You’ll find my review of hackoff.com, a thriller set in the dotcom boom, on Blogcritics, and a new theatre review, of Lie Back in Anger – featuring an angry young woman and a man at the ironing board, on My London Your London.
(Posting there should speed up again now that the election is over.)
The BBC is reporting that 20 per cent of people surveyed “had fallen in love” in a museum or gallery. Well I spend a lot of time at the British Museum, and can’t see it … although they do say the Victoria & Albert is the best place, should you wish to try out the findings for yourself. I can sort of see that – it is a somewhat domestic, warm place, but the inclusion of the Tower of London as a place to meet a significant other seems rather curious. Do they mean the torture gallery, or the execution ground?
National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne told the Daily Telegraph there was a “long history” of romance in museums. “Galleries were regarded as a place where a woman could go unchaperoned and, therefore, it was a place where certain people who wanted to meet unchaperoned ladies would go,” she said.
The Observer meanwhile has got itself into love trouble over a sex column, which has now been dropped. I can remember (and I’m dating myself here) when newspapers agonised over the inclusion of the word “condom” in their pages. But perhaps “how to initiate anal sex” is going too far – particularly when you think that many people are reading them over breakfast. Although having hunted out the offending column (purely from professional media interest you understand), I’d have to say it is rather better written than most such things are.
Turning rather more serious, a British study has confirmed American findings about the nature of the bullying by teenage girls.
The researchers found these dominant girls manipulate the ambitions of “wannabes†to be accepted into the inner circle and use them to enforce the exclusion of girls they have decided to target.
Unlike boys, these girls turn only rarely to violence, but the authors believe the subtle undermining of confidence can be far more damaging and have lifelong effects on some victims.
Having been to an all-girls school I recognise all these things all too well. Although you don’t want to “blame the victim”, it seems to me that what often needs to be done is to reinforce the ego and mental strength of the victims, since you’re never going to stop the “Queen Bee” types doing this sort of thing.
She’s been distracted by the Green Party, but should from now on be back in full flow. So my 19th-century “blogger” today has two posts.
First, she’s writing about seeing Mr Coesvelt’s pictures, a collection that she describes as finer than that of the royal family. It was broken up in 1836, and a web search reveals they are scattered around. There’s Raphael’s The Alba Madonna in Washington and a Rape of Proserpine by Schwarz in the Fitzwilliam.
And the prolific Mrs Jameson catalogued the pictures.
Secondly, Miss Frances Williams Wynn is viewing (in 1835) “the aerial ship, as they call the new balloon”. She’s not convinced of its utility, pointing out that without a method of propulsion, it is entirely at the mercy of the winds. Were “the power of steam undiscovered” it might be more use, she suggests.
There’s a satirical image from that year that seems to match what Miss Williams Wynn is describing.
After this normal service will resume. But first, the papers’ views.
Lewis Baston in The Guardian:
The Greens are a far more successful minor party than the BNP, but have so far attracted less attention. They fought on a much broader front, while the BNP is a highly localised force that comes and goes. By contrast, the Greens have staying power and have elected effective and durable councillors.
The departure of Jack Straw is, if the following account is correct, a serious worry – because he was thrown out because he was too much of a “dove” on Iran. (Which might mean that it is impossible to celebrate Britain’s first female Foreign Secretary.)
Ewen MacAskill also in the Guardian:
Mr Straw has said repeatedly that it is “inconceivable” that there will be a military strike on Iran and last month dismissed as “nuts” a report that George Bush was keeping on the table the option of using tactical nuclear weapons against Tehran’s nuclear plants.But Mr Blair, who sees Iran as the world’s biggest threat, does not agree with his former foreign secretary.
But the last word goes to the ever-apt Matthew Parris:
That the Secretary of State for Defence should become the Home Secretary because the former Foreign Secretary has been Home Secretary already and can’t really be Home Secretary again, while he (the Defence Secretary) has already been Health Secretary and can’t be Health Secretary again, and the Leader of the House (who can’t be Defence Secretary because he already has been, but needs to vacate his post so the former Foreign Secretary can have it) has a new “ Europe†portfolio invented for him — and everyone immediately begins arguing about whether he is a Secretary of State for Europe or not — suggests a Cabinet-maker running out of timber. This isn’t a Cabinet, it’s a food fight.
Ten great posts from 10 new (to me) women bloggers. It is here every Friday (more or less – occasionally it is Saturday or Sunday).
Starting off in a timely fashion, Lisa Tolliver in On Air and On Line, explains why May 5 is important to Mexicans and southern USasians, and also for marketers looking for a bonza bonanza. Monday was a more recent military anniversary, the third of President Bush’s “triumphant” arrival in the role of fighter pilot. The Catherine Chronicles sets out the damage since then.
Also keeping in time, on EC1 Cruise Control, Lady M comes out about her emotional reaction to protest marches. (For those puzzled by the name, EC1 is the postcard of a trendy but now expensive area of London – Clerkenwell – known as a “media village”. I used to live there.)
Staying in the British capital, but heading for the more light-hearted side, Pashmina on Grammar Puss lives up to her blogs name by deconstructing a shopkeeper’s sign. I suspect, however, that the quote marks might be a nod to Trading Standards, rather than irony.
Standards of grammar are also the concern of Teresa on Making Light. She’s assembled, with the help of her readers, a wonderful collection of phonetic near-misses. I particularly liked “she balled her eyes out”. Nalo Hopkinson is concerned, however, with broader questions on the structuring of a novel.
Now I’m feeling very tired and rather flat today – the inevitable letdown after a physical and emotional challenge (yes I am talking about elections – that is what they are like from the inside), but I can only imagine that this is how the writer of Women’s Space/The Margins, feels all the time, as, at the age of 54, sole supporter for five of her 11 children. She has set out what keeps me keeping on. On Unsane and Safe, Jennifer Cascadia has a brilliant photo that seems an apt pairing with that post.
Babylune, meanwhile, wonders how babies arrive at all, in a summary of the latest pieces of news about fertility, infertility and pollution. Starting a little earlier in the lifecycle, on Overworked and Unlaid (which may not be safe for more conservative workplaces), Avatar sets out what you’d like your 15-year-old self to know.
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If you missed last week’s edition, it is here. (If you’d like to see all of them as a list , click on the category “Friday Femmes Fatales†in the righthand sidebar. That will take you to a collection of 550 (and counting) women bloggers.)
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Please: In the next week if you read, or write, a post by a woman blogger and think “that deserves a wider audience†(particularly someone who doesn’t yet get many hits), drop a comment. It really does make my life easier!
Apologies for my absence (due partly to Wanadoo’s apparent inability to maintain a basic broadband internet connection, for the second time in a week), but I have otherwise been rather busy.
But a 20-hour day proved worthwhile yesterday when the Greens broke through on Camden council, winning two seats in Highgate ward. I’m sure Maya and Adrian will do a brilliant job.
There was further cause for celebration in London, particularly in Lewisham, where what had been one council seat was converted to six. Lambeth, Southwark and Islington also elected their first Green councillors.
As for my own run in Regent’s Park, I reckon my door-to-door campaigning won about 300 votes – thanks to anyone who made one of those reading this! – with Greens picking up many split votes. The challenge next time will be to convert those “ones” to three Green votes. I also reckon the activity lifted turnout by at least a few percentage points, so you could call it a bit of a contribution to democracy.
Overall, Labour was demolished in Camden, and of course nationally Tony Blair has hit the panic button bigtime, with a massive reshuffle of the government. I was trying to think of something more original than deck-chairs on the Titanic, but that does the job so nicely.
And even though she belongs to a party that nationally is demolishing human rights and making a total mess of the NHS and education, congratulations to Antonia for her victory in Oxford. I’m sure she’ll also do a great job on the council, and it sounds like she has a fascinating ward.
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