Friday, April 27, 2007

Who do you think you are?

I've had along-standing interest in genealogy, specifically in my own family's history. I've done my own research and borrowed the services of my distant cousin Martha Thayer to find out my English, German, Irish, Cherokee and Choctaw roots. It's as rewarding as a hobby can possibly be, finding out you and your family's role in history.

In the UK a few years back, there was a television series called Who Do You Think You Are? Each episode involves researching the family history of a particular celebrity. One of my favorite comedians (and writers) from the UK is Stephen Fry. He starred in the movie "Wilde" about Oscar Wilde and was nominated for an Oscar, and has most recently narrated the Harry Potter movies. Before that, he had a comedy series with Hugh Laurie (yes, Dr. "House") called A Bit of Fry & Laurie. He's a multi-faceted performer and I've been a fan of his for 20 years, probably. Stephen is thought of as being "quintessentially" English, due to his beautifully rich, plummy British accent. To the contrary, he is half Jewish and grew up among a large European Jewish family.
His episode of WDYTYA? is a search for his Jewish roots, starting with his grandfather Martin Neumann who originally hailed from Surany in what is now modern-day Slovakia. What Stephen finds out is heart-breaking and makes him realize how fortunate he is to even be alive. Most of his grandfather's family were killed in Auschwitz. He goes back to Vienna and finds many surprises, including finding his great-grandparents' names on a plaque outside the building they lived in before the Germans invaded Austria. Their names are there because a current resident thought it important to commemorate the Jewish residents who were sent to the concentration camps and never came back. Whole families were lost.

Here is the YouTube link to all seven 10-minute long excerpts from Stephen Fry's episode:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=WDYTYA+fry&search=Search

I highly recommend watching them. Even if you're not Jewish, it will help you see the futility and WRONGNESS of religious wars and religious persecution of ANYONE, not just Jews.

Stephen quotes Anwar Sadat: "Religious wars are just people fighting over who has the biggest invisible friend". Yes, it's really that childish. Think of that next time somebody says "we have to show those (Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, etc) who's boss". Whole families are being lost again, over and over. It's time to grow up now.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Spanish Pants

There was something different about Todd. He carried himself with an air of mystery, a sense of continental "je ne sais quois". He noticed how people looked at him as he passed by, gazing at him admiringly as if they knew he knew something they never would. He was a man of the world, a jet-setter, a man of taste.

Or so he thought.

People were actually looking at his pants. His "Spanish pants". He had just been to Spain for a fortnight and while in Madrid, had purchased a pair of bullfighter's short pants, with rhinestone stripes down each side and flowers embroidered on the thighs and across the rear, culminating in huge pink blooms on each cheek. These he wore with the customary white knee socks and black ballet shoes with little black pom-poms on them. That’s what people were staring at.

That and the little red cape.

Todd’s office had a casual dress code, but Todd thought that one should dress properly for the office, at least from the waist up. So, Todd decided to indulge himself in the sartorial version of a mullet: business from the waist up, party from the pants down. He wore an expensive cotton handmade shirt from Borelli, with French cuffs, silver cuff links and a Bruno Piatelli necktie. If you just saw Todd’s top half, you would see him for what he was; a banking industry professional with a taste for the finer things in life. If you looked down, you would think that Todd harbored a not-so-secret desire to be a circus performer or a particularly effeminate drag queen.

All that mattered to Todd was that people liked his Spanish Pants. Crowds gathered around him when he went out to lunch, staring and pointing. This attention made Todd feel important. The little red cape was necessary too. It gave drama to his Spanish Pants and people would get out of his way when he waved it around. Todd didn’t need a bull. He had Spanish Pants.....

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Winter Redux

It's very cold outside and it's sleeting. Adrian and I went to IKEA this afternoon and it started sleeting on our way home. I hope it doesn't kill all my flowers and plants. Two more big lilies showed up in the front bushes just last week.....

We bought a great floor lamp at IKEA. We had been wanting more ambient light in the front room, or "office" we call it. I also bought some cinnamon rolls, ginger snaps and some "Scandinavian Potato Chips" which are basically just thicker potato chips. Adrian got another couple of their good wood magazine holders. We could use at least 50 of those, but we only bought 2. Have to pay our taxes next week, you see......

I wanted to get one of their ergonomic memory foam pillows but of course they were out and wouldn't sell me a demo. "Health reasons", they ominously gave as the excuse. I guess they were worried that I'd catch some sort of monstrous head fungus or lice off a demo pillow.....