No, this isn't yet another post about Donald Trump. I have a flash fiction style story up again at FlashFlood this year, which runs for 24 hours in June in honor of (Britain's) National Flash Fiction Day. The slight twist is that I happen to have gotten more involved in a little online writing group recently. Kind of a fever took hold and quite a few of our members managed to submit and get accepted by the deadline, which made it fun to look for their stories instead of just my own--which, let's face it, I already know pretty well.
As was the case last year, I was struck by what a wide range of styles and subjects emerged. My story "The Show-off" can be found right HERE.
I am not a lawyer, but in any universal Golden Rule sort of standard, I am pretty sure that the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness trumps the right to bear arms. Period.
And this just in, a Congressional cover of the song.
But on the right path, though they are, let's face it, they ain't Joan Baez. So...
I was just idly flicking through the channels one evening when I happened upon an old Huell Howser video about his road trip to Chico in which he has ended up at the Sierra Nevada Brewery. At the point I came in he was talking about the brewing process and was discussing the importance of hops with the brewmaster.
I like beer, and in recent years have developed more of a taste for hoppy beers than I once had. Hops are all the rage now, or maybe they went too far and are now becoming a little less overwhelming in whatever's fashionable, but I have to say that until that moment I had never once in my life considered what a hop was. This is more or less what they looked like on the show, sitting in a barrel waiting to be added to the vat:
Although beer may have preceded civilization, the use of hops doesn't go back very far. Pliny the Elder mentions them in the late seventies, AD, but they don't really get a brewing mention until around 822. (Hops fanatics can check out this very easy to read post at Beer Scene Magazine HERE.)
This is what they look like in (cultivated) nature:
Apparently, hops ousted another contender, grut, or gruit, which was a mix of bitter herbs and spices that helped preserve beer.. Hops have an antibacterial effect, according to Wikipedia, which favors brewer's yeast over other microorganisms. But they also add their own flavors to the brew.
Here's an image of hops growing in a hopyard in Germany. The plant's tendrils have to be trained upward in order to get all parts of the plant the right amount of sunlight.
I think that might be all I have to say about hops--for now. If you were looking for any kind of brewer's recipe, you came to the wrong place.
Very sorry to turn this political again, or to have had tragic events force me to do so, but I must protest against anyone who thinks that the shootings in Orlando mean that we have to oust the Muslims in our midst.
I am not going to protest the Donald by posting any of his incendiary comments, but I do feel it's time to speak out in some form.
I thought I'd post, once again, a bit about the new Muslim Mayor of London. Latest thing I saw was that he's prohibiting ads on the public transit that might make people feel bad about their body image. He said that he has teenage daughters and doesn't want them to have to face unrealistic images of women when they're traveling. Admittedly, they probably aren't riding public transit at the moment, but on the other hand, their grandfather was a bus driver. In any case, yay, Sadiq Khan!
Do you get it? There are humane and principled convictions in every faith. As well as aberrant ones.
I am so far from being pro gun rights that I don't really get anyone who would want to use one even for recreation. However, since I count several among my friends, I understand that there must be an alternative point of view.
One of the posters who appears in my blog roll says that Orlando means that Trump will win. I can only hope that he is wrong.
Meanwhile, in the real world, please do whatever you can to refuse to stand idly by. Speak out. Be creative. Or, shoot, be uncreative. Whatever. This is important.
I was quite happily watching the latest Panetta Institute panel when they started talking blithely about the minimum wage.
I don't normally do a lot of political opinion stuff here, but having to listen to them all weigh in in their masculine way, I must say, anyone who doesn't work at minimum wage really doesn't have a leg to stand on when opining about it. I don't think I worked at minimum wage all that much, but I worked pretty damn close to it, and I will say that anyone who is honest and shows up to work and does their fair to middling best deserves a bit better than that. Or maybe a lot better. Employers are in denial about that and then some.
"Cubicle" was mentioned somewhere or other recently, and it got me thinking about where the word comes from. I had what seemed a likely theory, which was that it originated whenever the vogue for these little compartments came into popularity in the corporate world. It's pretty much the only place you hear it, isn't it?
Well, it turns out that I am right in one way and wrong in another. "Cubicle" isn't a made up word, or no more than any other word is a made up word.According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, in it's current form it actually goes back to the fifteenth century, when it meant "bedroom". That's because it derives from the Latin cubiculum, also bedroom. The Latin verb was cubare, meaning "to lie down". Originally it meant "to bend oneself." That's a kind of interesting transition of meanings, but I don't know how that happened. Maybe the Roman beds were very, very small. Hard to tell from this one, which was retrieved from the Casa del Tramezzo di Legno in Herculaneum--after a volcano destroyed the town:
"Cubicle" became obsolete in the 16th century--don't ask me why. Curiously, though, it was revived again in the 19th century to describe a dormitory sleeping compartment. From there the sense of any separated space was an easier leap. In 1926, it was used to describe library carrels.
A Wall Street Journal article called A Brief History of the Cubicle by Nikil Saval mentions that Richard Yates novel Revolutionary Road used the word cubicle in 1961 to describe an office space, so the word has been used in this way for awhile. But it's real resurgence came a little later in the 60s with the design of the modern day cubicle by one Robert Propst, who worked for a large office furniture design company called Herman Miller. Propst detested the open plan office that was currently in vogue. As Saval, who is also the author of a book on modern office spaces called Cubed: a Secret History of the Workplace, quotes him on the open plan:
It saps vitality, blocks talent, frustrates accomplishment. It is the daily scene of unfulfilled intentions and failed effort.
What's amusing to me is that the open plan was intentional back in the sixties, not accidental. Here's another quote from the article about a German design plan that swept America:
The 1960s witnessed the rise of an even more open plan: a new concept imported from Germany called the Bürolandschaft, or office landscape. It called for cultivated chaos: desks grouped together in pods across a sprawling floor plan, with sightlines blocked by tall ferns and soundscreens and not a private office in sight. This new, swirling design—meant to flatten hierarchies and ease communication—became a big hit with architects, planners and designers. Soon it was springing up all over Europe—and, after the first U.S. office landscape was installed in the headquarters of DuPont in 1967, across the U.S. as well.
As Saval points out, the people who actually had to work in these spaces hated them. So the soulless, conformist cubicle as it has come to be thought of it in recent times, was actually a delight to people when it first came on the scene. The first, transitional version at Herman Miller was called the Action Office, or later the Action Office 1, and was designed by George Nelson under the direction of Propst.
Although designers agreed that the Action Office was beautiful, it didn't sell. So, back to the drawing board. Except, like many before and after them, Propst and Nelson couldn't agree on their vision of the workplace. They parted ways and Propst went on to design Action Office 2--better known now as the cubicle, a term not restricted to one company's design.
Now the trend is again toward the open office, cost cutting and yet another new philosophy of the workplace having swung the pendulum the other way. Here's an article on this trend from Forbes if you're interested. Apparently, the Millennials are down with it, the Boomers not so much.
I have to laugh, as this dynamic is very familiar to me from my frequent viewings of various shows on HGTV. The trend in home design seems to be almost universally toward open concept, and a component of most of these shows is the breaking through of those nasty old walls that block the open sightlines so valuable to seemingly everyone. (I think I've only seen one person so far who protested, "But I don't like open concept.") However, like the quartz countertops and the stainless steel kitchen appliances, there's bound to come a time when the open concept becomes passé, if not actually irksome. Walls, perhaps in some new material, will once again be built. Nothing in this world is perfect, my friends, and especially not the things that your parents once thought were the bees knees.
An eventful week
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Last week was eventful in more ways than one. This blog raced past a total
of 3.5 million views - current figures are running at over 3000 views a
day...
Not Hoops to Jump Through
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Today the church remembers the church father who, in all likelihood,
instituted the feast days of Palm Sunday and the observance of Holy Week:
St. Cyril, B...
Housecleaning: Lessons for Writers
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I spent last week—my spring break week—helping Cathy clean out her family
home in Illinois, so she could close the sale on Friday. We arrived on
Monday e...
Monday, Monday
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Back home. Except it doesn't feel like home yet. Had a very nice time,
especially enjoyed all the seafood and music we were able to take it. Had
the bes...
Where to Begin?
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Where to begin? I'm so far behind in my blog posting! Well, I am still
participating in the poetry postcard project, from Winter Solstice to
Spring Sol...
Reacher Season 2 Reaches Back into Reacher’s Past
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By
Scott D. Parker
I’ve now watched the second season of Amazon’s “Reacher” and not only am I
caught up, I’m all in.
Let’s be fair: I was all in back i...
Off the Books Available Today
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Today is the “official” release date for the sixth Nick Forte novel, *Off
the Books*. I say “official” because I could have made the book available
anyt...
The Three Graces
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This, the latest novel by Amanda Craig, has been sheer pleasure. About
three 80-year-old women in Italy, The Three Graces is the first book by
Amanda I’ve ...
Life in the Box: A Drooling Heart
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“Johnny Get Angry, Johnny Get Mad… I want a brave man; I want a cave man…” I
have been listening to 50s music this month, and some of the lyrics just
kil...
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*delighted to say that THE DETECTIVE UP LATE has been shortlisted for the
2024 Barry Award for Best Novel*
*huge thanks to the judges and the readers who...
Review: EVERYBODY KNOWS
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*EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper (Faber, 2023)*
*Reviewed by Craig Sisterson*
*In Hollywood, nobody talks. But everybody whispers... **Welcome to Mae
Pr...
Six of My Favorite Experiences of 2023
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Natural Bridge, Virginia
*Great, bright portal,*
*shelf of rock,*
*rocks fitted in long ledges*[...]
*The world heaved—we are next to the sky*
- H.D.
...
Strange and Blessed Fire 5: Mothernaked
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*While Pico and Patrizzi might differ on Aristotle, their philosophies
incurred the common fate of condemnation by the Church. Yet neither was
intention...
Alive and Branching Out
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I'm still alive, thankfully, and slowly returning to full volume.
Since I started this blog, the personal artsy blog as a concept seems to be
fading away. ...
The Last Hurrah
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‘Relax will you. It’s just an abandoned warehouse.’
‘Well, it’s giving me the creeps.’
‘We’ll just glance it over and skedaddle. Tomorrow you’ll be a fre...
Cecilia “Cissy” Suyat Marshall
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Justice Thurgood Marshall’s widow, Cecilia Marshall, died this Tuesday.
After her husband’s death in 1991, she continued to occasionally appear at
the Co...
Declaration of Divorce
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In despair, July 4, 2022
The reluctant declaration of the twenty five or so blue states of America:
This isn't working out. And sometimes, you know, in t...
Eight Basics of Successful Nonprofit Leadership
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Leading a nonprofit is, in many ways, like leading any kind of business.
Some of these I learned growing up watching my father run his small
business. For ...
#104 / The Shared American Story
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Ken Burns (pictured above) is an American filmmaker who is known for using
archival footage and photographs in documentary films about American
history....
On Writing and Jazz
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Set during the Jazz Age, THE LAMMISTERS is a novel that plunders the
literary canon in the manner of a starved child let loose in a sweetshop.
Of all its ...
Irish Times review of DISORDER
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This review, written by Declan Burke, appeared in The Irish Times on
Saturday 21st April 2018.
Potential for violence
Set in Belfast, Gerard Brennan’s ...
A Love Letter to Writers
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1) She asks if her ideas, her story is silly. I can't answer that for her.
Only she can. I see her as a miracle, a jewel, a divine creation. How can
anythi...
On Finishing FINNEGANS WAKE
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I’ve only ever belonged to one reading group, and for eight and a half
years we’ve been reading the same book, *Finnegans Wake*. Yes, you read
that right...
APHASIA
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*Aphasia is the result of damage to the parts of the brain involved in
speaking, reading, writing and understanding others.*
Any damage to the language area...
The Mad Girls – free promotion!
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For three days, you have the opportunity to get acquainted with an
interesting new writer, published by Candied Crime, our family publishing
company. Rannv...
From the US to Korea, by way of Denmark
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*"I love music in every genre. Seriously, I love Ace Of Base just as much
as Bob Dylan. To me it's all the same. The only thing I don't like is music
witho...
Wanda's Christmas Story
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Last year, sometime around Thanksgiving, I was walking along and
remembering the sad history of a story I wrote. It was a little long for
the usual literar...
A Barrel of Salt: Salzburg, Austria
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Last summer I started this post talking about a saying my father handed
down to me. “You can’t know a man until you’ve eaten a barrel of salt with
him.” T...
Flanless in the kitchen, six p.m.
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My walking buddy complains her flannel pajamas are no longer warm, cheery,
or comforting on these very long nights of early winter.. The thrill is
gone, a...
Grazie & Arrivederci!
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So that's the end of the Europa Challenge! Thanks to everyone for a great
five years of reading and reviewing! I'll leave the blog up so folks can
find you...
Dahlia Lithwick on the mentally ill in jail
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I'm reviving this somewhat moribund blog to post a link to an article by
Slate's Dahlia Lithwick on a mentally ill man who died after four months in
jail a...
Sayulita
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It's not October anymore.
Something a bit more timely for the top o' the blog, okay?
My most amazing friend, Raquel, swept me out of my daily routine ...
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Dear All,
This is Cynthia, I am David's sister in law and Naomi's sister. I am so
sorry to tell you that David passed away Friday evening. He was at home,
...
It Lives!
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It has been quite a while since I have updated this blog. Some things have
changed over the last year, I changed jobs last October, after thirteen
years ...
UNDER CONSTRUCTION ~ OVER DELIGHT
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION ~ OVER DELIGHT
* AT THE BIJOU * ?
Yes, that's right.
From our newly refurbished red velvet reader seats . . .
to showcasing AUTH...
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Intermidable. Also very long.
This flight will be unpleasant till the end.
I have no pateince left that I can spend,
I am as crabby as a crabgrass lawn.
Thi...
William Kentridge at Volte gallery
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The South African artist William Kentridge is showing at Volte gallery in
Colaba. Anybody in Bombay between now and March 20 should definitely put
the ex...
Worlds Collide Under Purple Skies
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It's amazing to me how often my Japanese world collides with my American
world. Two years ago, I happened to be on vacation in *New Orleans*. I
was sitti...
Assistant Editor On Board!
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TFFO writer Tom Pitts is the new TFFO editorial assistant at Out of the
Gutter Online! Click here to welcome him to the operation!
Gay Male Poetry Post Identity Politics, Part Five
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I am now posting the last of the presentations from my AWP panel on gay
male poetry post politics. Like Aaron Smith, Brian Teare questions the idea
and the...