Here, there and everywhere
I saw a thing of beauty this morning. And it was neither one of Italy’s gazillion art treasures or antiquities, nor something exclusive to this country. It can easily be found in many other places.
A piece of a branch from one of the sycamore trees that line the street near where we live had been snapped off and blown to the ground by last night’s winds. The small segment had come to rest near the curb between two parked cars.
It was the harmony achieved by its contrasting shapes that was most striking – the linear variety of the branch itself, the entangled geometry of the curled and dying leaves, and the delicacy of the seed balls hanging by their stalks. Enhancing all was a single hue of golden brown, saved from monotony by the range of textures composing each part of the branch.
Although torn away from the whole creation of the tree, the fallen piece remained complete in its altered form.
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower…*
* William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
UPDATE: Today, while browsing my photo archives in search of another photo, I came across a long forgotten series of shots I made of the fallen branch (back in 2007). I’m posting one of these photos at the top of the blog, and moving yesterday’s shot of a sycamore tree in Rome to the bottom.
UPDATE 2: U-turn. Decided to take down the close-up photo of the branch and leave the imagination unfettered by the concrete.
Walking Rome’s old Appian Way on a rainy day
We’re having a gray and rainy day here. Reminds me of a beautiful walk we took last year in similar weather along a section of Rome’s old Appian Way. I posted an audio slide show of the walk back then, narrating what we saw as we passed along. Here’s a re-post. (For best viewing, best to watch in full screen mode.)
SPECK ‘N U: (25) Under the Metaphor
Speck ‘N U is a cartoon series largely about books. To see more Speck cartoons, click here.
A son’s tribute to poet-Mother: The Egyptian Cycle by Sheila Alexander
The poet-writer
In thinking about a recent publication of a book of poems by Sheila Alexander (1918-1984), I can’t stop wondering what this remarkable poet and writer would wish to have said about her. It strikes me as a question Alexander herself might have pondered, given some confusion and neglect in critiques about her previous published writing.
Very much on the plus side were some encouraging words from the first US writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature, Sinclair Lewis. The young Alexander took night courses at the University of Minnesota and was fortunate to have Lewis as one of her instructors. In a private letter to Alexander, Lewis praised her first published novel, “Walk With a Separate Pride”:
…Separate Pride isn’t merely a promise that urges you to go on – though it is that too. It is in itself a fine achievement, original and full of power.” (April 28, 1947)
But then there was this damning-with-faint-praise piece from the New Yorker:
Probably only women will want to bother with this novel, another of those stream-of-consciousness stories about a pregnancy. Mrs. Alexander, who is possessed of a lively imagination… and a poetic cast of mind, almost certainly does not speak for the typical expectant mother. It is possible though that she has pioneered a rich field that almost any lady author in search of a subject can make her own.” (April 19, 1947)
Similar ambivalence came in a whirlwind of conflicting commentary in a review in the New York Times:
Probably no mere man could ever properly appreciate “Walk With a Separate Pride”… How could a man be expected to understand all that there is to understand in a book that is entirely about having a baby? Yet, since Mrs. Alexander’s book is not an obstetrical text but a novel of unusual emotional intensity, it is to a certain extent news in the world of books and cannot be ignored. So, doing my best to suppress any natural masculine diffidence, I will now try to describe a completely feminine book… (April 2, 1947)
The NY Times reviewer went on to describe the book as an astonishing performance and an amazing tour de force. Then with a condescension breathtaking in its disdain, the critic summed up by declaring that though women readers may find pleasure in the emotion described in the book, “… it is not remotely likely that any man would choose to read ‘Walk With a Separate Pride’ of his own free will.”
To be fair, the two reviewers were expressing societal views toward women that were overwhelmingly the cultural norm at the time. Pointless here to bash them for airing sexist perspectives. And it’s doubtful that the brutal condescension came as much of a surprise to Alexander. A consistent theme in her writing, presented clear-eyed and without bitterness, is a powerful sense of the world as it is.
Noting the head-spinning confusion in these reviews, however, serves well to illuminate the magnitude of the task the very courageous Alexander took on in writing her first published book entirely about having a baby, to quote the flabbergasted reviewer. How truly extraordinary that Alexander wrote and won publication of this book in a time of such overriding and contemptuous dismissal of childbirth as a minor matter that could possibly interest women, but never men!
Blinded by the unapologetic sexism of their time, the reviewers in two of the most important publications in the country missed completely the true literary feat of Alexander’s novel — creation of a groundbreaking narrative, poetically personal, that explores the inexorable proximity of birth and death. Recognition of this theme did come in an introduction to an excerpt of ‘Separate Pride’ from North Country Reader: Classic Stories By Minnesota Writers, Editor Jean Ervin, (1979/2000):
It was the pervasive atmosphere of death during the Second World War that moved her to write of a young woman about to give birth to her first child.
Though brief, this sentence calls up a vivid image of the worldwide catastrophic events of the times Alexander had just lived through. It locates for us the powerful genesis of the imaginative leap that became ‘Separate Pride.’
Alexander’s depth and ambition of perspective can be seen in the excerpt below from the third chapter of the book. The very pregnant protagonist Nessa is sitting in a waiting room full of other pregnant women, all waiting to see the doctor. It’s titled “Intimately, As Women With Strangers”:
Nessa looked along the row of faces opposite her. She remembered the Chinese poem that began, ‘Since there is joy in suffering for a woman,’ and her ear made soundings for the ripe and authentic word in the harsh flow of their speech. When you only listen, she thought, you don’t impose yourself. When you stare they hate you like an animal would hate you; eyes excite them to a deep rage. But you must get as close to them as they will let you come, even when you have a sensation of suffocation, of oppression; not because they are people only, but ill, people with mortal problems and mortality, with their deaths in them, and living things leaping under their clothes, and not simple as you had once supposed but unendurably complex, each with a labyrinth brain, each heavy with childhoods, mothers, fears, and deaths. They are so excessive, and you try to understand them because that’s all you can do, and they try to understand you, and it is the trying that matters…
Alexander was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1918. While taking night classes in writing at the University of Minnesota, her instructors included both Sinclair Lewis and Robert Penn Warren. She was married and had three children at the time she published her first novel. And even though the praise was restrained, to win reviews of her novel in such prestigious publications as the New Yorker and The New York Times was in itself a remarkable achievement.
Alexander’s second novel, “King’s X” won the Eugene F. Saxton Award, and her poetry was published in Poetry magazine.
Colin Alexander, son of Sheila Alexander, in Rome (Oct 2012)
The son’s tribute
In deciding how to pay homage to the life and work of his mother, Colin Alexander chose to use the writer’s own words. The tribute is a series of nine poems written by Alexander following a first time trip to Egypt in 1974. Previously unpublished, the poetry was transcribed directly from voice recordings and manuscript compositions made by Alexander between 1974-1977 (see introduction).
Each of the poems describes a historic site Alexander saw during the trip to Egypt. Though the places are routine stops on a tourist’s itinerary, Alexander, with her characteristic depth of perspective, offers far more than a mere travelogue view. History, humanity, cosmos, philosophy and metaphor weave together as the poet regards the mix of ancient and modern world before her.
From the opening poem, Son et Lumière, describing a night visit to the pyramids:
Lights kiss the shapes.
The pyramids are on stage
But once you look up,
The sky is full
Of wicked smiles.
Stars think they know everything.
Only the moon
Admits her faults,
Waxing, waning —
A dust ball, a sweet wooer,
Leaning
Out of her blackness
Like a woman at a window.
“The Egyptian Cycle” is available in paperback and ebook through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com and Powell’s Books.com.
One of Rome’s best kept secrets: Ostia Lido off-season
Fall days don’t come much more beautiful than the one we had in Rome yesterday. A gently warm temperature and perfect sunshine created irresistible weather for spending time outdoors.
We headed off for a waterfront lunch and a leisurely meander along the wide boardwalk at one of the Eternal City’s best kept secrets at this time of year, its beachfront Ostia Lido.
It reminded me of a similar beautiful day we spent there in January of last year. Here’s a re-post of a slide show I put together of some photos I shot then.
Bragging rights: How to Live in Italy
Notwithstanding the disgruntlement of my beloved Speck (above), I am happy to announce the publication of my new book, “How to Live in Italy: Essays on the charms and complications of living in paradise.”
The book is a collection of essays that I’ve written during the past eleven years of living in this uniquely beautiful and bewildering place on the planet. The book is available in print edition and as a Kindle ebook. Pricing is user-friendly and, of course, it’s listed on Amazon.com.
From reviewers and colleagues some favorable words:
Rebecca Helm-Ropelato’s book is about the enjoyment of differences, of what they tell us about others and, above all, what they tell us about ourselves. This voyage of discovery of her other home looks afresh at everything we take for granted, from landscapes, architecture and clothes, through languages, ways of expressing ourselves and of being with others, to food, drink, and pride in what we are and what we do. From Italy, with love.” Back cover blurb, MADALENA CRUZ-FERREIRA, a multilingual scholar, educator and parent.
Rebecca opens by describing herself as an ex-pat. Literally she is correct, but philosophically she’s wrong. It’s that word ‘culture’ which is the giveaway. Having married an Italian and set up home near Rome she has definitively given up her ex-pat status by embracing her new way of life. This is wonderfully expressed in her approach to learning the Italian language – ‘Sheer hard work’ as Rebecca suggests – ‘it also helps me to see my own language in a fresh light and with greater appreciation. Replace the word ‘language’ with ‘culture’ and you have the essence of not being an ex-pat. From Philip Curnow, “Angels, and No Demons” Delicious Italy blog.
Why another book on the pleasures, oddities, and difficulties of living in Italy? It might seem that every stone, ancient and modern, in Bell’Italia has been overturned by every stripe of writer on earth, but for those of us who love Italy–whether through living there, visiting, or even just reading about it from afar–Rebecca Helm-Ropelato’s How to Live in Italy will stir our interest for the varied, rich, exasperating, wonderful life in Bell’Italia… Helm-Ropelato gives us a wonderfully restrained look at today’s Italy, with a self-deprecating attitude that is winning because it is so honest. From Gregorio, Amazon reader comment.
All this tooting of my own horn has exhausted me so I’ll stop here.
For more information about How to Live in Italy, and where to buy, the book website is here. To see the print and Kindle ebook listing on Amazon, go here (or see the book’s widget here on the right-hand column for more options.)
Special promotion: How to Live in Italy is available today and tomorrow to download free as a Kindle ebook (USA time zones apply).
What’s a writer to do when publishers say no? Bradley Abruzzi
If you have 70 or so minutes to spare and you are interested in the heated, at times hysterical, debate now underway about traditional publishing versus self-publishing, here’s a link to a video I highly recommend.
The speaker is Bradley Abruzzi, an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at MIT. In this candid and thoughtful talk, however, Abruzzi’s topic isn’t his successful day job or the legal field. Instead he relates a personal story — his own long search and failure to find a publisher for his literary fiction manuscripts, and his decision finally to self-publish his own novel.
Abruzzi doesn’t try to hide his frustration and disappointment. This is fortunate for his listeners because it gives us a close-up view of the dilemma a writer confronts when publishers repeatedly say no. Abruzzi discusses the promise, and difficulties, of digital media for writers, beginning his talk with a concise and informed historical overview of writers and publishing, ranging from the feudal times to present day.
The talk was given at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. You can watch the full video here, or click on the screenshot above.
Rescuing the childhood home of Francesco Petrarch
View from childhood home of medieval poet Francesco Petrarch in Incisa, Tuscany
The medieval poet-theologian Francesco Petrarch is grandly known as the “Father of Humanism” and creator of the Petrarchan sonnet. For ordinary mortals, however, it’s more endearing that he could well be the patron saint of the lovelorn and broken-hearted.
As the story goes, while at church one day the 20-something Petrarch’s gaze fell on a beautiful woman named Laura. Though not a word was exchanged between them, he fell in love. Unfortunately for the young poet, Laura was married and happily so. The good news for poetry lovers and posterity, however, is that the heartbroken Petrarch spent the rest of his life writing love sonnets to Laura.
Here is a stanza from Sonnet 101, Ways apt and new to sing of love I’d find:
Ways apt and new to sing of love I’d find,
Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh,
And re-enkindle in her frozen mind
Desires a thousand, passionate and high;
At the behest of his father, reportedly, Petrarch first studied law. He soon abandoned it, however, in preference for his first loves of writing and literature. His work and literary reputation in Europe were officially recognized in 1341 when he was named poet laureate in Rome.
On a recent visit to Incisa, a small town about twenty minutes south of Florence, we had a serendipitous encounter with a former living space of the medieval luminary. A friend we were visiting offhandedly mentioned that her new apartment is in the childhood home of Petrarch. She shared this tidbit just as we were climbing into our car to follow her through the town’s narrow streets to her front door.
Engraving on facade of childhood home of Francesco Petrarch in Incisa, Tuscany
Three minutes later we pulled up in front of a large medieval Tuscan residence, four floors of rustic design at the top of a steep hill. Originally built in the 12th century, it was the home of Petrarch’s maternal grandparents. Back in the day, it was within the protective security of the small city’s protective walls. The walls are long gone, but the house still has its tranquil view of the green valley below with the Arno river winding through it.
The newborn poet came with his parents from a nearby town to live in Incisa soon after his birth in July 1304, according to historical accounts. He remained there through his early childhood.
Unlike the celebrated and elegant villa Arquà Petrarca (now a museum) in a northern region of Italy where Petrarch lived out his last years, the more humble Incisa structure is much less wellknown. Its history also is more troubled. The line of family inheritance to the property was broken in succeeding centuries, according to local sources.
The residence did continue to be recognized up until the end of World War II as a one-time home of Petrarch. It housed a small museum and library dedicated to the poet. In the chaotic aftermath of the great war, however, the residence fell into abandonment and neglect.
City councilman Gianfranco Mazzotta overseeing the restoration of childhood home of Francesco Petrarch
On our recent sunny day in Incisa, we were fortunate to bump into a lead player in the restoration of the former Petrarchal home there, local city councilman Gianfranco Mazzotta. In fact, when we first saw him, Mazzotta was energetically wielding a mop to clean the floor of the newly completed public meeting room on the lower level of the Incisa structure.
Do your city council members in the US do this? he calls out, smiling as he held the dripping mop aloft.
In a complicated arrangement, the ownership of the former Petrarch home was previously held jointly by private owners and by the Italian state. Mazzotta recounted to us the sometimes thorny process of negotiating a fair sales price of the state’s share of the property to the city of Incisa. His pride in his ultimate success in the battle is evident.
Completion of the full renovation of the Casa Petrarca is expected to be a year from now, at which point it will be open to the public. In addition to the public meeting room, the residence will comprise a small museum and a library celebrating the poet.
Casa Petrarca, childhood home of Francesco Petrarch in Incisa, Tuscany
SPECK ‘N U: (24) Suddenly things seem so much brighter
Speck’N U is a cartoon series mostly about books by Rebecca Helm-Ropelato. To see more Speck cartoons, click here.
Project Europe is Angela Merkel’s to save, the writer says
As she was in the beginning (Angela Merkel)
What is the nitty gritty of what precisely is happening with the European Union — the Europe project — in these days? An answer to that puzzle is set out clearly, shortly and sweetly by Irishman Jason O’Mahony in a blog post today.
O’Mahony rests the matter of Europe’s future squarely on the shoulders of the remarkable Angela, the current Chancellor of Germany. Merkel faces a very clear choice between saving Europe or destroying Europe, O’Mahony argues. Check out what he has to say here.
My favorite part of the post, though, is this excerpt.
British eurosceptics constantly remark that the euro was a political project, as if that is a killer argument. It was. It was supposed to be, and whilst it is malfunctioning from bad design, the fact with European integration is that it has been the great success story of post-war Europe.
Seeking insight into the “Greek crisis”
A few days ago in an email conversation with my daughter I mentioned that the political and economic turmoil in Europe had intensified this past two weeks. Writing back, she asked me to send her a few links to news stories that could give her some insight into the situation.
Harrumph, I mumbled to myself, I wish I could ask the same of some wise news guru.
And I suspect I’m not the only one. It’s much more difficult than it should be to find news reports that aren’t simplistic re-cyclings of various prejudicial stereotypes or political ideologies posing as expertise.
As an example, just last week economist Bill Black strongly criticized the mighty New York Times‘s coverage of the European crisis as “overwhelmingly written from the German perspective.” You can read the post here on the Naked Capitalism website.
So when I found these two videos this morning featuring Harvard University economist Richard Parker talking about Greece, I decided to post them. Parker has a bit of an inside track on Greece especially. He served as an adviser to former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou from 2009 to 2011 (see bio).
In the first video (click on screenshot above), Parker advises against falling for easy answers “about the character or moral values of other people to explain a crisis of the kind we’re seeing in Greece.” He then quickly refutes some of the worst stereotypes against the country that are found in daily news headlines.
I particularly liked Parker’s summing up comment because he calls for citizen activism as part of the resolution. Here it is:
Now in Europe as in the United States there have been attempts to rein in the power of an unregulated financial system. But it’s very difficult to do. So the way forward in the 21st century in the wake of this crisis that we’re still living through is going to require a kind of intelligence and vision that transcends national borders. And that will have to come in part from citizens demanding behavior of public leaders of all sorts that moves us to a new world.
This video is a concise three and a half minutes and was posted online earlier this week (May 14).
The second video I found, via Googling, is a six-minute excerpt of a lecture Parker gave last October to the World Affairs Council of Connecticut. In this video, the economist traces step by step how the Greek economic crisis began some years ago to its current deepening turmoil.
What Pebbles has to say about Monday
And I wholeheartedly agree!
Springtime flowering along via Appia Antica (Rome)
Two images from a walk we took Sunday along a short stretch of the old Roman road, via Appia Antica.
Books I read: “In Defence of Dogs” (John Bradshaw)
Our dog Amica
Why did I choose this book?
Although I love our dog in a way that keeps her front and center of my world much of the time, I knew very little about her world — the world as seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and “felt” by dogs. So a book written by a biologist offering to share with ordinary dog owners a bundle of recent scientific information and insight about that world was a must-read.
One backcover blurb:
Every dog lover, dog owner or prospective dog buyer should read this book. It will change how you feel about dogs and, likely enough, how you treat them too … sparkles with explanations of canine behaviour … Bradshaw denies that his book is a manual, but you’ll find more advice on training here than in most guides.” (James McConnachie, Sunday Times)
Did I learn what I hoped to learn?
Eleven years ago, come September, Amica came into our lives. Our neighbor’s little boy brought her to us after he found her dumped into the community trash bins down the road from our house. Not much bigger than a cereal bowl, with jetblack glossy fur and so sad dark brown eyes, she was a study in sweet and irresistible cuteness.
Initially terrified of everyone, when approached Amica squealed and scrambled away to hide under the hedge. Given that she was still making nursing movements with her mouth, I judged her to be no more than five weeks old. This could account for the fear, I knew, as that is much too early for a puppy to be separated from its mother. But the brutal mystery of how she came to end up thrown into a garbage bin no doubt also played a key role in the origin of her hysteria.
With time, gentle care and much affection, we slowly gained Amica’s trust. In maturity she displayed the appearance, behavior and intelligence of a herding dog. The usual comments we hear from those encountering her here in Italy are “E’ un Belga?” (Is she a Belgian Shepherd?) or — often from children — “Un lupo!“(A wolf!). The characteristically lowered head and John Wayne style sidle account for the latter, I think.
Amica’s fears, though ever there, have subsided. And, thankfully, she doesn’t exhibit cowering behavior. At any moment, though, she appears to expect to be the object of disapproval and of being abandoned. No amount of reassurance, it seems, will ever put back together what was shattered in those early formative weeks of her life.
But one of Amica’s great fears never wanes. In fact, over time it has deepened. It’s her dread of loud noises, especially the sound of fireworks and thunderstorms. Long before we hear the thunderclap, with her greater hearing, she begins to tremble. Scurrying from one room of the house to another, she searches for any refuge. Our efforts to calm her or comfort her fail. She continues to hyperventilate and the shaking intensifies.
All this to say, that while there was much I was hoping to learn from John Bradshaw’s “In Defence of Dogs,” what most drew me was the possibility of gaining some insight into Amica’s suffering, the mystery of its intransigence and, perhaps, some advice on how to ease it a bit if possible.
Bradshaw doesn’t disappoint. A primary purpose in writing the book, he stresses, was to help owners help their dogs in the most informed way possible.
In particular, I gained understanding about Amica’s fear of noises. And while it was disappointing to find that there’s little we can do to relieve her distress, I learned that many dogs suffer this problem. And at least I know now how to avoid making it worse. (Important note: Bradshaw does describe a training for young dogs that can prevent the development of this fear.)
An excerpt:
Up to half the dogs in Britain react fearfully to fireworks, gunfire and so on. Although some dogs probably habituate quickly to loud noises… many instead become sensitized. It is perfectly natural for a dog to be fearful of a loud noise that happens without warning and with no identifiable source or cause. Yet this very unpredictability is what makes it difficult for the dog to know how to react, and usually whatever it does will be only partly effective; hiding behind the sofa may provide a feeling of protection, but does not serve to reduce the volume of the next bang very much…
Dogs limited capacity for emotional self-control can therefore have real consequences for their welfare. Dogs cannot ‘pull themselves together”. Their instincts tell them to be frightened of sudden, novel events, and when they find such events incomprehensible… they are not capable of dismissing the event as irrelevant. On the contrary, some dogs become more and more frightened every time.
Notwithstanding my own narrow focus in scouring the book for help with Amica’s fears, Bradshaw provides a comprehensive overview of all things dog. And his core message is revolutionary. If we truly care about our dogs, he admonishes, we must change the way we understand and direct the care of them.
Bradshaw discusses in depth the recent studies that have led to a definitive “discrediting of the wolf-pack idea” as a model for dog behavior. Specifically, this is the longheld, still widespread belief that our dogs are all secretly plotting to become the Saddam Husseins of their households, always furtively seeking a chance to dominate us.
On the contrary, new evidence now proves, writes Bradshaw, that dogs are cooperative by nature and family-oriented. They respond best, therefore, when treated lovingly and with rewards for good behavior, rather than with punishment, in particular violent punishment.
There is so much information in this book that any caring dog owner will be engaged by the content. And, it seems to me, also grateful. Depending on your attention span, you can devour every word of the 288 pages, or skip through various chapters to extract only what you feel you need.
I learned not only what I hoped to learn from this book, but much more.
Favorite quote from the book:
…when it comes to the simpler self-conscious emotions, such as jealousy, can we be sure that dogs possess only those that we humans have, and can put a name to? While I am reasonably confident that dogs do not feel guilt… it does not necessarily follow that their emotional lives are any less rich than ours, just different. For instance, since they are such social animals, perhaps they compensate for their less sophisticated cognitive abilities by having more fine-grained emotions? If the Inuit can have fifteen words for snow, maybe dogs can experience fifteen kinds of love.
Who wrote this book?
John Bradshaw is a biologist. He founded and directs the Anthrozoology Institute, at the University of Bristol (England). He has studied domestic dogs and their behavior for over twenty-five years.
A word about the title:
Depending on where you are, Bradshaw’s book has different titles. In the US, it’s “Dog-Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet” (link here). In the UK, it’s “In Defence of Dogs: Why Dogs Need Our Understanding” (link here). And in Italy, it’s La naturale superiorità del cane sull’uomo (link qui).
Note: For Speck ‘N U fans, I did a cartoon related to Bradshaw’s book… link here.
My Q&A with author John Bradshaw
March 1, 2012
Q: Dog owners in modern societies reportedly are spending more on clothes for their dogs to wear, especially in cold or rainy weather. Do dogs need such cold weather wear, or is this primarily an example of what you describe as “anthropomorphism” by which people ascribe human characteristics to their dogs?
A: While thick-coated, cold-adapted dogs like Huskies will happily fall asleep on the snow, small breeds with short coats can become chilled very quickly and will benefit from a cold-weather coat, especially if their normal environment is a centrally-heated apartment. Provided the coat is comfortable, it doesn’t seem to matter much to the dog what it looks like, since dogs are probably incapable of feeling “embarrassed”. Therefore in general, dressing dogs up is usually a harmless expression of anthropomorphism. More serious for the dog is the anthropomorphic error that they are capable of feeling “guilty”, and therefore will understand why they’re being punished for a misdemeanour committed a few minutes or hours previously.
Q: Some dog owners insist that it’s best to feed a dog only once a day and others say it’s better (kinder, perhaps), instead, to feed a dog twice daily. What is your opinion?
A: Dogs are carnivores, and as such they are adapted to eating rather infrequent, large meals, as would happen when a wolf pack made a “kill”. One meal a day is a reasonable approximation to this, and there’s no evidence that a healthy dog will be happier if the same amount of food is split into two or more meals each day.
Q: In the preface to your book, you wrote this: “Having studied the behaviour of dogs for twenty years… I felt it was time that someone stood up for dogdom…” It would be interesting to know if there was a particular event or moment or situation that you remember serving as a catalyst in your decision to do this.
A: Many years ago I owned a Labrador, Bruno, who suffered terribly from separation anxiety, and this inspired me to start a research programme into this disorder that ran for over a decade and made many advances in its diagnosis, prediction and treatment. Yet despite everything we had discovered, we seemed to have made little difference to the average owner’s appreciation of just how important (and straightforward) it is to prevent their dog from developing separation anxiety. At the same time, I realised that owners also knew very little about any of the new canine science that was emerging from other universities around the world. I guessed that many would actually enjoy finding out about this, and that it might also help them to appreciate their dogs better, hence I set about writing the book.
Italy loses a beloved musician: Lucio Dalla
Yesterday, Italy lost one of its multi-generational popular music icons, Lucio Dalla. The singer-composer was on tour in Switzerland, according to news reports, cause of death a heart attack. Dalla was only three days away from his 69th birthday.
Outside of Italy, Dalla may be bestknown as the composer of the song “Caruso” which was recorded by several musicians, most prominently Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, and Josh Groban.
Click on the screenshot above to see a video of Dalla performing “Caruso” with Pavarotti in 1992.
SPECK ‘N U: 23 (“In Defence of Dogs” – John Bradshaw)
Books I read: “Somebody Else’s Century…” (Patrick Smith)
“Somebody Else’s Century/East and West in a Post-Western World” by Patrick Smith (2010)
Why did I choose this book?
I wanted to learn more about Asia, something beyond the usual news articles and television programs that only focus on politics and financial news. From such narrow reporting, it isn’t possible to have more than a vague idea about the countries and people and cultures in Asia.
I didn’t even know precisely which countries are East and why. I wanted to learn more about the distinctions between the Japanese, Chinese and Korean people.
And a blurb on the back cover of the book also sparked interest:
This thoughtful and highly original meditation on the future of Asian societies should be required reading for anyone interested in where our planet is heading. (Chalmers Johnson)
Finally, it was the credibility of the author. Patrick Smith is a journalist who has been a foreign correspondent in Asia since 1981.
Did I learn what I hoped to learn?
Yes, and much much more. The depth and detail of reporting in this book transformed my views of Asia. An unexpected reaction was the anger I felt that our traditional news media does not offer such comprehensive reporting in its daily coverage. Smith brilliantly demonstrates what a journalist can do if given the chance.
Choosing a perspective from the inside out, Smith writes about the complex reasons a defeated and humiliated Japan (post-World War II) embraced and imitated the priorities and culture of those who conquered it. He traces the historical relationship between China and Japan. He discusses the attitudes of the people in each toward each other. And Smith analyzes a crucial aspect of India and its people that makes the country and culture markedly different from China and Japan.
Most interestingly, he reviews the arbitrary line that divides East from West, questioning exactly what it is and whether it has any validity. Excerpt:
Herodotus concluded that the business of East and West was ‘imaginary.’ The line he referred to was drawn by humans. For a long time we have simply lost track of this. We have erred in thinking the divide is eternal — ever there, ever to be there, somehow (and somewhere) etched into the earth. Now we enter a time when we can see from another perspective and see the truth of things and of ourselves.
Favorite quote from the book:
“The past is made of every moment up to the one we live in, the moment we know as ‘now.’ Each speck of our past is part of what makes us who we are… We honor tradition only when we add to it. The rest is mere convention, unalive.”
Who wrote this book?
Patrick Smith is an American journalist who has written for major publications including the International Herald Tribune, The New Yorker, The Nation, Business Week, and The Economist. He is also the author of the award-winning book, “The Nippon Challenge and Japan: A Reinterpretation.”
Rare snowfall in Rome: Feb 4, 2012
Man walking his dog in the snow
We don’t often get snow in our neck of the woods here near Rome, and when we do it’s usually no more than a three-minute wonder. But recent weather forecasts predicting arrival of the beautiful white stuff were raising my hopes.
So yesterday, I loitered near our front windows watching the steady fall of the rain, hoping for the magical transformation into winter wonderland. Finally ’round midnight, my vigil was rewarded. I would say at least five inches fell — and it’s still here!
SPECK ‘N U: 22 (Marcelo Gleiser – A Tear At The Edge of Creation)
From “A Tear At The Edge of Creation” by Marcelo Gleiser
Link of the week: Vangelis interviewed (Jan 21, 2012)
In a feature titled Vangelis: A message of hope, the Greek composer gives a rare interview to Al Jazeera. He discusses his ideas about beauty, music and culture. Click on screenshot below to listen (25 min approx).
