Recent Posts from Author
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Hurricane, Hüzün & Holy City – Isaac’s Storm
This is Part I of a three part book review. All three books are non-fiction and each describes the history and the fate of a city. The first book deals with the hurricane portion of the 3-H title of my post.
Isaac’s Storm: Erik Larson’s excellent account of the hurricane of 1900 that devastated the city of Galveston has been on my mind off and on since the summer of 2005 when Katrina and Rita terrorized the gulf coasts of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. It is the story of the biggest hurricane to make landfall in the recorded meteorological history of the United States – a storm against which all subsequent storms have been measured. On Saturday, September 8, 1900, the morning in the coastal city of Galveston, Texas, began calmly enough. A hurricane that had been brewing off the coasts of Cuba was expected to take a northerly turn along the eastern flanks of Florida and the Carolinas – far removed from the gulf coast of Texas. Isaac Cline, the resident meteorologist stationed in Galveston, a meticulous weatherman, had been thus assured by the headquarters of the US Weather Bureau. Yet on that September morning, Isaac was troubled by what he saw – deep swells in the waters of the Texas gulf that should not have been there if the predictions from the Washington D.C. office were to be believed. Isaac had no idea how wrong the reports were and what was to be unleashed by mother nature. Before he understood the true grimness of the event and could issue a warning, residents of Galveston were blindsided by a monster storm which submerged the city in water that rose to the second floors of buildings in some areas of the island. By the time the fury of the storm was spent, 6000 men, women and children were dead. The tiny island of Galveston (built along the architectural aesthetics of New Orleans) with its ambitions of becoming the richest and most stylish city in Texas, lay in ruins. Galveston never recovered from this blow and neither did Isaac Cline, who lived out the rest of his life broken hearted and haunted that he, who had prided himself in accurately reading the sea and the sky, had been so fooled by both. But in reality, Isaac had been fooled by man as much as by nature.
Category: Books & Authors -
It’s All In The Vedas
Once after giving a talk on a seminal piece of work, the brilliant Indian physicist Meghnad Saha was told by an elderly member in the audience, “There is nothing new here. It’s all in the Vedas.” From then on, whenever Saha came across a new or intriguing development in physics, he is said to have quipped, “But it’s all in the Vedas!” He of course was being sarcastic and dismissive of the claims by some Hindu purists that the answer to pretty much anything pertaining to mathematics, physics, metaphysics, ethics, morality and the universe was discovered, understood and transcribed in the Vedas millennia ago by the ancient sages of a burgeoning philosophy which came to constitute the foundations of Hinduism.
Now, I am no Vedic scholar. I have only a vague and incomplete understanding of the original philosophical / ritualistic texts although I am quite familiar with the Puranas which constitute the mythological literature deriving from that line. My own fractured understanding leads me to believe (perhaps erroneously) that the Vedas do touch upon many aspects of the real and imaginary forces governing the universe but much of that, except guidelines to ritual worship and mantras, is vague and open to multiple interpretations in light of subsequent latter day knowledge. Even though the sages speculated on physical laws, I am not sure how much actual verifiable data are present in the ancient texts. Does a rich and rational imagination qualify as knowledge? If one fantasizes about flying, is that proof that one formulated Bernoulli’s principle? Does pondering over the nature of matter automatically point to a grasp of the structure of the atom? Should beautiful mythology filled with awesome weapons of mass destruction lead the reader to conclude that the bards were alluding to nuclear fission and fusion? I am not referring to the classical Indian scholars of the early middle ages like Aryabhata, his disciples and their substantial contributions to mathematics, but to the more ancient era – a few thousand years B.C. and earlier. How many of the modern mathematical concepts had been refined during early Vedic times? What exactly is Vedic math? I found an article that mentions it but doesn’t explain much except to say that the Vedic system makes computation simpler and liberates the student from an over dependence on calculators. Well, whatever it may be, Houston students can now benefit from Vedic math.
Imported wisdom
Delhi engineers and Houston school children both gain from Indian math traditions -
Inspired Imagery
The last two times I put up some of my original paintings (Family Pictures) and some faithful copies (Second Hand Art). Today I have picked two paintings which are somewhere in between. These paintings are based on photographs I found in magazines. But they were painted from memory – I did not have the originals before me when I executed the paintings. As the originals were photographs and mine are paint and brush versions of the same and because I added and subtracted from the original compositions, the end products are not really copies. However, since I borrowed the basic idea, I hesitate to call them true originals.
(As usual, please click on the pictures for a larger image.)
One bleak February in Nebraska, I was struggling with a painting that was going nowhere. Both the weather and the creative mind block were cause for some frustratration. I wanted to put the work aside and start something fresh but couldn’t come up with a good idea. Then during a trip to the local library while browsing through an issue of National Geographic, I fell upon an article on Rajasthan, the colorful desert state in central India. Rajasthan is not far from Delhi and the photographs in the article made me painfully nostalgic for the hot, arid summers of northern India in the surrounding gloom of a midwestern winter. I could not check out the magazine. I made a quick sketch of the picture on a piece of paper and later transferred the image on canvas. What transpired was a very satisfying piece of art work that progressed with speed and enthusiasm. I finished the painting in high gloss varnish which lent it a luminous overtone. It is framed in antique gold frame and hangs in a room that gets the afternoon sun – resulting in an attractive glow. It always pleases me to look at this painting because I remember how happily I worked on it. -
Richa Arora – A Delhi Artist
It is always interesting when practitioners and students of science cross over to the world of literature and the arts. Is their artistic endeavor superior to more traditionally trained artists? I do not know. I can only speak for myself. The scientific perspective in art and literature invariably impresses me. The clear eyed precision scientist-artists bring to their craft confers a particularly satisfying uncluttered quality to their work.
On my recent visit to New Delhi, I visited one of the city’s well known art galleries. Among the gallery’s many works, I came across an exhibition of paintings by young Richa Arora. Her work is bold, interesting, clean and impressively confident. I had the pleasure of meeting Richa who was present at her show. She graciously gave me the permission to post some of her pictures on my blog. I hope the readers will enjoy her paintings as much as I did. And perhaps leave some comments for her.
Category: Art & Cinema -
The Earliest Desis in America
Inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent have traveled the world far and wide for centuries. Before colonial times the travel was mostly voluntary. Indian influence in the far and middle east spread mainly through trade and religion. Later during the British rule when Britain got busy expanding its colonial reach on several continents, Indian indentured labor was utilized in sugarcane and rubber plantations and for building the infrastructure of the new colonies. Small and large contingents of men of different religious and linguistic backgrounds, from several parts of the subcontinent were transported to different places – some closer to home in Burma and Malaya and others as far away as Africa, the Caribbeans and Fiji. Although the indentured servitude was originally planned as a temporary affair, many among the dislocated groups chose to stay on in the new countries. The laborers, living lives of privation and subjected to systematic exploitation were permitted to bring over brides and other family members from the home country. Sizable Indian communities thus grew around the labor colonies over time. Languages, religious practices and other customs were perpetuated down the generations (incorporating the inevitable organic and eccentric variations as is common to all uprooted populations), thus preserving an Indian identity which was not forgotten even as the scattered and sometimes insular communities learnt to adapt to foreign surroundings. Those early emigres from India and their descendants formed the bulk of the first significant Indian diaspora of the modern era. [See the history of some older Indian diasporic groups here, here and here]
The history of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent in North America on the other hand, is widely believed to be of relatively recent vintage. Until now I was under the impression that the earliest group of small but ethnically significant number of Indians to settle in the US were the Sikh farmers of Yuba valley in central California in the early part of the twentieth century. The next wave of Indians (and Pakistanis) to arrive were mostly doctors, scientists and other professionals in the 1960s when immigration laws were loosened to admit more non-Europeans into the US. Since then Indians have emigrated to the US in steady numbers, their demographics changing gradually to include small businessmen, financiers, bankers and IT personnel. Unlike some other groups of immigrants who have fled their countries due to dangerous political / ethnic /religious strifes, Indian immigration to the US has been and continues to be voluntary – largely undertaken for economic reasons. Until now I was not aware of “involuntary” transportation of south Asians to America. It was therefore extremely surprising to discover that Asian Indians were present in American colonies as early as the beginning of the 17th century, brought here by British colonists as their indentured servants or personal slaves.
Indian Slaves in Colonial America
Evidence of “East Indians” in 17th-18th century Virginia
The seeds of what was to become modern America were planted on May 13, 1607, when British colonists arrived at an island that they would come to call Jamestown in what is now Virginia.Category: History -
The Spy Princess
(Noor Inayat Khan: in two different incarnations)
History is not my forte. But I know enough Indian history that this particular story caught me completely by surprise. I came across it in a book review published in the Bengali periodical, Desh (the source of my regular dose of Bengali reading). Spy Princess : The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu chronicles the life of a remarkable young woman of Indian-American parentage who was involved in espionage on behalf of the British Empire during WWII in Nazi occupied France. I have not read the book (now I will) but I gleaned enough about Noor’s life from the review and Wikipedia to be able to present an outline of this unusual bit of history.
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On The Road With Jesus
Sam Fentress is a Jack Kerouac of sorts. He travels the roads of America looking to find not himself but Biblical signs and bill boards – messages to praise and persuade. In his many sojourns he has found farmhouses, grain silos, restaurants, hair salons, gas stations and even traffic signs bearing Biblical messages. An artist and a photographer, Fentress first started photographing roadside biblical messages when a student in his class brought him a picture of a barn covered in Scriptures. Fentress was stunned.“It just knocked my socks off as a picture,” he said. “The boldness of the farmer in covering the roof, the sides — every square foot of the barn had some sort of Bible quote, Old Testament, New Testament, Gospels, Epistles, Revelation.”
Fentress has photographed an urban billboard which rotated its message to read among other things.
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Deep Six Code 10?
All professions have their own jargon. While on the job, soldiers, sailors, tinkers and tailors may speak a lingo that only those in the trade can decipher easily. Aviators, lawyers, sports casters, weathermen, needle workers, vintners, librarians and chefs have their own vocabulary. Some insider language can be mind numbingly unintelligible to those not interested in the subject. (My eyes glaze over when I hear stock market chatter involving hedge funds, put and call, options etc. while my husband takes an animated interest in such terminology.) Others use mysterious sounding words and acronyms just to feel self important. But often code words and cryptic languages develop in professions where quick and clear communication is crucial – sometimes involving life and death. Perhaps that is why we pay special attention to medical and police jargon. The rapid fire talk of medics and crime stoppers are made even more impressive by TV shows and movies involving hospital and police procedures.We are quite familiar with common cop-shop words and phrases like perp walk, mug shot and DWI. But we have all heard policemen speak on their radios in numerical codes that sound mysterious as well as urgent and which most of us don’t understand. This system of police communication is called Code 10 where each code is prefixed by the number 10. “10-4” which means “message received” or “okay” is perhaps the best known Code 10 phrase. Cops have a coded language system to describe real life situations ranging from “cattle blocking the road” to “murder.”
Code 10 was developed in simpler times (in the 1930s) when police forces operated in limited territories within a state or county. Also in those less technologically endowed days, police radios had just one frequency assigned to them and policemen had to communicate quickly and concisely in order to not jam up the signal with verbosity. Since terrorists entered the American crime scene on 9/11/2001, the scope of police work has expanded beyond regional law and order situations. In light of this new development, the venerable Code 10 may soon become history. Why? Because while some 10 codes are common to all police forces in North America, not all two hundred or so codes mean the same thing to different police units (I was surprised to learn this). For example, Code 10-40 can mean one of the following:
Category: Culture -
Story Wallah
Story Wallah, edited by Shyam Selvadurai is the most comprehensive collection of south Asian diasporic writing that I have encountered. All the authors included in this anthology were either born outside the Indian subcontinent or emigrated out of there. Many of the contributors were new to me and others are old hands. The book is a collection of short fiction – short stories and excerpts from novels. Difficult as it is to cogently review the literary merits of a collection featuring twenty six writers with eclectic styles, I will refrain from doing so. Instead, let me quote a portion of the excellent introduction by Selvadurai, describing the inspiration behind the publication. As with any diaspora tale, it is largely about identity and finding one’s voice within the tug of war between more than one “native” culture. I am often invited to read from my novels in public, and, if there is a question period aftenvards, someone inevitably stands up to ask the following: “What kind of a writer do you consider yourself to be? Are you a Canadian writer or a Sri Lankan writer?”
It is perplexing, this matter of cultural identity, and I am tempted, like some other writers of multiple identities, to reply grumpily, “I’m just a bloody writer Period.”
Category: Books & Authors -
Second Hand Art
In my introductory virtual exhibition I posted some original compositions. This post contains paintings which are copies of other artists’ works. As a student and amateur artist, I have made many copies over the years, true and inspired – of real objects, human beings, photographs and other artists’ works as my model. The exercise is akin to penmanship – for practice and to improve drawing skills and techniques. Occasionally, a copy turns out to be so satisfactory, that happily it becomes a work of art worth preserving . I display them in my home for my own enjoyment and am doing so now on the blog, for yours. These pictures are a testimony to my skills as an illustrator, much like a billboard artist – not my artistic flair. I have spoken with those in the know about the wisdom of putting them out for public consumption. They assure me that as long as I do not offer such art for sale or claim them as my own, I am not violating any ethical boundaries, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery .. etc.
When I started painting at Joan Furrow’s studio in Omaha in late 1992, I was for the first time, working seriously with oil paint. Joanie advised me to start off with a few copies of actual paintings to get a handle on the color, texture and proper brush strokes. All the paintings shown here are from assorted magazines that cluttered Joanie’s library. Unfortunately, I did not make a note of the artists’ names. So I cannot credit any one properly except to say that these are not my own compositions. I selected the pictures for different reasons but each appealed to me on the basis of subject matter, appropriate level of complexity and artistic quality. They are not reproductions in a technical sense because I did not measure out the originals in grids for exact proportions. I drew them from visual perception as closely as possible. But they are all good enough copies that if you saw the originals somewhere, you’d probably recognize them. The paintings are oil on canvas and they hang in my home. So enjoy some one else’s art vicariously – channeled through me.
Please click on pictures for larger image:
This was the first full painting I made at Joanie’s. I selected it for the depth of the perspective, colors and composition. The impressionistic style of drawing made it easier to avoid making glaring mistakes. I liked the criss-crossing of light and shadow on the dusty street. -
60th Anniversary of Independence and Partition of the Indian Subcontinent
(Indians and Pakistanis light candles at a border town, jointly commemorating the independence days of both countries. Photo: Times of India)
India and Pakistan celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of their independence this month – India on the 15th of August and Pakistan, a day earlier on the 14th.
Sixty years ago, the ancient land of India was partitioned to form two brand new countries – India and Pakistan, under circumstances that can only be described as a nightmare. Since then the two nations have gone their different ways, choosing their philosophies, allies and enemies to best suit their own interests. But all through their separate existence, neither can forget about the other’s looming presence across the border. (Pakistan was further broken up in 1971 into Pakistan and Bangladesh.) The neighborly relations between India and Pakistan can be best described to include an uneasy truce, continued low level hostility and in the past six decades, four full fledged wars.
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Eggcornucopia
An idiom by definition is idiosyncratic – it conveys a meaning that is not always obvious or predictable from its construction. No wonder then, people tend to mangle and modify old fashioned idioms containing quaint expressions and words of foreign or antique origin to suit their own understanding of the language. A bit of logic too enters the modification according to our perceptions of the world around us. For example: - Damp Squib (squib = an obscure name for a small explosive device) sometimes becomes Damp Squid for obvious reasons
- Vocal Cords (cord = thin rope or cable) is changed to Vocal Chords associated with sound (but why does the misspelling also extend to the spinal cord which is not involved with tonal function?)
- Fount (a gushing source) of Knowledge appears more impressive to some as the Font (receptacle) of Knowledge.
- Chaise Longue (pronounced shayz longg, meaning long chair in French) is languidly called the Chaise Lounge, the latter associated with relaxation.
- Just Deserts (from deservir in French meaning deserve) may have transformed to Just Desserts due to simple misspelling.
I often misspell the word “deceit” as “deceipt.” Its correlation to “deception” in meaning and the phonetic similarity to “receipt,” leads to this frequent error. My sister’s housekeeper in India who doesn’t speak English, refers to a cell phone as a “celephone.” Serving the same utility, the newer technology is clearly linked in her mind to its traditional land line cousin not just in its purpose but also in a rhyming name. Associative linguistic changes and shifting idioms such as those above have been collectively termed eggcorns in honor of someone misspelling the word “acorn” as “eggcorn” (after all, acorns do look like large egg shaped corns). Spellings of individual words too become altered when we misread the origin of the word. The word minuscule meaning very small, derives its roots from minus. The alternate (but erroneous) spelling miniscule is becoming increasingly common because many now trace the word to mini. For more on eggcornucopia and the frequency of the usage of eggcorns as compared to the original phraseology, see here. (link via 3 QD)
There are other words and expressions, not quite eggcorns, that I have occasionally wondered about. For example, some words exist only in their negative connotation with no corresponding positive term in common usage. A “ruthless” person, we know is particularly unkind. Yet for the merciful among us, we don’t describe them as possessing veins which are overflowing with the milk of human “ruth.” Similarly “uncouth.” We know who they are – the boorish, coarse and the unmannered types. But we never compliment someone’s gracious behavior as being suitably “couth.”
Category: Daily Noise -
Kissing Without Consent or A Picture May Not Tell The Whole Story
Last week at the other blog, I reported the story of Glenn McDuffie, the Houston man who was recently identified as the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square in the celebrated 1945 Life magazine photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The picture seen and recognized by millions, is an historical moment captured by a photographer’s lens, marking the end of World War II.
Upon being identified, McDuffie, who had served in the US Navy during WWII, described what the day was like when he went into Times Square with a couple of his buddies and later bussed the nurse in celebration.
On Aug. 14, 1945, he was in Times Square when the word came.
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A Prologue To The Promised Land
Who Are the Jews of India? by Nathan Katz
Of all the Jewish communities in the Diaspora, the Indian Jews were among the oldest and perhaps the most interesting. They adjusted without assimilating within the larger culture and were not persecuted in any way by the majority Hindu community. Nathan Katz’s book, “Who Are the Jews of India?” is an in-depth account of the history of Indian Jews. For those who are interested in learning about this once tiny (now fast disappearing) but influential community, Katz’s book will be a rich source of information. Attractive black and white photographs accompany the text.Within a year of each other, India gained independence from Britain and Israel was established as a Jewish state. After these two events, the majority of Indian Jews left for Israel, UK, Australia and other places. Despite the presence of some prominent Jews on the Indian cultural scene of my youth (poet Nissim Ezekiel, actors David Abraham and Nadira, cartoonist Abu Abraham) and a Jewish distant cousin in my family, I never paid much attention to the history and heritage of Indian Jews until much later. Actually, not until I became acquainted with Jews in America.
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Family Pictures
Having conducted an energetic defense of science (and scientists) in a debate over scientific vs artistic creativity at Accidental Blogger, I decided to take an artistic respite at Shunya’s. Namit has given me permission to post virtual exhibitions of my paintings here [editorial note: Namit believes she has earned this right; it’s her blog too]. I will do so from time to time and share my meager body of work with readers.
Although I have loved drawing and painting since childhood, I have pursued this amateur but serious hobby in spurts of a few years at a time only about three or four times since my early teens. The last inspiration lasted between 1992-98. I haven’t picked up a brush in the past nine years. All the paintings are oil on canvas and painted in 1996-97. They are not fine art but done with much enthusiasm and loving care.
I have selected three paintings in this round which represent my impressions of some fond family memories. (Please click on thumbnails for a bigger image)
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The Man Who Would Be King
“To subdue and crush the masses of a nation by military force,…. is to attempt the imprisonment of a whole people: all such projects must be temporary and transient, and terminate in a catastrophe.” : Josiah Harlan, 1799-1871 – First American in Afghanistan “The Man Who Would Be King” by British writer and journalist (The Times, London) Ben Mcintyre is a historical non- fiction which reads like a work of fiction. Mcintyre’ book is the biography of the first American believed to have entered Afghanistan, where he fought wars, retraced Alexander’s footsteps in Central and South Asia and even became a “king”, under circumstances both amazing and amusing. It is widely believed that Rudyard Kipling’s famous eponymous short story (made into a film by John Huston, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine) was based on the life of this early American adventurer.
The Man Who Would Be King is the improbable life story of American Josiah Harlan, a young Quaker from Chester County, Pennsylvania. In 1822, Harlan, an earnest young man of twenty two, robust in health and florid in his imagination, set out to seek a new life with nothing more at his disposal than a love of adventure, history (especially the exploits of Alexander the Great of Macedonia) and botany. His journey began in Philadelphia and landed him in Calcutta, India, by way of China in 1824. In India he enlisted as an assistant surgeon in the army of the East India Company (the precursor to the British Raj) although the only medical knowledge Harlan possessed came from a medical manual he read during his ocean crossing. After being injured during battle in Burma, Harlan obtained his discharge from the Company’s army and traveled to northwest India and Afghanistan, seeking to realize his fondest dream – to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great.
Category: Books & Authors -
Identity: Donning Our Many Hats
In The Name Of Identity (Violence And The Need To Belong), a slim but ambitious book by author Amin Maalouf, may create a bit of a dilemma for a librarian attempting to categorize it. Bits of history, anthropology, religion, philosophy and politics are interwoven in Maalouf’s long essay about “identity.” His informed and open minded treatise is not hard to understand, appreciate and to agree with. What may be much more difficult is to expect to see his vision translated into reality in a world currently racked and riven by clashing “identities.” “A life spent writing has taught me to be wary of words. Those that seem clearest are often the most treacherous. “Identity” is one of those false friends. … It has been the fundamental question of philosophy from Socrates’ “know thyself!” through countless masters down to Freud,” begins Maalouf. Although he modestly claims to lack the ability to redefine “identity,” that is precisely what he does in this book. And he does it rather splendidly. He points out that among our many selves are those that are products of our birth and early upbringing – race, gender, ethnicity, language and religion. Other identities we acquire of our own choosing – our philosophy, politics and choice of job and home. Our identity is not just the label with which we get tagged by others but also what we ourselves want to assert or “identify” with. Moreover, identity is fluid, often determined by the time and place we are in and what our life experiences have been. Our allegiances may be the result of ambition, pride, expediency, anger, humiliation and even the desperation for survival. As I pointed out in my post on “home,” identity too is not fixed at birth but made and remade through a journey lasting a lifetime.
Maalouf, a French-Lebanese author born in Lebanon and living in France, begins with his own case. Maalouf is an Arab Christian and as such shares his ethnic / linguistic identity with several million Arabs, most of whom don’t share his religious faith. His religious identity is shared by a couple of billion Christians, the majority of whom do not speak his language. In either of the two above cases, he is a member of a large global community. But as an Arab and a Christian, he belongs to a tiny minority group anywhere in the world. Which of these groups must he pledge allegiance to? Also, where is his real home? Lebanon, where he was born or France, where he chooses to live? Do any or all of these “identities” define Maalouf fully as a human being? What about his politics, his gender, his sexual preference? Or whether he is a doctor, writer, florist or a soldier? Or even by what his tastes in food and music are or which soccer team he roots for? By the time we cover the entire intricate woven tapestry of a person’s identity, he or she may have more in common with a total stranger than can be first imagined by taking into account only the most visible or obvious facets of identity. “Six Degrees of Separation” in the current global milieu is more than a parlor game or catchy cliché.
Category: Books & Authors -
Cats and Humans – Domesticating Each Other
Like Lucy, the mother of man who came out of Africa, the mother(s) of all domestic cats might have been a resident of the middle east. Don’t worry, this is not the start of Friday Cat Blogging – I refer to a paper to be published in the June 29 issue of Science which traces the history of the domestication of the house cat. The research conducted on behalf of the National Cancer Institute’s Laboratory of Genomic Diversity by Carlos Driscoll of Oxford University concludes among other things:- Cat domestication probably began some 12,000 years ago and became complete around 8,000 years later.
- DNA analysis shows that house cats all over the world, from Shanghai to San Paolo, can trace their ancestry to five distinct wildcat lineages in the near east – around Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.
- Cats voluntarily adapted to humans and domesticated themselves upon finding safe living conditions around early agricultural settlements. Man probably played little or no role in the taming of the cat except to tolerate its presence around the home and the barn.
- Cats migrated with their human companions from their original habitat to different parts of the world.
- Although the cat earned its keep by killing rodents around the grain bins, the reason the cat became a beloved household animal (and even a divine deity, as in Egypt), probably had as much to do with its winning personality as its utility in the early agrarian society as a pest controller.
Painstaking genetic research shows that the cat first became domesticated soon after humans began farming and building the first civilizations, somewhere in the ancient Near East.
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A Rare Wodehouse
In an otherwise unrelated article by Christopher Hitchens, the erstwhile brave contrarian and now a pathetic neocon prevaricator, I came across this statement:
George Galloway Is Gruesome, Not Gorgeous
By Christopher HitchensMy old friend and frequent critic Geoffrey Wheatcroft once tried to define a moment of perfect contentment and came up with the idea of opening a vintage wine while settling down to read an undiscovered work by P.G. Wodehouse. ………..
Category: Books & Authors
