Monsieur Pamplemousse Hits the Headlines by Michael Bond

This is the second Monsiuer Pamplemousse mystery I've read. With 20 years between the publication of the two, I must say that the characters have aged well. Pommes Frites must be the world's oldest bloodhound, but he is still going strong. I've learned a little more about the protagonist: Aristide Pamplemousse is a former police officer, who, with Pommes Frites by his side cracked many crimes. Some sort of scandal, only hinted at, forced the two of them into early retirement where Mr. Pamplemousse might have languished were it not for an offer to be a food critic for The Guide.

In this episode, Mr Pamplemousse acquires a ticket to be in the audience for France's premiere television cooking show. The host, Claude Chavignol, was a real showman and had become a national celebrity. With cameras running and broadcasting to the whole of France, Chavignol consumes one exquisite oyster and drops dead. Mr. Pamplemousse is on the case, and this time it's personal. It appears that the grieving widow has a photographic hobby and if the pictures fall into the wrong hands, Pamplemousse and his boss at The Guide could be in deep trouble.

Once again, this was fun to read. Mr. Bond is clearly on intimate terms with the French, and he uses his familiarity to gently poke fun at them. Early in the story, Pamplemousse is stopped in traffic enroute to his sister-in-law's house, where he knows he will have to endure her dreadful tripes à la mode de Caen. While waiting, he strikes up a conversation with the gendarme and a census taker, eventually pulling in other surrounding motorists, about the best way to prepare tripe. Of course they all have an opinion on the matter. Why? Because they're French!

Recommended light reading.

(Cross-posted as usual.)

MIA Blogger

OK, dear readers. Time for a little life update. I love blogging for three reasons:

• I can't resist a soapbox.
• I love to write.
• I love the friendships and connections I've made here.

But sometimes I feel guilty [I do guilt really well] because I don't visit other people's blogs often enough. And then I metaphorically beat myself up -- in a most Quakerly fashion, of course.

Anyway, I have a ridiculously busy life as I'm realizing this Sunday afternoon, when several chickens are coming home to roost. (And I don't mean Cinderbelle, although as I write this she is on her way home for the summer.)

• I am still working to become certified as a school library media specialist. I am 140 hours of student teaching away from getting my initial license. Starting tomorrow I am taking a week's unpaid leave from my full-time job as a kindergarten teacher to go and student teach in a school library. The other 100 hours will be completed during the summer. I am very excited to finish this piece up, but it did mean that ...
• I had to spend hours this morning making up a week's worth of lesson plans for my substitute teacher. I've taught long enough that much of what I do is in my head, and it is work to articulate it for someone else. The good thing is, my sub was my student teacher in the fall semester. She knows me, she knows the kids, and she's excellent so if need be she'll improvise.
• I am also working on a master's degree in library science, which means I am currently taking a graduate level course in Information Architecture. I have 2 classes left in the semester, a major web design project due on 5/7 and a minor paper due this Wednesday. I hate this class, and having it be over will be a great big relief. I give the professor this though: being in his class made me realize that doing grad school in this way is not my cup of tea. There is such a disconnect between the proverbial ivory tower and the muck of real life. (And given the choice, I prefer the muck.) For all that this university makes a big deal about welcoming returning adult students, I don't see a lot of support for students like me. When I expressed my frustration to the prof one day when he was doing some finger wagging at us, he told me, "You are a disruption. If that ever happens again there will be severe consequences." I'm probably 15 years older than him, and he shamed and threatened me. No thanks. (If you recall, I was excited about this class at the beginning. The professor killed all that.)
  
• My youngest child is in a play, which requires a ton of driving. Luckily we have a great carpool from our neighborhood, but it still takes time.
• My car is dead, temporarily at least.
• I am on the board of directors for a summer camp, which is kicking into high gear as the camping season approaches.
• Oh yeah, we still have to eat. Although I've been doing just fine on Grape Nuts and microwave Annie's mac and cheese for the last week.
  

Anyway ... if it seems like I am not stopping by your blog, it's not because I don't want to. Summer's coming, and my time will be a little freer.

<3

Note to Molly, the wonder dog: When I said I preferred the muck, I meant it metaphorically, not that I wanted to scrub poop off the wall. OK?

Book Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Illustrated by Ellen Forney is Alexie's first foray into the world of young adult literature. It tells the story of Junior, an artistic, funny 14-year old boy growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation in Washington state. Junior was born with hydrocephalis, and has been the target of bullies for his entire life. When he decides to leave the reservation to attend high school in the all-white community 20 miles away (where the only other Indian is the school mascot,) he is seen as a traitor to his own people. This is a very witty, beautiful, and poignant coming-of-age story.

I don't want to give away too much, but I just want to share one itty bitty favorite part. Junior is talking about his grandmother, whose greatest gift, he says, was tolerance. He goes on to explain how "in the old days, Indians used to be forgiving of any kind of eccentricity. In fact, weird people were often celebrated ... Gay people were often seen a magical too ... Gay people could do anything. They were like Swiss Army knives!"

I love love loved this book, and highly recommend it.

(Cross-posted at the Spring Reading Challenge)

FUTK

Tonight I belatedly got around to watching Shut Up & Sing, a 2006 film that documents the three years after Dixie Chick Natalie Maines' infamous comment in London in 2003. I watched the first half of the movie with my heart in my mouth: so many celebrities spoke out initially and then backed down in fear of losing their careers, their commercial sponsors, etc.

Natalie never backed down. It was inspiring to watch her meet the animosity with dignity and grace. She stood up, not only to her critics, but to well-meaning friends and associates who all just wanted her to shut up and sing.

It was also very moving to see the unified front that the band presented to the world. Whatever private emotions any of them entertained late at night, they were there for each other with a remarkable amount of love and respect.

I have to say, the film made me very sad, a mixture of grief over all that we have lost and shame for what has been done in our names, both here and abroad. It exposes the incredible ugliness that, in my mind, marks the last 7 1/2 years in this country. The stupidity and small-minded downright mean-ness of people took my breath away. There were threats on their lives, for God's sake!

I was reminded of so many people who should have known better, who felt that we had to stand behind "our president" in those early days following 9/11 and leading up to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The film ends on a great note, with the Dixie Chicks back in London, playing to a sold out arena, and Natalie Maines stands on the stage and says, "I am embarrassed that the president of the United States is from Texas." That's when I wanted to stand up and cheer.

I recommend this film. It was made by Barbara Kopple, who also made the acclaimed Harlan County USA.

The Most Beautiful Blogger in the 'Sphere

Check this out, at about the 9th second:


Did you blink? Well, here's a screen shot:

Happy Birthday, Enriched Geranium!

Scurry over and wish him a happy birthday, before it's tomorrow.
<3

1 ... 2 ... 3 ... Not It!

Well, I was tagged and I am supposed to identify 5 favorite websites, so here goes.

1. Etsy; this is an online marketplace for artists and crafters. I'm sure it is run by Republican shills, but I love it anyway. I just like to browse and see what people are making and selling. I've bought a couple of things. The prices run from dirt cheap to what you should expect to pay to purchase an original piece of artwork.
2. Knit Picks; this is an online store for knitters. They sell luxury yarns at affordable prices. How do they manage that? At first I thought that they might be the WalMart of the knitting world. Now I think that they keep prices low by putting their own label on the yarns, which are all imported from Peru. Which might, in fact, make them the WalMart of the knitting world, but it's the best I can do right now.
3. Common Dreams; it is my favorite online news magazine, although sometimes I have to take an extended break because it is so damned disheartening.
4. Folk Alley; an online radio station that plays only folk music, none of that Devil's rock 'n' roll.
5. The Cooperative Children's Book Center; a.k.a. the CCBC, it is a non-circulating research library of children's books, located right here in my home town. The website is an extraordinary resource for educators, librarians, and people who simply like children's literature. They review as many new books as they can each year, and publish an annual guide called CCBC Choices. They also act as a clearinghouse of information for schools and libraries that are facing a challenge to a book.

A Favorite Photo

'Tis the man who with a bird, Wren or Eagle, finds his way to All its instincts..." - John Keats

This is my bro. Paul, and a feathered friend of his. He worked at a nature center, and this eagle was pretty cantankerous, but for some reason was sweet on him (probably 'cause he's a sweet guy.) I love this picture.



Revisionist History, Revised

I remember that this book made a splash when it came out in 2001. Alice Randall's novel The Wind Done Gone is billed as "the unauthorized parody" of Gone With the Wind. I didn't think it was so much a parody as a look through a different lens at Margaret Mitchell's famous ode to the Confederacy.

The story is told through the journals of Cindy (Cynara, Cinnamon) a former slave and illegitimate daughter of Planter, the owner of the plantation Tata. Cindy's birth mother is Mammy, wet nurse to Other -- Planter's eldest daughter. Much of the narrative revolves around Mammy's abandonment of her own daughter in favor of the master's child, and the complex relationship Cindy had with her half sister.

Sold as an adolescent, Cindy had several owners including Beauty, the madame of an Atlanta brothel and ultimately the Southern gentleman R.B. He makes Cindy his concubine at the tender age of 15 and marries her half sister several years later. Now 29, with the war over and subsequent Reconstruction doing an about-face, Cindy is looking back at her life and attempting to find some meaning in it.

If you are familiar with Gone With the Wind either from the book or the movie, you'll enjoy the "aha" moments in The Wind Done Gone. What I found compelling, and what made this book controversial, is that through this well-known story, Randall explodes notions of racial purity and strips some veneer from our perception of "civilized" society. Her work of fiction contains echoes of the ongoing struggle for historic recognition by the descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his slave/lover Sally Hemings.

The writing shines. It is a quick and enjoyable read, with some important messages embedded within the story. I recommend this book.

(Cross-posted at the Spring Reading Challenge)

Hens and Chicks

Here's a great article from our local morning paper:

Dolores Kamm's handshake is firm and strong — like the drive she has in running her bakery and the commitment she shows for her ailing older sisters.

In the 36 years since Kamm started a second career baking bread in northern Green County, perhaps the only thing that's diminished is her sense of smell. The 84-year-old barely notices the warm, slightly sweet odors that emanate from the small Kamm's Farm Bakery, built onto the side of her rural home.

Baking upwards of 800,000 loaves of bread can do that to a person. (Read the rest here.)

I have my own story about Kamm's Farm Bakery. When I was first a kindergarten teacher, I used to hatch chicks in my classroom. (Sadly, this is no longer allowed in our district because one faulty incubator caused a fire a few years back.) I had 6 or so little chicks who were quickly changing from cute and fluffy to ugly and smelly, and I had no place for them to go. At that time the Kamms were some of the only vendors selling organic eggs at our food co-op. I got their phone number from an egg carton and called them up to see if they wanted my chicks. They did, I breathed a sigh of relief, and thought that was that.

Two years later, I came home from work one day to find a carton of eggs on my front porch with a note saying that the chicks had grown into fine layers, and here were some of their eggs. I was really touched by their sweetness, and still make a point of buying their bread from time to time.

Spitting Nails

From Common Dreams, Cindy Sheehan speaking at Cal State San Marcos:

Sheehan criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, for not taking steps to impeach President Bush, who she said misled the country into a protracted conflict with Iraq and condoned the torture of prisoners of war.

Sheehan’s goal is to unseat Pelosi in November. Pelosi has represented San Francisco since 1987.

Asked whether she supports any of the presidential candidates, Sheehan, who left the Democratic Party on Memorial Day, said she does not have any hope in them.

“But I have a lot of hope in the American people,” she said.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said that Pelosi, too, is frustrated with the ongoing war in Iraq but believes that impeachment would be divisive and distract Congress from improving the lives of working families.

It's that last bit from Pelosi's spokesperson that makes me want to spit nails. Please somebody tell me exactly what Congress has done to improve the lives of working families. How do you improve the lives of working families by letting the guy who is ruining them stay in office??? Mr. Ether has been unemployed since August. One of the premiere employers in our area -- SubZero/Wolff, manufacturers of high end kitchen appliances and a company that paid union wages -- laid off close to 300 people this week because, guess what: the bottom has fallen out of the building/remodeling industry. Same reason Mr. Ether isn't working.

As I've said so often, BushCo has done nothing that I didn't expect of them. The democrats however, have simply done nothing, while our lives fall apart. I am so angry.

When Will We Ever Learn?

Quaker Dave, the Quaker Agitator, wrote an excellent post this week about why progressives should not advocate for reinstatement of military conscription, and why instead, we should all be out there actively opposing the next war (and the next and the next ...) I hope you will go and read it.

War is not only immoral and ineffective, it is stupid. Its main function is to line the pockets of profiteers. We don't need to become apologists for any war. Better to keep all young people safe.

Book Review: Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot

This is one of those books that I stumbled across enroute to looking something else up. Michael Bond is the author of the children's books about Paddington the bear, which I thoroughly enjoyed as a child and as a parent reading them to my own kids. I thought I would give his books for adult readers a try.

Monsieur Pamplemousse is an undercover food critic for The Guide, a prestigious French culinary guidebook. He is also an amateur detective; mysteries seem to find him. He fancies himself to be something of a modern Sherlock Holmes. In this adventure (one of many; the series spans decades) Pamplemousse and his trusty sidekick, a large blood hound appropriately named Pommes Frites, are taking a well-earned vacation at a renowned resort called Les Cinq Parfaits. Alas, the head dessert chef has disappeared, and M. Pamplemousse is on the case!

I have to say, the story was a little difficult to follow, but perhaps that is because I didn't begin at the beginning of the series. I also found some of the references to be rather dated, but the book was published in 1986 (which seems like only yesterday ...) On the whole, it was fun to read. I quite enjoyed all of the hoity-toity food and wine references. Mr. Bond has his tongue firmly planted in his cheek as he writes these books. I have one of the more recent ones checked out from the library, and I will happily give it a try to see how the series has developed.

(Cross-posted at the Spring Reading Challenge)

Minding the Gap

Note: This post contains references to God and expressions of faith. I consider myself to be agnostic. While I am certain of the existence of something that resides in and beyond myself, that connects me with all of this world, because of my upbringing I am not comfortable referring to it as "God." Sometimes I refer to "spirit" or to the term used by a dear old Friend, Francis Hole: "Divine Companion." Sometimes I just sort of mumble something incoherently or borrow a god from Terry Pratchett.

I was not brought up a Friend, and in fact worship and prayer were never a part of my life experience until I began attending Quaker Meeting 16 years ago. I love Meeting for Worship, but I confess that sometimes I have a hard time centering down and calming my monkey mind. Therefore I will often bring a book of devotional readings with me to Meeting, which I know irritates some Friends no end, but there you have it. At least I don't knit! Or snore ...

Last Sunday I had one of my current favorite books with me, Catherine Whitmire's Practicing Peace: A Devotional Walk Through the Quaker Tradition. I find myself turning to this book quite often for guidance in navigating these troubled and disheartening times, when a world without war seems very far away. Whitmire talks about how, as Friends we are challenged to stand in the gap between the way things are and the way they could be. The writer/educator Parker Palmer puts it this way:

There is no easy solution. There never has been and there never will be. But we must learn to stand in this gap, faithfully holding the tension and negotiating between what is and what is possible. (p. 30)

Whitmire adds, "Through prayer and discernment we, too, can know in which gaps God would have us stand. Our efforts may feel unimportant, but nothing is too small to make a difference ... It is important that we climb God's holy hill and stand in the social, political, and spiritual gaps of our time, not only because God calls us, but because there is no one else to go." [my italics]

I find myself yearning for a leader, another Gandhi or King, who will make big waves and bring about another social and political revolution. I am discouraged when no one appears. The fact is, we have to be the ones to carry that torch. Each of us has the capacity to plant those seeds, to bring about change. We have to, because there is no one else to do it.

Thomas R. Kelly said,

No giant figure of historic size will stalk across the stage of history today, as a new Messiah. But in simple, humble, imperfect people like you and me wells up the spring of hope. We have this treasure of the seed in earthen vessels -- very earthen vessels. You and I know how imperfect we are. Yet those little demonstrations of love and goodwill ... deeds done in the midst of suffering ... stir hope that humanity as a whole will be aroused to yield to the press and surge of the Eternal Love within them ... (p. 31)

How am I minding the gap, and working for a peaceful and just world?

(The photo above was taken in London last month by my friend Vicki, who minds the gap by working to get military recruiters out of our local schools. Used by permission.)

Two Concerts in Two Evenings

It never rains but it pours, and it is pouring around here, both literally and figuratively. Last night I went to see The Anonymous Four in concert. My friend had given me tickets for my birthday last August; lucky thing I remembered where I put the tickets and when the concert was!

The Anonymous Four are a quartet (duh!) of women who sing mainly American sacred music: sacred harp, shape note, etc. Maybe you have heard them on A Prairie Home Companion and NPR, among other venues. Technically, they were very good. Their harmonies were exquisite and it was a pleasure to hear both old favorites and new songs. But, as my companion for the evening said afterward, perhaps they were a little too good for the style of music they were doing. All of them are classically trained, with real book larnin', music degrees, and everything. And the thing is, the music they performed, largely comes from grassroots traditions. It is community music, and as such, felt a little out of place being performed for an audience of polite middle-aged people in a concert hall. At least that is how I felt, but I have been known to be a little opinionated every now and then.

Tonight I went to hear one of my favorite contemporary singer-songwriters, Kris Delmhorst. She was wonderful, as usual. If you like folkie stuff and have a chance to see her, by all means do. She's based in the Boston area, but criss-crosses the country (and the Atlantic Ocean) pretty frequently. She may be slowing down her touring a little after June, because she's having a baby. (Sigh. Mommy energy: It's just one more reason for me to love her.)

Here's a sample:

Book Review: The Peaceable Kingdom

The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga by Jan de Hartog is a sweeping epic novel about Quakers in the United States. One of two volumes (the second is The Lamb's War) it covers a period of a little over 100 years, from 1652 to 1755. Presumably it is well researched, considering that it is a stalwart of most Quaker libraries. The novel begins in Lancashire, England with George Fox's arrival at Swarthmoor Manor, the home of Margaret Fell. (For those unacquainted with Friends: George Fox was the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, Margaret Fell is sometimes called "the mother of Quakerism" and Fell's home, Swarthmoor, gave it's name to Swarthmore College, which was founded by Friends. Whew. Got that? There will be a quiz at the end of the post.) Fox had been spreading his radical message of "that of God in everyone" throughout England for several years when he first met Margaret Fell. Fell, and a number of members of her household, became "convinced" Friends. This was shortly before Oliver Cromwell declared Quakerism to be illegal, beginning the widespread brutal persecution of Quakers in Britain.

Fast forward a couple of generations. Descendants of the original Swarthmoor Friends were comfortably settled in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") was William Penn's Holy Experiment and Philadelphia was its capital. By this time Quaker political influence was beginning to wane, but there was a large community of Friends, most of whom were quite wealthy. (It is sometimes said that Friends came to America to do good and did very well indeed.) At this time many Friends were slave owners. In this book at least, they prided themselves on treating their slaves well, often educating them, but did not see the hypocrisy of, for example, adhering to a testimony of equality among all people and at the same time owning slaves.

Because one of the mainstays of Quakerism is Quaker Process, a decision making process which is spirit-led and seeks to unite all members in the outcome (kind of like consensus, but not quite) it famously took about 100 years for the Religious Society of Friends, as an institution, to condemn slavery as evil and the majority of Friends to no longer own slaves.

In The Peaceable Kingdom, Boniface Baker -- a wealthy plantation owner -- accidentally finds a set of diaries that had been kept by his grandmother, who had been Margaret Fell's children's governess. Her writing, along with a series of events among the slaves on his plantation, convinces him that slavery is evil. He makes the decision, considered unbelievably rash by his contemporaries, to free his slaves, divide his plantation equally among them, and go west to homestead in the Ohio wilderness.

There are also a number of subplots involving his family, his overseer, the slaves, and the Delaware Indians, who had moved off the land years before, after making treaties with William Penn (some of the only treaties with Native Americans that were ever honored, for a while at least.) It was the subplots which I found to be overly melodramatic and veering off into the improbable, or sometimes just plain irritating.

Hartog really wanted to underscore that when it came to slavery, Quakers made a big mistake spiritually and morally. They had become too rich and comfortable. I appreciated that in his story and I have certainly encountered vestiges of that among Friends today. However, he was very heavy-handed in describing the otherness of the black slaves to the point where I almost wondered whether he didn't believe a little of it himself.

The other thing that really bothered me was the character of one of the slaves, a young woman named Cleo. She is described over and over, ad nauseum, as a temptress, a seductress, a siren, an animal ... I think you get the picture. She is considered to be such a troublemaker with her raw sexuality, that the overseer makes the reprehensible plan to breed her (i.e. have her raped) with a stud from another plantation, thinking that a baby will change her ways. Boniface intervenes and forbids it. Toward the end of the book, when Cleo has decided to migrate west as a free woman, but continues her vixen-like ways (she's a real Quaker vixen) it transpires that she gets a foundling baby and -- lo and behold -- motherhood does indeed transform her. Not to dis' motherhood, because I certainly love it, but c'mon! Unbridled animal lust cured by motherhood, and an immaculate conception no less, was just a little much.

Overall, I found this to be a compelling read. It can be read and enjoyed by non-Quakers, but gives a good sense Quaker faith and practice. The story has a modern feel to it which my bias says really speaks to the timelessness of Quaker beliefs. I plan to read the next volume, but I need a little breather before I dive in.

(Cross-posted at the Spring Reading Challenge.)

Heckuva Job

I finally made some time to watch When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Spike Lee's documentary film about Hurricane Katrina. There is not much I can say that has not already been said about the utter lack of caring and inhumanity on the part of government, that marked the event and its aftermath. (I have a personal example of that failure to act. My nephew was in the Air National Guard, finishing up his basic training near Biloxi, when Katrina hit. I thought for sure that he would be sent somewhere on the Gulf Coast to help with the disaster. No, it was far more important for his unit to finish up training so they could be shipped out to the Middle East -- in his case, Kuwait -- for a year.)

I don't know a lot about the making of the film, but from the film footage I gather that Lee or his associates were on the ground filming in New Orleans from before the time the hurricane made landfall. I'd seen some of the stock footage before, but he had so much more.

Lee also does a good job of putting the catastrophe into historical and sociological context. Race and class issues surely played into it, but I think that Harry Belafonte hit the nail on the head when he said the first thing that kept the Bush administration from acting was "the arrogance of power." Power corrupts, always. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believe it corrupts ones heart and soul, making empathy nonexistent.

For me, almost the worst part about it is that the cover-up began almost immediately and continues to this day. It was so effectively swept under the carpet. I think it was writer Bob Harris who said something about one of the major cities in the U.S. being washed off the map and nobody cared. I would guess that, as far as the average person on the street is concerned, everything is back to normal in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Why was so little attention paid to it, once the waters receded?

If you have not had a chance to see When the Levees Broke, it is a must-see. I'll warn you, it is not light entertainment and it is not pretty. Some of it is downright gruesome, and it will probably rile you up. But it is so important that people were there, bearing witness, so others can know about it. Like the Holocaust, like My Lai, like 9/11 and all the other greater and lesser human-made tragedies, I think that the very least someone like me can do is to acknowledge it. Yes, it happened. Yes, we remember.