From The Times:
The average woman aged 40 or over has 19 pairs [of shoes], but 5 per cent have more than 100.
Where would you put them all?
And I don’t believe this either …
The “wolves’ lair” – ancient Pompeii’s biggest, best planned and most richly decorated brothel – yesterday reopened to the public…
But I think we can put that down to a journalist having their tongue firmly in their cheek.
A Ramadan sermon (as reported) in Sydney, on the subject of rape:
“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat,” he said.
“The uncovered meat is the problem.
“If she was in her room, in her home, in her hajib (Islamic headdress), no problem would have occurred.”
Or of course if you kept all the males locked up, there wouldn’t be a problem. No, I’m not suggesting that, but it would be equally logical.
Anna, a journalist, is looking for …
“for a committed feminist (however that is defined for them) who has someone in their family – e.g. a dad or brother -who has perhaps more traditionally patriarchal views – to interview them both for a broadsheet about the issues and challenges of having two strong sets of opinions within a family unit. Interviews would take around 25 minutes on the phone, and interviewees would also need to be photographed. If you can help please email Anna on annamj@mac.com or call her on 07957 454881.”
I said I’d pass the message on, but please contact her about it, not me. Thanks!
… I’ve caught the rather hideous cold that seems to be doing the rounds just now, and feel like I’m being regularly beaten around the head by a piece of four-be-two. (Things must be bad; I’m resorting to the language and imperial measurements of my childhood.)
I’m still hacking through my “to do” list, but at about quarter speed. If you are on it, I will get to you eventually…
Dr Paulson said opposition to older mothers rests not on evidence that they make poor parents, but on prejudice. “Society still has these feelings about motherhood. The way we view the mother is much more circumscribed than for the father: she should be young and attractive. That is underneath all this talk about the ethics and legality of treating older women. Deep down, society has a fixed idea of what motherhood should be, and this causes deep discomfort.â€
From a Times piece about a study that found mothers in their 50s have no more troubles coping than those in their 30s and 40s.
Just found on Radio 4 a lovely little piece of oral history, Honeymoon Hotel, about newly married couples making a great adventurous journey, to Jersey, in 1956, lured by a tax break that one says gave them £25!
It is a reminder of how far and fast the world has changed. For virtually all of them this was the first time they’d been on a plane – which made it a great exciting adventure. And they were so shy – embarrassed about being seen to go to bed that the barman had to chase them out in the evening.
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