language Trudeau used to describe them. He obviously doesn't know his own people.

>194 PaulCranswick: while I agree with what he said and do so with every elitist fiber of my contempt-fueled being, *I* am not the PM of a world power...and I *still* wouldn't say that out loud.

>196 ChrisG1: Just read that Canadian tow trucks refused to tow truckers...

>195 m.belljackson: Not interested in conspiracy theories. Look at his words from last September. He could have defused this at the beginning by.
1) Talking to the truckers instead of treating them as a fringe minority;
2) By setting out a roadmap for how Canada goes back to normalcy

The vast majority of protestors don't like Trudeau but their aims were not a coup d'etat - this is being put out to justify the government crackdown - it is to end mandates, or at least set out a future without them.

>196 ChrisG1: Yes he could have done that, Chris. He could also have listened to them in the first place and explained himself instead of running away.

>197 richardderus: Hahaha quite right, RD, we can think a lot of things that we just can't say!

>198 m.belljackson: The tow truck operators agree with the truckers is why. The Great Empathizer complained that those against his mandates were "taking up space", and questioned "should we tolerate these people?". What was he suggesting back in September? That is not the language of the left.

These must be the terrorists that Trudeau needs emergency powers to defeat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJFRVqdKzuo

>199 PaulCranswick: Truedeau doesn't seem to be the "listening" type. At least not with opposition.

>202 ChrisG1: I now see that, Chris. Make no wonder he pushed an election before this came to a head. He will hopefully lose the support of his party.

Wordle 243 6/6

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A bit of a tricky one today for me given that I have two guesses left and two possible answers

I have been thinking a lot lately about my dad's favorite poem. It seems so appropriate to these times.

Outwitted by Edwin Markham
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took him in!

May our circles be ever expanding.

>205 cbl_tn: That is lovely and apropos of the current times certainly, Carrie.

>192 PaulCranswick: I am looking forward to the reviews. I knocked off a couple today myself - and then promptly added 5 more to my reading stack. The fun never ends.

Happy whatever, Paul! BTW - the situation in Canada reminds me a little bit of the situation in the Civil War when Lincoln did away with the writ of habeas corpus in regards to the southern states and their decisions to leave the union.

>207 alcottacre: I am edging towards a slew of reviews but I am still not quite there!

Oh my goodness, Stasia, I hope that secession talk will not re-surface but it does seem like much of the world is hopelessly divided.

>208 PaulCranswick: I hope the secession talk does not re-surface either, Paul, but geez louise why can no one get along any more?? The more I hear "us" and "them," the more that I realize the more things change, the more they stay the same.

>209 alcottacre: I know, Stasia. I have been banging on (too much, I know) about my fears of polarisation, and the absence of anybody trying to look for, never mind find, common ground.

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Successful but squeaky bum time!

>211 PaulCranswick: Anytime you get all 4, consider it a win.

>212 ChrisG1: Thanks for sending me that link, Chris - the game is a challenge for sure.

I have now played 3 and won 2 which I consider better than the 30 odd wins in a row on the Wordle game.

>1 PaulCranswick: WOW, WOW, WOW. Regarding controversy and nuclear power plants, I helped with a research project regarding
Three Mile Island, a nuclear accident in Pennsylvania. I read as many books about Chernobyl as I could find. What a sad, sad disaster.

Even after helping with professional research papers, I am not sure exactly where I stand on nuclear power. Though, if truth be told, I would say I am against this technology. What do you do with the waste and the field of terror left behind to smolder for so many years?

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html

>214 Whisper1: That is fascinating, Linda. Like you having spent a fair amount of time in the pretty oppressive environment of nuclear facilities (at Dounreay, Sellafield, Aldermaston) I am aware of the inherent dangers of nuclear energy but likewise it is - if we can find ways in which to manage the safety and reprocessing parts - a source of energy that can easily generate sufficient power for the world's needs.

Again like you I think the cost benefit analysis in my own mind is still too scared to accept the risks that go with the undoubted benefits of the technology as it currently stands.

I am always so pleased to receive a post from you my dear lady. x

I needed to go to KLCC to get some toiletries (bath foam from M&S which is one of life's unadulterated luxuries) as well as a couple of Ventolin inhalers and some foodstuffs that Belle likes and I found myself inexplicably in Kino.

96. They by Kay Dick
97. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
98. The Silence of Scheherazade by Defne Suman
99. Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
100. Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
101. The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J Sandel
102. Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen
103. In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi
104. The Inequality Machine by Paul Tough
105. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson

Dick is a Faber Editions book and was being prominently displayed.
Jane Yolen is a writer I admire and a new edition of this one just arrived.
Suman's book has had good reviews in the group.
I loved Spufford's debut novel and have been waiting for this one.
I now have a trio of books by Abulhawa and I am almost finishing the first one.
Kyran recommended Sandel as he had just seen a lecture of his.
Masha Gessen is on the left and a writer I like to read.
Faludi's book about meeting an abusive father after that father had had gender reassignment surgery looks enthralling.
Tough's book on education is something I should read.
Peterson is a celebrated voice in libertarian circles and I like to read differing opinions to test my own.

>218 darrylheath3: If there were 3 Darryl Heaths one of 'em is spam.

>216 PaulCranswick: Gosh. How unusual. I wonder how that happened.

>220 humouress: A sort of out of body experience - especially after treating myself to Shucked Cod and Chips in the food court. A bit of a diet slip but I had only had cup a soup for lunch at only 90 calories and I really REALLY enjoyed them.

>221 PaulCranswick:

>222 humouress: Wow it is Cumberland Brandysnap!

Paul, I feel your diet is taking a strain on you. You might want to read Something Fresh (I do not recommend reading cooking books.)

>216 PaulCranswick: >217 PaulCranswick: Nice haul, Paul.
I have been looking myself at Mornings in Jenin (from the library), but the planning is too tight to add more.

>214 Whisper1: >215 PaulCranswick: Re: Nuclear Power = aren't they all leaking and/or are targets for bombing?

Not in my backyard, thank you!

And I'm still waiting for one brave Canadian trucker to say: "WTF - why can't we just follow the wimpy mask and vaccine mandates?!?"

>216 PaulCranswick: Kinokuniya! You! Why, the unlikelihood of that...just stunning.

For such an inexperienced book-shopper, you managed to light on some very nice choices.

>204 PaulCranswick: I've seen a lot of Wordle posts that show a similar pattern because of the sheer number of possibilities for that word.

>224 humouress: I might reading a tome on cookery and food as part of my history studies.

>225 FAMeulstee: I had to get that one. I have almost finished The Blue Between Sky and Water which I am enjoying.

>226 m.belljackson: We don't disagree on nuclear power, Marianne. I have worked at a nuclear power station, a reprocessing plant and at a research establishment and I wouldn't want to live under that "cloud" permanently either.

I'm waiting for certain governments to exercise sense and follow science - the jabs do not vaccinate therefore mandates are pointless and stupid. I am jabbed and happy to be as I think it will help me when I catch omicron as every body seems to do.

>227 richardderus: Yes I admit my callowness, RD. I am Mondale to your Reagan (in a completely non-political sense of course).

>228 thornton37814: I do think Lori that when you have a word with so many possible endings the possibility of losing the game becomes a matter of mere chance.

Hi Paul - well, yeah = Seatbelts do not prevent accidents yet we follow the legal mandate until it is repealed.

And, here's one from the Brits:

"...Emergency Powers Act ('a danger being used for purposes prejudicial to public safety.)"

Let's hope a War does not end this gentle sparring: maybe we should just re-cross the Savannas
and climb back up into the trees - and that will stop men from wanting to kill each other...?

>232 m.belljackson: I don't quite understand your point, Marianne. The two things are not analogous. You can choose to walk, get a bus or a train or ride a bicycle. There are no options here. If it was like the polio vaccine or the diptheria one or the TB one - then go ahead and mandate it if you allow that people recovering from the disease no longer need to be vaccinated. Don't mandate something that doesn't prevent transmission - encourage people to take it by all means as I do but don't mandate it.

How is it prejudicial to public safety one way or another?

>233 PaulCranswick: Not safe to cross bridges blocked by hostile truckers.

EPA is from 1939 in DEFENDING THE ROCK, another book, like THE 1619 PROJECT
which everyone should (be mandated to) read.

How do we know for sure that vaccination and mask wearing don't prevent transmission?

ps. you are wide awake and I am half asleep so you likely make more sense.

>234 m.belljackson: Marianne, I never supported the blocking of border crossings but uphold the right to public protest. Civil disobedience has a long and distinguished past but has consequences. Arrests of those blocking highways and bridges is within the existing legal framework surely and requires no emergency powers. The reasons put forward to justify them may come back to haunt everybody involved in promulgating them.

I don't approve of emergency powers. I don't approve of freezing a poor or middle income person's bank account to starve them into submission. I don't approve of seizing funds of good faith donations and re-allocating that money to things the money was not intended for. I don't approve with publishing details of people, information obtained illegally, who made small donations (several of whom have already been attacked) by hypocritical and irresponsible journalists. I don't approve of anyone who has the temerity to disapprove of mandates being labelled as Nazis and fascists when the actions to put them down are authoritarian and fascist.

How do we know for sure that vaccination and mask wearing don't prevent transmission?
I never raised the issue of masks. So long as the mask is medical grade, it must have some protective care for those who wear them. I would not mandate against masks just as I wouldn't mandate for them. The empirical evidence that the jabs are not a vaccine is overwhelming. The big pharma also don't claim them to prevent transmission, Marianne.

The Lancet is one of the world's most respected medical journals - it has been consistently and remains very much in favour of the jabs. Even before omicron demonstrated the complete inability of the jabs to prevent transmission and the catching of that variant the Lancet said of the jabs:

However, this study unfortunately also highlights that the vaccine effect on reducing transmission is minimal in the context of delta variant circulation. These findings have immediate public health implications.

This is the Lancet article should you care to read it.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00690-3/fullt...

I am not an anti-vaxxer - I would love there to be an effective vaccination but what we have is the best that medical science could manage and I was and remain happy to have taken it but the question is should it be mandated? The answer is clearly that it should not on the grounds raised.

The only justifiable reason to mandate is for the stress that could impinge upon health services but the evidence on this is not overwhelming and also raises other ethical concerns. What about obese people like myself should we be refused free access to ICU care etc because of the undue strain we place on health services? I hope that answer is no. If it is no it makes it a very difficult leap to say that those who did not take jabs and boosters should take full blame for the strain on health services.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/339655

Thank you, Silver!

If everyone who could be vaccinated was, then not only would there be fewer deaths and serious illness, the load on the hospitals would be much lower, thus reducing non-COVID deaths as well as COVID deaths. As a measure to protect all the public, vaccine mandates aren't the worst.

>238 quondame: I did acknowledge that hospital loads were the only possibly justifiable reason to mandate given the performance of the jabs.

I think that Omicron negates that reason too as hospitalisations in most (admittedly not all) places have fallen significantly compared to during the Delta spike - especially when we differentiate between those admitted for other reasons who just happen to also have omicron.

At some stage we will have to live our lives even in the shadow of this thing. Having followed all the rules for two years already, I, like many have had enough and it is time to treat COVID as we do other diseases that are not yet fully eradicated. I understand and respect that some people don't agree with me that that time is just yet but it is something to discuss - Trudeau is refusing the discussion and refusing to set out a roadmap for the future beyond permanent mandate.

Wordle 244 3/6

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Not a bad performance today!

>217 PaulCranswick: A couple of these look like they might be interesting. I'm looking forward to your comments on them.

>239 PaulCranswick: I'd feel a lot better about whatever mandates were coming down if the folks making the rules would condescend to "show their work", i.e. explain what they are trying to accomplish, and what data connects their methods with their goals.

As it is, I'm about 90% certain that the politicians making the decisions are asking themselves only "what's good for my personal election chances", and wouldn't even know if they were choosing on that basis a course that competent scientists believed would e.g. maximize deaths.

Of course it would also help if these same decision makers would also apply the rules to themselves.

>241 ArlieS: I am actually looking to finish a few books this weekend, Arlie, which is a start.

>242 PaulCranswick: Politicians should walk the walk too, shouldn't they? The scenes of the Superbowl with the great and good unmasked, the SF mayor talking about it being fine because "he was holding his breath", Ms. Adams unmasked in Georgia in front of a hall full of masked infants, AOC cavorting maskless in Florida. These are all images that stick in the craw. My old boss was a man of principle and he wouldn't have asked others to do what he wasn't prepared to do himself.

>242 PaulCranswick: My God, but the last few years have brought glorious examples of hypocrisy among politicians, haven't they? Maskless dinner parties, the Canadian truckers are terrorists, but the BLM rioters (ahem, "protestors") are heroic (or vice versa, depending on your bias). I just want to lock them all in a room and let them tear each other to shreds so that people with common sense can prevail.

>243 ChrisG1: I know Chris. I agree with some of the BLM cause but not their methods, I agree that the Canadian protestors have a valid reason to protest but don't hold with blocking off border crossings and clogging the capital. I agree with extinction rebellion's aims but not their manner of achieving them.

If I felt strongly enough about mask mandates as apparently AOC and many politicians profess to, I wouldn't get myself filmed enjoying the very freedom you seek to deny to others. If I was active in Extinction Rebellion seeking to force the British government to insulate all homes and I was of independent means I sure as hell wouldn't go on television to advocate it when I had neglected to even do it in my own home.

There were elements in the BLM protests that were violent and seeking to overthrow the then government but they were cheered on in their arson and physical attacks by the mainstream media, the same mainstream media condemning the Canadian protestors which, despite some extremely unsavoury elements trying to infiltrate, has remained physically peaceful. Why can't the press be equal in its vitriol and objective in its reporting?

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That really is a tough game 3 wins out of 4 two in a row but, gosh, I struggled with the last word.

Happy Weekend, Paul. You will probably start a new thread here shortly. Enjoy those books.

>246 msf59: Thanks Mark.

I may not be online much this evening.
There has been a fatality at site late this afternoon and the circumstances are both suspicious and unclear. An Indonesian electrician seems to have fallen off a ladder but it isn't clear whether he has had a heart attack, electrocuted himself or was attacked by another worker.

I am heading back to site with our company's local lawyer to make sure the thing goes as smoothly as possible.

Will check in later. It is 9 pm here.

>247 PaulCranswick: How dreadful and sad, Paul, what ever way it might have happened.

>248 FAMeulstee: Well I am back. The police are not treating his death as suspicious and it looks like the consideration is that he had a heart attack whilst on the ladder. They will conduct a post mortem. It seems he was a heavy smoker but he had not been feeling well after having the Pfizer booster last week. Poor chap was only 34.

>249 PaulCranswick: So sorry for his family, just 34 years is so young to die :'(

>250 FAMeulstee: It does look very much like a heart attack or seizure as he only fell about 1 metre.

>239 PaulCranswick: >238 quondame:

Whatever mandates it takes to prevent any transmission to people with compromised immune systems, with cancer, with chemotherapy treatments,

and with anything other disease - age, young or elderly - that makes the original virus and the variants and whatever may come next - these mandates

are valuable to those people, as well as to the patients in need of surgery who have been kept out of hospitals because of unvaccinated COVID patients =

my best friend in NYC and my brother-in-law in Tucson.

Even the slightest possibility of transmission will save some lives.

(yes, I cared enough to read the Lancet article but it would not download.)

So sad to hear about the loss of your young worker.

>244 PaulCranswick: I had to google "Extinction Rebellion" - must not be a big thing in the US. I'll confess to being a bit of a climate skeptic. I mean, I do think rising CO2 is undesireable, but the "crisis" and "catastrophe" claims strike me as incredible. It's a "problem." And yes, it's desireable to reduce it. But the world is not literally going to end.

>252 m.belljackson: The jabs don't prevent transmission. Full stop.

We will have to agree to disagree on this, Marianne. I respect your opinion on this and had the jabs conferred immunity and prevented transmission and if medical exemption and natural immunity (i.e. already having had the disease) was taken into account, I could see justification in the mandates.

It is time for normalcy. We will never get cases to zero but the omicron virus has weakened the strain.

Thanks for the kind words about our site worker, Marianne. I understand that the police believe that he had some underlying health issue. We have contacted the poor man's family in Indonesia and will help our Sub-contractor repatriate his body back to Medan where he is from.

>253 ChrisG1: I believe in maintaining the integrity of our ecology, Chris. I'm not a catastrophe convert but I think we all need to take the environment much more serious as an issue. Until China, Russia and India properly come to the table though the rest of the world are pissing against the wind unfortunately. I do think we must try and each of us do our own little bit though.

It ain't just me, babe - if you do a Google Search for "Does vaccination prevent the transmission of Covid virus,"
results may surprise you.

>256 m.belljackson: Yes and if you read closely you will see all the results that are from well before even the delta variant. The Lancet is persuasive. The number of cases of people catching COVID every day who are fully jabbed is proof - you don't need the fake news.

This is from Nature Journal (both this and Lancet are NOT right wing conspiracists)

The first study to look directly at how well vaccines prevent the spread of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 brings good news and bad.

The study shows that people who become infected with the Delta variant are less likely to pass the virus to their close contacts if they have already had a COVID-19 vaccine than if they haven’t1. But that protective effect is relatively small, and dwindles alarmingly at three months after the receipt of the second shot.

The findings add to scientists’ understanding of the vaccination’s effect on curbing Delta’s spread, but are “both more and less encouraging”, says Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Previous studies have found that people infected with Delta have roughly the same levels of viral genetic materials in their noses regardless of whether they’d previously been vaccinated, suggesting that vaccinated and unvaccinated people might be equally infectious

Again, the Lancet would not download.

>258 m.belljackson: I promise Marianne that I am not behind the refusal to load. x

It's okay, you have a perfectly valid opinion, Marianne - that is one of the benefits of being open minded friends. We can admire each other and not agree on absolutely everything. We both love good books and jazz and nature. You have a big and caring heart. If I could wave a wand and make all this COVID horror go away and go back in time and be with my mum in her last days I would forego so many of my comforts, but I cannot. I want to look forward with love and hope and optimism. xx

My lunatic wife is safely in London I just heard. I can go to sleep now without too much need to worry.

The UK is storm tossed today if you are not yet aware.

>255 PaulCranswick: Agreed. We put solar panels on our house in December and try to take other useful steps. But I DO object to the fear-mongering that goes on. Have you read Hans Rosling's Factfulness? This passage about his attempt to assist Al Gore is quite revealing:

https://www.thendobetter.com/investing/2019/10/12/Rosling-on-Gore

>247 PaulCranswick: Sorry to hear about your site worker Paul. Devastating for his family.

>253 ChrisG1: >255 PaulCranswick: >261 ChrisG1: I am old enough to remember being frightened in elementary school by the films the teachers showed us about global cooling ushering in an imminent ice age when no food would grow and we'd all starve to death (if we didn't freeze to death first).

>247 PaulCranswick: What a shocking loss. And no official finding can totally clear up feelings.

>263 cbl_tn: Ah yes, nuclear winter. Well, we may still manage.

I don't see Russia ever being a bummed by global warming as we are. They've always wanted a winter port. The Han have a real mixed bag of climates, as do we, but on a larger scale.

>243 ChrisG1: Preach it!

>247 PaulCranswick: Yowch! Poor guy. I hope it turns out to have been a heart attack, and the uncertainty doesn't trigger any crazy behaviour.

(Edit I see that's what appears to have happened.)

>254 PaulCranswick: I'll take a reduction of transmission, as at least partly protecting those at most risk.

And I'll take a reduction of average severity, too, as making room in the emergency room, hospital, ICU etc. for people with other illnesses and injuries.

Even in engineering, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

>261 ChrisG1: Thanks for that Chris. The approach is alarmist isn't it, but without being attention grabbing perhaps people would make no adjustments whatsoever and we would all be even worse off?

>262 Caroline_McElwee: It is very sad, Caroline. More than likely his whole family would be relying on his wage being sent back from here monthly.

>260 PaulCranswick: Yay!

>263 cbl_tn: I remember watching a "science" programme, Carrie, and not that long ago about the impact of volcanic activity on the world's climate. Apparently simultaneous eruption by a couple of volcanoes lead to the last ice age. Nothing saying that a major eruption wouldn't reduce the temperatures around the world significantly.
As you know, I am a stats guy and the drawing of global temperature is not a straight line. There is an undeniable upward trend at present though.

>264 quondame: It is certainly true, Susan, that China and Russia do not have the same environmental pre-occupations that we do have in the West. We should never underestimate humankind's ability to do harm to itself.

>265 ArlieS: In the case of our deceased worker it does matter that his passing was due to ill health as the company would have strict consequences to our senior management team (the four Korean members thereof anyway). It is also a relief in a sad way that he did not die because of any procedure or practice that we put in place that failed.

I made similar calculations in my own case and have taken all the shots. It is mandated in my working place and there has been 100% compliance and absolutely 0% kick-back but Malaysia is a different beast to USA or UK. As you can see I am torn by my personal sense of the efficacy of taking the jab (in the full knowledge that it does not immunise which I always realised) and my belief that the mandates are too draconian and take no account of circumstances and have often - in the face of science - taken no account of natural or acquired immunity.

They (Hani, Kyran and Kyran's lovely girlfriend Yasmeen) gone off for a Turkish meal leaving me jealous in the extreme.

>265 ArlieS: the perfect is the enemy of the good

True, but there's always room for improvement. I am concerned that with the huge profits drug companies are making with the current vaccines, they don't have much incentive to improve.

>270 amanda4242: Yeah. In spite of my usual cynicism, I'd somehow failed to consider the advantages to big pharma of having vaccine mandates.

Given that (some of) these companies were given government help to somewhat derisk the vaccine development, perhaps a 100% excess profits tax might be in order, beyond some reasonable level.

Making sure that bonuses come from post tax money, as otherwise the "excess profits" would go straight into executive pay packets.

>270 amanda4242: That is certainly true, Amanda.
The British government extracted a commitment from Astra Zeneca that it could only cover administrative costs with the Covid jabs but no such restrictions were placed on Moderna and Pfizer/Biotech. The result has been disgusting to be honest with Moderna in particular behaving very unethically in charging different countries vastly different amounts per dose. The poor countries of Africa were charged more per dose than the richer countries of Europe for example. It is a humanitarian scandal that the mainstream media have again been complicit in not sufficiently addressing.
We will move to yearly boosters at some stage and I am sure that some countries will seek to mandate these.

>271 ArlieS: To add to their completely egregious behaviour and as I understand it they also did not refund the government for financing the cost of most of the research. The people involved in Moderna and Pfizer who are making billions out of this should be monitored at least.

>271 ArlieS: & >272 PaulCranswick: I always look at major corporations with a jaundiced eye. Drug companies have an incentive to keep people alive since dead people don't need drugs, but they don't have a natural incentive to keep them healthy since healthy people also don't need drugs.

>273 amanda4242: Very cynical. Very true.

>266 PaulCranswick: That is certainly Al Gore's (and many others) approach. Sorry, for me, I simply cannot tolerate anything other than the truth. Fear does NOT produce the most rational approach.

>275 ChrisG1: As people like Gates push the world towards a cashless society and propound upon vaccination monopoly and Digital ID which, whatever their motives, could obviously be misused by governments or even big-tech companies - then the lines of truth will be ever more blurred and misinformation thrown around to justify what they are doing.

People will need to stand up and stop these people at some stage and get governments and big tech out of our faces.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your worker, Paul.

>277 humouress: Thanks Nina.

>68 PaulCranswick: Love the look of that bookshop, I would definitely find myself inside if I ever passed by.

>279 fairywings: You sort of need to know that it is there, Adrienne, as it is up a very narrow side-street.