Potpourri for Sunday, September 14, 2023

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri, writing
  • According to Wikipedia, “Potpourri (/poʊpʊˈriː/ poh-puu-REE) is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant materials used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings. It is often placed in a decorative bowl.” I like the word as a synonym for “medley” but not as a vase or bag with dried plants intended to give a room a pleasing scent. That stuff always makes me sneeze in the same fashion as a room full of dust bunnies. Wikipedia says that up to 455 plants have been identified as being used when making potpourri, “including algae, fungi, and lichens.” I have no idea why anyone would want that stuff in their house. Those who do it are apparently putting on airs.
  • Before reading Kathy Reichs’ novel Fatal Voyage, I had never heard the term “DMORT” even though teams from this agency help investigate airline crashes with a focus on passengers; remains. The acronym stands for Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams, and I suppose they don’t make the news because (a) the public doesn’t want to hear about the dead, and (b) news organizations tend to focus on why a plane crashed. According to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, “When natural or man-made disaster strikes, sometimes there are more fatalities than local resources can manage. Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORTs) support local mortuary services on location, working to quickly and accurately identify victims and reunite victims with their loved ones in a dignified, respectful manner.” After reading Fatal Voyage, I have a new appreciation for the kinds of people who can deal with the heart-breaking carnage and make sense of it for the families of the victims.
  • We have finally gotten around to watching the PBS series “Atlantic Crossing” which first ran in 2021 on PBS.  The focus here is the plight of Norway in World War II. PBS says that “A European princess steals the heart of the U.S. president in an epic drama inspired by the real World War II relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and Norwegian Crown Princess Martha.” Norway had expected to be spared a German invasion due to its neutrality, but the Germans invaded anyway, forcing the monarchy to flee to England where it established a government in exile. We have enjoyed the series, especially since it covers a portion of World War II that is often neglected in overviews of the war.
  • I often print news releases on this blog that come from PEN America because they focus on attacks on our freedoms of speech and press. According to PEN’s website, “Our strength is our membership—a nationwide community of novelists and nonfiction authors, journalists, editors, poets, screenwriters, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other literary professionals, and an even larger network of devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America’s mission.” I would join if I could, but the cost is dear at $50. I’m just happy that PEN’s website is available to all who stop by. Keeping up with the issues of press and speech freedom are, to me, mandatory.

–Malcolm

PEN America: ‘Book Bans Spike 33% in 2022-23 School Year’

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Freedom of Speech, writing

According to a new report from PEN, “Since PEN America started tracking public school book bans in July 2021, we have recorded nearly 6,000 instances of banned books. Our new report released today documents a 33% increase in book bans in 2023-23 compared to 2021-21, of which 40% occurred in Florida.

“A large share of the individual bans took place in states where legislation or coordinated campaigns by local and national groups have driven mass restrictions on access to literature. Books about race and racism, LGBTQ+ identities, and violence have remained a top target.”

You can read the report here.

Book banning is, I think, part of the recent trend that includes a variety of governmental and private actions focused on reducing our freedoms of speech and press.

According to Freedom House, “The fundamental right to seek and disseminate information through an independent press is under attack, and part of the assault has come from an unexpected source. Elected leaders in many democracies, who should be press freedom’s staunchest defenders, have made explicit attempts to silence critical media voices and strengthen outlets that serve up favorable coverage. The trend is linked to a global decline in democracy itself: The erosion of press freedom is both a symptom of and a contributor to the breakdown.”

All of those who value speech and press freedom should, I think, speak out against this attack on the press. Otherwise, it will become policy even here in the United States. What worries me is that issues in this country have become so partisan with badly slanted news coverage that people are now justifying limiting the rights of those with whom they disagree. It’s as though the people with alternative ideas are without rights.

The U.N. says “Reporters getting killed while chasing a story. Online attacks against women journalists, including death and rape threats. Targeted electronic surveillance to intimidate and silence investigative journalism. This is the dangerous reality for many journalists around the world as media freedom and safety have diminished in the digital age with a grave impact on human rights, democracy, and development.”

According to the PEN report, “Hyperbolic and misleading rhetoric about ‘porn in schools’ and ‘sexually explicit,’ “harmful,’ and ‘age inappropriate’ materials led to the removal of thousands of books covering a range of topics and themes for young audiences. Overwhelmingly, book bans target books on race or racism or featuring characters of color, as well as books with LGBTQ+ characters. This year, banned books also include books on physical abuse, health and well-being, and themes of grief and death. Notably, most instances of book bans affect young adult books, middle-grade books, chapter books, or picture books—books specifically written and selected for younger audiences.”

Those who promote these bans are, quite likely, afraid of the truth. If not, why ban it? In part, there’s a growing patriarchal approach by the government and opinion groups that want to control what we can read. This is unconstitutional on the face of it, so I wonder why so many people are silent and sit at home watching it happen.

If you live in Florida, Texas,  Missouri, Utah, or Pennsylvania, wake up. Or are you sheep, content to eat what the establishment chooses to feed you?

This is not America. This is biased patriarchy run amok on many levels. We need to declare zero tolerance for those who say they should control what we read, hear on the news, and see online. They have no place here and need to move to Russia, China, or North Korea where their views are considered sacred.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell writes novels about fighting the KKK, a group that lives on today through its attempts to cancel our freedoms.

I almost feel bad pressing charges when a woman steals my wallet and only takes $30

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Life, writing2 Comments

Without my noticing it, my wallet got shoved off the counter onto the floor at a local pharmacy. When I realized I didn’t have it, I went back to the pharmacy where they used their video and discovered that a woman had come into the store, picked up the wallet, and put it in her purse. The pharmacy called the police.

The woman was caught because she got an injection at the pharmacy which created a record of her visit along with her name and address. It didn’t take the police long to find her. She confessed to taking the wallet, saying that she kept the cash and tossed the wallet out the car window. All this happened before I even left the store.

The officer asked if I wanted to press charges. Assuming at that point that the woman had used one or more of the VISA/MC cards and that I was looking toward the hassle of getting a new driver’s license, medicare card, and a set of all new credit cards, I said “yes.” Later the wallet was found with all the cards &c. untouched by somebody who was kind enough to bring it to my house with no idea the police had arrested a thief in the matter of that wallet.

Of course, I know nothing about the thief, mainly whether or not this kind of thing is a habit with her or whether she has a police record. If she has no record, I can’t really see her going to jail for stealing $30. I definitely have mixed feelings about this, and that goes to show you that I’d never make it as a cop, a DA, or a judge.

In Georgia, misdemeanor theft can lead to up to one year in jail. I hope she gets a community service sentence instead unless the whole thing is dismissed since the amount was so small– and (if) she gives me the money back.

I may never know how this ends up. What would you have done if this happened to you?

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the Florida Folk Magic series. All four novels are available at a savings in this Kindle version.

Jews in WWII: history’s defining moment

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn war, writing2 Comments

As I read Isabel Allende’s The Wind Knows My Name which begins when Samuel Adler’s father who disappears during Kristallnacht, I think that the plight of the Jews at the hands of the Germans and others is the primary event in recent history that defines the state of the world. There are, perhaps, some 70,000 books about the war. As for those directly related to Geman, Russian, and other countries’ crimes against the Jewish people, I cannot determine.

It’s hard to read such novels and nonfiction accounts without Xanax and/or Scotch to tame the horror in one’s mind and stomach at the unmitigated cruelty against one of the world’s major ethnic groups without rational purpose–unless you consider myths rational enough to justify it.

What bothers me is that the myths are illogical rationale for targeting the Jews are still with us, even within the U.S. where one would think we’ve outgrown such hatred. You can follow the fight against this evil by looking at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.  According to its website, ” The IHRA identifies the practical needs of policymakers, scholars, educators, and museum professionals working in the Holocaust remembrance sector, and it produces materials to support the work of these stakeholders. Resources such as IHRA academic publications, educational guidelines, and reports are written by experts for the benefit of non-experts, helping to ensure that the IHRA’s expertise can serve a highly practical function throughout IHRA’s member countries and beyond.”

I believe we owe it to ourselves and to the Jewish people to stay informed about the ongoing problems rather than assuming that since we see nothing bad happening outside our windows, there are no issues to fight.

From the publisher, we read,  “The lives of a Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Europe and a mother and daughter fleeing twenty-first-century El Salvador intersect in this ambitious, intricate novel about war and immigration” (People), from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and Violeta. “Allende’s storytelling walks a lyrical romanticism on roads imposed by social and political turmoil.”

The danger, I think, is believing that such problems are gone with the wind. They are not. They live with more vitality than any of us would believe.

–Malcolm

‘Days at the Morisaki Bookshop’ by Satoshi Yagisawa

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books
What book lover could resist this shop?

“‘Days at the Morisaki Bookshop'” is a sweet, gentle tale about the power of books to bring solace to troubled souls and offer them hope for the future. The title takes us inside a bookshop housed in an old wooden building on a quiet corner of a Tokyo district that has come to be known as ‘Book Town.’” – Karen Heenan-Davies at Bookertalk

From the Publisher

“The wise and charming international bestseller and hit Japanese movie—about a young woman who loses everything but finds herself—a tale of new beginnings, romantic and family relationships, and the comfort that can be found in books. 

“Twenty-five-year-old Takako has enjoyed a relatively easy existence—until the day her boyfriend Hideaki, the man she expected to wed, casually announces he’s been cheating on her and is marrying the other woman. Suddenly, Takako’s life is in freefall. She loses her job, her friends, and her acquaintances, and spirals into a deep depression. In the depths of her despair, she receives a call from her distant uncle Satoru.

Satoshi Yagisawa

“An unusual man who has always pursued something of an unconventional life, especially after his wife Momoko left him out of the blue five years earlier, Satoru runs a second-hand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s famous book district. Takako once looked down upon Satoru’s life. Now, she reluctantly accepts his offer of the tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping out at the store. The move is temporary until she can get back on her feet. But in the months that follow, Takako surprises herself when she develops a passion for Japanese literature, becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she makes new friends, and eventually meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who’s going through his own messy breakup.

“But just as she begins to find joy again, Hideaki reappears, forcing Takako to rely once again on her uncle, whose own life has begun to unravel. Together, these seeming opposites work to understand each other and themselves as they continue to share the wisdom they’ve gained in the bookshop.

“Translated By Eric Ozawa”

The novel was published in 2009 with the English translation being released this past summer. The story appeared in 2010 as the film “Morisaki shoten no hibi” directed by Asako Hyuga and starring Ryô Iwamatsu and Akiko Kikuchi. Watch the trailer here.

According to Japanese Comfort Reads, “The crime genre seems to be over-represented among Japanese novels in translation, and there are plenty of highbrow books too that someone has decided represent the best of Japanese literature. I enjoy all of these, but surely there is room for novels that satisfy a different need, novels that would entice both a 16-year-old girl and an 80-year-old man?”

–Malcolm

 

Ahhhhh, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Music, writing

My favorite color is blue. While haint blue is useful on porches and front doors, it’s too light for a signature color. I need navy blue, the blue of ocean water just before the light is gone, the blue of twilight over the city. Naturally, I love the blues which is why I mentioned them often in my novel Conjure Woman’s Cat and its sequels.

According to SantaFe.com, “Blues is the name given to the musical form and the music genre that emerged from the African-American communities and the black cultural melting pot of the American South of the 1890’s, drawing on a fascinating mixture of African-American spirituals, traditional songs, work songs of the slaves, field hollers, shouts and chants, folk ballads, European hymns, contemporary dance music and rhymed simple narrative ballads. During their back-breaking toil in the fields of the Southern plantations, black slaves developed a “call and response” way of singing to give rhythm to the drudgery of their work.”

While I especially like the blues when sung with a piano or guitar accompaniment, I fully appreciate George Gershwin’s 1924 instrumental approach for piano and jazz band, “Rapsody in Blue,” that I first heard on my father’s 78 rpm records. The composition was controversial from the beginning because it mixed classical music and jazz.

According to Wikipedia, “The Rhapsody is one of Gershwin’s most recognizable creations and a key composition that defined the Jazz Age. Gershwin’s piece inaugurated a new era in America’s musical history, established Gershwin’s reputation as an eminent composer, and eventually became one of the most popular of all concert works. In the American Heritage magazine, Frederic D. Schwarz posits that the famous opening clarinet glissando has become as instantly recognizable to concert audiences as the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.”

As a clarinet player in high school and college bands, that opening glissando caught my attention and never let it go. First, it was a perfect beginning to the piece. Second, I couldn’t play that 17-note gliding upward cry on my clarinet for love or money. (Not that anyone offered either.) You can hear a YouTube performance here.

What Gershwin produced was not a “jazz concerto” but a rhapsodic work for “piano and jazz band” incorporating elements of European symphonic music and American jazz with his inimitable melodic gift and keyboard facility.

As Classic FM notes, “Gershwin’s original title for it was American Rhapsody. But, by chance, Ira had been to an exhibition of Whistler’s paintings and saw the painter’s Nocturne In Blue And Green of the Thames at Chelsea. Why not call the new piece Rhapsody In Blue instead, he suggested. The title would reflect the European and American influences. Also at Ira’s suggestion, George contrasted the syncopated character that dominates the tune with an expressive romantic theme the composer had previously improvised at a party.”

And so the music plays forever in our consciousness even when we don’t have a band or a record or an audio file.

–Malcolm

Coming and Going Via My Bedroom Window

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Life in general

By the time I was in high school and college, I didn’t think my weekend activities were any of my folks’ business. I was far away from home on many nights, and as far as I know, my parents never had a clue. My “Green Smoker” 1954 Chevy Bel Aire was the means. As for getting back in the house without detection, my bedroom window was ideal, much better than the front door which was next to my folks’ bedroom door.

Oddly enough, when I was in college (a local college), I learnt that my favorite professor did all his thinking while driving dark roads at night. I was already doing that when I met him. As I’ve probably said here before, I knew all the diner waitresses by name in a hundred-mile radius of my house.  In those days, the Dobbs House (popular in the 1960s) was a great place for a 3:00 a.m. burger.

I found driving at night to be great therapy in part against the sturm und drang of high school and college English departments that I thoroughly detested for treating students as third-world folks who didn’t grow up speaking English. I had no tolerance for their methods and could always use a glass of Mateus, a dry red wine from Portugal that young people drank like water in those days. I graduated to Pinot Noir and Red Zinfandel as I grew older.

The odd thing about coming and going via my bedroom window came from finding out that my younger brother was also coming and going via his bedroom window. We never spoke up about it. Just nodded at each other and returned to the reality of our daily lives which included keeping our parents out of the loop.

Did they (the parents) ever know? Beats me.

—Malcolm

For Thieves Vinegar

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn hoodoo

“Four thieves vinegar (also called thieves’ oil, Marseilles vinegar, Marseilles remedy, prophylactic vinegar, vinegar of the four thieves, camphorated acetic acid, vinaigre des quatre voleurs and acetum quator furum is a concoction of vinegar (either from red wine, white wine, cider, or distilled white) infused with herbs, spices or garlic that was believed to protect users from the plague.” – Wikipedia

17th-century bottle

Over the years, vinegar has been used for a variety of health reasons, but none has attracted more attention than the purported blend of vinegar that kept people from getting the plague. It seems that four thieves were robbing the homes of the dead during the plague without getting sick. Supposedly, this vinegar and herbs mixture was their protection, possibly because it kept fleas–the carriers of the plague–away from people who use it.

Ultimately, the thieves were caught and–to save their lives–said they were using a special vinegar as protection. The recipe itself has been elusive, with various versions arising out of the mists of time here and there. Today, some witches and hoodoo practitioners use their own versions of the vinegar for a variety of health and protection needs.

According to Nourished Kitchen writes that “Four Thieves Vinegar is the stuff of legends and of kitchen magic – a beautiful combination of rosemary, sage, mint, and raw vinegar that combines for a vibrantly herbaceous and slightly floral concoction that may or may not protect your family from the rigors of medieval plagues, but will definitely enliven plates of sweet lettuces and other summer greens.”

The Farmers Almanac traces the original recipe back to French chemist and scholar René-Maurice Gattefossé [who] published the “original” recipe that hung in the museum of Old Marseille, France in  his 1937 book, Gattefossé’s Aromatherapy: “Take three pints of strong white wine vinegar, add a handful of each of wormwood, meadowsweet, wild marjoram and sage, fifty cloves, two ounces of campanula roots, two ounces of angelic, rosemary and horehound and three large measures of champhor. Place the mixture in a container for fifteen days, strain and express then bottle. Use by rubbing it on the hands, ears and temples from time to time when approaching a plague victim.”

They note that modern recipes include garlic, rosemary, clove, and sage–one herb for each thief. Some people add juniper, thyme, and cinnamon. It’s best to let it steep a while and then use it in diluted form–one tablespoon in a glass of water daily. Or, on your salads.

I don’t care about the plague at the moment but have found that various combinations of this recipe are a great salad dressing and that if they keep the plague and/or bad guys away, that’s an extra benefit.

–Malcolm

What kind of tired does the day bring?

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Life in general, writing2 Comments

“I suppose the important thing is, if you’re tired, to understand what kind of tired you are. Are you physically tired? Emotionally tired? Spiritually tired? Because there are different ways to deal with each kind of tiredness. For physical tiredness, you need to rest and sleep. For emotional tiredness, sleep is important as well, but so are taking walks in the park, reading books, meeting with friends. For spiritual tiredness, which is a category of its own, the remedy (I think) is something like spending time with trees and looking at the sky. You need to somehow drink in the essence of existence.”  Theodora Goss in “Emotional Energy”

Theodora Goss is one of my favourite authors, so I find a lot to ponder when she steps away from her fantasy fiction and poetry and writes an essay or blog post.

Due to the stomach infection, I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m feeling emotionally tired. Part of that comes from the discomfort of the infection and part of it comes from dealing with doctors, labs, appointments, tests, and procedures. I find all this quite draining for it represents the kind of out-of-control chaos that I find pushing me into a world of fatigue.

While I like stirring things up in a trickster kind of way, I easily done-in when the stirring up is coming from somebody else–or the “system.” Maybe that’s karma. I can dish it out but I can’t take it. Oh hell, I don’t really believe in karma but there are times when one wonders.

I hear about people who run five miles before going to work. They feel better for running and love the kind of tired it brings. Getting up early enough to run and then take a shower before arriving at work on time makes me feel tired. That is, making it happen is a lot of tedious trouble.

People used to say, and maybe they still say it, “different strokes for different folks.” This makes it hard for husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, &c., who get tired for different reasons, often by the very things their spouse or BFF requires. We have to negotiate, I think, with those around us to give us all the freedom we need without draining other people’s energy. That kind of negotiation often makes us tired.

Right now, I’m too tired to figure this out. Needless to say, I would like to feel some positive energy, enough to run five miles even though I don’t want to.

–Malcolm

Potpourri for Saturday, September 9th

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri, writing
  • My stomach infection is about four months old because the GP decided to refer me to a specialist whose first available appointment was two months away. When I complained, the GP did a test, found an infection, and gave me antibiotics. They seemed to be working but the infection came back after they ran their course. I didn’t tell him because by now, I was at the specialist’s practice. She ran an upper GI which came back normal, then sent me back to the lab for the same test the GP ran many weeks ago. I like the specialist, but think the infection would be gone for good if the GP had handled the whole process. I love modern medicine. <g>
  • I guess I’m watching “Yellowstone” because all my regular shows are still off for the summer and/or stalemated by the actors’ and writers’ strikes. The series is gritty and well-written but seems to be composed of all the possible cliches about life in Montana, including large ranchers being evil, the rez being a bad place, and all levels of state and tribal government being corrupt. I hate to say that I’ve become addicted.
  • I liked Jeff Shaara’s historical novel about Teddy Roosevelt called Old Lion. Very readable, and also compelling even for those of us who’ve read TR biographies such as  Mornings on Horseback. Up to now, Shaara’s novels have focussed on wars and battles. I guess he finally ran out of wars to write about. His battlefield novels are always told via the points of view of some of the major players. It took me a while to adjust to an omniscient narrator point of view in a Shaara novel.
  • Years ago, I learned that food poisoning was a “great way” to lose weight. As it turns out, so is a stomach infection. They work faster than all those diet plans advertised on TV.  They’re a no pain, no loss kind of thing.
  • Well, it seems that most of the books I want to read haven’t come down in price yet. So, I’m re-reading many of my Kathy Reichs (Bones) thrillers, including her 1997 novel Déjà Dead. These are well-written and compelling even if you’ve read them before because there’s no way one can remember all the plots and subplots. Since her novels stem from her profession, one learns a lot about dead people and morgues. Like the TV series, the Temperance Brenan in the books likes skipping out of the lab and investigating what the police seem slow to focus on. Déjà Dead is her first novel. If you read enough of these, you’ll become well-versed in Quebecois profanity that you don’t hear in France such as “Tabernac.”
  • Nice to see a little rain today in NW Georgia.

–Malcolm, author of “Conjure Woman’s Cat”