Philobiblon

The BBC held a vote for the leader of a “world government”. The results:

1 – Nelson Mandela
2 – Bill Clinton
3 – Dalai Lama
4 – Noam Chomsky
5 – Alan Greenspan
6 – Bill Gates
7 – Steve Jobs
8 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
9 – Richard Branson
10 – George Soros
11 – Kofi Annan

Interesting that Clinton ranks so highly, and Chomsky for that matter. (Was there some sort of campaign for the latter, I can’t help wondering?)

There’s a distinct broadly leftish tinge to the list – perhaps reflecting the sort of people (15,000 in total apparently, half from America) who are likely to be intrigued by the question.

You’d have to say it is a small feather in the cap of South Africa that it gets two nominees – a reflection, fair enough when you think of it, of the amazing peaceful transition in which those two men played such a part.

But the only Briton being Branson – you should be able to hear me wince – oh he’s entertaining enough, but …! (Tony Blair was 12th, which I guess you could call the British “donkey” vote.)

But, surprise surprise, no women. The BBC reports:

“Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi [was] the highest-ranking woman at 13th. Hillary Clinton was the next most popular woman at 16th.”

J.K. Rowling was 49th – presumably with the youth vote.

Who would I choose? I think Mary Robinson, former Irish President and UN Commissioner for Human Rights might get my vote, although I’m open to other suggestions …

Via the interesting experimental website Regender, which “translates” (turns around) the gender of words on any website. This is one of its samples, the first book of the New Testament, “Mary’s”:

1: The book of the generation of Jessica Christ, the daughter of Davida, the daughter of Abigail.
2: Abigail begat Isabel; and Isabel begat Jacqueline; and Jacqueline begat Judas and her brethren;
3: And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;
4: And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;
5: And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Russell; and Obed begat Jessica;
6: And Jessica begat Davida the queen; and Davida the queen begat Sonia of his that had been the husband of Urias …

In the utterly useless but satisfying facts category:

The word toady comes from “toad-eater”: “a quack’s or mountebank’s assistant who would eat, or pretend to eat, a toad so he could be cured by the medicine man. In those days, toads were considered to be poisonous. Actually, a toad’s parotoid glands and warts do secrete a poison that tastes bad and in some species will kill small predators.”

Found via the fascinating C18 email list.

The Observer has a report on an exhibition in Manchester of images of black people in Victorian Britain.

“Her remarkable show reveals black Victorians in all their surprising manifestations, not as marginal figures, but occupying both the centre of the canvas and of their own fascinating lives.”

But what I was particularly interested in was Victoria Davies, born in Britain as the daughter of a black merchant and a woman who had been rescued from slavery as a child and taken in and raised by a naval family. She went to Cheltenham Ladies College! (Now, and I imagine then, one of the poshest schools in England for girls.)

Having been to a more downmarket but broadly similar school in Australia, I imagine she must have had a hell of a time, but maybe the Victorians could be more broadminded than we imagine – would be fascinating to know how she fared.

From The Young Gallant’s Academy (1674), by Samuel Vincent, advising on behaviour at the theatre:

Let our Gallant (having paid his half Crown, and given the Doorkeeper his Ticket) presently advance himself into the middle of the Pit, where, having made his Honor to the rest of the Company, but especially to the Vizard-Marks [women of ill-repute], let him pull out his Comb, and manage his flaxen Wig with all the Grace he can. Having so done, the next step is to give a hum to the China-Orange-Wench, and give her her own rate for her Oranges (for ’tis below a Gentleman to stand haggling like a Citizen’s Wife) and then to present the fairest to the next Vizard-Mask.
… [After the play has begun] It shall Crown you with rich Commendations, to laugh aloud in the midst of the most serious and sudden Scene of the terriblest Tragedy, and to let the Clapper (your Tongue) be tossed so high that all the House may ring of it: for by talking and laughing you heap Pelion upon Ossa, Glory upon Glory: as fiirst, all the eyes in the Galleries will leave walking after the Players, and only follow you: the most Pedantick Person in the House snatches up your name: and when he meets you in the Street, he’l say, He is such a Gallant: and the people admire you.”(p. 43-44)

So next time the crisp packets in the cinema or the mobile phones in the theatre are driving you mad, remember that it used to be worse.

(Quoted in All the King’s Ladies: Actresses of the Restoration, by John Harold Wilson, The University of Chicago Press, 1958. A quite solid introductory text, with a detailed list of all of the actresses that he’d found. Not sure how much this might have been surpassed by more recent research, but not a bad place to start.)

And I was interested to learn that the baddie wearing the black hat in a Western has a long pedigree …

“Pray,” said King Charles, “what is the Meaning that we never see a Rogue in a Play, but, Godsfish! they always clap him on a black Perriwig, when it is well known one of the greatest Rogues in England [Shaftesbury] always wears a fair one?” (p. 58)

Bound to get a huge amount of attention today is a story in the Observer about a study that found young children doing better in meeting developmental goals when primarily cared for by their mothers.

Easy to know what will be done with that – get women barefoot and pregnant back in the kitchen. But of course there is another way of telling that, as Yvonne Roberts makes clear:

Leach insisted her findings should not be interpreted as a demand that mothers stay at home. Instead, she described it is as supporting a demand for ‘developmentally appropriate high quality childcare’.

Indeed it is interesting that children with childcarers did better than those with relatives, probably the researchers suggest, because childcarers (usually women looking after three or so children in their own home) made more plans and had training in helping the babies develop, which the relatives lacked.

Somehow I doubt that the need for higher-quality childcare is the spin this story will get in most quarters, however.