Comment

Comment by Idaho Spud on May 14, 2014 at 7:37am

Good bibble subtitle.

Comment by Joan Denoo on May 13, 2014 at 11:43am

Ian, I loved Istanbul! I spent a few days there just wandering the streets of old Istanbul and experiencing the sounds, tastes and sights of Islam. It was an odd experience, to say the least. I was a woman, alone, in a male dominated society and in my wanderings I would see children playing marbles in the side streets, I would join them in their games and the children welcomed me tentatively at first, and then we were laughing, especially when my marbles went in some chaotic fashion. The mothers looked out of the windows two or three stories up. Eventually, a mother or mothers invited me in for Turkish coffee and chats. We couldn't communicate with words so we used sign language ... well not the official signs, but pointing to pictures, or fabrics, or whatever we could think of that didn't require verbal language. 

At one point I ran across a necropolis, a cemetery, and a woman who spoke English was sitting on a bench. We had a long conversation, and she was willing to answer any question I asked. The temperature was well into the 100 degree F range. She was dressed neck to feet in a black gaberdine coat, had a scarf on her head covering all but her eyes, and wore gloves. She had on black stockings. At first I asked simple question, you know, the small talk kind. Then I asked how she could wear the black clothing that revealed only her eyes. ... "I am used to it!" I asked if she was married, how many children, you know, the usual stuff about which we would wonder. 

Being a trained ethnologist, I was able to see things that others do not notice. My training helped me to observe, without judgment, so that I could compare and contrast different cultures. 

Ian, have a wonderful trip, I know you will enjoy the experience and be sure to taste the local food. It is delicious. I even ate bread a woman was cooking outside a caravansary, the old trade route service station for goat herders and camels, turned into a service station for automobiles. I went to a goat herders camp and a little boy gave me a metal cup of goat's milk his mother squeezed as I watched. 

I know, these are not wise things to do, but they make the experience so rich, and I survived. 

I love your, "Denoo-ded of hair". I will borrow it. I can hear my family and friends laughing now. 

Comment by Idaho Spud on May 13, 2014 at 9:14am

Yes, my favorite episodes of Bewitched were the ones with Gladys in them.

Comment by Ian Mason on May 13, 2014 at 1:24am

There was no such excitement where I grew up in the pleasant surroundings of Epping Forest although there was one quiet evening when we heard gunfire and the next day there was police everywhere. It seems that, after the  demise of the Kray family various London criminal gangs were having a war of succesion and had chosen our local area for a peace conference that went wrong.

Here and now it's 8 a.m. and I'm about to finish my packing for Istanbul, where the weather forcast is for showers/thundery showers and sunny  intervals. In the hope of good weather I had a drastic haircut yesterday, one of those where my head is Denoo-ded of hair. Must therefore take a hat or two. I'm not taking a PC but there'll be photos galore when I return. Have a great week, everyone. I'll be thinking of you.

Comment by sk8eycat on May 12, 2014 at 10:52pm

There used to be a family on the street behind ourd that we called "The Swear Bears;" they only seemed to know one word...the father and the two boys.  When they would get into one of their rages, the grandmother would run out on the front lawn and just scream...no words.  And, Yes, the black & white cars were there a lot.

When the boys were in their late teens they were both arrested for breaking and entering an apartment a few blocks away, and stealing electronic "toys."  When their house was searched, the back rooms and the garage were full of stolen stuff....

And the house next door was sold without warning the buyers about the family, so there was a lawsuit about that, and the buyers got their money back and moved elsewhere. 

Comment by The Flying Atheist on May 12, 2014 at 10:23pm

I could write a book about the overabundance of nut-case people who lived on my block when I was a kid.  There's just way too much to explain here but, in a nutshell, for one family that lived three houses down, having the police show up at their place was a regular occurrence.  Loud, bombastic arguments, breaking dishes, slamming doors and yelling inside and outside where the norm for them.  The Chicago police paddy-wagon seemed to routinely drive home the head of the household from the bar he patronized.  Many a time I watched as two policemen tried to unload their unstable human cargo as the wife, two sheets to the wind herself, argued with the cops that she didn't want him.   

In my neighborhood, the typical city lot was 30 feet x 120 feet, so basically there was just 60 feet of buffer zone between our homes.  Our house and the two houses in between were at the front of our lots, whereas their house sat on the back of their lot.  With my bedroom being at the back of our house, my bedroom windows were the perfect vantage point to see and hear all the activity.  I learned at a very young age that at night you need to turn off the lights in the room if you're going to spy out the window and not be seen,

Comment by kathy: ky on May 12, 2014 at 6:38pm

Hi Arp

Comment by Arp on May 12, 2014 at 8:11am

Quick hello from me. Hope you all are fine. I've been busy for the last month or so, and continue to be busy even now.

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on May 11, 2014 at 8:06pm

I like your Mother’s Day plan, booklover.

Napoleon, I don’t enjoy S&M, so I’d have found that missed ending less than fun. S&M is compatible with the personality portrayed, though. But it would have been a twist to not have the whole thing be a rant. Oh well, each to his own. You and I often have different tastes, but I still think you add so much to HWF. The world would be uber boring if everybody was like me.

I’m not a mother either, and  happy just to have cats. It never occurred to me to celebrate not-motherhood.

Joan, I’m just an ordinary old woman. If I were really that insightful, wouldn’t I have publications or something? Everything I’ve ever submitted was rejected, excepting at the most trivial level.  You are a very forgiving audience. Thanks.

Comment by kathy: ky on May 11, 2014 at 2:50pm

And... Happy mothers day.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 742
• 743
• 744
• 745
• 746
• …
• 1586
• Next ›
• Page