---1---
So after two weeks of a 'working holiday' in the (comparatively) cool hills of India, I'm back home. There's a beautiful breeze outside this morning, so I'm not complaining yet. Also, we're expecting the monsoons in the near future, so I hope the back of the intense summer is broken.
---2---
Talking to a cousin last week, I found a bunch of details about the life of one of my ancestors who turned out to be a prominent figure in the 19th century in a big Indian city. Fabulously wealthy because of his successful opium trade with China (which was not illegal at that time), he lost all his money by the end of his life, largely because he financed Goa's freedom struggle, which was unsuccessful because the fleet of ships he sent out were destroyed in a storm.
So interesting, especially because our family now is not at all wealthy, famous or involved with opium of any kind. I read the account with some fascination, if not approval. I guess it appeals to some desire for glamour to know that one is related to the rich and famous of yesteryear. Still, I'm happy to be poor, unknown and honest. The one saving grace in his story was that he was known to be very generous to the poor, and when he died, beggars from all over the city came to attend the funeral and pay their last respects.
---3---
I found this headline in a newspaper.
'State threatens traders with ESMA'
It immediately made me imagine this:
My hopes were dashed by ESMA standing for Essential Service Maintenance Act. And also the creepy woman (who scares the heck out of my nieces) is spelled 'Yzma' not 'Esma'. Sigh.
---4---
It was nice coming back to the World of the Internet, heaps of emails, plenty of new blog posts, things that all my favorite bloggers are talking about, arguing about, announcing. Jen's got a publisher for her new book- Ignatius Press (!!), everybody's excitedly talking about abstinence education, the pros, the cons, and the obvious problems with the existing model (which mostly makes me scared because if this is happening in the States, I can't even imagine how bad the sex education in India is, where women are routinely treated as objects, and I don't think even Catholics have woken up to the Theology of the Body-sex is good perspective), I found out that something I wrote got posted on a big pro-life blog, so I was all
when I opened my laptop last night.
---5---
I am seriously out of practice with this whole quick takes thing. Or maybe the whole blog thing. Maybe I'll pull a Steve Gershom, and write once a month, and dazzle everyone with my rare but brilliant blog posts. Or maybe I'll get back in the mood in a few days, and dazzle you EVERY DAY.
---6---
Was no one else creeped out by BBC's news segment on cockroaches, and how they have evolved in the past TEN years so that they now hate the taste of glucose... which poison manufacturers started putting in cockroach poison ten years ago? They showed the cockroach shaking its head after tasting some sugar AND SPITTING IT OUT. Bleeargh.
---7---
Okay, that's it, folks. Lunch time.
Over to Jen.
No comments:
Post a Comment