Ersatz TLS discussion

Hello, everyone.
I hope no-one is suffering from the intense heat making itself felt in various places around the world.
Keep cool and keep on reading!

Gpfr wrote: "Hello, everyone.
I hope no-one is suffering from the intense heat making itself felt in various places around the world.
Keep cool and keep on reading!"

its lovely here...has only exceeded 25c once in 15 days, lots of rain, cloud and some sun(18-21c), perfect, though not what i exp[ected after the heat of last July

Gpfr wrote: "Hello, everyone.
I hope no-one is suffering from the intense heat making itself felt in various places around the world.
Keep cool and keep on reading!"

Off to a new start. Appreciated! Here in Auburn, it's hot (over 80 degrees F.) but not awfully hot.

On a cool but pleasent midsummer morn i have started a collection of stories from the 1940s to 1960s by Filipino author Nick Jaoquin. The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic

In a handsome volume by Penguin, his stories of the "tropical gothic" were written in English and seem to have taken time to become a staple of post-WW2 Filipino writing.

The first story, from 1947, is impressive and if the standard continues i will enjoy his writing immensely. I found him by accident, previously the only Filipino writer i had read was the brilliant Jose Rizal, whose novels covered the 1880s and 1890s in the country, on the eve of American occupation

AB76 wrote: "On a cool but pleasent midsummer morn i have started a collection of stories from the 1940s to 1960s by Filipino author Nick Jaoquin. [book:The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Go..."

Huh, thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'd never heard of the author but it looks to be right up my street. I'll be interested to hear how the collection as a whole pans out for you.

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On a cool but pleasent midsummer morn i have started a collection of stories from the 1940s to 1960s by Filipino author Nick Jaoquin. [book:The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of th..."

have you read any Jose Rizal? His two novels of the late 19c are really important and influential on the Filipino nationhood, at the time when one colonial power Spain, was clashing with another, the USA

Gpfr wrote: "Hello, everyone.
I hope no-one is suffering from the intense heat making itself felt in various places around the world.
Keep cool and keep on reading!"

Haha! It's 15C and raining here in Aberystwyth - the Italians and Greeks should come on holiday here.

AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On a cool but pleasent midsummer morn i have started a collection of stories from the 1940s to 1960s by Filipino author Nick Jaoquin. [book:The Woman Who Had Two Navels an..."

I'm fairly certain that I've never read a single word from a Filipino author. Yet.

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On a cool but pleasent midsummer morn i have started a collection of stories from the 1940s to 1960s by Filipino author Nick Jaoquin. [book:The Woman Who Had ..."

i found Rizal about a decade ago and he is very very good, only a short writing career though, as he was executed, aged 35, for his rebellious activities

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On a cool but pleasent midsummer morn i have started a collection of stories from the 1940s to 1960s by Filipino author Nick Jaoquin. [book:The Woman Who Had ..."

Seattle and I expect other west coast cities with a US Navy infuence have a substantial population of Filipinos.

Here is one writer -
https://content.lib.washington.edu/ex...

I'm not sure but this may have something to do with it - https://www.history.navy.mil/research...

Of course what started this post for me was Jose Rizal. Seattle has a bridge named after him, one I've sometimes driven over - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Ri...

Take time for a chuckle - https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...

scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Hello, everyone.
I hope no-one is suffering from the intense heat making itself felt in various places around the world.
Keep cool and keep on reading!"

Haha! It's 15C and raining her..."


Raining here in S. Derbyshire. in fact my neighbours have been away for a week and I haven't had to do any watering for them, or myself, since they went. We have had some real downpours, thunder and lightning over the last week or two.

MK wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On a cool but pleasent midsummer morn i have started a collection of stories from the 1940s to 1960s by Filipino author Nick Jaoquin. [book:The W..."

The Philippines and its history is fascinating, a majority christian nation(due to spanish control) so close to the Islamic dominated Indonesian archipelago, with both Spanish and American colonial legacies. Unlike Puerto Rico of course, the American legacy has been less defined, though with Cuba, all three nations became part of the Anglosphere in the 1890s, due to the defeat of Spain.

The 1890s saw much more upheaval in Philippines though, as the national movements clashed with both the Spanish and the American troops, with uneasy alliances between the rebels and the Yanks initially, then leading to full out war between the nationalists and the Yanks

Beautiful summers day in the shires..21c, not too warm but with some gentle sunshine, spared the horrific heat in Southern Europe thankfully, this time last summer it was 39c in the Shires!

New books and topics to research for me, they are:

Politics in Uniform: Military Officers and Dictatorship in Brazil 1960-80 by Maud Chiro

A study of the military culture and thinking in this period, the early chapters look at how unlike in Argentina and Chile a decade earlier, the Yankee influence on the Brazilian military seemed to have permeated far less and it can be seen as different to those other two nations in its origins, though politically it had the same motivations


Stories by Nick Joaquin(1947-66)

Joaquin was a Filipino writer in English,whose style was "Tropical Gothic", the first story was excellent and Penguiin have created a great volume here with text and essays on the writer

The Promise by Damon Galguty(2021)

Was very lukewarm on this initially as found his other novels very average but it has started well in the always interesting mid 80s in South Africa

The Meaning of India by Raja Rao(Essays)

The South Indian master of literature in English, has his non-fiction collected here, he is always a playful, witty scribe. The meeting with Nehru in mid 1930s Nazi Germany is a fascinating little piece, with Rao and the Pandit in playful conversation

I've just started reading Golden Hill by Francis Spufford, a book I've had for about 3 years but have only now got round to reading.

It's 1746 and the mysterious Mr Smith has arrived in New York with a bill of exchange for the huge amount of £1,000. The people he meets try to find out why he's there and what he intends to do with the money, but he remains a mystery and, so far anyway, to the reader, too.

At the point I've got to, he's just been helped to escape from a mob who took him for a papist at the extraordinary Guy Fawkes night celebrations.

It's great fun.

I've also got Light Perpetual by the same author.

Gpfr wrote: " I've just started reading Golden Hill by Francis Spufford, a book I've had for about 3 years but have only now got round to reading.

... I've also got Light Perpetual by the same author. ..."

Loved them both. You might also like to try Red Harvest his best, imo.

Russell wrote: "You might also like to try Red Harves ...."

It's on my list!

An odd but charming find in the library's New Books section. Nancy Schoenberger's "Blanche/The Life and Times of Tennessee Williams' Greatest Creation" is a labor of love, a study of the actresses who have played Blanche Dubois in stage and screen productions of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. She analyzes the interpretations of Blanche by Jessica Tandy, Vivien Leigh (whose film performance is remarkable), Ann-Margaret, Jessica Lange, Patricia Clarkson, Cate Blanchett, and Jemier Jenkins. Our author, a published poet, also composed several poems interpreting the character.
It is described as a very demanding, but absorbing, role for the actress playing the lead. Elia Kazan's film added to the tension with the oil and water casting of Vivien Leigh, a British stage actress whose style was molded by her husband, and young Method actor Marlon Brando. Leigh met with the challenge by moving into the character's emotional core. Since the playwright seems to have stripped away a layer of his own skin in creating this vulnerable character, the result was remarkable.
Tennessee wrote an opera, really, eleven scenes with a poetic undercurrent and without a traditional act structure.
I'm re-reading some chapters... and may view the Leigh movie again.

1984

I’m not much for graphic novels. I was intrigued recently to come across a newish graphic version of 1984, as I had been thinking of re-reading it. The artist is Fido Nesti who is from Brazil and clearly a serious-minded person. Previously he did a graphic version of The Lusiads, the Portuguese national epic.

This 1984 seems to me completely authentic to the spirit of the book. If much of the text is necessarily omitted, the essence is preserved, and the inventive designs supply their own texture and depth, and give a convincing idea of Airstrip One, with its dilapidated streets and looming Ministries. For example, one day Winston Smith does something unusual after work. It is not a dramatic moment. Nonetheless, Nesti gets the atmosphere well:

First panel. Smith, in his Party overalls, looking down, hands in pockets, cigarette in mouth, slouches down a nearly empty street. “In principle a Party Member had no spare time, and was never alone except in bed.”
Next panel. Shop front, window broken, phone booth, all windows broken. “To do anything that suggested a taste for solitude, even to go for a walk by yourself, was always slightly dangerous.”
Next panel. Smith and others passing by a boarded-up shoe repair shop, Smith still absorbed in his own thoughts. “There was a word for it in Newspeak: Ownlife, it was called, meaning individualism and eccentricity.”
Next panel. Smith’s legs, in those overalls, and boots, his shadow, a discarded tin. “But this evening as he came out of the Ministry, he had turned away from the bus-stop and wandered off into the labyrinth of London.” Where the proles live.

Winston and Julia say to each other: “The one thing they can’t do, they can make you say anything – anything – but they can’t make you believe it. They can’t get inside you.” O’Brien of course shows them they were wrong.

It’s all there. A reader knowing only this version would not, I think, miss anything of Orwell’s message. The dissident essays by Goldstein are given in straight text, as is the appendix on Newspeak. I was quite impressed.

Russell wrote: "It’s all there. A reader knowing only this version would not, I think, miss anything of Orwell’s message..."

Whereas the novel had an important message, I'm not a great admirer of it 'as a novel' - Orwell's real-life reportage was much better, IMO. It sounds as if this version would solve that problem!

You make a good point there. It’s 50+ years since I read it, and hardly any images from the book stay in my mind, just the message. Here the images have equal impact. For a start, Winston and Julia and O’Brien, and Big Brother, all have faces, and Nesti’s imagination in the dramatic moments adds a whole dimension.

I am in the traditional camp when it comes to reading both mysteries and spy stories. For example, I will admit to reading The Appeal by Janice Hallett, but it was a chore. She subsequently made it to meyDNR (do not read or do not resuscitate - your preference list).

I now know I should have heeded the Publishers Weekly blurb - "Spy Fiction Like No Other" on the cover of . It started off okay, but then exerpts from MI5 archives showed up. They probably will be tied to together at some point - I was lost, though, so I quit. Happy to say that it is a library book and is going home today.

Two choices for next read are waiting for me there - and Foggy, Foggy Death, a Captain Heimrich mystery (by the same team that brought Mr. & Mrs. North to the world). Which to choose?

By now people here have probably figured out that I am lousy when it comes to names. However, I do remember a post about a book that included Dien Bien Phu. I want to heartily recommend Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam which I am about 1/3 of the way through. The book begins at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Ho Chi Minh was there to ask for independence for his country. Of course he got absolutely no where.

I wish I had anything close to his perseverence.

What this book does is put the struggle for Viet Nam into a global context and how events (including, so far, the Death of FDR and the rise of Mao) altered the goal of independence.

Here's a wikipedia link about the book - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embers_...

A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the doctors and nurses in their efforts - and the teachers - my sight is deteriorating rapidly waiting because I cannot have another injection until I see the consultant.
It’s not so bad if I sit still so I managed to finishThe mistress of Bhatia House that I mentioned the other day. The title is rather a misnomer - it’s more about the troubles befalling one of the servants. The book deals with aspects of law relating to women mainly in India and, as usual, the relationships between the British and Indian.
One reads reports from time to time of young girls raped and killed in rural parts in present times and the promises by the Indian authorities to bring those guilty to justice but it does still seem very much a man’s world still. I hope it is changing.
I have chosen another book to start called The Historian . Have to look up the author.
I have gone back to wearing my eyepatch as the double triple wision is getting ridiculous so as Ram would say’ I only need the parrot!’

CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the doctors and nurse..."

The NY Times had back to back pieces - one featuring the NHS - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/16/wo...

and the other was the commodification of US healthcare. An example here in Seattle is a doctor's group that was bought by a company trading on the NYSE @$500 today.

I have to go hunting for a primary care physician as mine quit and a friend who has lymphoma lost her cancer doctor as well. I wonder where in the world is a good place to be a doctor today.

Sorry to say that none of this is a help to you. Is there any possibility of getting an appointment somewhere (outside NHS) that will work for you? Eyesight is so damned precious.

Got an email from Blackwell's about Penguin Modern Classics – Crime & Espionage.

Looks like others have seen the popularity of the British Library Crime Classics and are getting on board.

CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the doctors and nurse..."

Sorry to hear about your issues and their dependence upon "consultants." I recently had lunch with a young MD who has a start-up for a novel way of delivering drugs intra-orbitally without injections, and is collecting money to begin a clinical trial. Hopefully someday soon, the need for such invasive procedures will be diminished.

CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the doctors and nurse..."

Sorry to hear about the vision problems CC. Occasionally I get a sense of my much younger self, which I took so much for granted. Everything worked, no suspicious creaks and aches in places that I had not even been aware of before... 'we never had it so good' as when we weren't even aware that we actually had it at all... take care...

Paul wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the ..."

Something that could be administered other than by injection would be great so I hope all goes well.

CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the doctors and nurse..."

how long do the injections improve the eyesight for? i know a friend who is waiting for an injection related to her awful arthiritis and she is still waiting after 8 months in incredible pain.

i guess the private option would be eye-watering?

MK wrote: "By now people here have probably figured out that I am lousy when it comes to names. However, I do remember a post about a book that included Dien Bien Phu. I want to heartily recommend [book:Ember..."

twas me reading about Dien Bien Phu and its cropped up in my book about the Brazilian military in the 1960-80 period
Most people dont realise that the main consultant for any kind of anti-guerilla warfare in Brazil and Latin America in the 1950s was the french, via their experiences in Vietnam and Algeria. Their strategies fed into a cold war melting pot which became the dangerous, violent american sponsored anti-communist funding of the Chilean, Argentinian and Paraguayan military dictatorships.

AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the ..."

Yes, I know they cost a lot of money - hundreds of pounds, I cannot grumble. I have been having them for 6 years now, every six weeks mostly.The effects give me clearer (loss of colour/ distorted, but less painful) vision for a couple of weeks . They have retained some sight in my bad eye but as the double vision gets worse the problems multiply. i am reaching the point where i am undecided whether to stop the injection , lose that sight but also lose this awful double vision because it affecrs balance when the world is jumping about.
Injections are given for wet macular degeneration - different stuff to mine as that’s not my problem - and people tell me they do help. I go to the same clinic for them.

CCCubbon wrote: "AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do..."

So sorry to hear this, CC. I hope you get your appointment soon.

CCCubbon wrote: "AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do..."

are you an audio fan for reading CCC?

The Promise by Damon Galgut is a great read so far, last night as i read some more, i found it the perfect balance of modern lit for me, with a strong literary fiction bent, historical and cultural accuracy and a biting pathos concerning Afrikaaner culture in the mid 1980s.

Galgut is restrained in his commentary on what is wrong with mid 80s South Africa, so it is realistic without trying to tick all the boxes to make things acceptable, while also concentrating on a family, grief and the promise, at the heart of the novel.

CCCubbon wrote: "AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do..."

So sorry CCC what a rotten situation to be in. Fingers crossed that you will soon get another appointment.

CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the doctors and nurse..."

Really sorry to hear this, CC. I hope you get some good news soon.

Very sorry to hear of your eye troubles, CC.

I hope you get your appointment as soon as possible CC.
Maybe losing the sight of one eye would be preferable to risking falls .
I quite enjoyed The Historian how are you getting on with it?

Today I saw 🚕🚕🚕This one had a vanity license plate - BUMBLEB🚕.

So I thought was time to see what Mick Herron has been cooking up. Here is what is coming down the pike (pub date 9/12). The bad news is that it is a standalone spy story. You may want to check your local library to see if you can get in line (I did and was able to.) Title is

Greenfairy wrote: "I hope you get your appointment as soon as possible CC.
Maybe losing the sight of one eye would be preferable to risking falls .
I quite enjoyed The Historian how are you getting on with it?"

I have only read a few chapters. It’s very readable. I don’t usually read horror ( buy such books for one of my granddaughters). I do read CJ Tudor’s book - strange stories. Liked the Drift which is pretty good.

I'm in the midst of my usual reading chaos. I finished In the Dream House (it's good), went back to Their Eyes Were Watching God (ditto), but sitting in the garden in some rare sunshine yesterday decided it was time for a reread of The Enchanted April. The sun has vanished big time today and it's dreich (as lass might say) out. Haven't a clue what I'm reading right now.

CCCubbon wrote: "A telephone call this morning told me that my appointment with the consultant on Friday is cancelled because of the strike. This is the second cancellation. While I do support the doctors and nurse..."

Very sorry to hear that... IMO, the situation was entirely avoidable had the governments since 2010 continued to increase funding of the NHS in line with the average since its inception, but they chose not to do so. You would have to ask them about what they did spend money on - or why they chose not to institute windfall taxes on certain absurdly profitable industries...

In the meantime, it's patients such as yourself who suffer...

AB76 wrote: "how long do the injections improve the eyesight for?..."

I'm not an expert, but what I've heard from others makes me think the results vary a lot. At one end of the scale - my oldest friend (we met as tots in 1950) told me he'd had just one injection, and that solved the problem for him (this was maybe 20 years ago). My mother had injections - maybe 12 or so in 3 years -until being told that there was no point in continuing as they were no longer working - her sight continues to deteriorate, and is now very poor. Other patients we met in the hospital waiting room told us they'd been treated over many years, and had dozens of injections...

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "how long do the injections improve the eyesight for?..."

I'm not an expert, but what I've heard from others makes me think the results vary a lot. At one end of the scale - my oldest ..."

just a shame this tory shower keeps playing games with the unions, its been 12 months of defiance from a government on its way out...shameful

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "how long do the injections improve the eyesight for?..."

I'm not an expert, but what I've heard from others makes me think the results vary a lot. At one end of the scale - my oldest ..."

I have had more than 40 injections now, everyone’s different.

I know Blair is not popular but I am so very very grateful that when I needed major surgery it was during his time as PM for the NHS was excellent, well funded then.

Gpfr wrote: "Russell wrote: "You might also like to try Red Harvest ...."

It's on my list!"

I suppose you meant Red Plenty, which is indeed on my list, but now that I've finished Golden Hill, I've just discovered that Red Plenty is an older book and, if I understand correctly, a mix of fact and fiction, not the third of his novels as I thought.

Under 'who knew' I'm off to the farmers market this a.m. intending to buy a half-flat of raspberries and an ear of corn that I want to add to a tomato soup I will make later today. So imagine my surprise when the Consumer Reports Food email showed up touting corn - especially fresh - as healthful.

This clip continues our eye posts - The biggest nutritional boon for corn is that it’s an excellent source of lutein and zeaxanthin, which give the kernels their yellow color. (White corn has very little lutein and zeaxanthin.) These two antioxidants are often grouped together, but many foods that are considered good sources, such as leafy greens, are actually rich in only one or the other. Corn, however, contains good amounts of both.

Lutein and zeaxanthin are extremely important for eye health. They’re deposited in the retina, especially in a small section in the center called the macula, where they absorb blue light, protecting cells in that part of the eye from damage. Having adequate lutein and zeaxanthin in your diet helps reduce the risk of macular degeneration, a disease that causes loss of central vision.

Looks like I will avoid white or multi-colored corn at the market in the future.

MK wrote: "Under 'who knew' I'm off to the farmers market this a.m. intending to buy a half-flat of raspberries and an ear of corn that I want to add to a tomato soup I will make later today. So imagine my su..."

Broccoli and spinach.

Now wouldn't all these posts be modded on the Guardian for being off topic. 🤣

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Under 'who knew' I'm off to the farmers market this a.m. intending to buy a half-flat of raspberries and an ear of corn that I want to add to a tomato soup I will make later today. So im..."

So says one who has been permanently barred from same.🤐

I admit to the offense - it just struck me of the coincidence, especially with CCCs awful eye problems. Over sharing, here.

Perhaps that's because I am still (27 of 35 parts) listening to Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam and remembering nothing of Dien Bien Phu even though I was around then - too young, I guess, to even know there was something called 'The News'. In any case I heartily recommend (did I do that already?) this book. It is extemely good at adding all the international politics into the narrative. Well before Dien Bien Phu the US was committed to a semblance of the war (because of the Communists and the Domino Theory) with the supply of munitions, war equipment, napalm, and air drops by the CIAs 'civilian air arm'. And the Viet Minh's final push had to be completed before the crucial portion of an international powers meeting in Vienna. Wow! BTW, the Brits did not want any part of the US push to keep the war alive.

Initially, I had thought I would quit when the US took over this debacle because my then husband was an Army man and went to Viet Nam (Cam Ranh Bay), and his brother who had been the USAF Fighter Pilot of the year (F86) before being shot down over Laos during a bombing run. I never understood what that was about as I thought only the US had air power. A fighter pilot on a bombing run, really?

Now I think I'll listen to the end - I might learn even more.