PAUL C WITH A CLEAN SLATE IN '22 - Part 9

SCENES FROM MY PAST

In the last thread I mentioned Sellafield, the Lakes and my favourite English cycling country. This is my nemesis climb the Hardknott Pass. I have ridden it a number of times and must admit that there were a couple of occasions, especially in slippery conditions when I had to get off. My stubbornness prevented me from walking so I would alway go back down to a flatter section and try again until I got over the climb. It may not be Alpine but, believe me, even in my racing trim, it is tough.

The Opening Words

Just finishing off my first Holy Land read this month with The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa.



"Of everything that disappeared, Kinder eggs are what I missed most. When the walls closed in on Gaza and adult conversations became hotter and sadder, I measured the severity of our siege by the dwindling number of those delicate chocolate eggs, wrapped in thin colourful foil, with splendid toy surprises incubating inside the eggs on store shelves."

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
30. The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa (2015) 288 pp Fiction /Asian Book Challenge
31. Door into the Dark by Seamus Heaney (1969) 44 pp Poetry
32. The Yellow Wind by David Grossman (1988) 218 pp Non-Fiction/Asian Book Challenge
33. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017) 343 pp Fiction / Booker Winner
34. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (1974) 197 pp Fiction
35. The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson (2010) 90 pp Poetry
36. The Others by Sarah Blau (2018) 239 pp Thriller /ABC

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 : 2 (36 / 57)
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

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
1. The Blue Between Sky and Water

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
2. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World

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
53. Palestine - The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa - ASIA PACIFIC
54. Israel - The Yellow Wind by David Grossman - ASIA PACIFIC


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

January - Small Things Like These

Bought and Read in 22

BOOK STATS

Books read : 33
Books added : 105

Days per book : 1.61
Projected total : 227
LT yearly best : 157

Pages read (completed books) : 7,172
Daily average : 135.32
Projected total : 49,392

Longest Book : 671 pages
Shortest Book : 44 pages
Average Book Length : 217.33

Gender
Male : 18
Female : 14
Various : 1

Genre :
Graphic Books : 1
Poetry : 4
Thriller/Mystery : 3
Non Fiction : 8
Fiction : 16
SF/Fantasy : 1

Origin :
USA : 8
UK : 10
Turkey : 3
Germany : 1
Egypt : 1
Ireland : 1
Norway : 1
Argentina : 1
Canada : 2
Iceland : 1
Netherlands : 1
Jamaica : 1
Israel : 1
Various : 1

Challenges :
British Author Challenge : 1
American Author Challenge : 1
Non-Fiction Challenge : 1
Asian Book Challenge : 8
1001 Books First Edition : 2
Guardian 1000 Books : 1
Around the World Books : 7
Holocaust Reading : 2
Booker Winners : 2
Pulitzer Winners : 1
Rebecca NYC Reads : 1

Next one is yours

Happy new thread!

>14 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda and I am very appreciative that you are invariably quickly on the case.
The virtual bookshelf is yours:

Happy new thread!

There, wasn't I nice, scurrying about elsewhere so someone else could enhance their shelves?

>16 quondame: Hahaha thank you, Susan. I would expect nothing less of such a courteous lady!

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

Happy new thread!

>18 bell7: Thank you, Mary. A bit stressful because we had a fatality at my project site. The worker had a heart attack and fell from a ladder just a metre off the ground and appears to have been deceased before he hit the ground.

>19 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita. It is great to see your own thread zipping along so healthily this year too. x

Happy new thread, Paul. You're setting a pace to beat last year by far!

>21 ChrisG1: Thank you, Chris. I couldn't rack up threads without the kind visits of so many good friends. x
My total number of posts today would put me 11th for the whole of last year which is a little humbling.

WEEKLY WEIGH IN

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

Weight at End of Last Week : 251 lbs (114 kgs)

Weight at end of Week Six : 249 lbs (113.2kgs)

Weight loss in week/year : 2 lbs (0.8 kgs)

Weight loss this year : 24 lbs (10.8 kgs)

I didn't seem to be losing anything so I am happy to go below 250 lbs.

How am I doing on my avoidance list.

1. No cakes I had a very small piece of cake to celebrate a colleague's birthday
2. No cookies STILL
3. No sugared drinks / carbonated drinks STILL
4. No potato / corn chips STILL
5. One tablespoon of rice yesterday with Korean Kimchi stew for lunch
6. No alcohol - None this week
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.

245 lbs (111.4 kg)

All in all though having lost 24 lbs in seven weeks and I will not go back to my end of 2021 weight - ever!

1972 MUSIC - SEVENTH WEEKEND

This week's albums :

Hot August Night - Neil Diamond : A live double album
Slayed? - Slade : Wolverhampton's glam rocking 70's superstars in the UK
Caravanserai - Santana : Carlos being jazzy and introspective
Give it Up - Bonnie Raitt : Before she got that trademark streak
Everybody's in Showbiz - Kinks : This is them moving into the wilderness with a concept double album
The Harder They Come - Jimmy Cliff : One of my favourite albums of the year.

This is as usual for Juana (Stasia) who spent girlhood oblivious to popular music.xx

The Kinks are in my view the second greatest of all British bands (knocking Led Zep, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who and others into a cocked hat). Ray Davies remains one of the most influential of songwriters especially in the UK and a lyricist par excellence.

This is Sitting in My Hotel from that brave 1972 album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCl9TCdCC6U

Happy new thread, Paul!

>1 PaulCranswick: Looks like a though climb!
>23 PaulCranswick: Going steady still :-)

>26 FAMeulstee: It is a tough climb.

I am pleased with my steady weight reduction, Anita.

I missed a whole thread this time, you're really quick Paul - Happy new thread!
And one with good music to boot - Santana, Slade and Kinks I love and the others I appreciate.

>28 SirThomas: Thank you Thomas.

The Kinks is one of my very favourite groups. Slade is great fun and Abraxas by Santana is in my top ten records of all time.

Happy New Thread and weekend. So sorry about the job accident. That has to be very disconcerting. Always enjoy dropping in here and checking out your reading, your diet and exercise progress, the music. Really, that picture does look like quite the challenge and while that may not be mountainous, it sure looks it.

>30 Kristelh: There are a few road climbs in England that are a real test, Kristel.

The Rosedale Chimney in Yorkshire is another one and Winnat's Pass in Derbyshire shouldn't be taken lightly either.

As Denmark is so flat I've never done serious climbing on the bike. But as I don't have a car, I use my bike quite a lot. It's the only exercise I get besides walking.

Impressed by your diet plan and sticking to it. Guess it helps knowing you are sharing ups and downs with "the world" :)

Oh, those Albums - I get nostalgic everytime you share.

Have a nice weekend, Paul.

>32 ctpress: Always a pleasure for me to see you around the threads, Carsten.

Happy New Thread, Paul. I like the topper. Sorry to hear about the fatality at work. How sad. I am also a big fan of "They Harder They Come". Funny, it was just referenced a couple of times in The Memory of Love. I do not recall that Santana album. The first 3 were phenomenal.

>34 msf59: Great to see you Mark. Santana's album is, as I recall, more mood than melody as I haven't heard it for a fair few years. Currently listening to Neil Diamond who has remained a superb live performer. There are some strange songs on the album but some classics too.

Happy new thread! Love your topper again. I'm enjoying those glimpses of your former locales.

>36 thornton37814: I am running out of places nearby where I used to work, Lori. I may need to think about some of the places I raced my bike.

American in the Top 40.

Happy new thread, Paul! As I recall, hills in England can be deceptive. You don't realize how steep they are until you start climbing them. I can remember climbing Glastonbury Tor when I weighed much less than I do now - somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 stones. It was a very windy day, and I ended up crawling when I neared the top of the tor because I was afraid the wind would carry me away.

>23 PaulCranswick: You are doing amazingly well Paul, congratulations.

I put on 2 pounds last week, so need to get back on track.

>38 richardderus: And always most welcome, dear fellow.

>39 cbl_tn: Unimpressive in terms of altitude, Carrie, but some of them are pretty steep.
Cumbria, the Peak District and Yorkshire were places I spent training and occasionally racing back in the day.

>40 Caroline_McElwee: I went walking with a friend last night, Caroline and he was visibly struggling and I remember thinking that that would have been me six or so weeks ago.

Keep going Caroline - you have nowhere near the amount of weight to lose that I need to drop.

Happy new thread Paul!

Hi Paul!

Way too much on your last thread since my last visit for me to comment on, so I’ll just wish you a happy new thread and carry on.

>4 PaulCranswick: Eighteen on the go. Mind boggling. Should I congratulate you or commiserate with you?

>43 humouress: Thanks Nina!

>44 karenmarie: Lovely to see you, Karen, irrespective of one line or ten paragraphs.

Commiserations are more in order as I am struggling to finish anything.

Hi Paul and Happy New Thread. The old one overwhelmed me with catching up.

That's an astonishing number of books you have going--I can see why you're struggling to finish anything.

My parents were huge Neil Diamond fans so Hot August Night was staple listening fare in my house in 1972 and after.

>42 PaulCranswick: Actually we are starting from the same point Paul, but I'm taking a gentler regime.

I am 3.5 stone lighter than my heaviest 9 years ago, but have a way to go, and aim to lose the next 3.5 stone in a year!

Hi Paul, Happy New Thread mate, your pace is amazing mate. We escaped any damage from Eunice and today we have had nothing but rain apart from a snow shower that lasted about an hour but nothing really settled unlike in the Dales. Talking about climbs on the bike, Sutton Bank is a brute, short and sharp and tells on the old legs.

Have a great Sunday mate.

Happy new thread! that's really a great picture there up top.

>46 AnneDC: Lovely to see you, Anne. Growing up I didn't particularly like Neil Diamond (I can't really remember why) but he made an album produced by Rick Rubin in 2005 simply called 12 Songs which blew me away and I have enjoyed going through his back catalogue subsequently.

>47 Caroline_McElwee: That is so impressive - more than double what I have already managed. Your method was similar to mine, Caroline?

>48 johnsimpson: Hi John. Yorkshire has some nasty little climbs - there is one at Todmorden that I remember saps the heck out of the legs (Hey Head Lane) and Mythom Steeps in Ted Hughes country.
I am missing the four seasons right at the moment.

>49 drneutron: Thanks Jim.

Finally:

BOOK #30



The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa
Date of Publication : 2015
Origin of Author : USA (Palestinian parents, born in Kuwait)
Pages : 288 pp

This is a novel that has impact but I think it also wears its heart on its sleeve far too much.

In the early parts of the novel which talks about Palestine in the 1940s she creates a very vivid picture and lovingly so of a world still longed for by those displaced. Some of her characters, particularly the female ones are well drawn and the matriarch in particular is a memorable character.

A couple of things irked me though about the book which was detrimental to my enjoyment of it. Firstly everything is drawn in such black and white terms - the Israelis (she usually just refers to them as "the Jews") are uniformly bad - all murderers, rapists and pillagers - not a single shred of humanity there, not a single character there not to be abhorred. It is all so one-dimensional and frankly hurts the credibility of the tale she is trying to tell. Secondly her plotting is convoluted and loses its thread possibly because the novel - with some clear autobiographical parts - was really an attack on the state of Israel. It would be more honest to write as non-fiction, but of course, she can keep everything one-dimensional in fiction.

She is a good writer but she would be far better to observe that the world is not cast in such black and white terms because this would lead to more meaningful fiction.

BOOK #31



Door into the Dark by Seamus Heaney
Date of Publication : 1969
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 44 pp

Heaney emerged fully-fledged as a force of poetic nature in his debut collection of 1966 Death of a Naturalist and this sophomore collection gives the impression that he could hardly credit it.

The poet is still finding voice here and there is far more structure both in rhythm and rhyme than readers of Heaney will normally find. I would hazard with no evidence to back up my my assumptions that some of the poems here are efforts that didn't make the cut from the first collection.

That said there are some poems here that are up there with vintage Heaney and I would have been able to identify the creator without the knowledge of the gift-wrapped manuscript. His Lough Neagh sequence conjures delightfully the brackish but expansive waterway that he grew up looking out upon. His poem Bogland and this one "The Forge" could find their way into any best of collection.

The Forge

All I know is a door into the dark.
Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting;
Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring,
The unpredictable fantail of sparks
Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in water.
The anvil must be somewhere in the centre,
Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square,
Set there immoveable: an altar
Where he expends himself in shape and music.
Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his nose,
He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter
Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows;
Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick
To beat real iron out, to work the bellows.

Fans of Heaney will be just about satisfied.

Saturday Obligations/Sunday Felicitations

A weekend of cats and dogs
Days of slippers and clogs
Between the hearth and the field
Between the take and the yield.
Days of turning pages
Then nights lost in stages
To the jousts of dream and slumber
The bouts of fear and wonder
And the counting hours find a way
To bring about a dawning day.

BOOK #32



The Yellow Wind by David Grossman
Date of Publication : 1988
Origin of Author : Israel
Pages : 218 pp

"...if we do not remind ourselves that a better future is possible we may never find the strength we will all need to get there."

Grossman is clearly an accomplished writer and novelist. This book is reportage painted with the brush of an author of great store but this is also a book that offers no solutions and is, as a result grimly and viscerally disheartening.

In seventeen episodic chapters the repetitive impact of the implacable hatred of the Arab for the Jew and to some extent the disdain of the Jew for the Arab is shocking in its iteration. Almost to a person the Palestinians don't wish to compromise, they wish to wrest back the whole of territory "lost" by force and by the spilling of blood. On the more conservative Israeli side it seems that most of them will not be satisfied until Amman is part of Greater Israel. I anticipated many different viewpoints but the homogeneity of feeling was absolutely chilling.

David Grossman clearly has much sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians but his frustration was writ almost as large as his understanding was partial. I have no idea how to solve the problem of Israel/Palestine but the peoples there on both sides will have to follow Grossman's example in making genuine efforts in understanding each other and compromise very regimented positions.

Recommended but not to be read for enjoyment.

Wordle 246 4/6

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1972 MUSIC - SEVENTH WEEKEND

Essential Tracks

NEIL DIAMOND - I am....I Said - This is from a little later but the song is featured on the album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGfbM23InFc

KINKS - Celluloid Heroes - This is a staple of the Kinks set and one of his most successful songs from the non-single days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_QkUVZGPc

BONNIE RAITT - Love Me Like a Man - This lady could play the blues!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXLP8_2B2sw

JIMMY CLIFF - Many Rivers to Cross - One of my absolute favourite tracks. The clarity of Cliff's voice is wonderful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twf7LhQIBkQ

SANTANA - Song of the Wind - Emotional guitar playing by the Mexican maestro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdmevPWZTRg

SLADE - Look at Last Nite - The most successful English band in the 1970s UK singles chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6UsG11Qb6Q

Hope you enjoy these selections.

greetings from Switzerland - hope you can smell (at least imagine) the coffee I am enjoying right now

>58 paulstalder: Hahaha lovely to see you, Paul. I think I have been on a constant coffee diet today so you can't make me jealous but I'm not likely to sleep anytime soon either!

>59 PaulCranswick: I had no intention of making you jealous but more the feeling of sharing some enjoyment together - despite the time and space differences

>60 paulstalder: I know that Paul, my tongue in cheek English humour can sometimes be a bit clumsy.

To make up I will share some strudel with our coffee my friend

plum cake with cream and ...

Hi Paul, I am bringing you greetings from Canada. My goodness, that apple strudel looks delicious! Congratulations on your weight loss, I know how hard it is to lose even a few pounds so the amount you have taken off is excellent! We are having a quiet Sunday here but the sun is shining so I hope to get out for a short walk later on. Enjoy your day!

>1 PaulCranswick: Happy new thread, and nice topper Paul!

I’ve never raced a bike, but I used to like touring holidays by bike, and spent time in Belgium doing that. The Ardennes can be pretty steep as well, going down hill sometimes just as much a challenge as going up.

>56 PaulCranswick: I caved...
Wordle 246 3/6

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I was going to skip today just to prove I could.

I couldn't.

>62 paulstalder: That looks delicious, Paul, thank you.

>63 DeltaQueen50: Lovely to see you here, dear guru. Enjoy your Sunday, dear lady.

>64 EllaTim: Thanks Ella. Believe me it is far more scary coming down certain climbs than it is riding up them. I have never ridden in the alps proper but in the Pyrenees rides like Tourmalet and Aubisque are really a challenge of nerve and skill descending them in one piece.

>65 richardderus: I did manage to skip for a whole day but I was back yesterday and will almost certainly give in and play today. I lost on the quordle game yesterday though and now have a win loss record in that of 3-2.

>67 PaulCranswick: Once, while I was in college at UCB I was gulled into bicycling on a steep hill. Once and only once. These days, if I'm just walking down hill I zigzag as much as the way will allow. My knees are much happier with that and I'm sure not tumbling is generally appreciated.

Hi Paul, Are you thinking of reading any more of the Belgariad books any time soon? As a result of reading your thread at the beginning of the year I picked up Pawn of Prophecy and read it rather quickly. Now I have the second one and it is waiting in that ever present pile...any additional thoughts on the series? Congrats on your weight loss.

>68 quondame: Actually the strain upon the knees of walking down a steep incline should not be under-estimated, Susan and you are right to point it out. As we get a little bit older we don't get up from falls with quite the carelessness we did back in the day.

>69 kaida46: I am supposed to start the second book this next day or two and need to get Queen of Sorcery done this month if at all possible. I am pretty sure that there is a group read thread up for this too.
Thanks on the weight loss congrats. I was thinking to myself this morning how much easier it is to put my socks on now with 24 lbs lost.

>57 PaulCranswick: I thought you were really going to stump me here Paul because even tho I recognized the name Slade I couldn't think of a single song and I certainly didn't recognize "Look At Last Nite". Listening to various bits I finally hit on an album I remembered and I remember liking it. It was their first album "Play It Loud". Listening to some of it I think it was around the time of Elton's Madman Across the Water for me. Even tho I never owned the Slade album one of my buddies must have played it quite a bit. The Caravanserai song of the wind sounds like Santana was trying to do another Samba Pa Ti ... but didn't.

>65 richardderus: roflmao

Don't know why but my stats have again been zeroed (third time now). Anyway:
Wordle 247 4/6

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>71 RBeffa: I have seen some diehard Santana fans rate this album as their very best, Ron. It just isn't. I like that particular track but as an album it is largely mood music and not a patch on the brilliant Abraxas.
I have all Slade's albums on CD and really like them. There are a few real duds on each album but some great stuff too. Terrible at spelling too.

>72 ArlieS: Hahaha Arlie. Richard is a real card.

Hello Paul - hoping I still have my streak of dropping into each of your threads at least once. My Wordle streak came back (my streak is now at one puzzle, but this is after all zeroes for a couple of weeks) so I'm happy!

>75 AMQS: I am a bit peeved too, Anne, because I hadn't lost the challenge. Losing the states on quordle is fair game as I am 3-3 in terms of wins-losses over the first six games.

Always a pleasure to have you stop by. x

>69 kaida46: Group read thread for the Belgariad is here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/338624#

>77 humouress: Thanks Nina!

Wordle 247 2/6

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Have not tried amy of the multi word puzzles but also enjoying the geography ones.

Hope this week is better after the stress of the weekend and tragedy on the work site, Paul.

>79 Helenoel: I am impressed, Helen. That is good going to get that one in two. My normal one is to whittle it down in four.

>80 bell7: Not really Mary. Today was ghastly as I was tasked to go to the hospital and discuss the post-mortem with the presiding pathologist with authority both from the deceased's family (the deceased was a 34 year old Indonesian with family in Semarang - not Medan as I was originally informed) and the company. It seems the certified cause of death is suspected electrocution although the charge must not have been overly severe as the only evidence of it was a small burn on one hand and an even smaller one on the other indicating entry and exit current. Due to the specimens etc requiring lab testing it is estimated that it will take up to eight weeks to have a full report - COVID again getting in the way. I managed to get his body released this morning early and he is already home in Indonesia and buried in his own town just after the day's third prayers. The cause of death presents some problems for the site and investigation is underway as the Subcontrator is adamant that there are no live cables where he was working.

The trip to the hospital laid bare my feelings and brought back terrible memories as it was in exactly that same mortuary that I said goodbye to my closest friend ten months ago and when I got away from the place I was literally shaking and very upset. All I could see in my mind's eye was my dear friend's beautiful face and I wasn't much up to driving. Faced my demons and blinked a little today to be honest.

Long day.

>81 PaulCranswick: the short Wordle was more luck than skill.

So sorry about your worker and the triggering experience for you. Responsibility is not always pleasant, but it seems you handle it well. I wish you more peaceful book-filled days.

>81 PaulCranswick: Well that really sucks, Paul. I'm sorry :(

>82 Helenoel: Thank you, Helen. Sometimes we have no choice but to do our duty, dear lady. Senior Management group decided, rightly I think, to keep the Korean staff from the fray and I was the obvious choice to lead for us on this. Enjoyed my day not a bit though.

>83 bell7: Thanks Mary. Tomorrow is another day.

Dear Paul, I'm sorry that you seem to be responsible for the hard duty. I'm so grateful that you are willing and able to step up for that man's family. They will surely bless your name.

I wish that you would inspire me to eat less and lose those 10 pounds that have crept back over the past year. Maybe I'll get disgusted with myself......

I don't think I'll ever get on a bicycle again. I have a hard enough time being careful walking; a fall off a bike would be devastating. My cousin, two years younger than I am, had a cycling trip based in Merano maybe four years ago. I didn't know exactly where he was going to be, so I missed a chance to have him meet our Nathalie, whom I miss here. And then there were our niece and her husband who made the climb to Everest Base Camp with a team from Chile who went on to the summit. How did I get into this family??

Anyway, I wish that you may do something kind for yourself today - maybe an extra trip to a bookstore!

>81 PaulCranswick: Dear Paul, I am very sorry for your very difficult day. Be extra good to yourself today!

>81 PaulCranswick: Hugs and sympathy from far away.

That poor man. I'm glad you were able to get his body released; I've got a foggy idea that prompt burial is religiously important there, probably gathered from your earlier posts. Not to mention how his poor family would have felt to have a bunch of bureaucrats (from their POV) holding up returning his body.

And the emotional echoes sound miserable, and probably worse after all this time without family around you.

>81 PaulCranswick: Sorry to hear about your hard day Paul. I hope this evening you can spend some time thinking about the good memories of your friend, and knowing that you were able to expedite things for your worker would have helped his family.

Paul, so sorry for your hard day. Do take special care of yourself.

>81 PaulCranswick: How harsh. At least you could take care that the body was restored to the family in a timely manner. That there remain questions is always disturbing.

I hope you can restore your own equanimity before too long.

>85 LizzieD: Dear Peggy, you reminded me too of how much I too miss Nathalie in the group. She seems to have disappeared totally. Have you heard anything from her outside of the group or are you able to contact her? If so please do let her know that she is missed in this little part of the universe.
I will certainly not race bikes ever again, Peggy, although I would not have qualms about riding again in the UK. Malaysian roads are not cyclist friendly!

A trip to the bookstore will be on my agenda this week sometime for sure!

>86 mdoris: Thank you, Mary. I slept fairly well anyway which I suppose is a sign that my day had been too much for me.

>87 ArlieS: It is important in Islam that the deceased is buried quickly. In normal circumstances the body is buried on the same day as death but in this case he died on Friday in Kuala Lumpur and was buried in Semarang, Indonesia on Monday afternoon.

The family did not want him to undergo a post-mortem but there was nothing to be done as the police had ordered it and the reason for death needed to be determined. I have to say that the staff at the Indonesian embassy who worked on the clearance paperwork and to expatriate him were extremely impressive in their work and the family had much more to thank them for than they did myself.

>88 Caroline_McElwee: She was very much in my thoughts yesterday as you can imagine, Caroline. She had filled some of my darkest days with love and has left a hole in my life that is so hard to fill.

>89 Kristelh: Thank you so much, Kristel. Without the 75ers I would have gone bonkers years ago!

>90 quondame: I had to work with the law firm to draft a legal opinion of the situation for the Samsung headquarter in full knowledge of its crucial importance to my Korean senior management colleagues who are at career risk from the "fall-out" to the incident. There is/was absolutely nothing that any of them could have done differently to affect the situation and keep the young man alive but Samsung's policy dictates that a Senior head will roll if any blame is attached to the safety practices of the site.

>93 PaulCranswick: Ouch! Of course safety should have high visibility, but that should be proactive not reactive. Last night my brother was relating how he could not sell his devices as safety measures because the safety group has no budget, but must claim they will save money.

>94 quondame: Yes, Susan. Had safety measures not been up to par then fair enough but to be honest I have never worked for an organisation that cares more about site safety. In our team leader meetings - remember they are Korean - we start off with declaring every time to a man/woman that "Safety is our Top Priority!".

My now almost inevitable score:

Wordle 248 4/6

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Yikes, what a stress and how sad. (((hugs)))

>97 banjo123: Indeed, Rhonda.

To make things worse the car wouldn't start this morning - I think I need to get a new battery. Had to get a Grab/Uber to work instead.

Thanks for the hugs they are much appreciated. xx

This was sent to me by Hani overnight and reminding of something she knows I like very much:



The beans are called petai in Malay but known in the West as stinky beans. They do leave quite an odour and linger on your palate and in your urinary tract for some time and are an acquired taste. Wonderful health properties though and a favourite of mine.

For those who love some of the word play in Peggy's wonderful threads here are some sporting versions. In England we call them "Coleman Balls" named after the sports commentator who made verbal slips a national institution.
Here are some examples:

I want to win the Nobel Peace Prize and I will fight as hard as I can to make it happen

-+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+

The underdogs start as favourites for this match

-+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+

The game is in a neutral venue and for both teams

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I wouldn't be at all surprised if this game goes all the way to the finish
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Women's football does have its knockers

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Julian Dicks seems to be everywhere; it's like there are eleven Dicks on the field

-+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+

He'll probably wake up having sleepless nights about that one

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Wordle 248 2/6

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Two days in a row. Pure luck.

>101 PaulCranswick: That looks very daunting. I believe that I'll stick with the regular Wordle...

I'm so sorry about the death at your work site, and the memories it has evoked for you.
Interesting that the Kinks are your second greatest band. They're up there for me too, but I want to know what's your number one band? As an aside, my good friend from Aruba moved to London the year before we did (she was there 1965-66) and she met two of the Kinks at a party--don't remember which ones.
I've been looking for The Yellow Wind forever, every time I was in a used bookstore for several years, but was never able to find it, and it was not on Kindle (which is how I do library books). But I just checked again, and it has now been published on Kindle, so although I don't usually like to pay full price for Kindle books, it is now mine. Now just to find time to read it.

>102 Helenoel: You must have some Irish ancestry back there somewhere, Helen to have done that twice in a row!

>103 ocgreg34: I lose on that almost as often as I win, Greg, so it is a real test. I am still to be defeated by the normal wordle although I have gone to six a few times.

>104 arubabookwoman: My number one band growing up Deborah was Electric Light Orchestra but from the sixties I honestly don't think the Beatles can be topped for their sheer invention over 7 years of recorded music making.

I hope you enjoy The Yellow Wind. It is, of course well written but I found the hatred so openly espoused very depressing.

Thanks for your kind words and lovely to see you posting.

>106 PaulCranswick: I saw ELO in Detroit when I was in High School - great show! I was a big fan of the progressive rock bands of that time, especially Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, and my favorite - Kansas.

>107 ChrisG1: Like all of those too, Chris, but the other one that I liked just behind ELO was Barclay James Harvest - a tremendous group.

Personally I think today's game was a deathtrap. Became a game of chance as with four goes with four letters in place my last guess was correct.

Wordle 249 6/6

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>109 PaulCranswick: Oh - look what all us Americans have to look forward to in 4-7 hours.

We are two weeks away from the Women's Prize Longlist being issued and this year has been, in my humble opinion a year of very strongly regarded novels written by women.

Without being able to make comments on the merits of many of the individual books, but going on our group feedback, other award nominations etc, I think this is a likely looking list:

1. The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed
2. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (both of these Booker shortlisted and both I enjoyed)
3. Still Life by Sarah Winman
4. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
5. Mrs England by Stacey Halls
6. Learwife by J.R. Thorp
7. Fortune by Amanda Smyth
8. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
9. To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
10. Beautiful World, Where are You? by Sally Rooney
11. Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
12. Matrix by Lauren Groff
13. The Fell by Sarah Moss
14. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
15. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
16. The Push by Ashley Audrain (this is my dark horse; left field pick as there is always one!)

How many of my predictions will make the cut?

Does anyone think that I have missed any obvious ones?

>110 thornton37814: It is one to take care with, Lori. I could just as easily got it in three.

We have just finished the very auspicious date 22/2/22 and believers in the powers of feng shui everywhere were rushing to tie the knot! Last time in my lifetime I guess that we can do 5 consecutive numbers as a date. Third March Thirty Three is next that we get four numbers alig

Hi Paul. I hope you and yours are doing well.

I've just completed a couple of thrillers, one on audio and one in print. My next audio is Checkmate in Berlin by Giles Milton. I listened to his Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare last year and liked it. We'll see how this one goes.

>114 brodiew2: Nice to see you Brodie.

I read something by Giles Milton a few years ago called Russian Roulette which was about Arthur Ransome and Reilly Ace of Spies and their efforts to thwart Lenin's international aims. It was pretty interesting as I recall.

BOOK #33



Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Date of Publication : 2017
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 343 pp

This won the Booker Prize in 2017 and underscores another reason for me why American literatures should not be included as eligible for the prize.

It is novel attempting to be far too clever for its own good. The spurts of pure (well pure-ish) narrative promise much but they are weighed down by Saunders' intensity and propensity to be utterly different and frankly confounding. The rambling collage of source and apparently contemporary quotations/excerpts to add layer-by-layer in a sort of collage format a picture of Lincoln as a Commander in Chief, as a man, as a President, as a father quite quickly succeeds in irking this reader.

Don't like his short stories. Don't like his novel. Don't like to recommend it to others.
------------------------PaulCranswick >116 PaulCranswick: 23/2/22 op cit

>111 PaulCranswick: I think that would be an amazing longlist Paul. I've read five of it and have another three to hand.

>116 PaulCranswick: Yup, I Pearl ruled it around page 80. I had expected to love it. Meh. But we are in the minority. It can be a good place to be.

>111 PaulCranswick: Paul, your list looks pretty good, I will guess that more than half will make the list. I have not read any of them.

>113 PaulCranswick: I never thought of the significance of 2/22/22. It will be the last for me as well.

>109 PaulCranswick: You’ve got me hooked, here’s mine
Wordle 249 4/6

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>116 PaulCranswick: Agreed, Paul, I did finish it and gave it a generous 2½ stars.

>117 Caroline_McElwee: Maybe because Europeans have less connection to Lincoln?

>116 PaulCranswick: Oddly enough, that's a short story collection I can get my patrons to check out semi-regularly in a town where there aren't a lot of short story readers. But now I'm wondering if they like it it all hahahaha. Guess i can safely skip it.

Paul, i had better luck with an initial
letter. Wordle 249 3/6

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I like Lincoln in the Bardo better than you did, but did take a while to get into it.

>116 PaulCranswick: Ah this one seems to be a love it or hate it kinda book. If I remember correctly, when I read it a few years ago I really did not enjoy it.

>117 Caroline_McElwee: It is such a shame that they won't let me pick them, Caroline!

If I am in the minority with you, well at least I am in very good company!

>118 Kristelh: Natalie was to blame for introducing me to this one and has been particularly cruel enough to link to games of 4 puzzles (quordle) and 8 puzzles (octordle or something) both of which are fiendish.

I love numbers Kristel so the uniqueness of that one for me stood out.

>119 FAMeulstee: You too, Anita!

>120 bell7: I like his short stories even less.

>121 Helenoel: Your scores are consistently impressive Helen! I liked the narrative parts of the novel but could have done without the piled up citations.

>122 figsfromthistle: I was unfortunately very much in the loathe it party, Anita and I so much wanted to be wowed by it.

Wordle 250 5/6

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Steady if unspectacular!

Daily Quordle #31
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This game is a challenge!

>116 PaulCranswick: Disliked that messy, pretentious farrago. Have disliked every word I have read that he has written. Will not do it again unless promised a sizable financial reward.

The Booker! I swaNEE!

>128 richardderus: It would need to be sizeable fee, RD, for me to touch any of the other rubbish he has written.

As Russia invades Ukraine, Biden has managed in 13 bungling months to make the world a far more dangerous place with his obvious weakness.

Well done Joe, with your "minor incursion" invitation, your cancellation of the Nordstream Two sanctions, your shambolic and weak withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has chummed up to China instead of holding them to account over COVID and we are all now in hock to a communist authoritarian regime for all our daily essentials.

Robert Gates was right that he has been on the wrong side of every foreign policy position in the last forty years.

Unfortunately we have little choice but to let Putin have his way. Taiwan, South Korea I hope that you will not be next. I am not Ukrainian and I have no antecedents there and as much as I am full of sympathy for them they will have to be sacrificed as it is too late for anything other than impotent posturing.

The sanctions announced yesterday will hit the domestic market as the price of gas will get even higher in the face of restricted supply. He needs to pull his head out of his ass and start pumping domestically or he will bankrupt the USA. Idiot is begging OPEC to pump more dirty oil and doesn't want to increase in America which is cleaner. He is getting pushed around by everybody.

History readers will tell you quickly that Daladier, Chamberlain and Lord Halifax erred fatally in appeasing Hitler as they encouraged his aggression. Joe Biden should read more history.

Wordle 250 3/6

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No more "absent 'U'" whinges. None!

>130 PaulCranswick: Finding today is mostly doom scrolling. Terrifying.

Hugs from over here - I've missed a thread or two but have been lurking.

>130 PaulCranswick: Well done, dear fellow.

>131 richardderus: I am saddened to say that I don't care enough about Ukraine to want to go to war for it. Hopefully Putin will flex his muscles and then compromise.

I do care enough though to be full of smiles when my favourite Channel Islander comes visit.

>130 PaulCranswick: well said

>134 Kristelh: Thank you, Kristel. I take no pleasure from having said it though.

>119 FAMeulstee: Maybe Anita, but I have long had an interest in him. Nod at his statue on Parliament Square often. I think, certainly to the point I read, there just wasn't enough about Lincoln.

>135 PaulCranswick: and I also have no pleasure in agreeing with you.

I read Lincoln in the Bardo a while back. I wrote quite a bit about it. Today I only remember the cemetery scenes somewhat. Here are my comments; Read this in one day (audio version). This is George Saunder's first novel. It is about the death of Abraham Lincoln's son Willie. I just read Team of Rivals and so reading this one now worked out well. The story is set in 1862 and gives us the current political and social climate but also has relevancy for now both in it's contrasts and similarities. The word bardo stands for Tibetan purgatory like state and the events of the book take place at the son's tomb where Lincoln comes in his grief. There are a variety of characters in this book, mostly ghosts of real life and fiction. Besides a story of grief it is also a story of history. What was occurring at the time of the presidency and that is given to us quotes from printed books, journalism, etc to give the details of what is happening, how people were thinking, etc. The work is not a traditional novel and therefore it has achieved something to add to the world of literature and the novel. The novel was based on the fact that it was "reported back at the time" that Lincoln would visit the crypt where his son's body lay to hold it. From the author's interview about the book, "the structure was not pre-planned but was the result of quick solution to the structural problem". The ghosts are really a huge part of the book. Each with their own voice, giving the book it's 19th century feel. Saunders stated that he did not try for historical accuracy, just close enough. The audio has a large number of narrators that give voice to the ghosts.

From the interview with Saunders; this book was finished when Trump started running for president. Saunders states, "So it's almost like none of Trumpism got into this book directly. But if I had to compose a response to Trumpism, it would be this book. To me, all my political ideas are in the book." The author did research Lincoln's attitudes toward slavery and his changing ideas. The book is "before the emancipation proclamation". Lincoln, like a lot of northerners were promoting repatriation to Africa which was not popular with African Americans. So the conclusion is that Lincoln was a sad, kind guy and Trump is an angry, aggressive man. (From interview 1/10/17). Rating 3.71

>136 Caroline_McElwee: I am an admirer of Lincoln but the coverage of him was not exactly wholly coherent.

>137 Kristelh: That is an interesting idea, Kristel that the book is an anticipatory response to Trump. My freedom grumbles here are sometimes misinterpreted as indicating sentiments that I do not espouse. I think that no one did more to demean the office of the President of the United States than Donald J. Trump. From his barely literate twitter rants, his personal vainglory, his misogynist ways, his childish confrontational posturing, his firings as if political administration was reality TV, his dumbass soundbites - we went from Obama who was not an entirely effective President but was utterly Presidential and a charismatic and wonderfully uniting personality to a bunker mentality. It wasn't all his fault - the mainstream press for and against were egregious in building up or demonising a cult of personality and they have continued the trend of polarising discourse by concentrating on him after he is no longer daily relevant.

Trump identified some issues of genuine concern to the ordinary men and women of the USA but he failed to articulate them in a way that he could build a consensus. He was right to point to the dangers of not tackling China's growing manufacturing hegemony, he was right to try to re-establish manufacturing in the heartlands of America, he was right to secure your borders and address illegal immigration, he was right that America was being taken advantage of and that the UN, NATO allies etc should start to pay their share, he was right to put America first. But he set about achieving these policy aims in such a crass and confrontational manner that the dignity of the Presidency and American prestige were tarnished. Most awful was the manner of his end. You lose and you may not be happy you lost. You may feel that some things went against you unfairly, but you have a responsibility of your office to relinquish it when the people determine that. You subject yourself to election and you abide by its rules. I don't think he planned an insurrection or a coup d'etat but he did incite violence by his inexcusable and dishonourable refusal to concede the election.

Why blame President Biden for the PURE EVIL of Putin that the leaders of ALL the countries in the world allowed to descend on the Ukraine?

>138 PaulCranswick: I get the impression that Andrew Jackson also tried hard and somewhat successfully to demean the office of US president in his time. But I'm no expert on US history.

>139 m.belljackson: It would be interesting to look at this invasion from the perspective of the international owning class. The ultra-rich in particular. What do they stand to gain from it? What would they lose if it were addressed effectively? Do they all have much the same incentives here, or are they potentially divided?

>116 PaulCranswick: It seemed like everyone was raving about this a couple years ago and when I tried it I was very put off.

>106 PaulCranswick: Hooray for the Beatles. I second the nomination!

>116 PaulCranswick: My book group had a divisive discussion about Lincoln in the Bardo in 2018. I rated it 3* which is about as low as I go!

I am devastated by the news from The Ukraine. As evil as Putin is, I am more afraid of what China will probably do now. I’m sad for our world.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/339833

>139 m.belljackson: Well I blame him for the reasons I have given, Marianne, just as Chamberlain and Daladier could be blamed for Hitler. It is not excusing Putin or Hitler (and I am not entirely sure that evil quite applies to the former just as it definitely did apply to the latter - Putin is more ruthless than evil).
The removal of the Nordstream 2 sanctions was a terrible mistake, the debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal emboldened America's foes, the closeness of Biden to the Ukraine regime worried Russia especially in the encouragement given that it could join Nato. Why would Putin be happy with that - see it from his point of view - would the USA want Mexico or Canada joining the Warsaw Pact?

>140 ArlieS: You could well be right there, Arlie, but I wasn't going so far back. I just wish with Trump that some of his policy ideas were not accompanied by so much hubris.

>141 ArlieS: You are right, Arlie, and the arms manufacturers will be licking their lips. Putin has had an issue with Ukraine for twenty years and much of it has to do with the resources Ukraine has and its route into the rest of Europe.

>142 RBeffa: I have to agree with you, Ron. If I had been on that Booker panel of Judges perhaps with RD in tow we would have killed its chances immediately. The American books that have won the Booker, that one and the clumsy pastiche of The Sellout shows me that British judges are no judges of American literature and shouldn't have it as eligible for the prize.

>143 Donna828: I agree, Donna, that China is far more dangerous than Russia and the weakness of our response to the Communist regime that has out capitalismed the West over the last 30 years with the signal aim of eventually turning against us, frightens me. They are an economic powerhouse and would have no qualms or scruples in its policy whatsoever as its attitude to its sharing of Covid with the world shows.

The Beatles are a much happier thing to discuss. Five favourite Beatles tracks:

1 In My Life
2 Don't Let Me Down
3 For No One
4 I Feel Fine
5 A Day in the Life

>144 SilverWolf28: Thanks Silver!

>147 PaulCranswick: I agree with your #1, but the rest of my list is different.

1. In My Life
2. Yesterday
3. Here Comes the Sun
4. Blackbird
5. When I'm Sixty-Four

>148 cbl_tn: I love all those songs too Carrie.

I could just as easily have put :

Eight Days a Week
Let it Be
She's Leaving Home
Long, Long, Long
Norwegian Wood

Today's is a sneaky one so be careful:

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I cunningly organised a meeting with a subcontractor this afternoon in the Suria twin towers so that I could stop by Kino and do a little checking on likely Women's Prize longlisters with the announcement being a couple of weeks away. Here is what I got whilst waiting for my meeting. :D

106. The Fell by Sarah Moss
107. Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney
108. Learwife by JR Thorp
109. Matrix by Lauren Groff
110. Ghosted by Jenn Ashworth
111. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
112. The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey
113. I Will Miss You Tomorrow by Heine Bakkeid
114. The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard
115. All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

The first six have a good shot at getting long listed for the Women's Prize in my humble opinion. The next four look like comfort reads.

Happy Weekend, Paul!

>153 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita. I will get round the threads this weekend to visit all my pals to see what y'all are up to. xx

>150 PaulCranswick: Took me 6/6 too. I got a 'phew'.

Argh! Now I know that you will appreciate this one Paul...

My daughter. My TEEN daughter. Who really hasn't read much since she became a teen. She has been reading more in the last month and wants to do a readathon with me today (5pm today-5pm tomorrow). ME! Her uncool annoying mother. I was so excited.

And now I have tested positive for Covid and feel rubbish and all I want to do is sleep.

It's not going to happen again for another 20 years is it?

Hey, you kept it down to ten. That was quite restrained of you given the Prize-List Season is upon us!

Wordle was a bear! I got the answer in a flash but was really slogging cluelessly until then.

>155 humouress: Me too. Four guesses in I thought I would finally be beaten by the game, Nina.

>156 BekkaJo: That is at first wonderful and then is terrible.

I'm sure that she'll wait for you to feel a bit better and then Cassie will join her cool mum for a readathon.

>157 richardderus: I had a much bigger list, RD, but the store didn't have 'em yet which is probably good for my bank balance.

Isn't great when we suddenly realise that that particular word is the only word it can possibly be?

>159 PaulCranswick: I really enjoy that sensation...even better when I'm correct, of course, but it's always fun.

>160 richardderus: I think I have only once had a Eureka moment playing the game only to be utterly wrong.
Somehow you just know.

Hello Paul - Maybe Boris and Macron will hand over Czechoslovakia to keep the oil flowing...?

>162 m.belljackson: No, Marianne, my guess is that they will do precisely nothing.

The Germans have helped bring about this state of affairs by making itself reliant upon Russian oil and gas. It had options but chose the wrong one.

Happy new thread Paul.
I'm sorry for the loss of your coworker.
Hope your weekend goes well.

I love all kinds of music and enjoy seeing your posts. My two favorite bands of all time are Electric Light Orchestra and the Alan Parsons Project.

Enjoying everyone's threads and trying to read them but you guys are tough to keep up with. :)

>164 hredwards: Great to see you, Harold

I would also place ELO in my top couple of bands and need to listen to more Alan Parsons.

Wordle 252 4/6

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Steady today

>151 PaulCranswick: I've read the Moss, the Rooney and the Groff, all good; and have the Jeffers by my reading chair Paul. Great haul.

You have done a good job of trashing the response of most of the world to what it going on in the Ukraine, so I am going to ask how you rate your Wild Haired Party Man and your country's response to the Ukraine?

And by-the-way, Germany's source for power is not all from Russia. They have the largest wind power production in Europe and are increasing it every day. 45.3% of their power is produced from renewable sources. You can also put Denmark and the Netherlands on that list of countries who are less dependent on Russian oil than most.

>156 BekkaJo: I'm so sorry that you have COVID, and it's beastly that it should spoil a readathon with your daughter! May you recover quickly and my her desire for shared reading endure.

>167 Caroline_McElwee: I did think that you would approve of most of those, Caroline!

>168 benitastrnad: I do feel very sorry for Ukraine and the Ukrainians but your choice of words is interesting, Benita. "Response" is exactly right. Everything has been reactive because the fellow was not put in his place at the right time.
You will not see me give much credit to Johnson. His administrations empty posturing has no significance to the Russians. His foreign minister doesn't even know which cities are in which country.

I didn't say that Germany gets all its power from Russia. I said that it was dependent upon Russia for its power which is correct. If that wasn't the case the Nordstream pipelines would never have been an issue. If you believe that they'll manage just fine with their wind-farms then good luck with that because Germany's policy will not proceed on that basis.

>169 quondame: Amen to that, Susan.

>168 benitastrnad: We still feel we are way too dependent on it. We are phasing out our own gas production right at the moment. Lots can be done of course, but it will take time.

>170 PaulCranswick: Germany will feel the need to do something about that dependency as well. But how?

>172 EllaTim: Germany chose the Russian option. There were alternatives at the time to procure from the Israeli-Cypriot pipeline or take its fuel from North America. It was the most convenient to Germany to chose the course they did.

You hit the nail firmly on the head, Ella. It will indeed "take time", the only real source of "clean" energy as a scaleable alternative to fossil fuels at this moment is the nuclear option and most are quite rightly reluctant to go that way with all its attendant risks. Renewables are, laudable certainly, but completely insufficient to power a country the size of Germany, or the Netherlands or the UK for that matter.

MUSIC FROM 50 YEARS AGO - 1972

WEEK EIGHT

The selections this week are taken from the first half of the year and fairly randomly selected. One album chosen from each of the first six months:

Obscured by Clouds - Pink Floyd
Brother, Brother, Brother - The Isley Brothers
Raspberries - The Raspberries
Touch Your Woman - Dolly Parton
Something/Anything? - Todd Rundgren
Let's Stay Together - Al Green

Sampler for Juana

As now is my habit, this is a sample from the above music for Stasia who missed out on popular music growing up.

This is Pink Floyd - Wot's Uh the Deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGPjfj69cXE

Paul, I'm not sure anyone could put Putin in his place. Do I want the US to send troops, American or UN soldiers, to the Ukraine? There isn't a stick big enough to wave at Putin. Was Putin expecting the Ukraine people to send an army to meet him? Putin may get his comeuppance in a way if he sends armies into cities in the Ukraine. Many Russian soldiers will die there if he does. So he will negotiate a peace with a "neutral" Ukraine and declare victory if he is smart.

>176 RBeffa: No I largely agree with you, Ron, but he has been emboldened by the West's diplomatic bungling. There is some rationale also in his concerns at NATO not making clear that Ukraine could not be a member. From their point of view it is somewhat akin to Canada joining the Warsaw Pact!
I pray for all those young men and women and mostly the innocent civilians thrown in the path of this pretty needless fight.

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After a stellar start I made heavy weather of this!

We had earthquake tremors here yesterday after a 6.3 quake off the coast of Indonesia. To be honest I didn't feel anything but some of the chaps up on the building did. It must have been a bit unnerving feeling the building slightly shudder 118 stories up!

BOOK #34


If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Date of Publication : 1974
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 197 pp

There is a reason why so many of my peers regard James Baldwin as amongst the greatest writers of the twentieth century. It is because he was.

This is an elegant novel of contradictions :
good and evil
love and hatred
truth and betrayal
tenderness and brutality
hope and despair

The enigma which unfolds amid these short pages is that it is not conclusive which versions will prevail. There does come a sense though that spirits shall not be broken.

Recommended.

Happy Weekend, Paul. I hope you are getting plenty of R & R in. So glad to see Let's Stay Together on that list. Easily one of the best R & B albums ever released.

Why isn't NATO protecting the Capital?

>181 msf59: It is a great album, Mark. Have a great weekend, buddy.

>182 m.belljackson: Really Marianne? Nato shouldn't have been anywhere near Ukraine that is a huge part of the problem. The key was not to have emboldened Putin in the first place. Joe Biden's minor incursion comment is one of the dumbest things ever to come out of the mouths of a President of the United States. Now is not the time to be talking politics but I do hope that the parties can sit down and talk and put an end to the bloodshed.

>174 PaulCranswick: I am glad to see Dolly Parton in your mix! She is a local legend here in Sevier County, and she is loved here for her generosity as much as for her music.

>183 PaulCranswick: Ukraine President asked the world to help protect his Capital, as did Sean Penn for the U.S.

>180 PaulCranswick: Being in this group keeps adding to my list of must-read authors. Yes, I've never read Baldwin, shame on me....so much to catch up on.

>184 cbl_tn: She is always an enjoyable listen, Carrie. A lovely woman by any measure.

>185 m.belljackson: Thank heavens Sean Penn isn't in charge of anything. Nato puts boots on the ground now and we have World War Three. Weakness was shown earlier unfortunately and now we have to find a way out of this. Ukraine's neutrality was an obvious pre-requisite to peace and stability that ought to have been established from a position of strength instead of one of weakness but now Putin has to be brought to the table.

>186 ChrisG1: You really must, Chris, Baldwin was a wonderful writer - I will read some of his non-fiction next month.

At least you are now talking about NATO instead of just the U.S. and the real problem is that there is not an answer to this problem. NATO can't do anything and neither could the U.S. It is impossible to negotiate with a person who has an alternative view of history (see the orange haired gas-bag as an example of that). If Putin lives long enough Moldavia, Turkey, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and then Poland, Solvakia, Finland, and after that Bohemia and Austria will all fall. Megalomania knows no bounds. In order for Russia to feel secure it will have to have control of all the territory from the Rhine east. The problem was started way back in the 1990's when NATO allowed Poland into NATO. Former Warsaw Pact countries should never have been allowed into NATO with the exception of East Germany because West Germany was already a member. That simple solution would have kept the peace because it would have proved that NATO was not a threat to Russia.

The problem here is not Joe Biden - the problem here is NATO. and for that Great Britain is just as much at fault as is the U.S.

>189 benitastrnad: I utterly disagree with that! You can't sacrifice the whole of Eastern Europe just to make yourself feel safer! If the U.K. would stop bankrolling Russian Oligarchs and laundering their money for them that would be a good start.

>189 benitastrnad: And that explains why he was President of Russia for 22 years and only now feels emboldened to move against Ukraine? He has a beef with Ukraine fuelled by control of "his" pipelines and the fact that it is on his doorstep and was clamouring to get into NATO. Putin is not a good guy, let's not kid ourselves, but neither is he a crazed megalomaniac on the scale of Hitler or Stalin. He is a cunning calculator who read the signs of weakness. I am not absolving the European countries from any responsibility here and especially Germany but it is America that truly counts and the American leadership that has appeared spineless under Biden.

I do agree with you that NATO should not have accepted former Warsaw Pact countries under its umbrella as it clearly tends to destabilisation. That said his main issue has always been Ukraine.

>190 SandDune: The UK is not bankrolling the Oligarchs, Rhian but, yes, you are right the UK has a lot of Russian wealth of dubious provenance in its financial jurisdiction and should sanction that wealth within the confines of British law - seizing private funds is a dangerous game but certainly some of the Russian billionaires didn't exactly work hard for their money.

Paul = Just-Blame-Joe doesn't work here: he is not the Policeman of the Universe.

Every government leader bears responsibility for Putin rising to this new horror.

I hope that the Germans (who owe the world for trashing the 20th century)
actually send their thousand tanks and line them up with the NATO forces to bring this war to an end now.
Ukranians are begging for help from the world.

And those with long memories may wonder, as fleeing Ukranians abandon their pets,
if they now deeply feel what they, and nearly all of Eastern Europe, did to their Jewish citizens.

>192 m.belljackson: My goodness, Marianne, your suggestions are existentially incautious.

I am entitled to my opinion about the crucial difference being the weaknesses shown by the accepted Leader of the Free World. He was elected as a safe pair of hands and that has proven disastrously misplaced. Now because it has gone pear shaped suddenly it is everybody else to blame - Biden's playbook for everything. I am not criticising his policy of the last week or two but it was too late. I hope going forward he makes better decisions and that he can force Putin to sit down. A summit to resolve the differences is the obvious solution but I have grave concerns about Biden, Harris and Blinken managing that effectively - Barack Obama maybe if the administration could give him a special role to go to Moscow and discuss this with Putin directly.

I am not saying that Germany, France, the UK etc don't have some responsibility but it is subsidiary to that of the USA. He didn't wait for his partners to agree with him on Afghanistan, he just left us all high and dry.

The twentieth century did not end in 1945, Marianne. Germany bore the responsibility for World War Two but the seventy-seven years that followed it were years of American hegemony not Germany's. You can blame American leadership after the fall of communism for not being far sighted but Germany did not shape that policy it was made in Washington.

Of course Ukraine wants the world to intervene and so do the Uighurs want the world to intervene but it doesn't make it a realistic or possible option. Do you seriously advocate that Europe should go to war with Russia and risk the nukes flying across the skies? Be sensible.

I am not heartless and grieve for the brave people of Ukraine, but to pile calamity on tragedy is not the answer.

Maybe all this depressing talk of war but today was a struggle:
Wordle 253 6/6

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I did manage to watch the entire first season of Reacher on Amazon Prime last night and loved it. Pretty faithful to the opening book in the series and Reacher looked thankfully how he is envisaged in my mind's eye.

Fight scenes were tremendous and the show captured his humanity together with his vigilante sense of morality.

Today (Sunday 27 February) is my eldest daughter, Yasmyne's 25th birthday. Where did all the time go?! I haven't seen her since July 2019 due to this damn COVID pandemic and miss her terribly. I will see her in 2022 even if I have to swim across the Indian Ocean.

In our last four games my beloved Leeds United have lost:
3-0 to Everton
4-2 to Manchester United
6-0 to Liverpool
4-0 to Tottenham

17 goals conceded and two scored. It looks like the fantastical odyssey of Marcelo Bielsa as our extraordinary coach is coming to a close after a near four season white water ride. It has been brilliant being a Leeds fan under his stewardship and he has given pride back to the club and the city. GRACIA MARCELO - VIVA EL LOCO!!!

>196 PaulCranswick:
Happy Birthday to Yasmyne. A lovely photo. My son is only a bit older and i miss him and the longest we have been apart is about a year. Good wishes for your reunion.

"existentially incautious"? even your fans may be puzzled by that nomenclarion.

With the slender border of Norway shared with Russia, what are Norwegian leaders thinking?

And, what will our response be when Iran and North Korea each threaten us with Nuclear War...?

>196 PaulCranswick: Happy birthday Yasmyne!

>198 Helenoel: Thanks for that, Helen. Separation from our children is a heavy weight isn't it? xx

>199 m.belljackson: My fans? I am not playing up to an audience, Marianne, I am stating an honest and, I hope, a somewhat considered opinion.

Putting an army in the field to remove Russia from Ukraine is World War Three. I do not want to send my children to die for that. Such talk is existentially incautious whether I have fans or detractors - I am just being honest. You are entitled to your opinion but it isn't shared by me.

>200 amanda4242: Thank you, dear Amanda.

I wanted to post this video to say thank you to Marcelo Bielsa for the enjoyment he brought my city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In_PjqoZmh4

An eccentric genius. An honourable man. A team that played always to win, with heart, passion and no fear.

>196 PaulCranswick: Happy 25th birthday to Yasmyne!
I hope you don't have to swim to see her soon, Paul ;-)

Happy 25th to Yasmyne!

Happy 25th to Yasmyne - hopefully you can see her again soon.

>191 PaulCranswick: The UK is not bankrolling the Oligarchs Yes I know - I was a bit agitated by the suggestion that Eastern Europe should just be handed over to the Russsians, because somehow they’re not ‘us’. What I actually meant was more like ‘facilitated’.

>204 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita. I have just spent half an hour on the phone with her and she is, of course, full of the joys of being 25. Possibly the very best of ages to be.

>205 humouress: Thanks Nina. It is nice to see you neighbour!

>206 SirThomas: Thanks Thomas. I really hope we can we all get together soon.

>207 SandDune: I think I pretty much realised what you meant, Rhian. I certainly agree with the facilitation comments. I was happy to see Keir Starmer clamp down on some of the silliness on our side of the aisle - tone deaf. I actually agree that we should not have been giving hope to Ukraine over NATO membership but there is a means of delivering a message. I believe in the dangers of climate change but the only effective way of stopping Putin now is to cut off his oil and gas supplies and that means the the USA has to set aside its domestic agenda of the green new deal and make up on a temporary basis the shortfalls in supply.

>209 PaulCranswick: I mostly agree with what you said before, Paul.

I do remember 2012, when all those western politicans were making a party in Kyiv, when the chosen president had fallen after protests, embracing the new (not loyal to Russia) regime. There this conflict started.

It might have been better if we (western nations, including the USA) hadn't thrown Russia into The Shock Doctrine, open to every greedy hand to take. Leaving next to nothing to the less prepared Russians, like described in Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich. Putin did help those, and got their loyality in return.

>210 FAMeulstee: I take no pleasure in this, Anita, but Putin is old school. He understands weakness and he thinks primarily in terms of strength and security. He has seen ample evidence of weakness in the last year and has seen this as the right time to address his grievance over the absence of neutrality in Ukraine. You are right that the seeds were sown in the last decade both in 2012 and in 2014 when the west was seemingly ok with the Crimean takeover. He is not the unhinged madman that some here have sought to paint him.

Catching up on your line. Lots of emotions here. I do hope that the issue can be dealt with without starting a major war.

Happy Birthday to your daughter of 25.

I got the Wordle 253 4/6

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It was a bit of luck.

Forgive me for not getting into the Ukrainian debate, but I will add Russians who have aided and abetted Putin remaining in power (and lining their own coffers), allowing him to override the parliamentary system to keep himself there have some responsibility here. I have heard that belatedly it could be these people who may be part of the solution as their access to their personal wealth starts to get squeezed, they may turn on Putin.

>195 PaulCranswick: I haven't read the books, but really enjoyed the series, now having to wait for the next one.

>196 PaulCranswick: Happy birthday to Yasmyne. Yes, i hope you are able to get together this year.

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>212 Kristelh: We 100% agree on that, Kristel. Although I'm sure that the war seems pretty major to the Ukranians right now, I do know precisely what you mean and I think that, whatever our views on why we are were we are we all agree that a wider conflict involving more countries as combatants is to be avoided.

Thanks for the kind wishes about Yasmyne. I'm not sure you can keep claiming it as luck when you get it right every day. xx

>213 Caroline_McElwee:

I agree with you Caroline and prefer to have book talk to give pleasure instead of the stresses and strains of world events. I know from having a close working colleague who has now returned to St. Petersburg that Putin is respected but not liked particularly in Russia but he is a ruthless leader and opposition to him has more consequences than even in Canada.

Reacher is a great series isn't it?

I am happy that I managed a half hour with Yasmyne.

\\\\\\\\Two\ pro\\\\bl\ems in that my keybo\ard has decided to\ pl\ay up \a\g\ain\\\ a\nd al\so\\\that I am no\t feel\ing wel\l.\ I wil\l\ try to\ cl\ean the keybo\ard and see if it hel\ps.\ Al\l\ my po\sts to\day have been edited so\ that they do\n't l\o\o\k l\ike that.\ So\ I guess yo\u \can sense my frustratio\n.\\

Also I woke up feeling queasy and dizzy. Yasmyne told me that she had felt the same way when she had covid but I tested yesterday and today and have been both times negative. Need a rest maybe and less thinking about things I cannot materially impact but which concern all of us.

>215 PaulCranswick:, Yes, agree, this is major for the Ukrainians. And I have to admit that I can’t even imagine how they are feeling and what they are enduring. I did not mean to make any such suggestion that their situation is not major. I just don’t want to even imagine a 3rd world war.

It is the luck of the words you choose. If you choose wrong it is going to take more tries. I didn’t get the hang of it right away so I don’t have your perfect record.

Edited to add, hope you and your keyboard are healed from glitching.

Happy birthday to Yasmyne, Paul.

Sorry to hear you're under the weather, and hope you're able to get some rest and time away from stressors. And here's hoping you're able to find a solution to the keyboard problem soon - how frustrating!

Edited to add:
I've been meaning to ask and keep forgetting: is there a place I should put Filipino authors in the Asian Book Challenge? My geography is lacking, and I can't figure out if it was one of the countries not included or if it should be in one of the groupings. Thanks!

Does this qualify for 'Book Reading' - today's NYT - German Lopez "A Global Retreat" ...?

I hope you are enjoying your reads this Sunday, Paul. Happy birthday to
Yasmyne. Take care of yourself.

A Gallery, somewhere in Norway sent a Fine Arts Shipping company to pick up Roscoe's paintings...name of Gallery to follow.

>196 PaulCranswick: Happy birthday, Yasmyne! Wow...twenty-five. Quite a milestone, eh PC?

>218 Kristelh: I must apologise to you, Kristel as I obviously knew what you were trying to say and I was being pedantic with the room spinning around and my keyboard playing up. We all share the fear of WW3.

I thank you always for your posts here and the support you have steadfastly given me when my own opinions have occasionally come under criticism. xx

>219 bell7: Thank you Mary. I have just had a few hours sleep but have woken up at 1.30 am still a bit dizzy but not feeling as nauseous.
Nothing wrong with your geography at all! If we widen the Malay Archipelago slightly we can fit the Philippines into November.

>220 m.belljackson: My dearest Marianne, you can post whatever you like on my thread (within the bounds of decency of course!!!) without fear of personal attack from me or having an opposing opinion affect our deep friendship. My comment to Caroline was not aimed at you dear lady but with my depression at not feeling well myself and being extremely worried that three of my five member immediate family are half a world away from the protection of the Patriarch!

My local bank re-set most of my subscriptions three days ago which has temporarily blocked my access to NYT, I hope it will be restored tomorrow as they have promised.

>221 Familyhistorian: I had been hoping for a very prolific Sunday but my dizzy spells kept me from reading much, Meg. I have managed to complete an excellent poetry collection which I will review shortly and almost completed another and will probably do so now I am awake and about to caffeine up!

Thanks for your visit my friend.

>222 m.belljackson: Oooh I hope the exhibition is on for a while as I really hope to be back in Europe after April and a visit to Norway will be essential given my daughter's own very strange taste in young men!

>223 richardderus: Thank you, RD. I am not sure, dear fellow whether her landmark is the psychological reason for my discomfiting dizzy spells today as I have a twenty five year old kid for heaven's sake!

>225 PaulCranswick: Speaking of Patriachs, today you could see the fuel behind the war: the Russian Orthodox patriarch called the Ukrainians defending their country "powers of evil". Four years ago there was a split, Ukrain Orthodox church split from Russian Orthodox church. That is not forgiven by the "true" church.

>217 PaulCranswick: *hug* I've been sleeping more and/or feeling worse for the last 3 or 4 days, and I'm 90% sure it's a response to news I can't change, and can't even easily avoid. (I'm not running a temperature, so I didn't use one of my limited supply of covid tests.) I'm also reading lots of escapist novels featuring uncomplicated violence, where appropriate targets are obvious, and shades of grey are absent.

I don't want World War III. But I keep thinking that Chamberlain didn't want World War II, and we all know how that turned out. Of course even eventual victory wasn't all that good for his country - the only choices he head were between now and later, bad and worse.

So then I dive back into uncomplicated fiction, like Charles E. Gannon's contribution to an ongoing zombie apocalypse series, At The End of the World.

Edit to add: or I fire up some solo computer game, and spend time murdering innocent pixels.

>227 FAMeulstee: It is chilling isn't, Anita for a religious leader to be rejoicing in war. I was in touch with my friend from St. Petersburg by whatsApp yesterday and she told me all facebook access in Russia was now blocked and just comes up as a grey screen.

In her unique style she said to me:
"We are all praying for peace, as the Ukraine and Russia mixed nations, and have relatives. Politics are for war, not civilians."

I know what she means and I agree with that. She meant "politicians" not "politics" but she is no longer working under me and having me correct her drafts!

>230 PaulCranswick: Let's suffer and seek succour together then Arlie because the root causes are probably similar!

I hope you have a better Sunday than I did health wise.

I suppose my Reacher watch-fest was the same exercise in escapism where the good guys win out.

Best wishes to Yasmyne on her 25th birthday. I'm glad you got to connect to her for her celebration.

While I don't think Putin is totally crazy, trying to re-establish a USSR which didn't work for its people with similar strong arm tactics isn't entirely clear sighted either and he is the one person who is absolutely to blame for going to war with the Ukraine. There are lots of complications and limitations within which even partially democratic nations must function, especially when they are strongly steered by economic elites, that have lead to this incredibly unfortunate reality, but there is one and only one person who made it so.

>225 PaulCranswick: Paul - can you reach Mayo Clinic with online Search? They cover dizziness quite completely.

>231 quondame: Oh don't get me wrong, Susan, Joe Biden didn't create Putin - he is a fox with all its visceral qualities. The fault for the Ukrainian invasion is squarely his whatever Western failings we may all talk about.

I have been quite depressed today with everything that is going on but most importantly not having Yasmyne, Hani and Kyran close to hand. Belle is the most private and introverted of my little squad but she did return home and sit with me through dinner and caught hold of me when I got up too quickly and nearly keeled over. Thanks for the birthday wishes my friend. xx

>232 m.belljackson: I am posting single reponses today due to difficulty and annoyance of having to keep plugging through edits with my errant keyboard. Must deep clean it tomorrow.

I will look up on Mayo clinic, Marianne, so long as it doesn't terrify me too much!!! xx

Happy Birthday to your daughter, Paul! I am sorry that COVID has kept you away - here is to hoping you will see her soon!

Hoping you feel better in the very near future, Paul. Worrying about the safety of the world doesn't help. Hang in there!

>235 jayde1599: Thank you Jess. I am hoping to see her sometime next month.

>236 Berly: There are so many of us, Kimmers, going down like 9-pins. I see that you have been posting so I'll hope over shortly in the hope that you are feeling much better.

Hi Paul, for 20 Classic books by people of Colour, we are doing Night Haunts in March. It is your turn to choose April's book. To give us time to order, can you post here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/337035#

Ta

>239 Caroline_McElwee: I have made my pick, Caroline. I have also put up an option if there are any difficulties to find the first book.

Hello Paul, I am sure hoping being dizzy goes away very soon. That does not sound good at all!

>241 mdoris: Thanks Mary. My body clock is all over the place as well which doesn't help.

>217 PaulCranswick: Sorry to hear you're feeling poorly. If you don't improve in a day or two please see a doctor. There are still diseases other than covid!

Paul, might the dizziness you are experiencing have something to do with your fasts and weight loss? Be very careful. A fall could be devastating.

>243 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda. We forget that all the other diseases didn't stop when COVID landed too don't we?

>244 SqueakyChu: Thank you, Madeline. You may be right but I think that stress and over work has contributed. I have been getting up much steadier.

I'm not going in to the office this morning. After lunch I probably will as I am snowed under with work.

BOOK #35



The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson
Date of Publication : 2010
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 90 pp

This is a tremendous poetry collection.

Rugged landscapes; sea air and barren crags. Poetic nods to Ovid, Neruda, Transtormer and Montale. His two mid length Ovid digressions are particularly readable.

It is in the capture of decay and corruption in a physical sense both in humankind and nature that strikes me as what is most potent about these poems. This is the second of two verses from Cat, Failing, the first of which is a little too visceral even for my presently jaundiced eye.


He tries and fails
to climb to his chair, shirks
in one corner of the kitchen,
cowed, denatured, ceasing to be
anything like a cat,
and there's a new look
in those eyes
that refuse to meet mine
and it's the shame of  being
found out.  Just that.
And with that
loss of face
his face, I see,
has turned human.

This collection is recommended.

Wordle 254 5/6

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That almost went badly wrong.

1972 MUSIC - EIGHTH WEEKEND

Essential Tracks

TODD RUNDGREN - Hello, It's Me - A difficult chap with a very mixed back catalogue but extremely talented and apparently he played pretty much every instrument on this album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLeCB7Kn-VE

DOLLY PARTON - Touch Your Woman - The title track. First time I ever heard this album was on Saturday but there are a couple of tracks I have saved to replay. Look at Dolly's hair on this vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNMypfCiFnw

AL GREEN - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? - Mark is right, this is a superlative soul album. This extended live version shows off Green's vocal skills tremendously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9YIq0oNiSM

THE RASPBERRIES - Don't Want to Say Goodbye - What a shame that they didn't make more music. Eric Carmen went onto solo success but this really is a very good album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Y6FgqrCkI

THE ISLEY BROTHERS - It's Too Late - This is the single version which was released the following year rather than the 10 minute long track on the original album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uraki3FtNQ4

PINK FLOYD - Stay - This album is often overshadowed by what came next but a number of the tracks stand up to the test of time and this is one of them. I have always found the near night sky strangely comforting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3FpUMI-uTw

Hope you enjoy these selections.

I have not been sleeping too well. I am terribly depressed at the diplomatic bungling that has lead to where we now are in the Ukraine.

The way to ending this present 'major incursion' is to understand why beyond his feral timing Putin is doing what he is doing. Imagine the rising power of China sign a defence pact with Mexico and planned to put troops there well you wouldn't want them at your back door. The encouragement to Ukraine that they could look forward to NATO membership was a screw up of immense proportions and a sign of Western arrogance. Putin is our enemy and we are his too and that should have been understood. A genuinely neutral buffer state Ukraine was no threat to his security.

Send someone with some gravitas (Obama most probably) to negotiate a peace with the following five points:
1. An immediate ceasefire.
2. Russian withdrawal from all Ukraine lands other than Crimea.
3. Ukraine to be a nation of protected neutrality with its borders respected.
4. EU/NATO declare that Ukraine will not be admitted into their organisations.
5. Both Russia and USA agree not to interfere in Ukranian self determination henceforward the above items 3 and 4 excepted.

Why is the West so piss poor at International relations?

Daily Quordle #35
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>249 PaulCranswick: All the West is in agressive mode now, Paul, your five points would be better. So now the EU declares that Ukraine is welcome in the EU... Feeding the fire instead of extinguish. :-(

>249 PaulCranswick: Take care of yourself, Paul. First things first.

Looking back I think this whole thing has been in the making for quite some time. And now Putin grasped the moment where Europe has become overly dependent on Russian gas resources, America wants to stop being the policeman of the world, and Macron declared Nato braindead. And who knows what else. But what he is achieving is distrust and isolation for Russia, as who will trust him now?

Good morning Paul, your outline looks good. Why can’t the powers come up with something sensible?

Kind of like my wordle today. No yellow tiles at all.
Wordle 254 3/6

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>251 FAMeulstee: We always look at things in such absolutes, Anita, when they are anything but. I am not trying to maintain that Putin has been justified in attacking another sovereign state but it doesn't help fanning the flames.

I saw the idiot Foreign Secretary of the UK encouraging British men and women to go and die to defend Ukraine rather than talking how we can stop the bloodshed. Putin is not a good man he is most probably a very bad man but to equate him with Hitler or Stalin serves zero purpose and solves nothing. What he wants was in the power of the West to give him - a neutral Ukraine. The only way of stopping pulverising the cities of Kiev and Kharkov is to call for peace and accept neutrality of a huge country on his doorstep.

>252 EllaTim: Rather belies the notion that he is a madman, Ella. He waited with feral ferocity for the first opportunity to secure his border (as he sees it). We view ourselves as thoroughly benign but that is not how they see us and we to be more street smart.

Did we ever trust him? Did he ever trust us. I certainly never trusted him as I knew what he wanted all along. Ukraine can have self-determination but it cannot join a block set in polarity to Russia. This has nothing to do with recreating the USSR.

>253 Kristelh: That is a good score, Kristel, I thought that I would fail but suddenly got inspired!

NATO fundamentally owes its existence, a largely necessary existence to the need to counter-balance the Warsaw Pact and defend collectively against Soviet/Russian aggression. We always make the fatuous assumption that we are the good guys and that everybody can see the benign intentions of Western Democracies. It is fatuously assumed in Bonn (which should know much better), in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Ottawa, Canberra and most crucially in Washington that the spread of liberal democracy is a transparent and universally accepted good and that by extension there is nothing flagrant or incendiary about encouraging it where it did not flourish before and particularly by inviting those newcomers into their democratic clubs. It is not seen as such in Moscow, Beijing or Tehran to name three. By pitching to and promising Ukraine and Georgia membership of these clubs which sets its faces against everything Putin believes in we set an inevitable course towards conflict when it the conditions were right for Putin.

American weakness, perceived or real, and demonstrated by Afghanistan withdrawal and muddled diplomacy has emboldened him, but most crucially the ridiculous American energy policy cutting its domestic throats while driving up oil prices globally so that Putin could fund his war. To add a little force majeure into the equation the COVID-19 pandemic has also destabilised the global polity and made the circumstances even more ripe for him. To wit, Russia is the fox, Ukraine and Georgia are the hens in the coops and the Western powers as the careless farmhands leaving the picket fence gate ajar.

>254 PaulCranswick: Didn’t you hear Putin? Ukraine doesn’t exist. Ukraineans are russians (leadership is neonazist). It’s just a part of Great Russia. You can’t negotiate with him. He doesn’t want a neutral Ukraine that can flip to the west a decade or two from now. He want it all - or at least a puppet state like Belarus.

EU/NATO have finally woken up. I hope it’s not too late.

Also depressed about the state of the world. Putin watched the west weakening and took his chance. He miscalculated.

Felt a tad better in the afternoon so instead of going in to work I of course went to the book store. In fairness I did need to buy groceries for the home. What I didn't really need but wanted more than yogurt, bread, cheese, vegetables, pasta and coffeemouth wash was:

116. The Late Sun by Christopher Reid
117. A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself by Peter Ho Davies
118. The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka
119. Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
120. A Vicious Circle by Amanda Craig
121. How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
122. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
123. The Collapse of Globalism by John Ralston Saul
124. Land : How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World by Simon Winchester
125. Moonglow by Michael Chabon
126. We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan
127. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
128. Fault Lines by Emily Itami


From the Forward Collection for 2022, I liked Reid's entry the best.
Ho Davies' book looks slim and seductive
I still need to read something by Soyinka
Amanda Craig is developing quite a catalogue of novels and is with O'Farrell and Linda Grant among the UK's leading modern female novelists.
I recall that the Dud Avocado was review very positively in the group by one of my pals recently.
Ralston Saul and Winchester are both full of ideas and I want to imbibe some of their knowledge.
I folded with Moonglow as it was so warmly received in Kimmers' group read (better late than never!)
Mbue, Zayyan, Heller and Itami are all possibles rather than probables for the Women's Longlist that is coming soon. I hope that Yanahigara doesn't get longlisted as that looks a pretty heavy tome to lug home but I think I have added most of the other likely candidates!

>255 PaulCranswick:, great analogy and I agree with your points. If we would reverse our actions on the oil. Why are we being so destructive when what we need to be doing is reviving after covid.

>256 ctpress: I did hear him, Carsten. His words were for a domestic audience - he couldn't say I need to go in because I am afraid that pro-American democracy will take root there to his people. It was a smoke and mirrors message what he wants is to keep the West out of his current sphere of influence. NATO and the US can posture aggressively and emptily but they cannot escalate without putting our very existences at risk. They know this too and have to find away inside the rhetoric to go and negotiate a peace with him before Ukraine is unrecognisable. I repeat that the West doesn't understand its foes and is not strong enough at present to face them down as the steps are taken.

The only real sanction that can cow Putin is to attack his energy industry with sanctions - Biden and Europe are against this as the former refuses to pump and the latter don't want to sit in the dark. As I said American policy lead us here.

Lovely to see you here, my friend, I just wish that the circumstances were less discouraging.

>258 Kristelh: Biden and Kerry believe wholeheartedly in their Green New Deal, I understand that and have some sympathy with its aims but it is not the time or the place for this particular set of peculiar scruples. Sending the domestic oil and gas industry to the dogs makes no sense as a global policy to either reduce overall consumption - American emissions are not going down whilst they are buying that fuel from overseas at greater cost to the American public and jeopardising their security in the process.

It is madness, Kristel. Whilst the Ukrainians were being killed Kerry being interviewed straight from his private jet was vocalising the hope that Putin will think about the climate. Think of a work that rhymes with brick!

>260 PaulCranswick: I know, Kerry’s statement was heartless and ridiculous.

>261 Kristelh: To be fair to him, not intentionally heartless but completely tone-deaf!

>262 PaulCranswick:, you’re more graceful than I.I guess he is hoping that Putin will put the environment ahead of his personal desires in attacking Ukraine. A war will not be beneficial for the environment

>263 Kristelh: That is for sure, Kristel. I think Kerry is a sincere, if somewhat hypocritical, man. Sincere because he sees most all issues through the prism of climate change and hypocritical because flying everywhere by private jet is hardly setting a good example to those he arrives to lecture and hector.

Your new book haul is impressive. Several look tempting. But i am off to work with a satisfactory Wordle result.
Wordle 254 4/6

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>265 PaulCranswick: I hope to read Things in Jar maybe next month. When I read Moonglow, I really liked it.

>266 Helenoel: That is a really good game, Helen. I blanked out totally in the first round which threw me a little. I got it in 5 when the penny dropped.

>267 Kristelh: I am going to have to work out what I want to read next month, Kristel as I have had a very stop start month - trying to read too many books and getting so many real life - especially work - commitments weighing upon me. Want to finish a couple more books and then plan properly with my usual moveable feast for the coming month!

I hope you are feeling better today Paul.

>240 PaulCranswick: Thanks. Will order the first.

>257 PaulCranswick: Nice haul. I ordered some poetry from Bloodaxe, one of my fave poetry publishers. I do order their books by the cover sometimes too, great covers, and rarely a dud.

>269 Caroline_McElwee: I am a bit better thanks Caroline.

Bloodaxe publish many of my favourite poets so I will be interested to see who you acquire.

Hi Paul.

>81 PaulCranswick: I’m so sorry that you’ve been involved in the processes following the death of a worker on site. You sound like me – doing what has to be done when it has to be done, then quietly falling apart after.

>100 PaulCranswick: Excellent, gave me some laughs.

>116 PaulCranswick: Ah well. Sorry you didn’t like it.

>151 PaulCranswick: So glad you could go to Kino and take a side trip to a business meeting.

>156 BekkaJo: I’m sorry to hear that you’ve tested positive for Covid, Bekka. I hope your symptoms end quickly.

>195 PaulCranswick: I’m glad you loved the Reacher series. Bill and I watched it last week, and I re-read Killing Field, the book it was based on, again since watching it. Minor changes, some made sense, some not so much, but nothing that marred the flow and feeling and character of Reacher. Alan Ritchson is still a bit too cute and ripped for the craggy looks and rangy size as described by Lee Child, but he is infinitely better than the short and dimpled Tom Cruise. We can’t wait for season two.

>196 PaulCranswick: A belated Happy Birthday to your eldest. She’s a beautiful woman. Best wishes in seeing her this year.

>197 PaulCranswick: Bill was watching the Leeds Man U game and I saw bits of it. All I could think of was that it was more dangerous than usual there in the rain – players were falling left and right.

>249 PaulCranswick: My husband did not sleep well last night with worry for the war in Ukraine, and he’s got friends in the Navy’s submarine fleet who have been feeding him depressing snippets about how we’re ratcheting up to a potential response to Russian nuclear noises.

>257 PaulCranswick: Definitely a Cranswickian haul! Bravo.

>271 karenmarie: I think you do feel things afterwards, Karen, from being in the moment and having to do your work and then contemplating later what had actually occurred.

I do get the cute bit (believe it or not!) for Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher. He pulls it off for me though.

I think that sleepless nights are going to be the order of the day for a while to come with the world situation at the moment. I would feel a lot happier if Obama was running things than Joe Biden to be honest.

>271 karenmarie: Oh and by the way it looks quite sure that we will be getting a Head Coach from the USA for my beloved Leeds United. May get us more fans Stateside. Jesse Marsch is believed to be about to be confirmed for the job to replace the much adored Marcelo Bielsa.

>1 PaulCranswick: That's some "Long and Winding Road". Someone has probably already mentioned that but since I'm slow to check out threads you have to forgive me.
Have a wonderful week, Paul!

PS: not only is your book haul impressive but you took the time to post each cover. Amazing!!

>249 PaulCranswick: The West's fear of Nuclear destruction is a never ending saga after America's Hiroshima catastrophe.

And now, not only do we have Putin's apres moi, but freaking Belarus ramping it up...
Good Luck to us all with your beautiful measured list after that...

and, while Bring Back Barack is an underlying Democrat theme in the U.S., we don't want him sent into this lunacy.

One more "and" > Germany lost World War II by trying to take over Russia/Soviet Union...response to her tanks will be unreal...

>265 PaulCranswick: Nice haul!

Why are we giving Russia the Crimean Peninsula again?

Paul, just stopping in again because your thread contains so many interesting posts.
First back up to >248 PaulCranswick: Rundgren's album Something/Anything?which contains Hello It's Me was my first adultish album.
Secondly, The Raspberries! I'm proud to say they are homegrdown and out of Cleveland, Ohio . I understand Eric Carmen still lives in the area. We sang so many of their tunes back in the day but I wouldn't say Don't Want to Say Goodbye was one of them. Giggle

What bugs me about Climate Change is infrastructure. More importantly, lack of it. Let's get more pumping stations which take less time and maybe have one or two pumps along side gas tanks.
Gov'ts have to show me just how serious they are about all this. Why don't they prohibit large plastic jugs of detergent and cat litter and make clean, biodegradable pods less expensive and readally available!? Instead, they just keep flapping their lips as if that's enough. Their actions speak louder than words.

Sorry, my simpleton may be showing. ;0) That, and I've got too much time on my hands today. haha

Paul,
Happy Birthday to your lovely daughter.

I've been meaning to watch Reacher. My wife loved the books up until the Tom Cruise movie which she refused to see. We are not big Cruise fans and could not believe they hired him for the part. I feel like this series is a chance to recapture the image and am glad to hear it is good.

Todd Rundgren and Pink Floyd are another two of my favorite artists. Love your music selections.

>275 m.belljackson: The reason I suggested Obama is that there is no way Joe Biden is up to the task.

>276 richardderus: I was pleased with the haul and even more with the truancy involved in its acquisition, RD.
Two reasons for Crimea :
1) We already acquiesced in its annexation in 2014; and
2) The Russians will not accept losing control of Sebastapol which 2014 was all about.

>277 Carmenere: I hadn't heard that Raspberries album for a long time, Lynda, and I had forgotten how stocked full of good things it was. I knew that they were from your neck of the woods somewhere but I don't believe that I was quite aware that they were from Cleveland.

I agree with you on climate change we have to work to get the infrastructure for the alternatives ready and only then push the button on expunging the alternatives, because the USA, for example still needs the power and is simply buying it elsewhere now at the expense of your own industry which is sheer madness and a simple act of vengeance at the oil and gas industry which they see as firmly republican.

>278 hredwards: Nice to see you Harold. To be fair Tom Cruise sort of cast himself as he was a producer of the two Reacher movies as well. They weren't bad films but he was not Jack Reacher of the book - this fellow in the TV series appears to be much moe so.

I was surprised by how strong the Floyd album was as I remembered it more as mood music.

>279 PaulCranswick: The last time I remember hearing about Sevastopol was in Tolstoy's "Sketches,"
where the Russians lost the city to the British and French...and imbued the young Count
with an everlasting hatred of war.

>281 m.belljackson: Sevastopol and an everlasting hatred of war is good historicism! It's strategic importance to the Russian fleet is clear and very much in Putin's thoughts - he would clearly fight for the place.

>266 Helenoel: I could have had it in 2! But I didn't
Wordle 254 4/6

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>283 RBeffa: We were quite well matched with that one, Ron.

>284 PaulCranswick: I bet you would get worldle in 1.

#Worldle #38 1/6 (100%)
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https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

>285 RBeffa: You would lose your money, Ron. But I am sure that Mark would! Took me 5.