| Micaso's Musings | |||
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Friday, January 10, 2003 ( 1/10/2003 11:01:00 PM ) Jeanne Spent the whole day out of the house. Went to the dermatologist this morning and had a biopsy and I also got my hair all chopped off. The most interesting thing I did though was to go see an exhibition in the UIUC Rare Book room on books and censorship. It was a small exhibition, but had a beautiful edition of Dante's Inferno in vellum that had been censored by the Catholic church with huge chunks of text scraped off. There was also an interesting part with Madonna's Sex book and all the controversy it caused in public libraries. A librarian at the Champaign Library kept track of patron's reactions, phone calls and correspondence and donated it to the library along with articles in the media. It was funny because one of the reactions was from a self described "very religious Christian" who stated that while he thought the book was sick the First Amendment needed to be defended so the library should be allowed to buy the book. The reaction right next to it was from what sounded like a liberal feminist who was very much against it. Yet another patron offered to pay for the book out of their own pocket so people couldn't complain about taxpayer money being spent on it. There was also a large collection of books, notes and other material from the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Tennesee. Looking at all of these "forbidden" books and ideas made me think of the incredible fear and loathing that had to be present for people to want so desparately to remove them from the public eye and their desire to impose their viewpoint by omission...a strange way to argue a point if you think you're right in a democracy. # Thursday, January 09, 2003 ( 1/09/2003 01:54:00 PM ) Jeanne I've started reading In a Dark Wood after reading Paul Auster's latest book and just writing a review on it I'm feeling some deja vu. Both of the books are about men who have been left by their wives, one via dying and the other divorce, and both are researching the past of someone in attempts to bring some meaning to their lives. Its kind of uncanny moving straight from one to the other although the writing style is different. Somehow I came across this link, the ultimate in wacky Do it Youselfism aka Mister Ridiculous: Fun With a Purpose so if you've ever wondered how to make a trash can stove, vinyl records or a cure for dandruff you're in luck. It's actually kind of a cool site and has some good info on composting. Unfortunately we can no longer compost, we've got a backyard, but its not conducive to compost being surrounded on all sides by apartment buildings and parking lots. I just don't think our landlord would go for it. We are trying to recycle, but are thoroughly spoiled by the fact that we moved here from a town with a recycling program. The way it is now we have to schlep everything to a center so it tends to build up until we can no longer get out the back door. # Wednesday, January 08, 2003 ( 1/08/2003 08:16:00 AM ) Jeanne It looks like Egypt is about to get its first female judge. Interesting that Egypt is in many ways so much more secular than other Middle Eastern countries and at the same time in many ways more conservative. Nawal el Saadawi , famous Egyptian feminist, psychiatrist and writer, is quoted in the article and says she's glad, but that just having women in office doesn't solve anything if the women themselves are not progressive. She sights Margaret Thatcher as the perfect example. Too true! In other news it seems that the US is conducting a 600 million dollar PR campaign in the Muslim world to show that Muslims in the US live good free lives. Seems that what they don't understand is that Muslims outside the US know that we have religious freedom and admire that, what they don't like are our international policies and meddling. Hmmm what kind of ad could we put out there that might make them understand? "Its in Our Best Interest!" # Monday, January 06, 2003 ( 1/06/2003 01:48:00 PM ) Jeanne Was doing some research on sugar today and I found a great page on all things food. They have hundreds of trivia and facts on food and the history of food/dishes, many I've never heard of. They also have the entire contents of two cookbooks online one the first American cookbook from 1796 and another from the early 1900's. You can check it out at http://www.foodreference.com Reading about sugar is fascinating and I discovered a recent cultural history of it I want to read Bittersweet by Peter MacInnis. To think sugar spawned colonies, slavery and was even responsible in part for the French giving up Canada to Britain! The English returned some of the "sugar" islands to France, as part of a settlement from the war in 1763, in exchange for British control of Canada. This was to the British advantage as well because their sugar interests on these now French controlled islands meant the sugar could continue to be taxed as foreign. Voltaire thought this was hilarious and said the English had exchanged sugar for snow! I could spend the rest of my life chasing after the history of everyday objects. I forget that everything comes from somewhere and I am always in awe when the complexities of the things I take for granted every day are revealed to me! # |
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