LifeBeginsAt80

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2010-06-17T02:05:00.000-07:00

back from what seems eons ago from Tonga.
As you can see from the pictures above, The Talisker Bounty Boat Boys seem absolutley delighted! and so they should be, what a remarkable achievement, that after the first few day's no Bookie would even Quote odds of success! You will also notice how Slim the TBBB's are. I have been informed by Rachael Shaw PR Manager from the sponsors parent company Diageo, that Don has lost 18 kilo's (Nearly 40lbs or approaching-three Stones).
There is definatly a market for the Talisker Bounty Boat Diet! I don't know what the others have lost but we will all look forward to all their next blogs.
I would like to thank all those who have commented during this historic adventure and to those generous "Friends" Of the Sheffield Institute Foundation who have sent some much needed donations.
Please keep the Comments & Donation coming in, as we have a long way to go yet before we can find the Cure for the Big three generative Diseases. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Motor Neurone (ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) or La Maladie de Charcot, depending on where you are in the world; it all spells misery for the victims.

All been well Don will blog tomorrow! Providing he has finished his washing!
Cheers for now Stuart Keane
A very proud Patron Of the Sheffield Institute Foundation, and a privileged

skip to main | skip to sidebar Wednesday, June 16, 2010
"Safe arrival in Kupang"

Dear All,
Don has asked me to Blog for him today,They arrieved safe and sound at 3.P.M. Yeaterday!
Since arrival, it has been non stop media from all over the world, any spare seconds Don spent washing his clothes, the ones that he had worn the same ones all the way back from what seems eons ago from Tonga.
As you can see from the pictures above, The Talisker Bounty Boat Boys seem absolutley delighted! and so they should be, what a remarkable achievement, that after the first few day's no Bookie would even Quote odds of success! You will also notice how Slim the TBBB's are. I have been informed by Rachael Shaw PR Manager from the sponsors parent company Diageo, that Don has lost 18 kilo's (Nearly 40lbs or approaching-three Stones).
There is definatly a market for the Talisker Bounty Boat Diet! I don't know what the others have lost but we will all look forward to all their next blogs.
I would like to thank all those who have commented during this historic adventure and to those generous "Friends" Of the Sheffield Institute Foundation who have sent some much needed donations.
Please keep the Comments & Donation coming in, as we have a long way to go yet before we can find the Cure for the Big three generative Diseases. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Motor Neurone (ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) or La Maladie de Charcot, depending on where you are in the world; it all spells misery for the victims.

All been well Don will blog tomorrow! Providing he has finished his washing!
Cheers for now Stuart Keane
A very proud Patron Of the Sheffield Institute Foundation, and a privileged

Talisker Bounty Voyage nearly over

2010-06-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

Four men in an open boat have survived a perilous 3800-mile jouney from Tonga to Timor.

They are re-enacting Captain William Bligh's amazing journey in 1789, after Fletcher Christian had shanghaied a few of his men It was a triumph in navigationn that has never been equalled.

Here is the latest report from Don McIntyre, who can be contacted by emailing a member of his crew, Stuart Keane, at http://tinyurl.com/2ahwhvn
Here's the TBB's latest post: http://tinyurl.com/2ahwhvn

We love the Arafura sea..these short steep wind waves generated by the relatively shallow water have been challenging.. finally they have smoothed out around midnight but not before filling the boat again right on dinner when Dave P. broached the boat on a surprise wave!.one of the 20 minute specials but NOT what we expected as the conditions had been excellent all afternoon..!

Chris and I were sitting under the dodger..Dave W on the life raft..we were all very

relaxed as the sun was setting, chatting about the meaning of life..Chris had just

opened a tin of lambs tounges and the next thing we started slewing over to Starbord

tHW tALIS

and going down..the water started flushing over the rail as the mast headed for the water and everythin g in the boat went down AGAIN..

I was watching this from my seat with legs in the water half laughing and half in disbelief. Dave P was not saying anything..every one jumped into bucketing as the cockpit was full..the lambs' tounges were floating in the bilge. I grabed them and passed them to Chris as I bucketed and he ate them immediately..it was quite a funny scene really and something we are becoming familiar with and well practiced...hopefully this will be the last time.

Every time this has happened I have mixed emotions..I know the boat will not sink and I know we can fight to get it back up...BUT??

Anyway this, dare I say it, caused many laughs..finally we have all had one while at the helm..Dave P. was surprised but it happens..nice to do it with daylight!
!did not lose any gear...we have lost our two top cameras to water and the electrical took a wave while I was trying to fix a leak so most is now inopperable..fortunately we have only 300 miles to go and we are right on track by the look of it..all the crew are totally absorbed on calculating the new ETA..every time our speed changes there is a new one..but I will hold with afternoon of the 16th!

The sun is setting now and all looks good 15kts of SE wind..1.5mtr seas 27 degrees C. and we are sailing at 3 to 5 knts..last night was all stars again and we could smell the land coming off Australia..Coast watch aircraft buzzed us again about an hour before Daves Broach and I was telling them about the big one the night before...it is always good to see them fly by..we must be a hard target to find even though we have our radar reflector up? a little speck in what has been some big confused seas..

We have our first Indonesian fishing vessel just behind us..we are just outside the Australian Ecenomic Zone so more should start to appear..we are alsdo seeing more plastic and rubbish in the water..yesterday when sailing at about 5kts I went straight past a huge pole..20ft long and 1.5ft in diameter..missed it by about 6feet!!..lots of old fishing gear in the water and some discarded nets..tried to pick one bit up but it is too hard for us to manouver at the last minute..lots of thongs and even a gas bottle!

Happy to report that there was no lunch for some today..had dolphins turn up..not so many birds anymore and yes I reckon we could??? catch Bligh??..now this may cause some conjecture here..and it may not be the done thing to do...very unBritish in fact ..but it will go very close..right down to the wire.....

The atmosphere onboard Talisker Bounty Boat is very boyant..Dave W is the happiest I have seen him all trip and yes we have all given up now and dream heavily on all the delights that Kupang, hotels and food will bring!! now is the time for that so these last miles are very different..I can imagine what may be going through the minds of Bligh and his men at this point..some were in a very bad way and they were getting so close.

We have carried two bottles of Talisker whiskey on board for the whole trip..one will be cracked on the beach in Kupang..the other auctioned later..there are some big times ahead..the end game is close at hand but the fat lady has not yet sung!!

Looks like another steady gentle relaxed cruisy fun night..good for sleeping and being on the helm??..I wish..fingers crossed, touch wood!!!!..Don

NEWSFLASH. The Talisker Bounty Boat is expected to complete its journey and arrive at Kupang about 5pm on June 15.

Bounty Boat Expedition
In order to raise awareness of MND, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and to raise funds for the Sheffield Institute Foundation and SITraN, the building that is currently under construction in Sheffield that will be dedicated to research in to those neurological disorders, SIF patron Stuart Keane enlisted the support of Don McIntyre and his Bounty Boat Expedition and when the organisers of the Southampton Boat Show donated a prime stand space, Stuart jumped at the opportunity to bring both causes in to the public eye.

The Bounty Boat Expedition is due to take place in April 2010 and will attempt to follow in the footstep ofCaptain William Bligh when he was castadrift from the Bounty, following theMutiny on April 28th 1798.
Australian Don McIntyre, Englishman Mike Perham, who at 17 recently became the youngest sailor to sail single handed around the world, and two others will set off for the 4000 mile journey from Tonga to Timor in an 7.5m long open boat - with not enough food - no charts - and no toilet paper. Can they survive on of the greatest open boat journeys in Maritime History? Their odds are far higher than if you were a sufferer of MND.
They are making this journey to raise funds for the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). This landmark initiative will create the world’s first, stand alone institute dedicated to bringing an end to MND.

Bounty Boat Expedition
In order to raise awareness of MND, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and to raise funds for the Sheffield Institute Foundation and SITraN, the building that is currently under construction in Sheffield that will be dedicated to research in to those neurological disorders, SIF patron Stuart Keane enlisted the support of Don McIntyre and his Bounty Boat Expedition and when the organisers of the Southampton Boat Show donated a prime stand space, Stuart jumped at the opportunity to bring both causes in to the public eye.

The Bounty Boat Expedition is due to take place in April 2010 and will attempt to follow in the footstep ofCaptain William Bligh when he was castadrift from the Bounty, following theMutiny on April 28th 1798.
Australian Don McIntyre, Englishman Mike Perham, who at 17 recently became the youngest sailor to sail single handed around the world, and two others will set off for the 4000 mile journey from Tonga to Timor in an 7.5m long open boat - with not enough food - no charts - and no toilet paper. Can they survive on of the greatest open boat journeys in Maritime History? Their odds are far higher than if you were a sufferer of MND.
They are making this journey to raise funds for the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). This landmark initiative will create the world’s first, stand alone institute dedicated to bringing an end to MND.

Talisker Bounty Voyage Re-enactment nears finish

2010-06-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Talisker Bounty Voyage Re-enactment crew nears fininsh line.

The four-man crew, led by Tasmanian adventurer Don McIntyre, is re-enacting Captain William Bligh's 3800 miles in an open boat, from Timor to Tong,which was a triumph in mariime history.

Here's their latest blog:

*Rescued teen's parents defend solo sail attempt*

The parents of 16-year-old US sailor Abby Sunderland have defended her solo round-the-world attempt after her successful rescue by a French fishing boat.

The sailor is on her way to the French island La Reunion after she was picked up 2,000 nautical miles off the West Australian coast on Saturday.

Sunderland's parents have responded to criticisms that they should be held accountable because of their daughter's age and that her yacht was not adequate for her round-the-world effort.

Her father Laurence says French yachtwoman Isabelle Autissier did not quit the sport after she suffered a similar fate a decade ago.

"Isabelle Autissier had a similar incident where she did lose her keel in the Indian Ocean and needed rescuing - she was I think at the time around 30, 35," he said.

"She's considered one of the world's best sailors. Should we say Abby can't sail again because she lost her keel?"

Mr Sunderland, a boat builder, says "the experts that were involved in putting [her boat] Wild Eyes together were top rate - you wouldn't find better anywhere else."

He says Abby also had expert preparation.

Second attempt

Abby Sunderland has already voiced her determination to set sail around the globe again.

"I'm definitely going to sail around the world again or really give it another try," she said.

However she does not know when her next solo voyage attempt will be.

Her parents say she is free to have another attempt if she really wants to.

"Abigail's passion was to do a solo non-stop circumnavigation and she's obviously disappointed that she was unsuccessful with that," Mr Sunderland said.

"She gave it her best shot, following her dream."

Her mother added: "I don't think her goal initially was ever to break a record, her goal was to be out there. She likes being out there alone at sea."

Her parents have also thanked the rescuers who "acted as if she was their own kid".

'Pouncing on bad news'

Sunderland wrote on her blog from the French boat, defending herself from accusations she was unprepared and too young for the journey.

"Within a few minutes of being on board the fishing boat, I was already getting calls from the press," she wrote.

"I don't know how they got the number but it seems everybody is eager to pounce on my story now that something bad has happened.

"There are plenty of things people can think of to blame for my situation; my age, the time of year and many more. The truth is, I was in a storm and you don't sail through the Indian Ocean without getting in at least one storm.

"As for age, since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?"

Meanwhile, Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed the Government will cover some of the costs of rescuing the teenager.

"The Australian taxpayer of course at the end of the day makes a contribution," he told Channel Ten.

"We have to put this in some context: if there was an Australian lost at sea we would want the international laws on maritime to kick in."

-------------------------

Baliska Bounty Re-enactment on Solitary Island

2010-06-10T05:25:00.000-07:00

The Baliska Bounty Re-enactment Voyage leader, Tasmanian Don McIntyre, visited Solitary Island, midway between Sydney and Coff's Harboour, where a lonely bearded hermi named David Gooden lives.

No doubt David told him the sad story of an earlier settler, Selina Lydia Violet Lottborn.

Lydia was born on March 15.1895, and died on November 17, 1912.

Her father, Arther David Robert William Gow, was the island's principal lighthouse keeper..

Lydi never went to school, as the death certificate states "Home Duties",which back then,was the term for domestic duties/cleaner etc.

Wikipedia has a comprehensive story of the Bligh mutiny: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty
NEWSFLASH TEENAGE SAILOR ABBY SUUNDERLAND IN STRIFE

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/airbus-nears-search-zone-for-teen-sailor-abby-sunderland/story-e6frg6nf-1225878482522

She became very ill, so a message was sent via the signal station to Coffs Harbour, for a doctor to come immediately. A heavy southerly was blowing but Dr W.H. Wood went across in a small launch. It was impossible to land from the jetty and crane, so Dr.Wood landed on the northern side of the island, first throwing his bag on to the island and then jumping on himself. In doing so, he slipped and by holding on to the slippery rocks tore a number of his finger nails off. The doctor diagnosed the case as very serious, returned to Coffs Harbour, where he sent urgent messages to Sydney for assistance.

The Captain Cook, with a doctor and nurse, was immediately despatched to the island. but a terrific cyclone was raging.and it was three days before the boat reached the island. Lydia died from typhoid/enteric fever and haemorrhage perforation. Dr. Wood last saw her three days before she died.

Lydia was buried at Sandgate Cemetery (Brisbane) on November 25,1912. Cemetery workers put a probe down into the grave to verify that concrete had been used.

NEWSFLASH YRRNAGE SAILOR ABBY SUNDERLAND IN STRFE:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/airbus-nears-search-zone-for-teen-sailor-abby-sunderland/story-e6frg6nf-1225878482522

Tags: abbby sunerlabd,sailingm.teeabge saailOrsmbounty,jessica watson

Bounty Voyage Re-enactment

2010-06-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

A crew of four men, led by bearded Tasmanian adventurer Don McIntyre, is re-enacting the perilous 3800-mile journey of Captain William Bligh, after Fletcher Christian shanghaied from HMS Bounty 219 years ago.

The journey, from Tonga to Timor,in a tiny open boat, was one of the great achievements in navigational history.

The Taliska Bounty boat was so named for Taliska beer, its main sponsor).

You can follow the journey by visiting his blog, posted at

Don hopes to raise $4000 from supporters who are following his journey on the internet. He will donate the money to the Sheffield(UK) Institution for Science Neurology.

Here is his latest post:

We had a very touching ceremony at sunset beside the Talisker Bounty Boat when about 25 local Aborigines from Lockhart River all came across to the Island to give us their best wishes for a safe journey and present us all with very special "Giddy" beads...

I said a few words about Bligh and what he would have been thinking when here and how good it was that about 2600 sq. Km of land all around that area had recently been returned to their ownership..everything is so untouched up here.

Dave welcomes Bounty on arrival.

Feet finally on the ground for two nights in Restoration Island. Frankly, I do not know how Bligh left, or why. This is the closest I've been t
Once we sailed into the reef I was completely silenced by its beauty. Had I lived my life and never seen this part of the world, my life would have been an utter waste.... seriously..

The views are spectacular, the people remarkably friend, I feel completely at peace with myself here and I could happily stay on Restoration Island with several good books for weeks to come.

David Glasheen's hospitality has been a welcome gift after spending the last 30 days or so on Talisker Bounty Boat and the locals have been very supportive of our expedition.

Last night I enjoyed so much the company and discussions with interesting people, such a refreshing change for all of the crew having spent 24 hrs a day for the last month in each other's company... no offense intended and I know we will all feel the same, I am proud to be a part of the Bounty team. But... Dear Don McBligh can we stay just a little bit longer? Alas no... We set sail again at sun rise tomorrow for the last leg, 1400 miles to Timor.

I have thought a lot why I seem to find the expedition so far harder than the rest of the crew and come to the conclusion, that as David Quilter and Don are seasoned adventurous they are simply used to discomfort, they know when it is unpleasant, this too shall pass, and the gems are around the corner, I couldn't see them, only my return flight home. Chris is at a lovely age, when life is an adventure and approaches everything by throwing himself in with that lovely playful curiosity and I admire him for that... oh to be 18..

I've been around enough to develop an unhealthy "why am I putting up with this sh**" when the going gets tough, when its really miserable, I cheer myself up by reminding myself this trip has cost me enough for a world cruise and instead I am hungry, wet, tired and aching from head to toe...

However, I will share that I am so.... so.... grateful for the experience... I suspect I will only grasp the real value once I am at home reflecting upon the whole event.. Unlike the rest of the crew, I have children who I have left at home, and I miss them terribly, not even talking with them is horrible...

We all have different ways to manage discomfort and stress, by planning my departure I gave myself a slip road, escape route and rather than counting 26 days to go I was able to count down to restoration Island (7/8 days) knowing I then had the option to depart, as crazy as it may sound this made it much more manageable for me.

I really struggled, with both the diet, and surprisingly, the boredom, with no books or music to fill time, sitting for what felt like years in the crippling heat was slowly driving me insane.

With so much time and nothing to fill it with I found myself worrying about matters completely unnecessarily, my home, family, business, anything I could find to worry about I did, then all I wanted to do was leave.

I am pleased I couldn't and I am learning so much about myself, though it's not all pleasant, I would much rather report that I have discovered I am invincible, a strong man who can conquer the world...maybe not, but you know what I mean.

I am not going home and will be leaving with Talisker Bounty Boat tomorrow morning, when in doubt, I need to dig deep, have faith in my team and business partners at home and meditate...easy said looking across the beach from this arm chair!

Upon arrival at Restoration, I immediately went and found the material to make a small cam bed for myself, which I must say for a Hong Kong pen-pusher this is not small achievement, I was then advised to move it further back from the beach as crocodiles are less likely to go across the grass... CROCODILES.. OMG..... I hadn't considered being eaten by crocs.

How on earth can I sleep.. But believe me, after our yummy chicken stew, the first meal since Tonga, I lay down under my make shift home and slept like a baby for 7 hours.It was wonderful, I didn't even see the stars, I passed out to quick and awoke too late, with a BIG fat smile on my face, not least because I hadn't been eaten by crocodiles.

I estimate I have lost at least 8kg and other than my pants keep falling down, I confess to being very happy about that, (the weight not the pants).

The challenge will be to keep it off when I return. I know I shall take much greater care of myself and seek more balance in my life.

This afternoon, someone asked if this expedition will make a real difference to my future.

My reply was surprisingly prompt and I think sums up precisely how I feel. "I do not know what my future holds, I only know it will be very different from what I had previously imagined. I am looking from a different perspective and that really pleases me".

David W (not David Q)MESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTERS - Hi Lucinda and Isabelle - You won't recognize me when I am home, much more handsome, slim, tanned with a really cool beard... I am missing you both very much... Love Dad x

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Posted by Patron of Sheffield Institute Foundation at 1:38 AM 19 comments

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

"REPLIES TO BLOG COMMENTS"
Hi All...been a bit of fun catching up on a few of the comments that Stu our Blog master has forwarded to Restoration Island...looks like some will have to get a copy of the book one day when it finally comes out..it will tell many things but we will try to cover everything here but as you can expect it is challenging when at sea...anyway just to cover a couple of points...

I ring Margie twice a day..once in the morning and once at night..she is our Expedition headquarters.it is all about safety and expedition logistics...not just to check up on what is going on in the world...so yes it is very appropriate to stop the rest of the crew from using the phone for anything else other than logistics..which is what I have done..what happened with Dave he twisted that to be following his business and family interests which was unfortunately for him as it stops him from enjoying the experience out here and he knew the rules...so I have no problem with that..in fact I have bent all my own standards to try to accommodate him and let him satisfy his own mind...

Margie has now gone to Europe for 6 weeks on business and pleasure so I will not be ringing her each day any longer as Marketa is our new expedition manager and she will get my check in calls..all part of our sophisticated crisis management planning and we have a large team of qualified people handling that...

Seems to be some confusion from a member of the 1983 Child of Bounty trip as to why should the Govt. pay for the helicopter to Restoration Island and that we have it easy with sat coms etc...well firstly we are the fifth expedition now..one in 1975.Child of Bounty was the second in 1983..another in 1990..another in 1995 and now us..our is different than all the others..no big deal..not better or worse..just different...Customs have been great helping with a helicopter and correct me if I am wrong but in 1983 I thought the Govt. did the same thing and paid for a customs ship to be waiting at Restoration Island to clear them??..so a helicopter today is a lot cheaper than that and isnt it good that the Aust. Govt. is so forward thinking that they support this type of endeavor for the good of all..we were impressed yesterday with how efficient and friendly Customs and AQIS really were..NO we did not use their helicopter for Arial for our Documentary!..we will charter one from Horn Island later for that at our expense..yes we have GPS for safety reasons just as in 1983 I believe the Child of Bounty used an Argo satellite tracing system and the best Charts , Sextants etc of the time for navigation..that is all that they had in those days, but I do not believe Child of Bounty went off blind into the ocean like we have in many parts...that is why we were nearly wrecked on a reef twice on the way to Fiji..and stumbled across some banks in the Pacific!

Reine seems a bit confused about our approach to a few things so let me use the torch issue as an example...we set out not to use torches as Bligh had non...we we still have torches for safety reasons..what are the rules of engagement for torches..only to avert a high risk situation or official business...so if we are writing a blog at night we have to use the head torch..if we have been struggling at night in big seas trying to control the boat and it is getting dangerous and we may capsize the boat...then we will use our head torch to look at the compass...don't worry we have had plenty of very frustrating black nights and plenty of times using torches too when it hits the fan so it is a juggling act...

With the GPS..as an example...we set off from our unexpected Fiji stop ( not scheduled!) knowing our departure point...like Bligh we have a voyage plan..he had been planning his for three months before the mutiny to get the Bounty home..all the best publications at the time and previous voyage journals of many ship before him were studded hard to make that plan..we are using our one planning chart that cover half the world...we set off and immediately get into what is called "Plain Sailing"..all the westing is simply an addition of the hourly speeds listed in the ships log...that is it...then occasionally I take a noon sight to check the Latitude..north south position..which is no big deal as there is nothing to hit for a long time..so unlike Bligh I only do that occasionally...we are just Dead Reckoning our position to the west....the current adds a new dimension...I do not calculate my Latitude and longitude each day by tables as it is Plain sailing a very simple and very basic....so when the bottom appeared last week we were surprised and I was needing to get a noon sight to work out our latitude...north south position asap..to work out which bank it was...as it turns out we quickly found the sand cay and then saw on the one chart we have we were about the latitude of Diane Bank..so that had to be it..Bingo!..we have a fixed point...the funny part about all that was that our DR positions in the next few days went way out again with currents from everywhere...so I am not navigating like Bligh but I am doing it the same way...every day noon sights..this all become irrelevant when we then have to get to Boat pass and restoration Island...I have to use the GPS just to get there as I do not have an almanac or Tables to compute longitude..neither did Bligh..but he never needed to get anywhere specific...so it is different for us...

The other way we use the GPS is for safety..when we were pressed hard on a lee shore on a very Dark windy 2am morning with surf only minutes away we struggled to get off..once that was in progress I jumped below and immediately turned the GPS on the find out where the reef was going..it showed us on the reef!! and about half a mile from the end..that info was critical to our survival....When we got to Bligh water between the Fiji islands we planned to go through in daylight but in the end we were caught in very bad weather,..far too dangerous to slow down in or we would have capsized so we were trapped heading up into a blind alley and we were going to be there at night..no option but to use the GPS or we would have been wrecked...not a good idea...

It is hard for us to truly do things exactly as Bligh..he had to..we are volunteers..it starts from there...but we are forcing deprivations and hardships on ourselves but we are no being foolhardy or reckless....we know when the boundaries have been met...we have been doing it tough often...we are having it much better off than Bligh so I will not standing up at the end and saying we did it exactly like Bligh..I will be saying we have experienced some moments very similar to Bligh in a little boat ....I will watch the sixth re-enactment of Bligh's voyage with great delight as it is truly one of the greate3st open boat journeys of all time...I am loving it and am very happy to share so much of it with so many...makes for some interesting conversations but wait till you see the Book

.

Bligh's voyage in an open boat, from Tonga to Timor, is the gretest navigational history.feat i

We had a very touching ceremony at sunset beside the Talisker Bounty Boat when about 25 local Aborigines from Lock-hart River all came across to the Island to give us their best wishes for a safe journey and present us all with very special "Giddy" beads...I said a few words about Bligh and what he would have been thinking when here and how good it was that about 2600 sq. Km of land all around that area had recently been returned to their ownership..everything is so untouched up here.

Dave welcomes Bounty on arrival.

Feet finally on the ground for two nights in Restoration Island, frankly, I do not know how Bligh left, or why.... This is the closest Ive been to heaven... Once we sailed into the reef I was completely silenced by its beauty, had I lived my life and never seen this part of the world, my life would have been an utter waste.... seriously.. the views are spectacular, the people remarkably Friend, I feel completely at peace with myself here and I could happily stay on Restoration Island with several good books for weeks to come. David Glasheen's hospitality has been a welcome gift after spending the last 30 days or so on Talisker Bounty Boat and the locals have been very supportive of our expedition. Last night I enjoyed so much the company and discussions with interesting people, such a refreshing change for all of the crew having spent 24 hrs a day for the last month in each others company... no offense intended and I know we will all feel the same, I am proud to be a part of the Bounty team. But... Dear Don McBligh can we stay just a little bit longer? Alas no... We set sail again at sun rise tomorrow for the last leg, 1400 miles to Timor.

I have thought a lot why I seem to find the expedition so far harder than the rest of the crew and come to the conclusion, that as David Quilter and Don are seasoned adventurous they are simply used to discomfort, they know when it is unpleasant, this too shall pass, and the gems are around the corner, I couldn't see them, only my return flight home. Chris is at a lovely age, when life is an adventure and approaches everything by throwing himself in with that lovely playful curiosity and I admire him for that... oh to be 18.. Ive been around enough to develop an unhealthy "why am I putting up with this sh**" when the going gets tough, when its really miserable, I cheer myself up by reminding myself this trip has cost me enough for a world cruise and instead I am hungry, wet, tired and aching from head to toe... However, I will share that I am so.... so.... grateful for the experience... I suspect I will only grasp the real value once I am at home reflecting upon the whole event.. Unlike the rest of the crew, I have children who I have left at home, and I miss them terribly, not even talking with them is horrible...

We all have different ways to manage discomfort and stress, by planning my departure I gave myself a slip road, escape route and rather than counting 26 days to go I was able to count down to restoration Island (7/8 days) knowing I then had the option to depart, as crazy as it may sound this made it much more manageable for me, I really struggled, with both the diet, and surprisingly, the boredom, with no books or music to fill time, sitting for what felt like years in the crippling heat was slowly driving me insane... With so much time and nothing to fill it with I found myself worrying about matters completely unnecessarily, my home, family, business, , anything I could find to worry about I did, then all I wanted to do was leave... I am pleased I couldn't and I am learning so much about myself, though its not all pleasant, I would much rather report that I have discovered I am invincible, a strong man who can conquer the world... maybe not, but you know what I mean.. I am not going home and will be leaving with Talisker Bounty Boat tomorrow morning, when in doubt, I need to dig deep, have faith in my team and business partners at home and meditate... easy said looking across the beach from this arm chair!
Upon arrival at Restoration, I immediately went and found the material to make a small camp/bed for myself, which I must say for a Hong Kong pen-pusher this is not small achievement, I was then advised to move it further back from the beach as crocodiles are less likely to go across the grass... CROCODILES..... OMG..... I hadn't considered being eaten by crocs.. How on earth can I sleep.. But believe me, after our yummy chicken stew, the first meal since Tonga, I lay down under my make shift home and slept like a baby for 7 hours... It was wonderful, I didn't even see the stars, I passed out to quick and awoke too late, with a BIG fat smile on my face, not least because I hadn't been eaten by crocodiles..
I estimate I have lost at least 8kg and other than my pants keep falling down, I confess to being very happy about that, (the weight not the pants) the challenge will be to keep it off when I return. I know I shall take much greater care of myself and seek more balance in my life. This afternoon, someone asked if this expedition will make a real difference to my future, my reply was surprisingly prompt and I think sums up precisely how I feel. " I do not know what my future holds, I only know it will be very different from what I had previously imagined, I am looking from a different perspective and that really pleases me"
David W (not David Q)

MESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTERS - Hi Lucinda and Isabelle - You wont recognize me when I am home, much more handsome, slim, tanned with a really cool beard... I am missing you both very much... Love Dad x

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Patron of Sheffield Institute Foundation at 1:38 AM 19 comments
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
"REPLIES TO BLOG COMMENTS"
Hi All...been a bit of fun catching up on a few of the comments that Stu our Blog master has forwarded to Restoration Island...looks like some will have to get a copy of the book one day when it finally comes out..it will tell many things but we will try to cover everything here but as you can expect it is challenging when at sea...anyway just to cover a couple of points...

I ring Margie twice a day..once in the morning and once at night..she is our Expedition headquarters.it is all about safety and expedition logistics...not just to check up on what is going on in the world...so yes it is very appropriate to stop the rest of the crew from using the phone for anything else other than logistics..which is what I have done..what happened with Dave he twisted that to be following his business and family interests which was unfortunately for him as it stops him from enjoying the experience out here and he knew the rules...so I have no problem with that..in fact I have bent all my own standards to try to accommodate him and let him satisfy his own mind...

Margie has now gone to Europe for 6 weeks on business and pleasure so I will not be ringing her each day any longer as Marketa is our new expedition manager and she will get my check in calls..all part of our sophisticated crisis management planning and we have a large team of qualified people handling that...

Seems to be some confusion from a member of the 1983 Child of Bounty trip as to why should the Govt. pay for the helicopter to Restoration Island and that we have it easy with sat coms etc...well firstly we are the fifth expedition now..one in 1975.Child of Bounty was the second in 1983..another in 1990..another in 1995 and now us..our is different than all the others..no big deal..not better or worse..just different...Customs have been great helping with a helicopter and correct me if I am wrong but in 1983 I thought the Govt. did the same thing and paid for a customs ship to be waiting at Restoration Island to clear them??..so a helicopter today is a lot cheaper than that and isnt it good that the Aust. Govt. is so forward thinking that they support this type of endeavor for the good of all..we were impressed yesterday with how efficient and friendly Customs and AQIS really were..NO we did not use their helicopter for Arial for our Documentary!..we will charter one from Horn Island later for that at our expense..yes we have GPS for safety reasons just as in 1983 I believe the Child of Bounty used an Argo satellite tracing system and the best Charts , Sextants etc of the time for navigation..that is all that they had in those days, but I do not believe Child of Bounty went off blind into the ocean like we have in many parts...that is why we were nearly wrecked on a reef twice on the way to Fiji..and stumbled across some banks in the Pacific!

Reine seems a bit confused about our approach to a few things so let me use the torch issue as an example...we set out not to use torches as Bligh had non...we we still have torches for safety reasons..what are the rules of engagement for torches..only to avert a high risk situation or official business...so if we are writing a blog at night we have to use the head torch..if we have been struggling at night in big seas trying to control the boat and it is getting dangerous and we may capsize the boat...then we will use our head torch to look at the compass...don't worry we have had plenty of very frustrating black nights and plenty of times using torches too when it hits the fan so it is a juggling act...

With the GPS..as an example...we set off from our unexpected Fiji stop ( not scheduled!) knowing our departure point...like Bligh we have a voyage plan..he had been planning his for three months before the mutiny to get the Bounty home..all the best publications at the time and previous voyage journals of many ship before him were studded hard to make that plan..we are using our one planning chart that cover half the world...we set off and immediately get into what is called "Plain Sailing"..all the westing is simply an addition of the hourly speeds listed in the ships log...that is it...then occasionally I take a noon sight to check the Latitude..north south position..which is no big deal as there is nothing to hit for a long time..so unlike Bligh I only do that occasionally...we are just Dead Reckoning our position to the west....the current adds a new dimension...I do not calculate my Latitude and longitude each day by tables as it is Plain sailing a very simple and very basic....so when the bottom appeared last week we were surprised and I was needing to get a noon sight to work out our latitude...north south position asap..to work out which bank it was...as it turns out we quickly found the sand cay and then saw on the one chart we have we were about the latitude of Diane Bank..so that had to be it..Bingo!..we have a fixed point...the funny part about all that was that our DR positions in the next few days went way out again with currents from everywhere...so I am not navigating like Bligh but I am doing it the same way...every day noon sights..this all become irrelevant when we then have to get to Boat pass and restoration Island...I have to use the GPS just to get there as I do not have an almanac or Tables to compute longitude..neither did Bligh..but he never needed to get anywhere specific...so it is different for us...

The other way we use the GPS is for safety..when we were pressed hard on a lee shore on a very Dark windy 2am morning with surf only minutes away we struggled to get off..once that was in progress I jumped below and immediately turned the GPS on the find out where the reef was going..it showed us on the reef!! and about half a mile from the end..that info was critical to our survival....When we got to Bligh water between the Fiji islands we planned to go through in daylight but in the end we were caught in very bad weather,..far too dangerous to slow down in or we would have capsized so we were trapped heading up into a blind alley and we were going to be there at night..no option but to use the GPS or we would have been wrecked...not a good idea...

It is hard for us to truly do things exactly as Bligh..he had to..we are volunteers..it starts from there...but we are forcing deprivations and hardships on ourselves but we are no being foolhardy or reckless....we know when the boundaries have been met...we have been doing it tough often...we are having it much better off than Bligh so I will not standing up at the end and saying we did it exactly like Bligh..I will be saying we have experienced some moments very similar to Bligh in a little boat ....I will watch the sixth re-enactment of Bligh's voyage with great delight as it is truly one of the greate3st open boat journeys of all time...I am loving it and am very happy to share so much of it with so many...makes for some interesting conversations but wait till you see the Book

June 9: World Buskers' Day

2010-05-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

If you hear a busker on Sunday, June 9, please give generously. The performance will probably be in aid of World Buskers' Day, promoted by gifted London violinist David Juritz, who established a foundation called EquiMusic, to bring music to some of the worlld's most underprivileged children.

I wrote a story about David when he visited Sydney a year ago, during a world tour. You can read it at http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=381150&rel_no=1

David has now sent me this press release:

MUSEQUALITY WORLD BUSK TO HELP REBUILD
MUSIC SCHOOLS IN HAITI HIT BY EARTHQUAKE

The second Musequality World Busk will take place from 7 to 13 June, 2010 when musicians throughout the world will take to the streets to raise money for music projects in developing countries. Musicians in North, Central and South America will raise $50,000 to help reconstruct music schools in Haiti destroyed by the country’s worst earthquake for 200 years.

The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January killed more than 200,000 people and left an estimated 1.2 million homeless. In Léogâne, close to the epicentre, 90% of all buildings were destroyed, while in Port au Prince, the shock reduced homes, hospitals, schools and government buildings to rubble. Before the quake, Haiti had a flourishing music education system but the Holy Trinity Music School, Haiti's premier conservatoire, was among several music schools destroyed in what was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Tragically, some teachers and students died and those who survived now need help to rebuild their schools.

All contributions to Musequality’s US donations site between 1 May and 31 July will go towards the rebuilding programme. The first $50,000 will be shared between Instrumental Change and the Holy Trinity Music School reconstruction fund. “Should we raise more than $50,000 Musequality will establish a team to ensure that the extra money is used in the most effective manner,” said violinist David Juritz, who who launched Musequality in 2007 by busking around the world.

The first Musequality World Busk in 2009 raised nearly £15,000 and involved musicians on every continent -- including Antarctica. On Sunday 14 June, 483 musicians around the globe struck up at 12 noon local time to set a record for the largest co-ordinated busk the world as ever seen..

“As well as raising a substantial amount of money, the World Busk is enormous fun,” said Juritz. “This year we are asking musicians throughout the Americas to help rebuild and restore music schools in Haiti. It’s a cause we’re passionately committed to and we’re confident of their generous effort and support”

Participants elsewhere will be raising money to support Musequality’s other projects in the developing world such as the Elgon Youth Brass Band in Mbale, Eastern Uganda, which cares for 60 orphaned children. “Just over a year ago a young man sent us an application for funding. Fredrick Kyewalyanga was determined to set up a group and had clearly thought through how he was going to go about it. He couldn’t afford to post the letter but found someone to deliver it to us by hand,” said Juritz. Thanks to Frederick’s effort and support from one of London’s livery companies, the Girdlers’ Company, “we have been able to buy instruments for the Elgon Youth Brass Band, find a home for the band, buy bunk beds and mattresses, pay teachers’ salaries and provide food.”

Juritz added: “Music not only unites the world, crossing cultures and divides, but also creates opportunities around the world. Our main aim is not to produce professional musicians, but young people with the self-confidence and ambition to become the scientists, teachers, doctors and community leaders who will help shape their own societies’ future. We believe that, particularly in troubled communities, where power is all too often achieved through coercion and exploitation, music education offers a powerful alternative philosophy of leadership through responsibility and sharing. While the educational benefits of music education are well demonstrated by many studies, research on the social benefits of childhood involvement in music programmes shows equally striking results. And that’s why we believe that funding music education is a great investment in the futures both of children and of communities.

“We’ve launched this annual world busk specifically to raise funds to expand our existing communal music-making projects and to set up new projects for disadvantaged children in developing countries. We are not asking anyone to give more than they can afford. But if they can toss a coin or two into a Musequality busker’s music case, and listen for a few moments, they will be helping us turn round the lives of children who might otherwise only ever be seen as a problem. If you can’t donate to a busker, of if you would like your donation to go further by Gift Aiding it in the UK, please donate at www.justgiving.com/worldbusk2010.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

● Musequality, a social change charity, sets up and supports communal music-making projects for disadvantaged children in developing countries, giving them the self-belief and skills they need to turn their lives around. It was founded in 2007 by professional violinist David Juritz, leader of the London Mozart Players, when he busked around the world, playing on pavements, in parks and plazas in 50 cities in 24 countries on every continent except Antarctica to kickstart the charity’s funding. Musequality supports projects in South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Thailand and India.

● See who is busking where on our interactive world map: www.worldbusk.org/bigmap.php

● Photos are available of the World Busk 2009. Please email press@musequality.org

● Donations are welcome on: http://www.justgiving.com/worldbusk2010

● Information about the Musequality World Busk: www.worldbusk.org

● Information about Musequality: www.musequality.org

For more information please contact:

David Juritz: Mobile: +44 (0)7973 343314 or Tel: +44 (0)20 8747 4869 david@musequality.org
Jean Buck: Mobile: +44 (0)779 - 475 4560 jean@musequality.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Registered charity No. 1119308
Registered as a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No. 6216146

David Juritz

david@musequality.org

+44 (0)7973 343 314
+44 (0)20 8747 4869

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Funding music projects that change young lives

For information about Musequality: www.musequality.org
For information about the Musequality World Busk: www.worldbusk.org
Donate to Musequality www.justgiving.com/worldBusk2010

Registered charity No. 1119308
Registered as a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No. 6216146

106 Woodstock Rd
London
W4 1EG

+44 (0)7973 343 314
+44 (0)20 8747 4869

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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PRESS RELEASE

Release Time: 07.30 on Monday, 26 May 2010

MUSEQUALITY WORLD BUSK TO HELP REBUILD
MUSIC SCHOOLS IN HAITI HIT BY EARTHQUAKE

The second Musequality World Busk will take place from 7 to 13 June,
2010 when musicians throughout the world will take to the streets to
raise money for music projects in developing countries. Musicians in
North, Central and South America will raise $50,000 to help
reconstruct music schools in Haiti destroyed by the country’s worst
earthquake for 200 years.

The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January killed more
than 200,000 people and left an estimated 1.2 million homeless. In
Léogâne, close to the epicentre, 90% of all buildings were destroyed,
while in Port au Prince, the shock reduced homes, hospitals, schools
and government buildings to rubble. Before the quake, Haiti had a
flourishing music education system but the Holy Trinity Music School,
Haiti's premier conservatoire, was among several music schools
destroyed in what was already the poorest country in the western
hemisphere. Tragically, some teachers and students died and those who
survived now need help to rebuild their schools.

All contributions to Musequality’s US donations site between 1 May
and 31 July will go towards the rebuilding programme. The first
$50,000 will be shared between Instrumental Change and the Holy
Trinity Music School reconstruction fund. “Should we raise more than
$50,000 Musequality will establish a team to ensure that the extra
money is used in the most effective manner,” said violinist David
Juritz, who who launched Musequality in 2007 by busking around the
world.

The first Musequality World Busk in 2009 raised nearly £15,000 and
involved musicians on every continent -- including Antarctica. On
Sunday 14 June, 483 musicians around the globe struck up at 12 noon
local time to set a record for the largest co-ordinated busk the world
as ever seen..

“As well as raising a substantial amount of money, the World Busk is
enormous fun,” said Juritz. “This year we are asking musicians
throughout the Americas to help rebuild and restore music schools in
Haiti. It’s a cause we’re passionately committed to and we’re
confident of their generous effort and support”

Participants elsewhere will be raising money to support Musequality’s
other projects in the developing world such as the Elgon Youth Brass
Band in Mbale, Eastern Uganda, which cares for 60 orphaned children.
“Just over a year ago a young man sent us an application for funding.
Fredrick Kyewalyanga was determined to set up a group and had clearly
thought through how he was going to go about it. He couldn’t afford
to post the letter but found someone to deliver it to us by hand,”
said Juritz. Thanks to Frederick’s effort and support from one of
London’s livery companies, the Girdlers’ Company, “we have been
able to buy instruments for the Elgon Youth Brass Band, find a home
for the band, buy bunk beds and mattresses, pay teachers’ salaries
and provide food.”

Juritz added: “Music not only unites the world, crossing cultures and
divides, but also creates opportunities around the world. Our main aim
is not to produce professional musicians, but young people with the
self-confidence and ambition to become the scientists, teachers,
doctors and community leaders who will help shape their own
societies’ future. We believe that, particularly in troubled
communities, where power is all too often achieved through coercion
and exploitation, music education offers a powerful alternative
philosophy of leadership through responsibility and sharing. While the
educational benefits of music education are well demonstrated by many
studies, research on the social benefits of childhood involvement in
music programmes shows equally striking results. And that’s why we
believe that funding music education is a great investment in the
futures both of children and of communities.

“We’ve launched this annual world busk specifically to raise funds
to expand our existing communal music-making projects and to set up
new projects for disadvantaged children in developing countries. We
are not asking anyone to give more than they can afford. But if they
can toss a coin or two into a Musequality busker’s music case, and
listen for a few moments, they will be helping us turn round the lives
of children who might otherwise only ever be seen as a problem. If you
can’t donate to a busker, of if you would like your donation to go
further by Gift Aiding it in the UK, please donate at www.justgiving.com/worldbusk2010
.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

● Musequality, a social change charity, sets up and
supports communal music-making projects for disadvantaged children in
developing countries, giving them the self-belief and skills they need
to turn their lives around. It was founded in 2007 by professional
violinist David Juritz, leader of the London Mozart Players, when he
busked around the world, playing on pavements, in parks and plazas in
50 cities in 24 countries on every continent except Antarctica to
kickstart the charity’s funding. Musequality supports projects in
South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Thailand and India.

● See who is busking where on our interactive world map: www.worldbusk.org/bigmap.p
hp

● Photos are available of the World Busk 2009. Please email press@musequality.o
rg

● Donations are welcome on: http://www.justgiving.com/worldbusk20
10

● Information about the Musequality World Busk: www.worldbusk.o
rg

● Information about Musequality: www.musequality.org

For more information please contact:

David Juritz: Mobile: +44 (0)7973 343314 or Tel: +44 (0)20 8747 4869 david@musequality.org
Jean Buck: Mobile: +44 (0)779 - 475 4560 jean@musequality.org

Registered charity No. 1119308
Registered as a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No.
6216146

David Juritz

david@musequality.org

+44 (0)7973 343 314
+44 (0)20 8747 4869

Funding music projects that change young lives

For information about Musequality: www.musequality.org
For information about the Musequality World Busk: www.worldbusk.org
Donate to Musequality www.justgiving.com/worldBusk2010

Registered charity No. 1119308
Registered as a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No.
6216146

106 Woodstock Rd
London
W4 1EG

+44 (0)7973 343 314
+44 (0)20 8747 4869

William Bligh had kidney stones

2010-05-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

William Bligh had kidney stones.

The Bouty Voyage Re-anactment has just sailed safely past Resolution Island, on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Her four-man crew, led by Tasmanian adventurer Don McIntyre, is being filmed for world TV screening.

The original Captain Bligh had a short fuse, and swore profusely. Can you visualise him squatting over the side of his small open boat, as he relieved himself while the boat lurched from side to side?

HMS Resolution was a sloop of the Royal Navy, and the ship in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific. She impressed him enough that he called her "the ship of my choice", and "the fittest for service of any I have seen."

It was probably about the same size as Captin William Bligh's boat,but it carried many more sails.

Open letter to Jessica Watson

2010-05-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

As I right these words I'm watching u arriving in Sydney after sailing around the world alone in a tiny boat.

2010-05-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

Arrival in Sydney

2010-05-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

THIS IS AN OPEN LETTER TO JESSICA WATSON.

As I right these words I'm watching u arriving in Sydney after sailing around the world alone in a small boat. Congratulations! Thoousands of Sydneysiders are lining the foreshores to see your arrival, and all five TV stations are showing your tiny boat, Ella's Pink Lady.

I'd like to tell u that ur a different woman from the intrepid 16-year-old who sailed from Sydney a few months ago. u have grown up.

Apart from inspiring children all over the world by proving that if you put your mind to it, u can achieve almost anything. But who would listen to a 91-year-old geezer(or even an old fart)? And, as UNO, we all fart. Sum say everyone farts 37 times a day U must have found it particularly Mbarrassing in your confined quarters

I b leave ima member of your support team, having emailed you once or twice b4.

P.S. I'm watching Knot 1, but all 5 of our TV channels although knot @ the same time.

BTW UR saling close to the wind these days. Do U no the origin of that phrase?

PPS. When I first tried 2 send this mess age 2U, I had 2 rite the words witz edip, which sounds like wits edit!

And I'm a copy editor for Anu Garg's A Word A Daynews letter which he sends five days a week to more than 900,000 wordlovers in 200 coutries.

P.P.P.S.

Seriously, I hope my two - nay, thousand - of readers adopt a suggestion that they eat the same rations today that the TBB (The Bligh Bount voyage re-enactment crew) do, then estimate the cost of the meal, and send that amount to SIF (Sheffield Institute for Neuroscience).

Bounty Voyage Renacted

2010-05-07T00:00:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest news from Don McIntyre, the Tasmanian adventurer who is leading the Bounty Voyage Re-enactment.

The four-man crew has landed on an island near Nai Nai, Fiji, after nearly running into a dangerous reef. A presnter from the Australian ABC's "Early Morning Show" will interview Don next week:

What a beautiful island we are at. We pulled the anchor, rowed ashore and tied a line to a coconut tree. We've been trying to catch fish all day, get some more drinking coconuts and have rigged the sails to trees to catch water but no rain yet. We have a fire ready for the fish. Everyone is very lethargic, no energy but we have some repairs to make and reorganisation before we set off - probably in two days.

I will let the crew tell you their impressions. This is a grand adventure and Bligh was a great man...Don from Nai Nai, Fiji

I knew it was going to be a big night on Tuesday and it was. All afternoon we had been sailing toward an island and decided just as I sent the last blog to sail down the windward side as it was getting dark. Seas were big. I was on the helm and about two miles down wind I saw the surf line. We were sailing fast downwind straight for it so altered course 60 degrees to starboard but the reef continued out ...It was all eyes in the cockpit and the seas really started to build. Two sets around 6mtrs came through and I was forced to ride them downwind at 12-15kts. It was exhilarating but we were then sailing straight for the reef! Slowly we crept around the edge which looked to extend about four miles out. We all thought we were pretty dumb as we know about reefs but for some reason we just missed the obvious...it was dark - very dark.

After tha we had to use the compass and I decided to allow torches also as things were getting tough. About five hours later in the dark a BIG island appeared as a shadow to starboard. We could not tell how close we were as we did not know how high it was. Was it a little island close or a big island far off?

Wind was 25-30kts and seas still around 4 to five mtrs. I had just gone off watch when Quilter called out. "TED I HAVE BREAKERS DEAD AHEAD!"

I grabbed my harness/lifejacket and jumped up. They were close and the boat was already rounded up to port hard on the wind and waves. The surf was only a few hundred metres away downwind of us.

You could see the phosphorescence in the water and we thought we could hear the thud of the surf above the noise of the sails and boat!! It was a tense time.

I grabbed for the emergency GPS chart plotter as this was very serious with no idea where the reef line would go. Within minutes I had it up and running but it seemed like forever. It showed us still on the reef line but it was only another 300 mtrs to the edge and we would sail clear which is what we did.

This really made us realise what Bligh had done - was this nuts or what? We were doing this as volunteers - no chart, no nav aids. We had to sail at about 5-7 kts to stay safe in these seas and we were sailing downwind which means if you come across a danger it appears fast.

Anyway we all agreed that if Quilter had not seen the surf it would all have been over in much less than two minutes - it was that close!! Maybe someone was looking over us?

We could not sleep easily because of that and the weather with many little challenges during the night. I was happy to see the light of day but then we could see the size of the waves. It had been building all night and now they took on a different shape - more confused and nasty. We were regularly surfing into the teens and averaging maybe 7kts.

Talisker Bounty Boat is an amazing vessel and was handling it all very well. We were bailing out every 15 minutes and it was challenging to do the simplest things onboard but I continue to look at what we have and how well we are coping rather than the things we do not have or discomforts. If you start with nothing everything after that is a bonus, hey!

All the crew are working as a team so things are going well. When I was on watch at 12 noon, I was surprised at the sea. In the previous 4 hours the waves had become very confused and occasionally big - 6 or 7 metres.

Wind was now up to 35kts at times and higher in the squalls so we decided we weere now in a gale. We were headed north into the gap between the main Fiji Island and Bligh Passage which is littered with reefs.

Our plan had been to go slow during the night even stopping and drifting and to sail during the day so we could see the reefs and islands, but there was no way we could do that with this weather so we were headed up into a dead end gully.

At 12.40 while I was on the helm a huge set loomed up. I had a problem as a squall had just gone through and the wind was only about 25kts.. We were sailing with a deep reefed main only, the headsail and mizzen both lashed.

The first wave hit the boat from the starboard side. I called for the guys to standby for wave! Then out of the blue as we were recovering from that another hit us right out of sequence. This one broke right beside us and right over us.

I was watching it all in slow motion. The mast went down to water level and for a minute I thought it may go right over and we would have to put our training into practice! But no - she came up fast which was a delight to see.

I called everyone to man the buckets. The aft part of the hull was full and just about awash. While they all got to it I turned the boat downwind and within about 6 minutes most of the water was out. I was looking over my shoulder not wanting another big one!!

Everything down below is tied in but still flew around. I dislocated my little toe and took a big hit to my side.

Fortunately there were no other injuries, a little damage to solar panels again and water into out books onboard which is a mini disaster. We all reflected that it was a good exercise and showed the boat has what it takes. We were all very wet but at least we were not swimming.

Conditions remained very challenging all the rest of the day...I made a decision that afternoon to again use the GPS chart plotter as we were running into danger with heavy winds and big seas behind us - not good for any sailor.

So again I have to concede that Bligh is a bigger man than me.

So Wednesday night saw us ride through the entrance of Bligh Waters with the aid of a GPS and turn left heading to a little island called NaiGai where we dropped anchor around midnight.

Everyone was relieved. I had only had a few hours sleep in the past 48 hours. We were all hungry and have not been able to catch rain water so now on 1ltr a day. I am bruised and battered but very happy about the rest of the voyage. TBB and the crew are now one!

This morning I woke after a 5 hour sleep to see what a beautiful island we are at. We pulled the anchor, rowed ashore and tied a line to a coconut tree. We've been trying to catch fish all day, get some more drinking coconuts and have rigged the sails to trees to catch water but no rain yet. We have a fire ready for the fish.

Everyone is very lethargic, no energy but we have some repairs to make and reorganisation before we set off - probably in two days.

I will let the crew tell you their impressions. This is a grand adventure and Bligh was a great man...Don from Nai Nai,Fiji.

To contact any member of the crew, send an email to Don Keane at this address:

Bligh of the Bounty (continued)

2010-05-06T23:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest news from Don McIntyre, the Tasmanian adventurer who is leading the Bounty Voyage Re-enactment. The four-man crew has landed on an island near Nai Nai, Fiji, after nearly running into a dangerous reef.

A presnter from the Australian ABC's Early Morning Show will interview Don next week:

What a beautiful island we are at. We pulled the anchor, rowed ashore and tied a line to a coconut tree. We've been trying to catch fish all day, get some more drinking coconuts and have rigged the sails to trees to catch water but no rain yet. We have a fire ready for the fish. Everyone is very lethargic, no energy but we have some repairs to make and reorganisation before we set off - probably in two days.

I will let the crew tell you their impressions. This is a grand adventure and Bligh was a great man...Don from Nai Nai, Fiji

I knew it was going to be a big night on Tuesday and it was. All afternoon we had been sailing toward an island and decided just as I sent the last blog to sail down the windward side as it was getting dark. Seas were big. I was on the helm and about two miles down wind I saw the surf line. We were sailing fast downwind straight for it so altered course 60 degrees to starboard but the reef continued out ...It was all eyes in the cockpit and the seas really started to build. Two sets around 6mtrs came through and I was forced to ride them downwind at 12-15kts. It was exhilarating but we were then sailing straight for the reef! Slowly we crept around the edge which looked to extend about four miles out. We all thought we were pretty dumb as we know about reefs but for some reason we just missed the obvious...it was dark - very dark.

After that and we had to use the compass and I decided to allow torches also as things were getting tough. About five hours later in the dark a BIG island appeared as a shadow to starboard. We could not tell how close we were as we did not know how high it was. Was it a little island close or a big island far off? Wind was 25-30kts and seas still around 4 to five metres. I had just gone off watch whenQuilter called out, "TED I HAVE BREAKERS DEAD AHEAD!" I grabbed my harness/lifejacket and jumped up.

They were close and the boat was already rounded up to port hard on the wind and waves. The surf was only a few hundred metres away downwind of us. You could see the phosphorescence in the water and we thought we could hear the thud of the surf above the noise of the sails and boat!! It was a tense time.

I grabbed for the emergency GPS chart plotter as this was very serious with no ideawhere the reef line would go. Within minutes I had it up and running but it seemed like forever. It showed us still on the reef line but it was only another 300 mtrs to the edge and we would sail clear which is what we did. This really made us realise what Bligh had done - was this nuts or what? We were doing this as volunteers - no chart, no nav aids. We had to sail at about 5-7 kts to stay safe in these seas and we were sailing downwind which means if you come across a danger it appears fast. Anyway we all agreed that if Quilter had not seen the surf it would all have been over in much less than two minutes - it was that close!! Maybe someone was looking over us?

We could not sleep easily because of that and the weather with many little challenges during the night. I was happy to see the light of day but then we couldsee the size of the waves. It had been building all night and now they took on a different shape - more confused and nasty. We were regularly surfing into the teensand averaging maybe 7kts. Talisker Bounty Boat is an amazing vessel and was handling it all very well. We were bailing out every 15 minutes and hey!

All the crew are working as a team so things are going well. When I was on watch at 12 noon, I was surprised at the sea. In the previous 4 hours the waves had become very confused and occasionally big - 6 or 7 mtrs. Wind was now up to 35kts at times and higher in the squalls so we decided we were now in a gale. We were headed north into the gap between the main Fiji Island and Bligh Passage which is littered with reefs. Our plan had been to go slow during the night even stopping and drifting and to sail during the day so we could see the reefs and islands but there was no way we could do that with this weather so we were headed up into a dead end gully. At 12.40 while I was on the helm a huge set loomed up. I had a problem as a squallhad justgone through and the wind was only about 25kts.. We eresailingwithadeepreefedmain only, the headsail and mizzen both lashed.

The first wave hit the boat from the starboard side. I called for the guys to standby for wave! Then out of the blue as we were recovering from thait was challenging to do the simplest things onboard but I continue to look at what wehaveand how well we are coping rather than the things we do not have or discomforts. Ifyou startwithnothing everything after that is a bonus,t another hit us right out of sequence. This one broke right beside us and right over us. I was watching it all in slow motion. The mast went down to water level and for a minute I thought it may go right over and we would have to put our training into practice! But no - she came up fast which was a delight to see. I called everyone to man the buckets. The aft part of the hull was full and just about awash. While they all got to it I turned the boat downwind and within about 6 minutes most of the water was out. I was looking over my shoulder not wanting another big one!! Everything down below is tied in but still flew around. I dislocated my little toe and took a big hit to my side. Fortunately there were no other injuries, a little damage to solar panels again and water into out books onboard which is a mini disaster. We all reflected that it was a good exercise and showed the boat has what it takes. We were all very wet but at least we were not swimming.

Conditions remained very challenging all the rest of the day...I made a decision that afternoon to again use the GPS chart plotter as we were running into danger with heavy winds and big seas behind us - not good for any sailor. So again I have to concede that Bligh is a bigger man than me. So Wednesday night saw us ride through the entrance of Bligh Waters with the aid of a GPS and turn left heading to a little island called NaiGai where we dropped anchor around midnight. Everyone was relieved. I had only had a few hours sleep in the past 48 hours. We were all hungry and have not been able to catch rain water so now on 1ltr a day. I am bruised and battered but very happy about the rest of the voyage. TBB and the crew are now one!

This morning I woke after a 5 hour sleep to see what a beautiful island we are at. We pulled the anchor, rowed ashore and tied a line to a coconut tree. We've been trying to catch fish all day, get some more drinking coconuts and have rigged the sails to trees to catch water but no rain yet. We have a fire ready for the fish.

Everyone is very lethargic, no energy but we have some repairs to make and reorganisation before we set off - probably in two days.

I will let the crew tell you their impressions. This is a grand adventure and Bligh was a great man...Don from Nai Nai, Fiji.

You can contact any member of the crew by sending an email to Stuart Keane@talktalk.net

Stuart has had a varied and interesting career. I googled his name, and found this bio:

Former Professional Rugby League Player,The first Pro R.L. player to break his Neck, Be Paralyzed and Play Professionally again!(1959). Ran a leisure company which exported to 54 country's ,sold out because of health issues in the early 90s. Became a Patron of the Sheffield Institute Foundation in 2007 after my eldest son Shaun was diagnosed with Motor Nuerone Disease. Shaun died in January this year,aged 40 years young.Leaving a wife and three young daughters,aged 7,9 & 11. With the help of my wife Lynn and daughter Danielle I am now concentrating even more in helping the other great Patrons of SIF raising the last few £millions needed to create theworld's first dedicated research cenrer in to MND.also known as Lou Gerhigs, & ALS. My Nickname in my business life was"The Kentucky Kid" I had a product that became world famous called "The Kentucky Derby" it was a game of skill that was sold to Theme Parks. In my photograph displayed perched on my right shoulder is my Parrot "Tali-Talisker" he informs me that he is 231 years old and that he went on the original TBB all those years ago? Would you believe him?

Bounty Mutiny Voyage Re-enactment

2010-04-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

Today is April 28 in Australia, but it's only April 27 in Tonga, which is the other side of the International date line. So the Talisker Bounty Boat (TBB) is about to set sail for Timor, re-enacting the perilous voyage of William Bligh, captain of HMS (His Majesty's Ship) Bounty, after his crew had mutinied and set him adrift in an open boat. He travelled all the way to Timor, a feat which is thought to be the greatest navigational achivement in maritime history.

Bligh sailed a 45-foot (14 metre) open boat with 18 men from Tonga to West Timor in 48 days, surviving partly by catching fish and seabirds and drinking rain water.

His feat — achieved without charts or compass — has been portrayed in novels, poems and in several "Mutiny on the Bounty" films starring British actor Charles Laughton and Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Marlon Brando.

The new expedition is sailing in a 25-foot (7-metre) open deck boat, the Talisker Bounty, which has two small sails. The team expects to take seven weeks to cover the distance.

"It is going to be really an adventure," , the expedition leader, Australian Don McIntyre, told a reporter. "Our boat is half the size of Bligh's boat, so the challenge is trying to survive on board. Our biggest fear is capsizing."

Wikipedia says "Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was a Master's mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants. It was Christian who seized command of the Bounty from Bligh on 28 April 1789."

McIntyre said they would carry the same food as Bligh had on board in 1789. It included 150 pounds (67 kilograms) of ship biscuits, 16 pounds (7 kilograms) of pork, six quarts of rum, six bottles of wine and 28 gallons (106 litres) of water.

Like Bligh, the crew has no modern navigational equipment such as charts, compass or lights.

The team will film their re-enactment for a documentary.

The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, eventually settled in Pitcairn Island, where they burnt the Bounty, sinking its hull so they could not be found.

About 50 of their descendants still live on the remote island, Britain's last remaining territory in the Pacific. Others live on Pitcairn Island.

English actor Charles Laughton starred in a memorable film, Mutiny on the Bounty. American heart-throb Clark Gable was cast as Fletcher Christian. You can see brief extracts in a trailer posted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_Christian. It won an Academy Award for Best Picture of 1935.

A few days ago I asked Stuart Keane, an expedition member, how they coul claim their boat was a replica of the original, since it's only half the size. He replied:

The Talisker Bounty Boat is indeed smaller than the original BB. It is very similar to Shackleton's James Caid. All three were classed as whaling boats.

The TBB with a crew of four represents the same challenge that Bligh and his crew had, in as much that the TBB crew will only have the same square footage per man that Bligh and his men had and the same freeboard.

Don McIntyre considered building an exact replica but came to the conclusion that it would be a problem getting eighteenrew to volunteer, also the cost would be prohibitive building a larger one.

This was a wise decision in view of the fact of the problems with crew pulling out at the last minute and a tremendous overrun of the budget due to unforeseen problems like the trouble Don has had with his onboard communications satellite systems.

If anything it's a greater challenge with such a smaller boat on those huge seas which are forecast.

Incidentally I am meeting tomorrow with a professor of fine arts, David Cotterill from Sheffield University. He has created a computerised film of the view that the crew would have had from the original Bounty Boat.

He gathered his material from historic documents such as Bligh's log and weather reports of that time His film runs for ten hours and Don sees it as an ideal backdrop to the Talisker Bounty Boat when it returns and is displayed at museums throughout the world.

Stuart said that Fletcher Christian's brother was in the crowd farewelling the re-enactment boat. "Just after a photo was taken we had crowds asking all about the TBBE and the chap slipped away without us getting his details -- perhaps you would like to run an international quest to find him. It would be fun and create added interest to our quest"

Why is the re-enactment vessel called the Talisker Bounty Boat?

Stuart Keane explained "Talisker is the name of the main sponsor of the TBB expedition 2010. It is the name of a single mallt whisky distilled on the Isle of Skye in Scotland since 1830."

The Duke of Devonshire wrote

Dear Don and all your intrepid crew. This comes with very best wishes from Stoker and Amanda Devonshire in England. We have been following your progress so far on your web site and we are confident that you will have an epic and extremely successful journey.

The support that you are giving to the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease is hugely appreciated, and we look forward to seeing you on your return to congratulate you peronally. -- Ther Duke of Devonshire KCVO, CBE, DL

You can follow the journey by visiting the officil blog: http://www.bountyboat.blogspot.com/

FOOTNOTE: My sister Sylvia Oliver, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand, says, "A challenging journey ... I hope they are successful. I don't know where mythical Hawaiki was, but there would be some Maori who would be sure their first canoes to reach NZ had a longer open boat journey in the 15th century."

Bounty Boat Ready to Set Sail from Tonga

2010-04-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

Last-minute new crew mambers have boarded the Bounty Boat which is due to sail from Tonga on April 28 to re-enact Lieutenant William Bligh's 3700-mile voyage from Tonga to Timor - the grestest open-boat navigation achievement in maritime history. Bligh had commanded HMS Bounty until most of the crew mutinied and set him adrift, with sailors who had refused to mutiny.

Australian adventurer Don McIntyre plans to set sail on April 28, in a replica of Bligh’s 25-foot-long, 5-foot-wide. boat built by Tongan craftsmen, following the journey across the Pacific from Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga to Timor. He hopes to begin his trip on the same day, at the same time and in the same place 221 years after Bligh's original voyage.

A few days ago, McIntyre wrote in his blog:
"Just to let you know how organised we are...it was in 1990 that I last had to use a sextant for real..that was when I sailed solo from Sydney to Tonga as my 2000 mile qualifying voyage before the BOC Challenge single handed around the world yacht race...I can still remember packing my sextant away when I dropped anchor just a few miles from here ..I have never used a sextant in earnest since..anyway I now have to learn how to do it again...I will be using an Octant.. Bligh had a head start but hey..I like a
challenge!"

Two days ago I sent this email to the expedition:

Hi Don. I've posted a story about your epic voyage in my blog http://lifebeginsat80.blogspot.com/

It has been published in the Pitcairn and Norfolk Island newspapers.

Do you know that the premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, is a great-great-great-great-great-grand-daughte of Bligh of the Bounty?

Good luck! Best wishes to you and your crew.

I received this reply from another crew member, Stuart Keane:

On behalf of the Sheffield Institute Foundation Patrons, thank you for posting the Talisker Bounty Boat Story so far. Pleases inform as many people as you can through your journalist skills and outlets,The more people who know about TBB and The SIF the more chance we have to get donations and help eradicate this most horrible of diseases.
Thanks a lot for your help.
Kindest regards
Stuart

Stuart Keane,
Patron,
To the Sheffield Institute Foundation,
for Research into Motor Neurone Disease,
& Other Neurological Disorders.
M 07737534918
www.sifoundation.com
www.taliskerbountyboat.com

The expedition has attracted great interest from the world's media, including the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/20/world/AP-AS-Tonga-Bounty-Voyage.html?_r=1

McIntyre has already given countless TV, radio and press interviews, and is sure to be asked for many more in the course of the voyage.

After making a donation to the Sheffield Instiuter Foundation in the UK, Jonathon, a keen suppoter of the re-enactment, , commented, "You are delightfully mad and a divine inspiration to us all! May your God go with you on this adventure."

The original Bligh of the Bounty later became governor of the Australian convict colony New South Wales,
which at that time included Queensland. He was a
bad-tempered, hard-swearing man who antagonised many of the citizenry, mostly military officers and wealthy settlers.

Eventually he was arrested. It was popularly believed that he had hidden under a bed in Government House to avoid arrest, but that story may be apocryphal.

He died in London on December 6,1817.

o You can follow the Bounty voyage by visiting the expedition's blog http://www.bountyboat.blogspot.com/. You can send them a message by adding a comment .

o Charles Laughton starred in a memorable film, Mutiny on the Bounty, in1937. A brief video is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtmV2tpbnjA

o For more details about Bligh, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bligh

P.S. I've just received another message from Stuart Keane. It reads:

The Crew are Don,McIntyre Skipper,
David Wilkinson,
David Pryce,(nick named Quilter)
and 18year old Chris Wylde
If you go on the Talisker Bounty Boat website and look under The Crew heading you can view the profile of each one.
Talsiker is the name of the main sponsor of the TBB expedition 2010,
It is the name of a single mallt whisky distilled on the Isle of Skye in Scotland since 1830.
Cheers for now Stuart

Bligh of the Bounty voyage re-enactment

2010-04-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

Will global warming affect Australian adventurer Don McIntyre's bid to re-enact Captain William Bligh's historic 3,700-mile voyage in an open boat, sailing from Tahiti all the way to Timor? The water will be warmer, and perhaps climate change will lead to perilous storms and huge waves.

McIntyre plans to set sail on April 28, in a replica of Bligh’s 25-foot-long, 5-foot-wide. boat built by Tongan craftsmen, following the journey across the Pacific from Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga to Timor. He will begin his trip on the same day, at the same time and in the same place 221 years after Bligh's epic original mutiny journey.

McIntyre has had to make last-minute changes to his crew, because a key member of his fellow adventurers dropped out at the last minute. He has been replaced by a London university student with no sailing experience but with a burning ambition to join the expedition.

A few days ago, McIntyre said ”This trip has been a long time in the making. Flying into the Kingdom of Tonga and looking at the blue ocean, I realised it is really all happening now. We were then given the friendliest welcome that you could ever imagine. We knew certainly that we are among friends when we got here.”

McIntyre then joked that “a couple of weeks ago I had my own mutiny and lost two of my crew”, referring to the fact that two of the Talisker crew members pulled out last week citing medical reasons. Mike Perham, who holds the record as the world's Youngest Solo Circumnavigator, pulled out after having his appendix removed. Perham was replaced last week by 18 year old Christopher Wilde, of Warwick in the UK, who has no boating or sailing experience at all but simply blind passion.

It was in April 1789 that the famous ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ occurred just off the waters of the islands of Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga. The story goes that, whilst in the Pacific, the Bounty crew were attracted to the idyllic life and were angered by the (alleged) cruelty of their commanding officer William Bligh. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian and some of his followers and they tried to get Bligh to sail the Bounty back to Tahiti because they terribly missed their Tahitian mistresses. Bligh did not agree with the mutineers and he insisted they continue sailing to Australia. McIntyre added here that “someone stole the Captain’s coconuts and that cause the Mutiny”.

Fletcher Christian and his followers then cast commanding officer William Bligh and Bligh’s loyal crew adrift in a boat near Tofua Island in Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga. Whilst Fletcher and the mutineers sailed to Pitcairn Island and settled there, Bligh and his men sailed for 48 days and over an epic 4000 nautical miles from Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga to Kupang in Timor in an overloaded boat (traditionally used to lift an anchor) with little food or water and no charts.

McIntyre and the Talisker Bounty Boat crew face the same deprivations as the original crew that were cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific. Using their replica 18th century traditional open timber whale boat, they will relive Bligh’s nightmare by attempting to sail the same voyage under similar conditions with the same amount of food and water. Bligh and his crew only had 150lb of ships biscuits, 16 two pound pieces of Pork, 6 quarts of Rum, 6 Bottles of wine and 28 gallons of water.

The crew told the Tonga Visitors Bureau that they will carry 70g muesli bar, 210g baked beans, 90g ship biscuit, 2 liter water, 100g nuts, 75g raisins, 170g beef, 90g ship biscuit per person for 25 days only. They hope to catch fish, gather a supply of fruit, vegetable and coconuts in Tonga (rather than catch and eat birds) and supplement their 28 gallons of water with rain water.

A thin Wilde, who is on a mission to eat as much as possible in the next week in order to bulk up for the mission, is certainly in the right country for that. Not only are Tongans known for their inimitable sense of hospitality and musical talent, they are also known for their girth and love of feasting. McIntyre himself noted he’s purposely put on weight but expects to “loose 16kg by the end of the voyage”, adding “we will look pretty different by the end of it”. McIntyre explained that during their voyage, the crew will monitor their health by “taking blood samples every week and undergoing psych tests”. The latter causing laugher amongst the crew who will need to deal with emotions like fears and anger and use “
"self awareness and communication to create a stronger team and support each other throughout the difficult times, of which their certainly will be many”.
Will they survive on of the greatest open boat journeys in Maritime History? Their odds are far higher than if they were sufferers of a motor neurone disease. The Talisker Bounty Boat 2010 Expedition are making their journey to raise funds for the Sheffield Institute for Motor Neurone Disease.
McIntyre told the Tonga Visitors Bureau (Ministry of Tourism) that his crew plan to set up their a 25ft long, 7ft wide, open wooden vessel at Royal Sunset Resort (offshore from Tongatapu). They hope to have the boat, and their satellite blog that will record their positions automatically onto Google Earth every two hours and replicate Bligh’s meticulous Log, up and running as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Stuart Kershaw, the crew's expedition cameraman, will be steadfastly working on recording as much about Tonga and its people as possible for a 4-6 part documentary on the Talisker Bounty Boat Expedition. McIntyre expects the first episode to be about when preparations and one episode to start with his arrival in Tonga and finish as he sails away from the Island of Tofua, about five days after the Mutiny took place.

Five nations say they own World's Oldest Dog

2010-02-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

Minius may be 26 (or even 27) while Max turned 26 last year

Where on earth is the world's oldest dog? Poland is the latest country to claim the title, which the US and Britain have hotly contested for years.

"Poland's oldest dog - quite possibly the oldest woofer in the world - celebrated his 25th birthday in Poznan over the weekend in the company of two four-legged female admirers," Poznan-Life.com http://www.poznan-life.com/news/news/53-Poland reported.

"Minius, who was rescued some 25 years ago by the animal aid foundation Zwierzeta i My (Animals and Us), was presented with a special cake for his anniversary, which he shared with his two friends.

"Of course, as Minius was plucked from the Poznan streets, it's impossible to know when his true birthday actually is. He could actually be a mighty 26 or 27, making him quite possibly the oldest dog on the planet.

"His current owner says that Minius, a mixed breed, is still in good shape, but enjoys sleeping for much of the day...."

Posnan News http://www.thenews.pl/national/print.aspx?id=123871 says "The oldest dog in Poland or possibly in the world, has just celebrated his 25th – or 26th (it’s not certain) birthday.

"The story of Minius, a mixed breed, comes from animal aid foundation Zwierzeta i My in the mid-western city of Poznan.

"Minius was a two-year-old stray when he was taken in from an animal shelter by his first owner. When she died and he was found guarding her body, he was taken over by the Foundation and found a new home.

"His current owner says that Minius, in spite of his age, is in good condition but best likes to sleep."

Germany has a 25-year-old Bernese mountain dog called Penny, which is described as "the Methusalah among the dogs". Here's a Google translation of a German website:

Bernese mountain dog "Penny" is true with 25 as the Methuselah among the dogs. Just recently, the news went through the headlines that dachshund lady "Chanel died" as the oldest dog in the world at the age of 21 years near New York. But reports from Bavaria, the mistress of the allegedly true Methuselah among the dogs have their say. My Bernese Mountain Dog "Penny", like "Chanel" a
dog lady, is already 25 years old and because of good Bavarian mountain air was still alive and kicking. As an absolute record holder among the old dogs subject to a Australian Cattle Dog, who made it up to 29 years.

In New York, the national newspaper USA Today published a story headed New world's oldest dog? German woman claims hers is 25:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/pawprintpost/post/2009/09/whose-dog-is-the-oldest-german-woman-claims-hers-is-25/1

America's nominee for the world title is a terrier-mix named Max, owned by Janelle Derouen, in New Iberia, Louisiana.

Louisiana WBRZ-TV reporter Katherine Gouder wrote last September http://www1.wbrz.com/news/worlds-oldest-dog-in-new-iberia/

A woman and her best friend in New Iberia are waiting to hear back from officials at Guinness World Records. They're waiting to see if Max, a 26 year old mixed terrior, is the world's oldest dog.

Janelle Derouen says she's worried whether Max will still
be around by the time the confirmation papers arrive. She sent the vet's
record of Max's birth and puppy shots from August of 1983 to Guinness.

Max is already five years older than current record holder, Chanel, a dachshund who died this summer at 21 years old.

Guinness representatives say they've received thousands of claims for the record since Chanel's death.

You can read more about Max and see his photo at http://tinyurl.com/n8nne2

Surpringly, two of Britain's national newspapers have shown more interest in Max than have the US media. The Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205517/Max-terrier-worlds-oldest-dog-celebrates-26th-birthday.html and The Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6001090/Worlds-oldest-dog-turns-26.html both ran a story and pictures about Max celebrating his 26th birthday last year.

What was the world's oldest dog of all time? An Australian cattle dog called Bluey. Born on June 7, 1910, his 100th birthday will be celebrated this year by people living in Rochester, a country town 130 miles (209 kilometers) north of Melbourne, Victoria, not far from last year's disastrous bushfires.

Bluey worked among sheep and cattle for 20 years, and survived until November
14, 1939, when he was put down.

He had lived for 29 years, five months and seven days, on a diet of kangaroos and emus. According to Guinness, Bluey was the world's oldest dog, a record that has never been beaten.

You can see his photo and read more about him at http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=384908&rel_no=1

Australia wonders whether its current oldest dog, a Tenterfield Terrier named Daisy, aged 25, will live long enough to challenge Bluey's world record.

Daisy's owner, Julie Penlington, originally discovered the Tenterfield terrier at the Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge when the poor one-eyed pooch was five or six, so it's difficult to know Daisy's exact age.

Is Daisy the oldest pooch alive? Sarah Crawford asked, in Queensland's Sunshine Coast Daily
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2009/12/23/is-daisy-the-oldest-pooch-on-the-planet/ . She reported:

Daisy, the one-eyed tenterfield terrier from Mooloolaba, is not winning any
beauty competitions, but she may be top dog in another category – the world’s
oldest pooch.

The old girl has managed to conquer a long list of health problems and a
stint on death row at the pound to reach the age of 25. That means she beats the
Guinness World Record holder by four years....
Besides having only one eye,
Daisy has had chronic asthma for five years and must be administered a puffer
dose twice a day....
Ms Penlington, who is the president of 4 Paws Animal
Rescue, picked up Daisy from the Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge 20 years ago. At
the refuge, a vet had assessed Daisy as probably being six years old, but the
age on her card was filled in as five years, to make her more attractive to
potential owners.
“They had her there for nine months before I took her –
she was rescued from the pound,” Ms Penlington said. “She had been running
around the ginger factory at Yandina for a couple of weeks when she was picked
up."
Ms Penlington said she was considering registering Daisy with Guinness
World Records.
“The only reason I would do it is to let people see how a
little rescued pet can come from adversity and with love and attention can live
a long, full life,” she said.

Now comes news of a little-known Texan dachshund, Wiley, with his own blog, http://tinyurl.com/y9bw4yb, who is said to have lived for 31 years. His grieving Aunt Maryee
http://tinyurl.com/yl78o8x claims he was born on July 17, 1976, and crossed the Rainbow Bridge on January 24, 2008.

We found this reference to Wiley:
http://www.dailydachshundanddognews.com/2007/11/is-dachshund-worlds-oldest-dog.html

The Daily Doxie has recently had a number of hits from people looking
for information on the life expectancy of a dachshund. So here is the answer: 12 to 15 years. But take heart, we have a number of readers whose wiener dogs have reached 17 and 18 years of age.
Thanks to the internet we also discovered, during the course of our research, a website entitled "Wiley, the 31-year-old
Dachshund."Apparently, Wiley's owners have taken some steps to try and get him into the Guinness World Book of Records... but no luck.
It seems he might have outlived his breeder, who is needed to vouch for his puported longevity.Without the required papers, Wiley's not getting much respect for his claim to the aged dog throne. The Waco Tribune declined to print the news of his 30th birthday, leaving him to keep on keeping on via the internet where his last blog post, written September 23, is entitled, "I'm alive."

It's all very confusing. Which pooch do you think deserves to be called The World's Oldest Dog?

FOONOTE: Forget that nonense about a dog's age beine one seventh of a human's. It's an old wives' tale. See "How old is your dog?" http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/age.htm

"Every dog hath his day" (English proverb)

2009-09-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

Widespread confusion identifying world's oldest pooch

Editors of two of Britain's national newspapers must have very short memories. Five weeks ago the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph splashed a story about a lovable "terrier-mix" dog named Max celebrating his 26th birthday in New Iberia, Louisiana, USA.

"World's Oldest Dog Turns 26," London's Daily Telegraph reported in huge headlines on August 10. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6001090/Worlds-oldest-dog-turns-26.html But by September 11, having conveniently forgotten about Max, it gleefully ran a story http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6167492/Dachshund-from-Shrewsbury-may-be-worlds-oldest-dog.html about a 20-year-old pooch in Shropshire, with the headline Dachshund from Shrewsbury 'may be world's oldest dog'.

The rival Daily Mail also ran two conflicting stories: Max the terrier becomes 'world's oldest dog' as he celebrates 26th birthday was the headline on August 11 (click to see some great photos)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205517/Max-terrier-worlds-oldest-dog-celebrates-26th-birthday.html#ixzz0QlEX7QoB

By September 11 the Mail too had dismissed Max, boldly (and wrongly) claiming that Otto the 147-year-old British Dachshund is the world's oldest dog.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212451/Otto-147-year-old-British-Dachshund-worlds-oldest-dog.html (The147 years was based on the mistaken belief that each year in a dog's life equals seven human years, and that Otto is now 21).

The story about Otto was originally posted in his hometown newspaper, the Shropshire Star, http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/09/09/could-elderly-otto-hold-world-record/
on September 9 under the modest heading Could elderly Otto hold world record?

The two national sheets apparently made no attempt to check the facts, but pumped hot air into the story and told their myriad readers that the comparatively young Otto was indeed a world champ.

In America, the global news organization United Press International (UPI) based in Washington DC (motto: One hundred years of journaalistic excellence) compounded the error by picking up the Daily Mail's Shrewsbury story and posting it in its "Odd News" section,
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/09/10/UPI-NewsTrack-Quirks-in-the-News/UPI-11271252618281/ (second item) without checking the facts.

Media around the world (hundreds of them) blithely copied the UPI story without checking its accuracy. A typical example was the Karachi, Pakistan newspaper and online website The Nation,
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Entertainment/11-Sep-2009/147yearold-British-Dachshund-is-the-worlds-oldest-dog

Back in the Unites States, Danny Tyree http://www.marshalltribune.com/story/1569359.html wrote in the Marshall County Tribune, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: "While folks argue whether Chanel (a 21-year-old dachshund who passed away in August) was really the world's oldest dog, a famous cartoon pooch will turn 40 on Sept. 13.

"Yes, Scooby-Doo and his Mystery Inc. chums (Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy) are celebrating their 40th anniversary and still going strong in the 'solving supernatural crimes' biz."

Steve Fritz has written an entertaining, nostalgic story in Newsarama
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32744582/ns/entertainment-television/ about the cartoon canine, "the true top dog of animation, a crime-solving man’s-best-friend whose fumbling and meddling has debunked ghost chasers, would-be werewolves and wannabe-witches since he took his first bow on the small screen back on Sept. 13, 1969. Generations of fans know this Great Dane of Saturday morning memories as Scooby Doo."

Scooby-Doo is undoubtedly The World's Best-Known Dog. But for real-life pooches, our money goes on Max as the World's Oldest Dog. He's the max!

* You can see a video of Max and his owner HERE: http://xmangerm.vox.com/library/video/6a00d4141bbfae685e0110160aba58860b.html

END

New York's Elvira Oliver (99) World's Oldest Blogger

2009-08-31T01:11:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn-born great-grandmother is a proud Italian American

Elvira S. Oliver, aged 99, who grew up in New York's Brooklyn, has burst into the cybersphere as probably the oldest of the world's 100 million bloggers.

She is more than two years older than the previous oldest blogger, Randall Butisingh, a poet and philosopher living in Florida, who was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) 96 years ago.

Elvira's new blog will wow the millions of Americans (and Australians) proud of having an Italian ancestor.

She claims that 40 years ago she wrote a heartwarming story, "The Joys of Growing Up Italian" that has since been "stolen," and posted on hundreds of websites without permission or even a byline.

"When my son Floyd who lives in San Diego, California visited me recently to celebrate my birthday, he convinced me to become a blogger...and that I now would be the oldest blogger on Earth," she wrote a few days ago.

" He came to this conclusion after scrolling through the Internet and read that the two oldest bloggers, at the age of 109, had recently passed away....Olive Riley on July 12 [2008] in Australia; and Ruth Hamilton on January 18 in Florida."

Elvira (Italians pronounce the name El-VEE--ra) was born in Brooklyn in 1910 to Italian immigrants, and says she grew up so Italian in all her ways that she didn't realize until becoming a teenager that she was an American.

Here's what occurred later, as related on her website The Oldest Blogger on Earth:

"Many years slowly passed by, and after my beloved parents left this Earth for greener pastures, it became the custom for my family to gather at my house for special occasions. They came from Long Island: Centereach, Baldwin, and West Hempstead; from Brooklyn, N.Y.; from Sherburne, N.Y.; from Alexandria, VA. and even Burlington, VT.

"All participated in the festivities, enjoyed the comraderie, and filled their bellies with real Italian food with all the trimmings. Then after three or four days, and sometimes a week, all departed.

"One day in 1968, after a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration...and coming home from a rather hectic and busy day at the office, I entered an empty house. Alone and feeling somewhat nostalgic for the good old times, I sat down at my kitchen table, and on an old manual typewriter typed 'The Joys of Growing-up Italian', jottting down random thoughts, regardlessof gender or tense (past, present or future).

"Then after only a few friends and family members received a copy, I just placed it in a drawer and forgot about it. I did not come across it again until the Year 1976, when I moved to a beautiful house on the top of a small mountain in South Otselic, New York.

"Surrounded by forests, cornfields, dairy farms and down-to-earth country folk, I thought I was in Heaven. That particular area generated only a few paesans (Italians). As soon as I became acquainted with them, I eagerly presented them with a copy of my newly found essay.

"The Winter of 1977-1978 found St. Otselic's roads rather impassable for a city-bred girl. Over 10-feet of snow was piled up in my driveway, and I would have been confined in my home all winter, if it wasn't for the generosity of the farmers, who came to pick me up with their tractors for special appointments I had to keep.

"My daughter Angela's concern for my well-being guided me into a new direction. Once more I packed my belongings and dropped the baggage in a small lovely house in a senior development known as Silver Ridge Park in Toms River, New Jersey. There, I suddenly found myself , once again, engulfed in the Italian culture.

"Without saying too much more, many copies were made of 'The Joys of Growing-up Italian', and I gladly distributed it throughout the Village.

"I refined the essay in 1980, and again several more times...correcting grammar, genders, tenses and punctuation, etc. As I became older, all one had to mention is that he/she was of Italian descent, and off went a copy of my essay.

"This happened quite frequently, no matter where I wandered: on trains, buses, and even on airplanes. Addresses were exchanged and new friends were born.

"Several years ago, at a meeting of the Golden Age Seniors in Patterson, New York, next to me sat Claire... I learned she is a 'paesan'. Immediately I made known to her that I was the author of the essay 'The Joys of Growing-up Italian' on which I had received many compliments over the years.

"A startled look crossed her face, and in a subdued tone said: 'Elvira, it's on the Internet'. All Hell broke loose! I'm being plagarized!

"I will continue with this diatribe the next time I blog, if you find it interesting."
-- Posted by Elvira S Oliver at 7:37 PM Aug 26, 2009

Elvira lives on her own in Carmel, (pop. 30,000), about 50 miles north of New York City and 10 miles west of Danbury, Connecticut.

The original story is posted (without a byline) on many web sites, including here and one run by Italiamerica.org which has tweezed the headline to read The Joy of Growing Up an Italian American.

You can hear an extract from a CD of the essay set to music by visiting a commercial website.
For $7.95 you can buy "a 12 minute recording of the well known, anonymous story of 'THE JOYS OF GROWING UP ITALIAN' that immediately transforms you to your childhood."

In Orlando, Florida, a member of the Italian American Social Club has incorporated the essay (without any mention of its author) in his/her own reminiscences:

"I thought that my experience growing up Italian was not only joyful but also unique until I began sharing my experiences with many of my fellow Italian American Social Club members. We just call our IASC 'da club.'

"I am convinced that our stories of 'growing up Italian' are so similar that I have come to realize that this experience is probably being felt by over two or three million second or third generation Italian-Americans in this country.

"Most of our members who actively participate in our many events express feelings of being a part of 'la familia' or maybe feel they are 'from the old neighborhood,' just because of the way we share our Italian heritage and experiences. . . and how important it has become to each one of us.

"I would like to share with you the joy of how I grew up Italian. If you are Italian, this may be your story also."

[Then followed a copy of Elvira's essay]

"I now depend on Moosehaven and my fellow Moose members. The food is not Italian as we knew it, but it is good and we all enjoy it. I think it is the peace, security and the camaraderie that keeps [us] as content as we are.

"No matter what part of the country we came from, our experiences, joys and memories are mostly the same. We Italians have something extra because we all remember the joys of growing up Italian.

"This is not just my story but that of thousands and maybe millions of Italian-Americans or other ethnic Americans who built this great country for what it is. If you are not Italian, only we Italians know what you missed."

Today, descendants of early Italian immigrants number nearly 16 million, according to the U.S. census of 2000; although through intermarriage, the number of people in the United States with at least one Italian grandparent is estimated to be about 26 million.

The U.S. Census Bureau says Italian Americans are the nation's fifth largest ethnic group, with two-thirds in white-collar positions in business, medicine, law, education and other professions.

END

Kiwi Monkey Tricks World's Letters Editors

2009-08-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

An anagram reveals that MONKEYS WRITE the NEW YORK TIMES. A mischievous monkey from New Zealand named Andrew Prieditis has fooled the New York Times' owned International Herald-Tribune's letters editor into publishing a letter showing a fake address.

What's more, using other false addresses, he has similarly tricked leading newspapers in Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and the Philippines.

Facing falling revenue from sales and advertising in the global economic depression, newspapers, some on the brink of bankruptcy, have slashed staff numbers. Overworked letters editors often have little time to check the bona fIDes of their correspondents, so Prieditis gets his opinions published by using phony addresses.

His greatest success was a story headed "My plan to be president" which made top place in the August 1 Opinion blog of the Dallas Morning News in Texas:

If I were a Republican interested in becoming president, I'd hitch my star to Sarah Palin's wagon. She will run for president in 2012.

I'd stay so close that after her nomination for president by the Republican Party, she'd have to choose me as her running mate. With her charisma and conservative views, our ticket would be elected.

Then, after two years of serving as president, when she tired of a probing media, outside agitators and an uncooperative Congress -- and became convinced that she could help the nation better being outside of government -- she'd resign. Then I'd be president.

--Andrew Prieditis, Dallas.

Right alongside it was an editorial introduction: "This Blog was the first in the nation created by an editorial board to give readers a behind-the-scenes view of the discussion that goes into crafting the newspaper's daily editorials."

Prieditis's epistle, also published by The Seattle Times and other newspapers, set off chains of readers' comments, for and against Sarah Palin.

In another Texan city, journalist Kevin Whited wrote:

Although the Houston Chronicle has 'an informal 90-day waiting period between letters being published,' Mr. Prieditis of Houston managed to get two letters (one on Sarah Palin on 3 August and one on Joe Biden on 7 August) published within days of each other.
'Punking' the Hearst daily -- especially now that former letters editor Judy Minshew is no longer around... is a little like adults taking candy from children.

Dubbing Prieditis "a citizen of the world," Whited said "Mr. Prieditis isn't a one-trick pony, nor is he just a man of this nation. He has managed to get letters on various topics published all over the world."

Googling his name, you can find letters published by the New York Times from Andrew Prieditis of Hamilton, New Zealand , the London Independent, from Andrew Prieditis of Elland, West Yorkshire, and the Jerusalem Post (Israel) from Andrew Prieditis of Washington. The Birmingham Post published a comment from Andrew Prieditis, from Lionel Street, Birmingham. The headline was "Olympic Games Must Go Back to the Future in Search for Renewed Credibility." That's what Andrew needs!

Down Under, Rupert Murdoch's national newspaper, The Australian, ran this letter from Andrew Prieditis of Torquay, Queensland on August 6:

WHAT does Somalia have in common with Australia? Until recently, almost nothing. The two nations, if Somalia can still be called a nation, had basically zero historical, economic and cultural links until the Department of Immigration began accepting some Somali refugees to Australia.

Now we are told by the Australian Federal Police there is a direct link between the violent mayhem in Somalia and an alleged plot to attack and kill soldiers at the Holsworthy army base in Sydney.

Even if these arrests do not survive the scrutiny of the legal process, they are a reminder that our security services have a constant and difficult task of sifting through the mountain of daily communication and identifying danger. Tuesday’s raids were a reminder of what they are doing and why.

In his home country, the prolific letterwriter fooled Auckland's New Zealand Herald, which published a letter from Andrew Prieditis of Kaitaia, urging Kiwis to eat less sugar and take more exercise, . Then down in Invercargill, the Southland Times ran an email from Andrew Prieditis of Hamilton urging them to "shake off the ghosts of the Rugby World Cup 2007."

He even proffered advice to New Zealand's Prime Minister, John Key before Key was elected to that position. It's still there on the PM's video journal:
John: I've recently returned from living 6 years in the United States. It is there that my eyes were opened up to the principles of limited Government in action and lower taxes. I do hope that in the next election, the National party pushes taxes as a big issue as I think, with enough persuasion of the NZ public, it could be the single factor which pushes the party over the winning line.

Where does the mysterious scribbler really live? In the US or New Zealand? Perhaps the answer is on the website of his old school, Kamo High, near Whangarei, two hours' drive north of Auckland. He wrote:

I was a student at Kamo High School in 1995 and 1996, the latter being my 7th form year (I'm amazed at how fast time has gone since then!). I then went on to study applied mathematics at the University of Waikato, graduating with a BSc in 2000.

After that I headed for the United States, and I'm now living in the state of Maryland (near Washington D.C.), working for a real estate transaction company as a Technology Coordinator. I am now also married to a lovely American woman!

Another verbose writer, Oscar Brittle, invaded Sydney's four daily newspapers' letter pages with a hilarious series of posts that infuriated thousands of readers. You can read about him in OhmyNewsInternational: Australia's Funniest Ghost Writer.

END

World's oldest dog missing, feared dead

2009-08-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

The world's oldest dog, a 26-year-old white poodle called Taffy Gayle, is missing from her owners' home. Neighbors have joined in a search, but the little pooch is thought to have gone to Rainbow Bridge http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm

"To our knowledge, Taffy Gayle is no longer alive. She wandered off their front porch and they haven't been able to find her," Jennifer Williams, senior reporter of The Daily Mountain Eagle, in Jasper, Alabama, told us today.

When Jennifer interviewed the dog's owners a few months ago, she wrote:
"Brenda and Barney Harvill of Curry don’t mind that their poodle, Taffy Gayle, is blind, deaf and missing most of her teeth.

"Taffy Gayle has been the couple’s baby since they could never have children of their own. 'We’ve been so partial to her. Never having any children, I just think it’s a blessing that God’s let us keep her this long,' Brenda Harvill said.

"Taffy Gayle was born Sept. 22, 1982... The puppy was given Brenda Harvill’s middle name, Gayle, when she was registered with the American Kennel Club.

"Harvill likes to buy infant clothing at the thrift store and play dress-up with her. The little dog’s wardrobe includes T-shirts, sweaters and a pink party dress.

"Taffy Gayle doesn’t have to live on a strict diet of dry dog food. She is fed Vienna sausages as a treat. She also eats any potted meat, stewed chicken and ground hamburger.

"On her birthday, Taffy Gayle gets her own little cupcake with a candle in it. She also wears her party dress that day to celebrate."

If Taffy Gayle is no longer alive, the World's Oldest Dog seems to be a terrier mix named Max, living in New Iberia,Louisiana, who celebrated his 26th birthday on August 9.

His local TV station 10-KLFY said "Max has been part of Janelle DeRouen's family [since] just a few weeks after his birth on August 9th, 1983. Janelle says Max is in remarkab;y good shape. He suffers from cataracts. so he wears doggie goggles when he's out in the sun, and a touch of arthritis has slowed him down, but not by much."

You can see a video of Max by clicking on http://xmangerm.vox.com/library/video/6a00d4141bbfae685e0110160aba58860b.html

Max will have to live nearly four more years to be hailed as the oldest dog of all time. The 100th birthday of Bluey, a famous Australian cattle dog born on June 7, 1910, will be celebrated next year by people living in Rochester, a country town 130 miles (209 km) north of Melbourne.

Bluey worked among sheep and cattle for 20 years, and survived until Nov. 14, 1939, when he was put down. He had lived for 29 years, five months and seven days, on a diet of kangaroos and emus. He was the world's oldest dog, a record that has never been beaten.
END

Birthday Benison from Baron Tennyson

2009-08-04T03:22:00.000-07:00

"I shall raise a quiet glass of wine to the memory of the poet on August 6," says David Tennyson, sixth Baron Tennyson and great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria's favorite poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose 200th birthday will be celebrated around the globe on Thursday.

David, who rarely uses his title, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Three months ago, he visited Alfred's stamping ground, Lincolnshire, England, arriving the day after his own 49th birthday.

The UK daily literary web magazine Open Writing posted a story about the six Barons Tennyson http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2009/08/ay_be_merry_all_1.php on August 1.

While scouring the internet for that article, Open Writing's Australian correspondent asked David about the Tennyson Society. Here is his reply:

I have taken an active interest in the Tennyson Society, based in Lincoln
in England, over the last two years. They have initiated several
events
http://british-poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/bicentenary_of_alfred_tennysons_birth
to mark the 200th anniversary of the poet's birth.

Over the weekend of 5th-7th June 2009 at Lincoln I attended a "Tennyson in Poetry & Music"
concert at St. Nicholas' Church http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/127152
in Newport Lincoln.

I attended a special display at the Lincoln
museum (called "the Collection") on Tennyson's inspiration of the visual arts, and finally attended a bicentennial dinner where my cousin Rosalind was guest speaker.

Prior to that I attended the Tennyson Society "social weekend" in the Lake District in May. While there I opened a new
"poetry walk" http://www.visitcumbria.com/julian/mirehouse-n6290.jpg featuring Tennyson at The Mirehouse.
This old English country house on the shores of Lake Bassenthwaite used to be the home of James Spedding, a great
friend and contemporary of the poet. The poet Tennyson
spent part of his honeymoon at Mirehouse. http://www.visitcumbria.com/kes/mirehse.htm

Asked what he thought of his great-great-grandfather's poetry, David replied: "It's the best, of course! (alhough I would say that). Mind you, the nice thing about poetry is that in the end you don't have to choose. You are allowed to appreciate different contributors to the world of the arts without having to pick one winner."

Then he was asked whether he or his younger brother, author Alan Tennyson (the Heir Presumptive) had written any poetry. He replied:

Basically the answer to your question is no.... I do remember
studying 'The Lady of Shalott" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott
at school in what was then form 3...

Speaking for myself, I have always shied away from writing poetry and have taken a different path from the field of literature.

I was trained in mechanical engineering at Canterbury University. I now work for myself in a role I would best describe
as a 'Project Engineer.' This gives me the flexibility to take large
blocks of time off, like my five week trip to Europe earlier in
2009.

Living in Canterbury, I do try to get in touch with nature
ovr the weekends, whether that be strolling on the beaches, climbing over the hillsides or exploring the farming flatlands.

To some extent this gives me some appreciation of what the poet's early life must have been like. (Alfred grew up in a principal farming district of England) and I share
the poet's appreciation of the natural world.

Well over a century ago, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote this poem

To Alfred Tennyson, My Grandson

Golden-hair'd Ally whose name is one with mine,
Crazy with laughter and babble and earth's new wine,
Now that the flower of a year and a half is thine,
O little blossom , O mine, and mine of mine,
Glorious poet who never hast written a line,
Laugh, for the name at the head of my verse is thine.
May'st thou never be wrong'd by the name that is mine!

That poem might well have been addressed to his great-great-grandson.

END

Alfred (Lord) Tennyson, 200, loved mad little tits

2009-08-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

And the N.Z. heir to his barony is a birdlover too

The famous British poet Alfred (Lord) Tennyson, whose 200th birthday will be celebrated worldwide on August 6, was a great birdlover. One of his lesser-known poems, called "Ay", names half a dozen bird species ranging from the cuckoo to "the mad little tits."

Ay! Be merry, all birds, to-day,
Be merry on earth as you never were merry before,
Be merry in heaven, O larks, and far away,
And merry for ever and ever, and one day more.
Why? For it's easy to find a rhyme.
Look, look, how he flits.
The fire-crown'd king of the wrens, from out of the pine !
Look how they tumble the blossom, the mad little tits !
'Cuck-oo! Cuck-oo!' was ever a May so fine?
Why? For it's easy to find a rhyme.
O merry the linnet and dove,
And swallow and sparrow and throstle, and have your desire!
O merry my heart, you have gotten the wings of love,
And flit like the king of the wrens with a crown of fire.
Why? For it's ay ay, ay ay.

This poem, and many others, can be found in a 1903 book, The Birds of Tennyson, http://tinyurl.com/kpfvwq
by Watkin Watkins, B.A. Cantab, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-law, Member of the British Ornithologists' Union.

He says "Tennyson exhibits a knowledge of birds and their ways which is considerably greater than that displayed by the majority of British Poets, and which entitles him to take a place in this respect by the side of Chaucer, Wordsworth and Shakespeare."

Queen Victoria liked Alfred's poems so much that she made him a hereditary baron, with a seat in The House of Lords.

He seems to have transmitted some of his genes to Alan Tennyson, the Heir Presumptive to his title, who is a distant relative (in lineage and geographically) living in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Alan is co-author of a book, Extinct Birds of New Zealand.

[Heir Presumptive is an archaic term for the person thought to be next in line for the barony.]

Alan was born in Wellington in 1965, and first worked for the Forest and Bird Protection Society. Then he moved to the Department of Conservation. Apart from watching birds (feathered variety) he's Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at New Zealand's national musem, Te Papa. http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/pages/default.aspx

The book, "The Extinct Birds of New Zealand" by Alan Tennyson and Paul Martinson [Te Papa Press 2006] received a rave review from Rebecca Priestley in the New Zealand Listener http://tinyurl.com/m7hkg3
She wrote:

The story of the huia, a poster bird for extinct New Zealand species, has been well told. Last seen in 1907, the beautiful huia, with its black body and distinctive orange wattle, had been collected to death by 19th century dealers and ornithologists for display in museums and fashionable drawing-rooms -- and
for its white-tipped tail feathers, which made quite the jaunty hat decoration.

Icon maybe, but the huia has plenty of company -- 58 of our bird species, or 26 per cent -- have become extinct since humans arrived here in the 13th century. To celebrate those species, and to remind us of the continuing threat , Te Papa fossil vertebrates curator Alan Tennyson and wildlife artist Paul Martinson have together made a magnificent book, Extinct Birds of New Zealand....
The bulk of the book is made up of accounts of the 58 extinct species, including nine species of moa. Even th giant moa, the tallest bird ever known to have lived -- oustretched, its neck could reach up to three metres high -- was at the mercy of
Haast's eagle... The moa fell victim to human hunting around AD1400, and Haast's eagle soon followed, suffering from loss of prey.

As Heir Presumptive, Alan Tennyson is thought to be next in line for the Tennyson barony, now held by his older brother, David, the sixth Lord Tennyson.

David Tennyson , a modest man who lives quietly in Christchurch and apparently never uses his ancient title, celebrated his 49th birthday on June 4, 2009.

Asked whether either he or his brother writes poetry, Alan replied: "David is more involved in the Tennyson Society than I."

The sixth baron seems to be more interested in recreational cycling, as he is president of the Canterbury Recreational Cycling Club. Christchurch has thousands of cyclists, because the city stands on very flat ground. You can ride 100 miles (160km) over the Canterbury Plains http://www.nzescape.com/photo-3.html without having to climb a single hill.

The six Barons Tennyson are a mixed bunch, several achieving fame in fields far removed from poetry. Alf's son, the second baron, Hallam Tennyson, became Australia's second Governor-General, and Hallam's son Lionel Hallam Tennyson captained England's cricket team in 1921, and became the third Baron seven years later.

Lionel's son, Harold Christopher Tennyson, (1919–1991) became the fourth Baron, and his youger son became the fifth Baron. When he died three years ago, "the line of the eldest son of the first Baron failed," and the title passed unexpectedly to David Tennyson, in faraway New Zealand.

Here's a list of the six Barons, and links to websites where you can read about them:

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-1892) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tennyson,_1st_Baron_Tennyson
Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson (1852-1928) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallam_Tennyson,_2nd_Baron_Tennyson
Lionel Hallam Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson (1889-1951) http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/21499.html
Harold Christopher Tennyson, 4th Baron Tennyson (1919-1991)
http://tinyurl.com/mwh4bv
Mark Aubrey Tennyson, 5th Baron Tennyson (1920-2006) http://www.thepeerage.com/p8285.htm (scroll down)
David Harold Alexander Tennyson, 6th Baron Tennyson (b. 1960)http://wapedia.mobi/en/David_Tennyson,_6th_Baron_Tennyson

Alfred (Lord) Tennyson, as he is usually referred to these days, was reluctant to accept a baronetcy (far less important than a barony) when Britain's Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli offered one to him. Another PM, William Gladstone, finally talked him into accepting a peerage.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tennyson,_1st_Baron_Tennyson says the poet was "a passionate man with some peculiarites of nature, he was never particularly comfortable as a peer, and it is widely held that he took the peerage in order to secure a future for his son Hallam."

Still quoting Wikipedia:

Tennyson wrote a number of phrases that have become commonplaces of the English language, including:
Nature, red in tooth and claw
'Tis better to have
loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all
Theirs not to reason
why, / Theirs but to do and die
My strength is as the strength of ten /
Because my heart is pure
Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers
The old
order changeth, yielding place to new

He is the second most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare

Sir Edmund William Gosse (1849-1928), a famous British critic who remembered having met an aged Lord Tennyson when he (Gosse) was a small boy, wrote these words about the poet:

We still look to the earlier masters for supreme excellence in particular directions: to Wordsworth for sublime philosophy, to Coleridge for ethereal magic, to Byron for passion, to Shelley for lyric intensity, to Keats for richness.

Tennyson does not excel each of these in his own special
field, but he is often nearer to the particular man in his particular mastery than anyone else can be said to be, and he has in addition his own special field of supremacy.

What this is cannot be easily defined; it consists, perhaps, in the beauty of the atmosphere which Tennyson contrives to cast around his work, molding it in the blue mystery of twilight, in the opaline haze of sunset: this atmosphere, suffused over his poetry with inestimable skill and with a tact rarely at fault, produces an unfailing illusion or mirage of loveliness.

Further interesting details about the poet, written by Professor Glenn Everett, of America's Northeast Victorian Studies Association, can be found on the Victorian Web:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/tennybio.html

END

2009-07-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

Is he really a centenarian, or *only* 94?

Will Britain's "Oldest Marathoner", Pierre Jean "Buster" Martin, who claims he will be 103 years old on September 1, compete against Australian centenarian Ruth Frith in the 2009 World Masters Games, to be held in Sydney from October 10 to 18?

Ruth, a Brisbane great-grandmother who'll celebrate her 100th birthday on August 23, hopes someone will compete against her in the Games' first-ever "100 and over" class.

"You know how it is," she says. "You want to try to compete with those younger folk in their 90s."

She has registered for the hammer, discus, javelin and shot events.

The Sydney 2009 Masters Games will be the world's largest multi-sport event, with up to three times as many competitors as the Olympic Games. About 25,000 competitors from more than 100 countries will take part in 28 sports at more than 70 venues.

Anyone can take part in the WMG if they meet the minimum age requirement for their particular sport. The Games are where ordinary people, from former champions to recreational sport rookies, can have extraordinary experiences, with grades catering for competitive, recreational amd social players.

The Games encourage people from all walks of life to become involved in physical activity by participating in sport.

But there's a fly in the ointment. Buster Martin cannot - or will not - produce evidence of his age, so he may not be eligible for Sydney 2009. Many Brits think he's a younger publicity-seeking hoaxer. Sceptics say many of his stories are just too good to be true.

Employed three days a week as a van cleaner for Pimlico Plumbers, a publicity-conscious company in southeast London, he claims to be Britain's oldest worker, who refused to take a day off on September 1, 2006, which he claimed was his 100th birthday.

As a Marathoner, Buster's a walker rather than a runner, but even that is a great achievement for an old man, whatever his age may be.

The London media reported that he took a minute less than 10 hours to complete the 26-mile course of the 2008 London Marathon. The official timekeepers had gone home hours before he stumbled over the finish line.

The day after the Marathon, The Times published a story headlined Marathon Man, 'Buster' Martin, may be up to some old tricks. Patrick Foster wrote:

With "Buster" Martin's straggly beard, dry wit, and advanced years, his attempt to run the London Marathon was always going to present the PR people with an irresistable feel-good tale. At 101 years old, he would be the oldest man to complete the 26-mile course. But as he hobbled his way through the London drizzle yesterday, his story was beginning to unravel.

On Saturday The Times disclosed that Guinness World Records had refused to verify his claim to be the oldest marathon runner.

Now it has emerged why the record guardians will not be featuring Mr Martin in its celebrated publication. Internal correspondence between senior officials at the organisation, obtained by The Times, shows that Guinness has evidence that Mr Martin is a mere spring chicken of just 94.

Guinness received information that Mr Martin, whose real name is Jean Pierre Martin, told NHS [National Health Service] staff that he was born on September 12, 1913, not 1906, as he now claims. A senior adviser to the world record company warned Guinness officials that Mr Martin "appears to be a fake, and more so, one being exploited by his company, which is using him to promote their services."

Patrick Barkham, a features writer of The Guardian newspaper, also investigated Buster's colorful life in an entertaining story. Here's an extract:

His life, as he tells it, is extraordinary. He was born Pierre Jean Martin "up in the hills" of the Basque Country. "I don't speak French because I don't like them," he says.

He claims his mother fell pregnant to a member of the affluent family she served, and mother and baby were smuggled to Britain to avoid the disgrace. His mother was put in a convent and baby Buster placed in an orphanage near Bodmin, Cornwall.

After coming to London, Buster worked, joined the army and got married in France (hence no marriage certificate). "How did I get to France to get married? No passport. I learned how to get there and avoid the authorities, and I could still go and do it now if I wanted to," he boasts.

Can he explain how? "No, because otherwise they would be watching the route for Christ's sake! Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what's the matter with you?!" Buster lurches forwards with a stare. "You won't get secrets out of me," he growls.

Buster says he married a girl named Iriana in 1920. She was 13, and he was 14. They had 17 children -"twins, triplets, singletons, all sorts" - born between 1921 and 1934, including triplets Georgina, Georgia and Giselle.

He has 70 grand and great-grandchildren, according to an apparently well-informed PR-minded blogger called
The article says "A confessed 'rogue' who drinks ale with a slice of orange and smokes like a chimney, Buster married Iriana, a girl from Tonbridge, Kent, aged 14 and fought in the Second World War in the Grenadier Guards. He switched to the Royal Navy and had a 35-year Service career but remained in London."

Buster accepts countless invitations to take part in fun runs and to appear at other functions, devoting the proceeds to his favourite charity, The Rhys Daniels Trust, http://original.justgiving.com/bustermartin1/ which provides "Home from Home" style accommodation close to specialist children's hospitals throughout the UK.

Other intriguing details about Buster Martin can be found in Wikipedia. http://bustermartin.blogspot.com/2008/01/buster-taking-time-out-while-training.html

And there's a YouTube interview as well.

But what of Australia's centenarian Ruth Frith? She's the mother of Helen Searle (68) who won a bronze medal in the high jump at the 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games and silver medals in the high jump and long jump at the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games.

"She [Ruth] is literally in a league of her own in the women's 95-99 age category in which her best throws for the discus (9.85m), hammer (11.37m) and shot put (4.72m) are all world bests," Brisbane sports reporter Jim Tucker wrote last year in The Sunday Mail:

"I hold five world records but, let's be honest, I'm the only competitor in my age group," she says with a smile. "I'm the oldest competing in the world."You have to aim high ... I look at what those in their 80s are throwing and try to beat them.

"Honestly, I don't know what is so magical about being 99. It's just two numbers on a piece of paper and I'm still the same freckle-faced redhead I was at 98."
She is talking about the interest that has grown among a curious media over the past 12 months...Calls have come from Germany and photos have been taken by a French news agency.

You can read a transcript of the ABC-TV's Brisbane reporter John Taylor interviewing Ruth on The 7.30 Report.

A final thought: Even if Buster Martin proves to be telling the truth, he still won't be the world's oldest all-time Marathoner. That title belongs to Philip "Flying Phil" Rabinowitz. Phil, who was born in Lithuania and lived mostly in South Africa, often visited relatives in Sydney. When he turned 100, he became the fastest centenarian ever to run in a 100 metres sprint. He covered the distance in 30.86 seconds.

Then, every year until he reached 104, he took part in the first few kilometres of the Philip Rabinowitz Memorial Marathon in Capetown. He died on February 28, 2008.

A for Horses, B for Mutton

2009-07-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

A clever Ode to a Scarecrow was included in Anu Garg's popular AWADmail newsletter, sent last week to 750,000 wordlovers in 200 countries . You could call it a surreal alphabet. Read it aloud: Hey be seedy, eh, effigy, hate shy jakey yellow man; oh, peek, you're rusty, you've double, you ex-wise head.

A slightly different version can be found on the internet: Hay be seedy, effigy, age-eyed jakey lemon-yellow man. O peek you! Arrestee! You've double! You ex-wise he!

The Ode was first published many years ago in The Scientific American . It was in a column called "Mathematical Games," written by Martin Gardner, a gifted American word spinner now 94 years old.

He calls himelf a mathemagician, and is famous for his popular mathematics, stage magic, puzzles and debunking of myths.

Before reading on, please look at this hilarious sketch by British comedians The Two Ronnies, Swedish Made Simple: FUNEX? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkWMcRlE1mQ

Back in the 1930s, another famous British comical duo, Clapham and Dwyer, recorded another surrealist alphabet. This is how it went:
A for 'orses (hay for horses)
B for Mutton (beef or mutton?)
C for th' highlanders (Seaforth Highlanders)
D for 'ential (deferential)
E for Adam (Eve or Adam)
F for 'vescence (effervescence)
G for Police (Chief of Police)
H for Respect (age for respect)
I for Novello (Ivor Novello, film star)
J for Oranges (Jaffa oranges)
K for 'ancis (Kay Francis, film star)
L for Leather (hell for leather)
M for Sis (emphasis)
N for Dig (infra dig)
O for The garden wall (Over the Garden Wall, a popular song)
P for a Penny (pee for a penny)
Q for a Song, or Q for Billiards (cue for a song, or cue for billiards)
R for Mo (half a mo)
S for You (it's for you)
Tea for Two (Tea for Two, a popular song)
U for Films (UFA films)
V for la France (Vive la France)
W for a Bob (double you for a bob - a bob was a shilling)
X for Breakfast (eggs for breakfast)
Y for Gawd's sake (why, for God's sake)
Z for Breezes (zephyr breezes
)
In the 80 years since that sketch was performed in music halls and recorded on vinyl discs, various wits have come up with variations. Here are some of them:
C for Miles, or C for Yourself (see for miles, or see for yourself)
D for Dumb (deaf or dumb) D for Kate (defecate)
E for Brick (heave a brick) or E for 'ning Standard (Evening Standard newspaper)
H for Consent (age of consent)
I for the Engine (Ivor the Engine)
K for 'teria (cafeteria)
O for the Wings of a Dove (O for the wings of a dove -- hymn)
P for Relief (pee for relief)
Q for a P (queue for a pee) or Q for a Theatre (queue for a theatre)
P for Relief (pee for relief), P for a Whistle (pea for a whistle) or P for 'ming seals (performing seals).
U for 'mism ( euphemism) or U for Me (you for me).
W for Quits (double you for quits) )
Y for Girlfriend (wife or girlfriend? or Y for a Husband (wife for a husband)

Going back to the remarkable Martin Gardner, he has written more than 70 books in the last 70 years, which must be a world record. At the age of 94, living in Norman, Oklahoma, he is still writing and being interviewed.

In March 2006, he recalled his early days as a columnist for The Scientific American, in an interesting interview http://www.maa.org/columns/colm/cardcolm200610.html with Professor Colm Mulcahy, who writes a monthly column for The Mathematical Association of America.

At 94, Gardner is one of the world's oldest (and liveliest) bloggers, with a page on MySpace http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=267546396

DISCLOSURE OF INTEREST. I'm copy editor of Anu Garg's A Word A Day (AWAD) newsletter http://wordsmith.org/awad/ Serendipitously, Anu and I each live in one of the two picturesque places rightly called The Emerald City, http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/emerald_cities.htm -- on opposite sides of the Pacific.
END

World's Oldest Dog Fight

2009-06-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

This story has been published by the South Korean citizen reporters' journal OhmyNewsInternational:
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=385348&rel_no=1

Chanel, Sammy, Smokey, Bluey, Max or Taffy Gayle?

Dog owners, TV stations and newspapers in the United States and Britain
are embroiled in a lively dogfight to discover The World's Oldest Dog.

Naturally, they favor their local pooches. But they can't all be right.

The competition began last December, when Lee Lutz, in the Times Beacon
Record,
http://www.northshoreoflongisland.com/Articles-i-2008-12-18-77396.112114_Is_this_dachshund_the_oldest_dog_in_the_world.html
on the North Shore of Long Island, New York, asked, "Is this dachshund the
oldest dog in the world?" He drew attention to a 19-year-old wire-haired
dachshund named Chanel.

A few months later, the global spotlight focused on Chanel when she
celebrated her 20th birthday. The Guinness Book of Records listed her as
The World's Oldest Dog. Pictures of a cute little mutt wearing goggles and
a colorful sweater, looking like a First World War aviator in an aerial
dogfight, were seen on TV and in newspapers by millions of doglovers (and
doghaters too).

In April 2009 OhmyNewsInternational rained on the pooch's picnic with a
story, Chanel is NOT the World's Oldest Dog,
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=384908&rel_no=1
We said many dogs had lived much longer than Chanel, but were not eligible
to be listed by Guinness, which insists on their ages being documented.

That's not always possible.

We said that the 100th birthday of Bluey, a famous Australian cattle dog
born on June 7, 1910, is to be celebrated next year by people living in
Rochester, a country town 130 miles (209 kilometers) north of Melbourne,
Victoria.
Bluey worked among sheep and cattle for 20 years, and survived until Nov.
14, 1939, when he was put down. He had lived for 29 years, five months and
seven days, on a diet of kangaroos and emus. He was the world's oldest dog,
a record that has never been beaten.

On May 22, 2009 TV station 10-KLFY
http://www.klfy.com/Global/story.asp?S=10406754 in New Iberia, Louisiana,
reported that a "terier mix" named Max, owned by Janelle Derouen of New
Iberia, was laying claim to the Guinness Book of World Records title of
"Oldest Dog in the World." The report said:

"Max is a terrier mix who's been part of Janelle Derouen's family just a
few weeks after his birth on August 9th, 1983. That makes Max almost 26
years old.
"Janelle says Max is in remarkably good shape. He suffers from cataracts, so
he wears doggie goggles when he's out in the sun, and a touch of arthritis
has slowed him down, but not by much.
"When Janelle spotted our story on the current record holder, Chanel, she
knew she had to let the world know about her incredible canine. We'll keep
you posted on Max's quest for the title of world's oldest dog, but in the
meantime, Max isn't letting his sudden celebrity go to his head."

You can see a video of Max and his owner here http://xmangerm.vox.com/library/video/6a00d4141bbfae685e0110160aba58860b.html

Serendipitously, George Rodrigue,
http://www.georgerodrigue.com/biography.htm a Cajun artist, grew up in
New Iberia. His Blue Dog series of paintings, known worlwide, are thought
to have been inspired by his dog named Tiffany.

Apparently oblivious of Max's claim to the title, Florida's St. Petersburg
Times promoted another contestant on May 30. A story by Stefan
Jaeger http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1005572.ece was
headed "St. Petersburg Man Says He Owns the World's Oldest Dog". It said:

"Joe Slatton of St. Petersburg wasn't impressed when he learned NBC's Today
show had featured what it deemed the world's oldest living dog at 21.
Slatton says that at the time the show aired May 6, he was most likely out
walking his 23-year-old Shih Tzu, Smokey. "My wife told me about the show,"
Slatton said. "Of course she knew, too, that Smokey was way older than that
dog on TV."
"Smokey, golden brown with all his hair, is not only older, but more active.

He loves his walks and has his own wardrobe.

"Slatton, 78, and Mary, 76, his wife of 55 years, took in Smokey nine years
ago when the dog's former owner moved to a place where she couldn't have a
pet.

"Records at the VCA St. Petersburg Animal Hospital show Smokey was born Jan.
18, 1986. That was two days before the first federal Martin Luther King Jr.
Day was celebrated and 10 days before the space shuttle Challenger
disaster."

The rival claims of Max and Smokey failed to cross the Atlantic, because on
June 1 Andy Crick wrote in the London tabloid The Sun :
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2458899/Sun-teaches-old-dog-new-tricks.html

"Yorkshire terrier Sammy is 23-years-old which makes him two years older
than the current canine world record holder...

"The pensioner pooch has had half his teeth out and can barely see or hear.

But owner Doug Percival, 73, has only had to take him to the vets ONCE since
he got him as a two-year-old pup.

"He puts his longevity down to them looking after each other and
twice-weekly treats from the fish and chip shop."

We were about to award the WOD (World's Oldest Dog) crown to Max, when we
stumbled on a story in The Daily Mountain Eagle, in Jasper, Alabama. Staff
reporter Jennifer Williams has discovered a pooch that's a year older than
Max!

"Brenda and Barney Harvill of Curry don't mind that their poodle, Taffy
Gayle, is blind, deaf and missing most of her teeth.," Williams wrote.
"Taffy Gayle has been the couple's baby since they could never have children
of their own. 'We've been so partial to her. Never having any children, I
just think it's a blessing that God's let us keep her this long,' Brenda
Harvill said.

"Taffy Gayle was born Sept. 22, 1982... The puppy was given Brenda Harvill's
middle name, Gayle, when she was registered with the American Kennel Club.

"Harvill likes to buy infant clothing at the thrift store and play dress-up
with her. The little dog's wardrobe includes T-shirts, sweaters and a pink
party dress. Taffy Gayle doesn't have to live on a strict diet of dry dog
food. She is fed Vienna sausages as a treat. She also eats any potted meat,
stewed chicken and ground hamburger.

"On her birthday, Taffy Gayle gets her own little cupcake with a candle in
it. She also wears her party dress that day to celebrate."

You can read much more about this tiny dog by visiting The Daily Mountain
Eagle http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:ymNcdg9J5xYJ:www.mountaineagle.com/index.cfm%3Fevent%3Dnews.view%26id%3D746DCF5C-19B9-E2E2-678600C6B88F17E4+%22taffy+gayle%22&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au

Summing up, it seems that Louisiana's Max, at 25 going on 26, is not quite
the max, Alabama's Taffy Gayle, 26 last September, is PROBABLY the world's
oldest living dog. She will even beat Australia's Bluey as the oldest dog of
all time if she clings to life for three more years .

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown is trying to find his city's oldest
dog. http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/1606664,CST-NWS-brown04.article

One of his readers who calls herself rozzzzzzy wrote this comment:
"No category for the smelliest dog? If you ever add it, let me know! We
adopted a black, long-haired pug named Snowball, changed his name to Jack
Black, after which we discovered that no matter what he was fed, even treats
with chlorophyll, he can clear a room in seconds. Feed him chicken, and he
can clear a stadium. Even my teenagers, who find passing gas extremely
humorous, run from rooms with their t-shirts over their noses, and NO ONE
wants to let the little fellow sleep with them, despite taking dibbies on
our other two dogs."

Well, that may account for Chicago being called The Windy City.

World's Oldest Blogger (96) lives in Florida

2009-05-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

This story has been published by the South Korean citizen reporters' journal OhmyNewsInternational

World's Oldest Blogger (96) lives in Florida

"I am not a professed Muslim" says this Guyanese philosopher/poet

Randall Butisingh, a poet and philosopher living in Florida (US), who was born in British Guiana (now Guyana), 96 years ago, is probably the world's oldest blogger, succeeding the much-loved Spanish great-grandmother Maria Amelia Lopez Solino, http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=341010&rel_no=1 who died on May 20, aged 97.

"I am not a professed Muslim," Butisingh wrote last year. "I was raised as a Christian from birth by Hindu parents and grew up in the Christian Church, in a village which was predominantly Afro-Guyanese. But eventually I separated from the church as I saw it as exclusive and divisive and I wanted to be involved in all mankind.... I am at present living in the home of my son-in-law and daughter, who are Muslims."

Butisingh was born on December 1, 1912. He grew up in Buxton, East Coast Demerara, where he received his primary education. In 1927 he passed the school leaving examination and became a pupil teacher at the age of 15. So began a 45-year career as a teacher, with a few short breaks, until he retired in 1972.

Eager to learn more about him, OhmyNews sent an email to Butisingh, who replied:

I was happy to hear from you and for getting the news that I am probably the oldest blogger in the world.

As regard my health I am in fairly good shape after surviving a serious illness at the age of 91. I can do most things for myself like showering, dressing, preparing my breakfast, etc. I can walk, unsupported by a stick. At present, the only pill I am taking is the aspirin (low strength) to help with my circulation. My blood pressure is stable -- 140 over 70.

I have 7 children, 19 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. My oldest great-grandaughter is 21. They all live in the USA, except for 1 daughter and a grandson who live in Guyana, my homeland. I live in Florida, the Sunshine State in the USA, with a daughter and her husband who is a physician.

Here's a list of just some of his literary work:

* Three books of poems: Loves Light, Wild Flowers and Loves Balm.
* A book of thoughts: Flashes of Light.
* Articles and letters to newspapers on education, morality and other issues.
* Paper: Hindi in Guyana.
* Thesis: The Role of the School in the Estate Community.
* Translation of a biography of Mahatma Gandhi from Hindi to English.

The American Poetry Association has recognized Butisingh as a Poet of Merit.

In his late seventies he learned to read Arabic script and can still read from the Holy Quran and recite a few of the Suras (chapters) from memory. He can also read Urdu, a sister language of Hindi, written in the Persian script.

At 89, he began learning to play the recorder, and last year was studying Spanish and documenting his life story, dating back to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

An Indian blogger, Anki Bajaj, http://exclusivearena.blogspot.com/2009/03/worlds-oldest-blogger-randall-butisingh.html wrote this tribute:

Butisingh’s blogs are versatile and different from others including Buxton (his home town), economics, politics, environment, history, philosophy, poetry, psychology, religion and so on.

Butisingh has never visited India as he does not like travelling, however he is updated with the history and culture of the country. He is a fond of languages. He grew up in African slaves, where dialect of Hindi and Creolese were spoken...

The venerable blogger does his own typing. He once wrote:

Gold and silver have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee. If my messages can touch only one heart, I know I have not lived in vain.

You can read the new World's Oldest Blogger's thoughts by clicking on Randall Butisingh's Weblog http://randallbutisingh.wordpress.com/

Thousands of Spanish-speaking bloggers around the world are mourning the death on May 20 of the previous holder of the "World's Oldest Blogger" title.

"A Spanish grandmother who billed herself as the 'world's oldest internet blogger' has died at the age of 97," says a BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8062760.stm

"Maria Amelia Lopez only began blogging from her seaside home in Galicia two years ago.

"But her postings on international affairs, Spanish politics and old age quickly turned her into a celebrity, attracting followers around the world."

Maria Amelia's blog attracted worlwide media attention, which resulted in more than 1.5 million hits.

As a lifelong leftist, she often mentioned her support for Galicias's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Eventually the politician met the famous blogger, to her great delight.

Hundreds of messages of condolence (in Spanish) are pouring in to Maria Amelia's website http://amis95.blogspot.com/index.html

In one of her last postings in February she said: "When I'm on the Internet, I forget about my illness. The distraction is good for you -- being able to communicate with people. It wakes up the brain, and gives you great strength."

Her grandson Daniel has left one final post, thanking readers for their support.

"[There were] 880 days when her blog made her happy... the support she needed to enjoy her last days of life," he wrote.

"When somebody leaves after 97 years, living with joy from the beginning to the end, we can't be sad.

"Wherever you are, grandmother, you will read these comments, all of them without doubt. She will laugh at some, will learn with others, she might get annoyed at the specific 'language' used in some ... but she will be happy reading all of them."

Like Maria Amelia, Randall Butisingh is also liberal-minded and sometimes writes about politics.

On November 30, 2008, Butisingh's blog http://randallbutisingh.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/mumbai-to-obama-end-bushs-war-on-terror/ was headlined "Mumbai to Obama: End Bush's War on Terror".

US President Barack Obama said recently "I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries." Will he meet Butinsingh when he next visits Florida?

END

Australia's Funniest Ghost Writer

2009-04-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address: http://tinyurl.com/ct5z7s

Oscar Brittle stirred and disturbed his readers

Animal lovers, rejoice! Oscar Brittle has been gagged at last. He would have upset you had you read this letter to the Sydney Morning Herald:

I believe that I have eaten more types of animal than anybody else on the planet. I have eaten (not necessarily in this order): cow, sheep, pig, shark, goat, camel, horse, kangaroo, wallaby, wallaroo, potoroo, bandicoot, duck, chicken, pigeon, whale, wild dog, wild cat, cat, fish, catfish, dormouse, python, toad, turtle, monkey, impala, sea urchin, slug, jellyfish, fox, grouse, alligator, llama, vulture, mole, lobster, mongoose, daddy-long-legs, salamander …"

That letter was just one of hundreds Oscar sent to the editors of Sydney's four daily newspapers in an 18-month writimg frenzy. Like many other letterwriters, talkback radio callers and bloggers, Oscar was an opinionated blowhard who wrote stacks of provocative nonsense and misquoted facts.

Here are extracts from a few of his letters, which often drew heated replies, mostly as email comments to the newspapers that had published his rants:

o Dear editor, I turned on the television on Saturday morning and saw a video clip for the first time in years. I have discovered that 68 per cent of Federal MPs are obese, showing off the tops of their bottoms with apparent impunity.

o Tomorrow, I and I suspect many of my ilk, will once again firmly stamp my ecological feet and take the car to town. Climate change is one thing, but passenger comfort is not to be undervalued.

o Whatever happened to manners on the road? At present, there seem to be more road rages than ever.

o Recent research shows that young people are having sex younger and younger. … Dear, oh dear!

o Video clips have come a long way in 25 years. For three horrible hours, I watched in disgust and denial as young women gallivanted about the place in tiny swimsuits, braziers, underpants and other garments that a man should only see in the boudoir.

o Does anyone have any information about shutting the internet down for good, or is it too late?

But Oscar wrote too many letters for his own good. Eventually, Amanda Meade, aptly-named media diarist in The Australian newspaper, became suspicious. She wrote:

An Oscar for Best Actor.

DIARY calls on prolific letter writer "Oscar Brittle of Killara" to identify himself. After a series of curious letters were published in The Daily Telegraph, we tried to verify that Brittle was a real person. Here is Brittle on public transport: "The morning trip was pleasant enough, as I sat next to a handsome, lightly perfumed young woman, read the paper and even attempted a Sudoku puzzle" ...The opinionated Brittle is not listed in the White Pages and he does not exist on the electoral roll. But he has popped up in Column 8 in The Sydney Morning Herald and on the letters pages of The Australian. So beware, letters editors everywhere, there may be another phantom on the loose.

Meade was right. It turned out that Brittle was a ghost, the brainchild of three young Canberra writers, Glenn Fowler , Christopher Smyth and Gareth Malone

Interviewed in Australia's ABC-TV Stateline program, http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2006/s2535731.htm author Fowler described Oscar Brittle:

He is generally a fairly conservative, indignant older chap from the leafy, neat, established northern Sydney suburb of Killara. Very opinionated.

What we tried to do was create somebody who has that combination of ignorance and outspokenness. He's got an opinion on anything. He's got ideas about anything and he's quite prepared to share them. He doesn't check things very often. He gets things wrong.

We tried to create maximum confusion and maximum offence with many of the letters, and we wanted the readers of the letters to be shocked. Obviously, first of all, that would be the editors doing the reading, and if they then got published and other people read them, we wanted to provoke responses, we wanted people to write letters back. And, fortunately, that happened in a lot of cases. So, Oscar offends virtually everybody on the planet in his letters, unless they're exactly like him.

Dear Editor... The Collected Letters of Oscar Brittle have now been published as a highly entertaining book.
http://www.unswpress.com.au/isbn/9781742230115.htm

The publisher's blurb says:

In an eighteen month campaign to wrest control of the debates in the nation’s newspapers and magazines from the wishy-washies and the weaklings, Oscar Brittle became (arguably) the most significant and powerful contributor to public debate in contemporary Australia.

This book is a collection of published letters and their originals, published replies from various correspondents, email exchanges between Oscar and editors, as well as the rejected letters, all interspersed with gorgeous illustrations throughout.

There really was a man who devoted much of his life to tasting as many different animal species as he could find. Dr William Buckland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Buckland (1784-1856), Dean of Westminster and a professor at Oxford University (UK) tried to eat specimens of every living thing.

He was a frequent visitor to London Zoo, as he lived nearby. When an exotic animal died, he took the opportunity to taste its flesh. On one occasion, a leopard died and was buried while he was away on holiday. Returning to London, he dug it up, to taste leopard steak in the name of science.

The dean pronounced moles and bluebottles (flies) to have the worst flavors.

He taught his son, Francis Trevelyan
Buckland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Trevelyan_Buckland (1826-1880) to enjoy the flesh of exotic animals by participating in banquets of ostrich, crocodile, hedgehog and mice on toast.

Frank inherited his father's interests. While studying at Oxford, he complained of the “horribly bitter” taste of earwigs. Frank became a popular scientific author and lecturer.

END

Where the hell is Hell Gate Bridge?

2009-04-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address: http://tinyurl.com/czt9o9

Its design inspired engineers around the world

Where in the world is this bridge?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Hell_Gate_Bridge_by_Dave_Frieder.jpg
If you answer "Sydney, Australia" you're wrong. If you guess "Newcastle, UK"
or "Auckland, New Zealand" you're still wrong. But if you say "New York
City" you've hit the jackpot. It's the Hell Gate Bridge, a 1,017-foot (310
m) steel arch carrying railroad traffic across part of the East River called
Hell Gate.

Its revoltionary design caused a stir when it opened officially on September
30, 1916. Doomsayers at the time predicted it would collapse, but it's still
in business, and will probably remain so for centuries. It inspired the
construction of similar bridges around the world.
http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=steel+arch+bridge&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=

The Hall Gate Bridge was designed by Gustav Lindenthal (1850-1935), a
brilliant self-taught civil engineer. Born in Brno in what is now the Czech
Republic, he had first worked as a mason and carpenter. At 18, he moved to
Vienna, and found a job in the engineering department of a railroad company.

He never attended university, but taught himelf mathematics, engineering
theory, metallurgy, hydraulics, estimating, management, "and everything else
that a successful bridge engineer needed to know," quoting Henry Petroski's
book, "Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of
America."

Lindenthal emigrated to the US in 1874. At first, he worked as a journeyman
stonemason for the memorial granite building of the Centennial International
Exhibition in Philadelphia, and later was employed by the Keystone Bridge
Co. on numerous projects before being recognized as a gifted bridge
engineer.

It's thought his early memories of a famous bridge in Cologne (Koln),
Germany, http://www.planetware.com/picture/cologne-d-d229.htm inspired
his design for the Hell Gate Bridge.

Eminent bridge designers from other countries visited Lindenthal and
marvelled at his radical ideas. One of them was Australia's Dr. JJC
Bradfield, lead engineer in the New South Wales Department of Works. When
he returned home to Sydney from a six-month world tour in 1922,, he changed
the design for a Harbor bridge from an ugly cantilever to a graceful single-
arched steel structure.

Sydney Harbor Bridge (aka The Coathanger), opened in 1932, is the world's
largest but not longest steel arch bridge. Its total length, including
approach spans, is 1149 metres and its arch span 503 metres. Its top is 134
metres high.
People had talked about building a bridge from the northern to the southern
shore of the harbor since 1815, when the then colony's Government Architect,
Francis Greenway. thought of one being needed one day.
Various designs were considered and discarded for more than a century. Then
in 1922 a general design was prepared by Bradfield and officers of the NSW
Department of Public Works. The Government called for worldwide tenders to
build the bridge. The contract was let to Dorman Long and Co of
Middlesbrough, UK.
Construction began in 1924, took eight years. and employed 1,400 men. Six
million hand driven rivets and 53,000 tonnes of steel were used. The bridge
now carries eight traffic lanes and two railroad tracks.
The Bridge was officially opened on March 19, 1932. Before Premier JT Lang
could cut the ribbon, Captain Francis de Groot , a member of a right-wing
political group called The New Guard, rode up on his horse and slashed the
ribbon with his sword. He thought the Bridge should be opened by a member
or representative of the Royal Family.
Police arrested him, and the Premier cut the hastily repaired ribbon with a
pair of gold scissors.
The Tyne Bridge in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England is a smaller version of the
Sydney Harbor Bridge, with a length of 397 metres and the main span 161
metres.
"There is much controversy surrounding the two bridges, and which one may
have been a model for the other," says an Australian Government website.
http //www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/harbourbridge/
"Although the Tyne Bridge was opened in 1928 - four years before the Harbour
Bridge was opened - the tender was submitted and contract signed for the
Sydney Harbour Bridge in March 1924. The designs for the Harbour Bridge were
put forward by Dr. J C Bradfield before this date. The tender for the Tyne
Bridge was accepted and contract signed later that year in December 1924."
Three final points:
Actor/comedian Paul Hogan was once a rigger on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
A few weeks ago, the luxury liner Queen Mary II, the largest ship to visit
Sydney, was too tall to go under the Harbour Bridge and too long to dock at
the International Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay.
The world's longest steel arch is the Lupu Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupu_Bridge 550m. (1804ft.) in Shanghai,
China, according to a list of longest spans published by Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_arch_bridges

END

Public Pianos Strike Right Note

2009-03-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address: http://tinyurl.com/cexwr9

Novel scheme delights young and old

Toque-me, Sou teu say signs stuck on free-to-use public pianos in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Play Me, I’m Yours, say similar signs in Birmingham, UK and Sydney, Australia.

Dozens of pianos placd in public areas in those cities tempt passers-by of all ages to sit down and play their favorite pieces, for the benefit of anyone who stops to listen. Delighted audiences soon gather, often dancing to the music, or chanting the songs.

Public pianos were the brilliant idea of Luke Jerram, a British inventor, installation artist and science communicator. He designs and builds science exhibits whilst creating multimedia installation artworks in his home country and overseas.

In March 2008, 15 pianos which had been professionally tuned were installed, unguarded, in Birmingham, Britain's second city.

"There is one in the Rag Market, and one outside Cadbury World," Maev Kennedy reported in The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/mar/14/art "There is another at Colmore junior school, where a teacher was persuaded into an impromptu recital dressed in white gown with veil fluttering in the icy wind. She had been on her way to her wedding."
Six months later, Jerram installed 13 pianos in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The music-loving South Americans responded enthusiastically.

"At £1,000 each (a year's wage for some people) many people had never seen a real piano before, let alone been given permission to play one," Jerram said later. "The project made national news there"

Two clips from Sao Paulo TV: http://www.pianosderua.com.br/index.php/materias-na-tv/ (speech in Portuguese).

Jerram invited online Sao Paulinos to tell him what they thought of the pianos and to post messages and videos on his website One commenter, Auro Augusto, wrote that he had heard a piano being played on a Sunday morning at the Lux station ... Bach, Tchaikovsky. Then (as translated by Google)

The most incredible, something that would never think that, (never seen in my 10 years of musical studies) a beggar (tattered and dirty, exhaled a smell that instigated people to come out of that person close) sat at the piano and incredibly started playing the first notes of the Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven) ..

In January 2009, Jerram visited Australia for the Sydney Festival. He arranged for 30 pianos to be bought, tuned, and installed in parks, public squares, on Harbor ferries and even in a tattoo parlor, for anyone to play.

The novel idea drew raptures from the press, radio and TV, and proved to be one of the most popular features of the festival. Thousands of pianists - ranging from accomplished musicians to complete mugs - happily tickled (or thumped) the ivory (or plastic) keys.

"Whether it's Chopsticks or Chopin, chances are you'll hear it on the streets of Sydney this summer", said Rebecca Baillie in an ABC-TV 7.30 Report. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2472506.htm

A youthful-looking Jerram told her, "I'm hoping these pianos will act as a catalyst to get people talking to one another, to kind of connect people."

Sydneysiders' comments, videos and photos are posted on this website www.streetpianos.com.au

Jerram is so enthusiastic about the project that he has set up a special fund so that public pianos can be installed in "less wealthy" cities, including San Paulo.

He sees public pianos as an important way to promote community harmony. "The pianos act as sculptural, musical, blank canvases that become a reflection of the communities they are embedded into," he says. "Who will play them and how long they remain is up to each community.

"Questioning the rules and ownership of public space, 'Play Me I'm yours' is a provocation, inviting the public to engage with, activate and take ownership of their urban environment."

Jerram lives in Bristol, UK with his partner Shelina Nanji and children Maya and Nico.

He has been described as "a colour blind installation artist, who fuses his artistic sculptural practice with his scientific and perceptual studies." He has an impressive academic career fully described in his biography. http://lukejerram.com/showpage.php?page=biography/gtwp_section_leader.htm

Back in 2005, an article by Lewis Smith in The Times (London) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article554336.ece was headed "With this talking ring, inventor wins his girl." It reported:

Luke Jerram wanted to avoid a traditional proposal, so spent three months developing a ring that would play: "I love you for ever. Marry me."

Once it was ready, complete with a miniature record player, he took Shelina Nanji up in a hot air balloon and, while the pilot discreetly looked away, asked for her hand. She is now his fiancee.

It seems that Luke Jerram is both a gifted and a gift-giving performance artist.

END

Grandma's Marriage Shocked the Folks

2009-03-21T03:00:00.000-07:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address: http://tinyurl.com/c4t4mv

I was in awe of my grandmother, Becky, a white woman from Paddington in London who had, sometime in 1901-1902 while on holiday in Kingston, fallen in love and against all social convention of the time married a black Jamaican.

So writes Marie Campbell, in an intriguing account of her own journey almost a century later, in the footsteps of her adventurous grandmother. Marie traveled from London, England, to Jamaica, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica to meet cousins and other relatives, who helped her discover her origin.

"I discovered a story of cruelty, revenge and jealousy inflicted on an innocent young woman and how she demonstrated huge moral courage, dignity, resilience and, in particular, love," says Marie.

Her first discovery was about her mother, who in England was known as Carmen Browne . Her real name was Olga Browney, born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. She was one of 11 children from a close-knit, colored Catholic family. A kind, naïve and gentle girl, her mother had arrived in London in April 1939 and lived with "a malevolent, alcoholic aunt," intending to stay for only six months. However, the outbreak of World War II, personal tragedy and malicious intent had prevented her from returning home to Kingston.

"I learnt what a remarkable woman my mother was," Marie wrote. "Because of circumstances, she made a choice which resulted in her losing contact with her beloved family in Jamaica until nearly half a century later when her past caught up with her.

"When I visited my family in Jamaica in 1996 only six of Mum’s siblings were still alive: Boysie, Birdie, Pearl, Chickie (christened Kathleen), Ruby and Dolly. Boysie was living in Canada and I never got to meet him, although Mum spoke to him on the phone.

"It was wonderful to finally meet some of Mum’s family - my extended family, the family that as a child I’d always longed for but which, in the main, Mum didn’t like to talk about. She’d say, 'it makes me sad'. But ironically, when she was sad, that was when she’d open up a bit and I gleaned little bits of information about her family. I knew that as small children Mum, Ruby and Dolly had been very close and it was interesting, as well as being a bit unnerving, to see just how much Ruby and Dolly looked like Mum."

Two years ago, Marie migrated from England to join her son in Sydney, Australia. She has published her story as a book, http://www.lulu.com/mariecampbell which she is now posting, chapter by chapter, in the splendidly entertaining British daily online literary journal Open Writing http://www.openwriting.com/archives/olgas_daughter/ In addition, she maintains a lively blog www.olgasdaughter.wordpress.com

Marie greatly admires her adventurous grandmother's flouting of the color bar. She says:

It wasn’t just white and coloured Jamaicans who would have shown and demonstrated contempt for Becky, but the blacks as well. A white woman marrying a black man was unheard of at that time – in fact there was a time when it was illegal!

I think that’s one of the things I found most surprising during my research about my family; how, even after Emancipation, Jamaica had continued to practice Great Britain’s colour and social prejudices – whites looking down on coloureds, coloureds looking down on blacks, and black accepting they were the lowest class in Jamaican society. My grandmother’s social standing would have been on a par with the blacks or maybe even lower, if that’s possible.

I wish I had known her. I thought how brave she was and what courage she had. Saying goodbye on the dockside at Avonmouth before she boarded the S.S. Port Morant, expecting only to be away from England for a few weeks, was to be the last time she saw or spoke to her parents. My grandmother never returned to England but she did keep the telegram her father sent her when he heard about her plans to marry Henry Brown from my Great Aunt Martha:

Telegram from Samuel Ross, Droop Street, London, to

Becky Ross c/o "Mon Repos", St Andrews, Jamaica

MARTHA HAS TOLD US OF YOUR PLANS TO MARRY. PLEASE RECONSIDER. CANNOT AGREE WITH THIS MARRIAGE. IF YOU PROCEED YOU WILL CEASE TO BE OUR DAUGHTER AND DO NOT WISH TO SEE YOU OR SPEAK TO EVER AGAIN. WE BEG YOU TO RECONSIDER.

Stand by for a Hollywood blockbuster based on Marie's book!

END

Chanel (20) is NOT the World's Oldest Pooch

2009-03-07T00:55:00.000-08:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address:
http://tinyurl.com/cpvx7n

Australian cattle dog Bluey lived 29 years 5 months and 7 days!

The 100th birthday of Bluey, a famous Australian cattle dog born on Jun 7, 1910, will be celebrated next year by people living in Rochester, a country town 130 miles (209km) north of Melbourne, Victoria, not far from last month's disastrous bushfires.

Bluey worked among sheep and cattle for 20 years, and survived until November 14, 1939, when he was put down. He had lived for 29 years, five months and seven days, on a diet of kangaroos and emus. He was the world's oldest dog, a record that has never been beaten.

John Harley, top dog of the Rochester Historical and Pioneer Society, told OhmyNews "We know about Bluey, in fact the daughter of the man who owned it is still with us and a regular attender of the Anglican church. No doubt there will be some sort of celebration for the oldest dog's centenary."

He said that William Hall, of Rochester, was Bluey's first owner. When William Hall died, his son Les looked after the dog. On the other hand, Wikipedia says Bluey's owner was named Esma Hall, who lived to be 103. It's not known whether she too ate kangaroo and emu meat.

While Rochester prepares for Bluey's centenary, a 20-year-old wire-haired dachshund called Chanel, living in Port Jefferson Station, a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York, has mistakenly been hailed as the world's oldest living dog. She has set the canine world barking mad... and, despite the error, is rapidly becoming a world-famous bitch.

Incidentally,when Marilyn Monroe was asked what she wore in bed, she famously replied, "Why, Chanel No. 5, of course."

Two British national newspapers, The Daily Telegraph and The Sun, and America's
NBC radio and TV network fell for the story, but their readers, listeners and viewers promptly named many other dogs who are (or were) older than Chanel.

"This dog's age is no big deal," JT Cro growled on The Sun website. "My grandparents had a dog before they passed away, 33 years old in human years and in remarkably good health. I am certain he could of gone another 10 maybe 15 years before he would of died, however he was put down once my grandparents died. They loved their dogs very much, most of the dogs they had lasted 25-30 years."

Chanel's bid for fame began on Dec 17, 2008, with a story in her local newspaper, the Times Beacon Record, http://www.northshoreoflongisland.com/Articles-i-2008-12-18-77396.112114_Is_this_dachshund_the_oldest_dog_in_the_world.html published on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. "Is this dachshund the oldest dog in the world?" Lee Lutz asked, adding:

Chanel, a blond, wire-haired dachshund who calls Port Jefferson Station home, is famous — or soon will be if her owners' expectation becomes reality in 2009. The Shaughnessy family has been told by the publisher of "Guinness World Records" that Chanel will be listed in next year's edition as the oldest known dog in the world.

Born on May 8, 1988, Chanel is over 20 years old and going strong, according to Denice Shaughnessy, a retired Army veteran who now works in the principal's office of the Rocky Point Middle School.

"She's pretty healthy," said Shaughnessy, "cataracts, a little, but OK." The Shaughnessys adopted Chanel in Virginia at 6 weeks old, and the German-breed dachshund spent almost six years in the country of its origin when the family was stationed in Europe in the early 1990s.

Slow forward to February 23, when Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid giant The Sun (circulation 3 million+) published a sensational story under screaming headlines: Oldest dog is Chanel No 20: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2264244.ece

The Daily Telegraph published the story with a more restrained headline: World's oldest dog needs jumper and goggles. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4785996/Worlds-oldest-dog-needs-jumper-and-goggles.html

Next day, Chanel skipped back to America, where media outlets gleefully seized on the London furphy [false report], without checking the facts. "World's oldest dog is 20, needs glasses," http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/weird/Worlds-Oldest-Dog-is-20-Needs-Glasses.html NBC outlets reported in California, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere..

The story prompted The Daily Doxie ("your source for free daily dachshund photos, past dachshund pictures, dachshund resources, and more") to publish this article:

Breaking: The strange story of the Dachshund who would be the world's oldest dog
Last time this story was in the headlines the competition noted that there appeared to be something fishy going on. First of all, in the past, the holders of the world's oldest dog title have all been in their late twenties. What's more, there are plenty of comments here at the Daily Doxie from people who have 18- and 19- year-old wiener dogs, so they don't appear that unusual.

Is it really possible, then, that there are no dogs between the ages of 20 and 29 who could claim the crown? And how come there's no official announcement from Guinness World Records?

Guinness requires a dog's age to be documented, which bars many animals older than Chanel from the record book. At 20, Chanel is only as old as a 93-year-old human. Forget that old wive's tale of a dog's age beine one seventh of a human's. It's not always true. See How old is your dog? http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/age.htm

In recent years, dozens of venerable pooches have been nominated for the proud title of The World's Oldest Dog. Here are just a few:

Bramble, in Bridgewater, Somerset, http://www.ourdogs.co.uk/News/2002/October2002/News111002/ripeold.htm celebrated her 27th birthday in 2002, making her Britain's oldest living dog and a contender for the oldest dog in the world. Her owner, Anne Heritage, 43, is a vegan and has brought up her pet on the same diet regime she herself follows. "She has a big bowl of rice, lentils and organic vegetables every evening," says Ms. Heritage.

Jerry. A 26-year-old mongrel living with an Aboriginal family in Australia's Outback has the potential to become the world's oldest living dog, a newspaper reported Sunday. Jerry, an Australian cattle dog-bull terrier cross, will next month turn 27 - the equivalent of 189 years for a human - said Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals veterinarian Honey Nelson...

Jerry's owner, Waddie Harris - an Aboriginal tribal leader in New South Wales state's Wilcannia town, put Jerry's longevity down to his high-protein diet of Outback wildlife. "Jerry has grown up on kangaroo, rabbit and emu as well as scraps off the table," the newspaper quoted Harris as saying. - Associated Press, Jul 11, 2004 http://www.australianfauna.com/news/outbackmongrel.php

Jip celebrated his 25th birthday -- his age in human terms is 175 --last Thursday and incredulous owners Marilyn and John Regan, of West Lane, think he could be the world's oldest living dog.

Mrs Regan, 64, said: "He's already outlived two of our other dogs and a cat. He's going to outlive us all at this rate." ...The Regans acquired Jip through Airedale Vets after his owner abandoned him at the age of six. In his younger days he was treated to leisurely walks around the Clough, but now he much prefers to be ferried around like his royal counterparts at Buckingham Palace. Mrs Regan said: "He loves riding around in the car with John. Whenever he grabs the keys you can see his ears prick up." - Bradford (UK) Telegraph and Argus http://archive.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/2005/9/23/180804.html Sep 23, 2005.

Titch. The tiny terrier has already clocked up 19 years and turns 20 in September, making him a whopping 140 years old if he was human. - Coventry (UK) Telegraph, Feb.26, 2009.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2009/02/26/is-titch-the-oldest-dog-in-town-92746-23016416

Derek the Mongrel, at the age of 19, the equivalent of 133 in dog years - is still going strong, according to a report ... The dog is the much-loved pet of Jill Molnar, from Scunthorpe, who adopted him after he kept chasing her daughter's young sons. While he could be the oldest dog in the area, a Papillon named Fred made it to 29... - Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, (UK), April 16, 2008.

Tip, the 29-year-old collie is the world's oldest dog, claims Ann Elliott, of Canterbury, who found him as a pup on a rubbish dump. - London Daily Mirror, Jan 17, 2004.

Bella. A dog believed to be the oldest in the world has died, aged 29 years. Bella, a Labrador cross, was bought by David Richardson from the RSPCA, 26 years ago when she was three years old. She had lived with Mr Richardson, 76, and his partner Daisy, 81, since 1982 in Clay Cross, Derbyshire. But she was put down on Saturday following a heart attack while on holiday with the couple. - London Daily Telegraph, Sep 8, 2008.

Skye, our border collie, will be 20 years old on March 1. Do you think she could be the oldest dog in Scotland? James Logan, Prestonpans, East Lothian. - Daily Record (Glasgow), Feb 1, 2007.

Cindy. Britain's oldest dog is a 24-year-old Jack Russell called Cindy. The secret to its long life is tea and walking eight miles a day. - Daily Mirror (London); July 26, 2002

Butch. 'His name is Butch. He's a beagle. His title is etched in official Guinness World Records certification and he earned it by living for 27 years...189 in human years... His eyes, however, are bright and his tail still wags. He still begs for petting, and as with all beagles, food is a major holiday to celebrate often. On regular occasions he lets loose and does a bit of running about the house...' -Charlottesville, Virginia Daily Progress, Nov 4, 2002. [Butch died in 2003, aged 28].

Beagle. I have a Beagle and he is 17 years old now. I kiss him many times every day and tell him "Mommy loves you. Stay with Mommy, Okay?". He gets fresh carrots for snack for many years. My husband told me that is why he still hears good and sees good. - Lilianne, in a Buzzle.com http://www.buzzle.com/comments/56493-1.html forum message.

FOOTNOTE Then there's Hercules, said to be the world's heaaviest dog. "The Hercules English Mastiff is a real dog, but most of the images you see of him are not," says Kelly Roper. But that's another story. http://dogs.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Hercules_English_Mastiff

END

Former Pin-up Girl Now 102, World's Oldest Columnist

2009-02-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address: http://tinyurl.com/ak2re3

"I have packed more into my lifetime than most."

Margaret Caldwell, 1940s pin-up girl and friend of famous film stars, now 102 years old, is the world's oldest newspaper columnist. She lives in Nevada, but never visits Vegas.

"I think the slogan 'What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas' is totally wrong," she told OhmyNews. "It denotes the wrong kind of reputation for Las Vegas. What happens in Las Vegas should be in the public domain as far as I am concerned."

Margaret writes a weekly column for the Desert Valley Times in Mesquite, Nevada, owned by Gannett Co., Inc. which publishes 85 daily newspapers, including the national newspaper USA TODAY (circulation 2,284,219), and nearly 900 non-daily publications.

David Bly, http://davidbly.net/aboutme.php editor and general manager of the Desert Valley Times, says "I interviewed Margaret as a centenarian, and was so taken with her wit and sharpness I asked her to write a weekly column, which she has been doing faithfully ever since under the title, 'Memoirs of a Crone,' which was her choice of titles.

"She simply writes about her life, and our readers are very fond of her... She still has a way with words."

OhmyNews interviewed Margaret by email. Here are the Q and A:

Q. When and where was your first writing published?

A. My first writing was published in 1980 by Warner Books, a novel called "Born To The Sun". I have written another book which is a sequal called "I Married A Genius", which I am presently attempting to sell.

Q. Which newspapers or magazines have published your work?

A. I wrote for the Chicago Tribune during World War II as Administrator for Women's Actuvities Civil Defense and now here in Mesquite for the Desert Valley Times.

Q. How many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren do you have, and where do they live?

A. I only have one child, a daughter, who lives with me here in Mesquite. [Her 76-year-old daughter, Patrisha, posts Margaret's columns for her.]

Q. When and why did you move to Nevada?

A. I moved to Nevada to be with my daughter and son-in-law, now deceased, in 1997. They lived in Las Vegas and I lived with them for several years.

Q. Do you ever visit Las Vegas and play the slots? Have you written about gambling?

A. I do not visit Las Vegas. I don't care for gambling and am not a gambler. However, if I do want to throw away some money, there are three casinos in Mesquite where I can go. I do, sometimes, like to go to the casino for a buffet, but that is all.

Q. Do you agree with the slogan "What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas"?

A. I think the slogan is totally wrong. It denotes the wrong kind of reputation for Las Vegas. What happens in Las Vegas should be in the public domain as far as I am concerned.

Q. What are your favorite subjects in your columns?

A. The only things I write about in my columns are my life experiences and my thoughts on what is going on right now. I have had a long life and met a lot of people, famous or not, and have had a lot of experiences.

Q. Do you receive much feeedback?

A. I have received some postcards and letters but not many. However, my daughter and I are constantly getting verbal feedback from people in this town whenever we go out.

One of those people is Barb King,
http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=1804&id=6&mode=archive
who praised Margaret's and daughter Patrisha's performances in a New Year's Eve stage show a few weeks ago.

"In this play she [Margaret] was Miss Patience, and what a wonderful job she did re-creating a sweet, prim and proper school marm who had once been engaged to the sheriff.," Barb wrote. "Margaret continues to amaze everyone who meets her, with her wonderful humor and fabulous abilities with story-telling."

Margaret's columns cover a wide variety of subjects, ranging from My First Kiss
to her latest column, Hard times again — when will we ever learn? http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990212025

She wrote My First Kiss last year, when she was only 101.. Here's a copy:

When I was young, about nine years old, there was a preacher who came to our country schoolhouse to preach.
Mama, who was very religious, always went to hear him and took me along. He almost always brought his granddaughter who was my age. On one occasion Mama gave me permission to return with them to Ackley, a small town about 15 miles away.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when we were served dinner by the wife. The preacher got a serving of a very savory roast, the rest of us half of a boiled potato, no butter, just salt, and no dessert, while he had apple pie.

I was hungry when I went to bed with his granddaughter and hungrier after being served a small bowl of gummy oatmeal for breakfast. It was at that time I began to make decisions. I took my paper bag of possessions and, after telling the minister’s wife where I was going, I left.

I went to Grandma Johnson, who was raising my dead sister’s little boy, my nephew Lyle, who is, at this time, 80 some years old and living in Yuma, Arizona. Grandma Johnson opened her arms. The rest of the week was pure joy. We went to a dance at the little town hall. Grandpa took me to the dance and then said, “You know the way home. See you later,” and left.

One of the neighbors had a boy of about 11 who danced with me and later walked me back to Grandma Johnson’s house. He was so polite. He opened the gate in the back yard fence and walked me up to the house.

I was thrilled and tongue-tied. We stood at the door staring at each other, when he suddenly grabbed and kissed me, turned and ran like the hounds of hell were after him.

I forgot to worry about getting back home; the preacher would have to take me. Gee whiz, he really kissed me! What was his name again? I couldn’t remember. The kiss on my cheek still tingled.

You can see five photos of Margaret at different stages of life posted on MySpace http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=237656927&albumId=271577

And here's an edited copy of this remarkable woman's autobiography:

I was born on February 1, 1907, in the backwoods of Minnesota on a homestead, 25 miles from Backus, which now has a population of 2,500 people, the year before Henry Ford came out with his first Model T Ford.

I have seen the history of the 20th Century; watched the boys leave for war -- World War I, that is, as well as World War II, The Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Desert Storm and Iraq. I remember the 1918-1919 flu epidemic.

Any 100 year old has done a lot of living. I think I have packed more into my lifetime than most.
I have:

o lived all over the country, from California to New York City to Richmond, Virginia,

o seen the first rocket go off at White Sands, New Mexico,

o visited Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, among other places,

o counted movie stars such as Lillian Roth, Marie Dressler, Peggy Ann Garner, Elizabeth Taylor and Wallace Beery as friends,

o started the Virginia Cerebral Palsy Association and spoken at the Virginia Health Conference on Crippled Children,

o worked as Authorization Manager for Lord and Taylor in New York City,

o made a commercial for McDonald's,

o met Grant Woods, Albert Einstein, Bill Pachner, Gustav Rehberger, Leonard Goldenson, founder of ABC, among others,

o published a successful novel and written another for the Eldred (my maiden name) family.

I am presently completing another novel about a marriage made in heaven or hell, as the case may be.

Presently I write a weekly column for a local newspaper, based on my insights and understandings of the past and present.

I'm currently putting together my own website called MemoirsOfACentenarianCrone.com

I welcome anyone who wishes to e-mail me and will answer as many as possible.

Margaret Caldwell's email address is thelivelyartsATyahoo.com (replace AT with @ and put "Margaret" in the subject line).

Feb 12: A Date to Remember

2009-02-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

Charles Darwin's and Abe Lincoln's 200th Birthday

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address: http://tinyurl.com/bsszkb

The 200th birthday of two great thinkers, English naturalist Charles Darwin http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/darwin.html and U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln/ both of whom have inspired millions, will be celebrated worldwide on February 12.

The two men, born in different countries on the same day, never met, and probably never heard of one another. Yet, thanks to modern communication, more people read about them now than in their entire lifetimes.

Two other famous men, French inventor Louis Braille http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/Braille.htm and German composer Felix Mendelssohn, http://www.felixmendelssohn.com/ were also born in 1809.

Under the heading Who Was More Important: Lincoln or Darwin? in Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/id/143742 seven months ago, Malcolm Jones wrote:
It is a measure of their accomplishments, of how much they changed the world, that the era into which Lincoln and Darwin was born seems so strange to us now. On their birth date, Thomas Jefferson had three weeks left in his second term as president. George III still sat on the throne of England. The Enlightenment was giving way to Romanticism.

At the center of what people then believed, the tent poles of their reality were that God created the world and that man was the crown of creation... the institution of slavery was still acceptable on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line—it would not be abolished in New York state, for example, until 1827, and while it had been illegal in England since 1772, it would not be abolished in English colonies until 1833.
A new book on Charles Darwin, Darwin's Sacred Cause says a passionate hatred of slavery was fundamental to his theory of evolution, which challenged the assumption held by many at the time that blacks and whites were separate species.

Hundreds of plans to celebrate Darwin's birthday in countries ranging alphabetically from Australia to Yugoslavia are listed on a Darwin Day website http://www.darwinday.org/events/listing.php
And the Lincoln Bicentenary Commission in Illinois displays a long list of coast-to-coast US events planned for this month. http://www.abrahamlincoln200.org/calendar/default.aspx

Louis Braille, son of a French saddlemaker, was blinded in an accident at the age of three. He later developed the system of raised dots that enables the blind and visually impaired to read and write, which bears his name.

"Over the centuries Braille has had an enormous effect on the lives of millions of people across 120 countries worldwide," says Britain's National Braille Week http://www.nationalbrailleweek.org/ website.

" It is not a language but a code by which all languages may be written and read. The ability to read and write in Braille opens the door to literacy, intellectual freedom, equal opportunity, and personal security. It is an extremely important gateway to opportunity for the UK's blind or partially sighted people, enabling them to be more independent."

German composer Felix Mendelssohn was famous in Europe, and visited the UK many times. Now his works are enjoyed by music lovers everywhere. "We must rejoice in celebrating the bicentenary of one of the great geniuses of the art" Akrita Reyar wrote recently in India's SpiceZee. http://www.spicezee.com/articles/story22349.htm

"A child prodigy, he revived works of some of the old greats while setting new benchmarks for musicians, whereas for us, ordinary music lovers, he left behind a treasure trove of compositions. Alas, he died young; he was only 38 (Feb1809-Nov 1847). But brilliance is never measured by age, for it is the legacy that a man leaves behind that counts for all times to cherish."

On Jan 23 Martin Steinberg wrote in an AP story, "The world is getting a musical present for Felix Mendelssohn's 200th birthday — the first performances of 13 long-lost works of the German composer.

"The compositions were among 270 Mendelssohn pieces hidden in libraries or in private collections around the world, according to Stephen Somary, a conductor and musical sleuth who spent more than a decade hunting the composer's forgotten works.

"The 13 compositions — for voice, string quartet, piano and violin — are being performed at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage."

It's obvious that 1809 was truly a vintage year for people who have left their footprints in the sands of time. http://members.cox.net/stegcraj/time.html

END

Rabbie Burns: A Woman's Man For A' That

2009-01-20T22:39:00.000-08:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address:
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Thousands of folk with Scottish blood in their veins are planning to attend "Burns dinners"around the world on January 25, to mark poet Rabbie Burns' 250th birthday. US president Barack Obama, who is said to have Scottish ancestry, has been invited to attend a "glitzy" Burns dinner in Washington. http://news.scotsman.com/robertburns/Salmond-uses-Burns-in-Obama.4887809.jp

People attending those dinners, at which haggis and Scotch whisky are served, will be honoring one of the world's finest poets, who is often called Scotland's favorite son. But he has also been labelled "a racist, sexist drunk?"

There's no doubt Burns lived an immoral life, judged by today's standards. But life was vastly different in 18th-century Scotland.

"Robert Burns had a total of twelve children by four women, including nine by his wife," says Toronto, Canada descendant and genealogist John Burness http://www.burness.ca/ld2.htm (The poet sometimes spelled his name that way). He says:

Seven of his children were illegitimate, including the first four by Jean Armour before they were married in 1788, although under Scottish law they were considered legitimate after their parents' marriage. Of Jean's children, six died young and another.. had no children.

All living descendants of Robert Burns and Jean Armour descend from either their grandaughter, Sarah Elizabeth Maitland Tombs Burns (1821-1909), daughter of their fourth son James Glencairn Burns (1794-1865), or their grand-daughter Anne Elizabeth Burns (c1820-1889), illegitimate daughter of their eldest son Robert Burns (1786-1857).
Most of Robert Burns descendants today are from his two illegitimate daughters:
1. Elizabeth "Bess" Burns (1785-1816), daughter of Elizabeth "Betsey" Paton, who married John Bishop in 1807.
2. Elizabeth "Betty" Burns (1791-1873), daughter of Ann Park, who married John Thomson in 1808.

Robert Burns also had an illegitimate son, Robert Burns by Janet "Jennie" Clow. He was born in Edinburgh in 1788 and later became a merchant in London...

The Edinburgh newspaper The Scotsman
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Robert--Burns-A-racist.4842303.jp
this week quoted historian Michael Fry as having said, , "Burns was a drunk, misogynistic, racist philanderer. Perhaps he was not untypical of Scots, but we have to wonder whether this is the right image for the modern Scotland. By all means, let us celebrate the poetry according to its merits. But, in the same critical spirit, let us deal honestly with the man who wrote that poetry."

More than 200 readers commented on that article. Shamus from Glasgow, wrote:
Rabbie Burns was a Great SCOTSMAN. Hunners of thoosands turned oot when he died. NEVER A WORD OF VIOLENCE FROM HIM. OK HE LIKED THE WUMMIN BUT WHO DISNAE. Well he never condemned anybuddie that didnae fancy wummin...

Britain Express http://www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/burns.htm has posted an interesting biography. "Burns spread his affections freely," it says.

Special sets of stamps and coins have been issued in Britain to mark the 250th anniversary. Burns is the first person apart from members of the Royal Family to have been celebrated with three collections of stamps. Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill scored two special editions; William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens only one each.

END

Tough Times in The Floating Brothel

2009-01-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address:
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=384621&rel_no=1

Mary Wade was only 11 years old, but on January 14, 1789 an English judge sentenced her to death for assaulting an eight-year-old girl and stealing her clothes, which she pawned for 18 pence . Two months later the sentence was commuted to seven years' jail and transportation to Britain's new colony of New South Wales, in far-off Australia.

The First Fleet http://home.vicnet.net.au/~firstff/story.htm of six transport ships and three store ships, carrying about 1530 people - officials, families, soldiers, marines and male convicts - had left England on May 13, 1787. Of these, about 1483 had safely reached Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788.

The settlers were already facing disaster. They were short of food, knew little about farming, and nearly all the men lacked female companions.

So the British government took prompt action, sending a Second Fleet http://members.pcug.org.au/~pdownes/dps/2ndflt.htm with urgently needed supplies.

"About 225 female thieves, prostitutes and con artists were rounded up from prisons in London and the British countryside to the failing Sydney Cove colony aboard the Lady Juliana," wrote one historian. "The females were to serve two purposes - to prevent the starving and isolated male colonists from engaging in 'gross irregularities', and to act as a breeding stock for the troubled settlement."

The Lady Juliana's action-packed 10-month voyage from Plymouth to Sydney has been recorded in a lively novel by a British author, Sian Rees. Her book,
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/courtesans-voyage/sian-rees

published in 2001, is titled The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story Of An Eighteenth-Century Ship And Its Cargo Of Female Convicts.

“It just caught my imagination,” Rees said in an interview. “The idea of this enclosed world of 230 women and a few chaps bouncing around across the ocean for a year."

The Lady Juliana's steward John Nicol's memoirs, The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner, first published in 1822 and recently reprinted in Australia, recalled the ship's journey:

Nicol describes life onboard the ship and the ways in which the women were pressured to use sex to improve their situation and status. He details the difficult conditions the women were forced to endure during the long journey and the extreme seasickness that overtook the female passengers as they left England's shores.

But Nicol also notes that some luxuries were afforded to the women, even if they were primarily little more than efforts to safeguard the ship's human cargo. The women were provided with clothes, the services of a doctor, and guaranteed food and drink.

Nicol also writes of how many sailors and officers took a "wife" on the journey and records the birth of seven babies aboard the Lady Juliana, including one to him and his own "wife," Sarah Whitelam.

A story about the Lady Juliana on a PBS website http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/courtesans-voyage/the-lady-juliana-and-the-new-world says:

Some women, like Elizabeth Barnsley — a wealthy and successful shoplifter convicted of theft — used their money and influence to procure better lodging and even to create business opportunities on the ship. Prostitution was not unusual in Georgian England or within the shipping industry, and the Lady Juliana soon became something of a “floating brothel.” Crew members and, possibly, some of the ship’s female cargo profited from the sex trade in various ports of call, and money earned from prostitution could in turn be used to gain influence on the ship or upon arrival at Sydney Cove.
After ten months at sea, the Lady Juliana arrived at the desperate, starving Sydney Cove colony. They did not receive a warm reception. The colonists had expected food and supplies — not a cargo of over 200 women and as many as seven newborn infants — and they made their disappointment clear to the women of the Lady Juliana. However, the colonists’ ire eased after the supply ships Justinian, Surprize, Neptune, and Scarborough arrived in Sydney Cove just three weeks after the Lady Juliana.

For their part, many of the women convicts experienced a newfound sense of freedom at Sydney Cove. Freed from the strictures of traditional society and class, these women saw their new home as a chance to create a new life for themselves — a life filled with unprecedented opportunities.

Mary Wade spent the rest of her life Down Under, first in the brutal penal colony of Norfolk Island, and later on the NSW South Coast. According to a well researched biography http://www.perryfamilyhistory.net/wade/biography.shtml she had two children on Norfolk Island - Sarah in 1793 (when Mary was 15) and William in 1795 (believed to be Jonathan Brooker's son).

When they came back to Australia, Mary lived with Teague Harrigan and they had a son, Edward, in their tent on the banks of the Tank Stream in Sydney in 1803. Teague left to go on a whaling expedition in 1806 and never returned.
Mary later lived with Jonathan Brooker, having more children. They were given their Certificates of Emancipation in 1811 and 1812 and eventually settled in Airds with their family. Life on the land was difficult and their property and crops were lost in 1823 in a bushfire.

The family became destitute and pleaded to Governor Brisbane for aid. They eventually resettled in the Corrimal area of Illawarra. Jonathan died in 1833. Mary lived in the Illawarra area for another 26 years.

When she died at 87, at the home of one of her sons, the Illawarra Mercury reported that she had one of the largest families in the world. Her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren numbered more than 300. Today her descendants number many thousands, and include Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/with-family-like-this-some-rudds-going-to-stick/2008/01/19/1200620280779.htmlMany present-day Australians first learned of this little-known chapter of their country's colonial heritage when they watched a soul-stirring 54-minute dramatized documentary film http://www.abc.net.au/abccontentsales/s1580197.htm on ABC national television last week. A detailed synopsis is available on the internet: http://209.85.175.132/search?q=cache:YISg8ed1-v8J:www.filmaust.com.au/programs/teachers_notes/8857floatingbrothnotes.pdf+lady+juliana+film+synopsis&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Photos from the film http://www.filmaust.com.au/programs/teachers_notes/8857floatingbrothnotes.pdf

Writer-director Mark Lewis, 40, "an Englishman who specialises in historical documentaries in a semi-dramatised form", found this subject particularly satisfying.

"I've always been interested in good storytelling, and I've found that the best way to communicate a bigger story to an audience is to find the personal tales and the emotional stories that people can genuinely engage with," he says.

"In this film we had even more of an opportunity to do that. Not only did we have incredible personal stories of the convict women and little girls who end up becoming great matriarchs, prostitutes who end up as pub owners and landowners in Hobart - but we also had the opportunity to match them up with descendants who could effectively empathise with them from a much more heartfelt position as family members."

END

Blog recalls WWII tank battles

2008-12-24T02:13:00.000-08:00

Internet huzzah for retired hussar

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=384478&rel_no=1

You can't blame Doug Mayman and his fellow crew members of a British Cruiser tank for wanting to keep out of the way of enemy German Tiger tanks in World War II.

A shot from a Tiger’s 88mm gun could penetrate the front armor of a Cruiser 2,000 metres away, but a Cruiser’s 57mm gun couldn't penetrate the front armor of a Tiger one metre away. (This fact has been revealed only recently. Was it known in 1944?).

Mayman, a member of the tank regiment, the 15th /19th King’s Royal Hussars, kept secret wartime diaries recounting his Army life from November 5, 1943 until his return home from Germany on leave on April 21, 1945.

The diaries, already published as a book, Led Soldiers, are now being posted day by day as a blog on the internet, http://www.ledsoldiersdiary.blogspot.com/ to the delight of exservicemen - not all of them Brits - and military historians around the world.

These diaries provide a living account of Mayman’s conscription, induction and training, leading up to his experiences under fire as his regiment fought its way through France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany.

The diaries are being posted 65 years after the events they describe, just as Harry Lamin's letters http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=382600&rel_no=1 from the Western Front in the first World War have thrilled a worldwide audience 90 years after they were written.

Mayman, now 85, unearthed his forgotten diaries two years ago, while rummaging in the loft of his home in Aughton, West Lancashire, UK. He thought no-one would be interested in them but gave them to his two daughters, Merron Mitchell and Joy Murphy, to look at.

“As soon as I started to read them, I was enthralled," Joy told Gemma Jaleel, a feature writer of a local newspaper, the Ormskirk Advertiser http://www.ormskirkmemories.merseyblogs.co.uk/2007/12/diary_of_world_war_ii_hero_dou.html.

"My dad was only 19 when he started to keep a diary of his war experiences. Every day he would make an entry, however difficult it was. Sometimes he would be writing under a tank after days fighting, always with a fountain pen* and whenever he could with illustrations.

“Given the high mortality rate of his regiment, I think it was a way of trying to leave something behind in case of his death. Fortunately he survived, as did the diaries."

Mayman left school at the age of 15, and began work as a wages clerk for Rycroft and Hartley Ltd, a local textiles company. He then found a better-paying job in a Royal Ordnance Factory which manufactured aircraft shells in nearby Steeton.

He met his future wife Dorothy at the Methodist Youth Club when they were both 17. Two years later, on September 3, 1942, he was conscripted into the Army.

Doug and Dorothy married on April 23, 1945. They have four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

These days, at 85, Doug describes himself http://books.google.com.au/books?id=QjxdqTfi5usC&pg=PA239&lpg=PA239&dq=%22doug+mayman%22&source=bl&ots=ERkKDMrUu3&sig=ex-2YJWxgZogkl3wRNgK8tDp5Rw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result

as "a retired finance director - very much EX financial consultant. All jobs too big. Available for social occasions."

Harking back to the first World War: at least one soldier celebrated Christmas 1917 in the trenches in style. Here's an extract from a blog posted by Dumdad, http://wwwtheothersideofparis.blogspot.com/2008/12/somme-moments-of-madness.html an English journalist living in Paris:

Private William Jackman was a servant to Captain Morrison who was a multi-millionaire. Morrison arranged for hampers of food from Fortnum and Mason’s to be delivered to the trenches regularly and for a bottle of 1900 port from Berry’s to be sent out every three days plus cases of whisky and brandy. These were in boxes marked Red Cross.

By the time Jackman’s Battalion went to the Somme, Captain Morrison had left but he never cancelled the order and the stuff kept on coming. Private William wrote in his diary: “It used to arrive in batches and sometimes we’d have as many as a dozen boxes arriving from Fortnum and Mason’s at the same time. There were boxes of tinned stuff, mostly, like galantine of chicken, soups, puddings, tins of fruit, tins of grouse and pheasant, ham – everything you could think of for the Officers’ Mess.”

Imagine, sitting in a trench with fetid water lapping at your boots and rats scurrying hither and thither and thousands of lice crawling all over your body and shells exploding above your head yet dining out on a tin of grouse washed down with fine port.

What a crazy world!

* Doug Mayman wrote all his diaries with an ink-filled fountain pen. Ballpoint pens were unknown until after the war ended.
... on an October morning in 1945 when a crowd of over 5,000 people jammed the entrance of New York’s Gimbels Department Store. The day before, Gimbels had taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times promoting the first sale of ballpoints in the United States. The ad described the new pen as a "fantastic... miraculous fountain pen ... guaranteed to write for two years without refilling!" On that first day of sales, Gimbels sold out its entire stock of 10,000 pens-at $12.50 each! - From TheIdeaFinder.com http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm
Anyone wanting a copy of Doug Mayman's book should email book.sales@authorsonline.co.uk OR amazon.co.uk OR telephone (UK) 01633 676629.

Harry Lamin's book, based on his blog, is complete and has been sent to the publishers, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd. It will go on sale on April 2, 2009 and major booksellers are accepting pre-orders at a discount.

You can see letters and a Christmas card Harry sent home in 1917 in this story in the London Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-506027/Thousands-hooked-drama-trenches-First-World-War-soldiers-letters-blog.html

--------------------------

Supercentenarians (112) share same birthday

2008-12-07T02:35:00.000-08:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address:
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By a strange coincidence, Britain's oldest man, Henry Allingham, and America's oldest man, George Francis, were born on the same day - June 6, 1896. That means they are 112 years and six months old this week.

Famous in their own countries, they are little known to the rest of the world. They have never met, and are probably unaware of each other's existence.

Henry Allingham is one of only four remaining British survivors of World War 1 (1914-1918) in which nearly a million of his comrades died.

As a teenager, he enlisted with the Royal Naval Air Service as a skilled mechanic and a year later, in 1916, he was involved in the greatest naval battle of the war, the Battle of Jutland.

In 1917, he was posted to France to support the Royal Flying Corps, and helped service and rescue aircraft which had crashed behind the trenches.
In 1919, he married 22-year-old Dorothy Cater in Chingford, Essex. [In another strange coincidence, the writer of this article was born there... in 1919.]

Henry's wife died 38 years ago, while his two daughters both died in their 80s. He has five grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. Eight of his descendants and their partners flew from their homes in the United States to join him for his 112th birthday.

A report in London's Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2086501/Henry-Allingham,-Europe's-oldest-man,-celebrates-112th-birthday.html says:

To mark Armistice Day in 2005, Mr Allingham travelled to St Omer, near Calais, France, to lay wreaths to fallen comrades.

A year later, aged 110, as the oldest British World War I veteran, Mr Allingham met his German counterpart, Robert Meier, 109.

The men greeted each other warmly and laid a wreath at the war memorial near Witten town hall.

Mr Meier said it was "amazing" that both men were still alive and went on to say: "Why did we have to have a war?"

In 2007, Mr Allingham marked his 111th birthday on board the Royal Navy's oldest warship, HMS Victory, at Portsmouth.

A military flypast of aircraft from the Royal Navy's historic flight and the RAF marked the occasion.

Henry lived in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England for many years, but when his eyesight began to deteriorate he moved to the nearby St Dunstan’s care home for blind ex-service personnel.

America's oldest man, George Rene Francis, lives in a nursing home in Sacramento, California. Last month he voted for Barack Obama, whose victory, he declared, “made democracy work.”

"... Francis has lived through 19 U.S. presidents and six decades of Jim Crow laws, when he and all black Americans were forced to endure racial segregation," says a report in the Sacramento Observer http://www.sacobserver.com/community/111108/george_francis.shtml

"This week, a beaming, wheelchair-bound Francis told his daughters he felt like jumping up and down after helping to elect the nation’s first black president. 'He is going to give black men a break in the world, and give them a better opportunity to live and make more money,' Francis said.’’

The report says that Francis grew up listening to Louis Armstrong play trumpet on his front porch in New Orleans’s Seventh Ward.

A lifelong Democrat, Francis cast his first ballot in the early 1930s, when he voted for Franklin Roosevelt.

In 1949, before the civil rights movement, he moved west to California seeking a better job.

His wife of four decades, Josephine, died in 1964 at age 63. But Francis’s extended family — which includes four children, 18 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren —say the man they call “Papa’’ never lost his spirit, nor his interest in politics.

An article about American supercenturians (people aged 110 and over) in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_C._White#Carrie_C._White says: "He credits his longevity to nature, and enjoys a rich diet of pork, eggs, milk and lard. He gave up smoking cigars at the age of 75."

On the other hand, according to the London Daily Mail, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7439458.stm Henry Allingham has joked that his secret to longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women".

VIDEOS

Henry Allingham: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_R303aoso&NR=1

George Francis: http://www.truveo.com/Black-Centenarian-Votes-Obama/id/2342739199

FOOTNOTE. The world's oldest living person is Maria de Jesus (115) of Portugal, born on September 10, 1893. The oldest living man is 113 year-old Tomoji Tanabe of Japan, born on September 18, 1895.

POSTSCRIPT
Sadly, George Francis died on December 28. "Francis, who lived in Sacramento's Eskaton Care Center Greenhaven retirement community, passed away Sunday after being hospitalized recently for heart problems," Sacramento TV. http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=52493&catid=2
reported.

Fast Falcons Thrill Thousands

2008-11-12T03:16:00.000-08:00

But spare a thought for the pigeons

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address:
http://tinyurl.com/68r4dp

Will Londoners fall in love with the pair of pregrine falcons nesting in the House of Commons building http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/01/eaperegrine101.xml to the extent that Brisbane's citizens adore Frodo and Frieda? http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/frodocam/default.htm

A team led by London wildlife volunteer David Morrison spotted the parlimentary pair and reported them to the London Wildlife Trust, which promptly issued a news release. http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=news&id=2576
Peregrine falcons are raptors (birds of prey), and can reach a speed of 322 km/h (200 mph), making them the planet's fastest animal.

London birdlovers may not share Morrison's delight about the newly found pair, if the birds swoop on Trafalgar Square's famous pigeons for a tasty breakfast. (Falcons have been seen on other London landmarks including Tate Modern, Battersea Power Station and the Millennium Dome).

In Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, thousands of web vievers have eagerly watched Frodo and Frieda building nests and raising chicks every year since 2003.

Ever since 1999, the birds have lived on a ledge on the 27th floor of the Admiralty Towers building in the city's central business district. In 2003 the daily newspaper The Courier-Mail set up a camera website. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/frodocam/mainyarn.htm
to keep track of their fascinating domestic life.

Right now, Frodo and Frieda seem to be looking around for a new home on a nearby tall building. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24385730-3102,00.html Perhaps they're seeking privacy, away from the world's gaze.

London and Brisbane are by no means the only cities with peregrine falcon webcans. The raptors are found worlwide, and birdlovers flock to watch them on local webcams.

Appropriately, one of the best sites is Kodaks' world headquarters, Kodak House http://rfalconcam.com/rfc-main/gvasAndKodak.php

in Rochester, New York state. Kodak recounts its history:

In 1998 a trio of enterprising Kodak employees-- Kenn Martinez, Brad Carney and Matt Bernius-- placed a video camera on the steeple of the tower, aimed it at the nest box, and connected it to the Internet. The stars of their new website- the Kodak Birdcam - were a pair of Peregrine falcons, the fastest animals on the planet.

To honor their legacy as masters of the air, the falcons were given wind-themed names by the Kodak Birdcam team. Mariah, for the female, after Kodak founder George Eastman's mother and the 1951 Lerner and Lowe song "They Call The Wind Mariah".

Cabot-Sirocco, the male, was hatched in Toronto and named Cabot by the folks at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation (in honor of the French explorer of the same name). Kodak named him Sirocco (a dry desert wind), and his US & Canadian names were combined as "Cabot-Sirocco".

In 2002 a new male joined Mariah when Cabot-Sirocco failed to return that spring. A high resolution digital camera, installed only weeks before, revealed that this new tiercel, or male falcon, wore no identification bands on his legs, unlike Cabot-Sirocco. The new arrival was named Kaver, after a gentle breeze that blows in the Hebrides islands near Scotland.

Elsewhere in the US, peregrine falcons' nests have been found on skyscrapers in New York City, Columbus Ohio, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, and Atlanta Georgia, to name just a few. In many cities, webcams attract vast numbers of viewers.

In downtown San Francisco, California, in 2005, a camera was set up to spy on a peregrine falcon nest on the northwest corner of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company headquarters building . A pair of peregrines, dubbed George and Gracie, built a nest on the 33rd floor ledge of the building, and reared three chicks. Then tney moved across the street to 201 Mission St. and so did the webcam.

In 2007, George and Gracie built a nest on the Bay Bridge, off camera. Fearful biologists removed the eggs from that perilous site and took them to a Santa Cruz facility to hatch in greater safety.

In fact, people are still grieving over George and Gracie's disappearance, after the falcons were driven away by another pair. "People actually saw the battle taking place in the air between the falcons," wildlife biologist Glenn Stewart said, "but I guarantee no one would ever have noticed if we hadn't let them get involved through the webcams."

Also in California, a pair of falcons named Carlos and Clara are raising three healthy chicks in a nest box at San Jose City Hall. A webcam http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/peregrine_cam.htm has averaged 18,000 visits daily.

A press

release http://press.ucsc.edu/text.asp?pid=2225 says:
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and his office have been enthusiastic participants in this online reality show, issuing regular press releases with updates on the City Hall falcon family. For weeks the mayor's web site promoted a "Name That Falcon" contest for San Jose kids to name the three chicks. The City of San Jose also provides funding ($45,000 this year) to support SCPBRG [Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group] 's work with the falcons and its outreach programs in local schools.

On May 16, crowds gathered to watch along with the mayor and local media as SCPBRG researcher Brian Latta rappelled down to the nest box from the top of City Hall to place identifying bands on the legs of the chicks...

[Glenn] Stewart has roped in four research interns to help "drive" the webcam in San Jose--remotely operating the camera from their computers--because viewers don't want to miss any of the action going on in the nest box...

While the chicks are certainly cute, viewers aren't spared the grisly sight of hungry falcons feasting on their favorite prey: smaller birds.

"They've even seen a parent return with prey that was still alive and twitching," said Jaime Jansen, one of Stewart's interns and a junior majoring in anthropology at UCSC [University of California at Santa Cruz]. "But that's real life. People need to expect that not everything is going to be pretty."

END

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Army Newspaper Scooped the World

2008-10-31T23:41:00.000-07:00

Guinea Gold veterans recall wartime in jungle

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. To read their version, with interesting illustrations and live links, please cut and paste this address:
http://tinyurl.com/6dxf4n

Giant air transports dropped food, tobacco and copies of Guinea Gold. If anything, this little newspaper was more eagerly sought than rations. To troops practically marooned in the thick of the jungle swamps this link with news of the outside world came almost as tidings from another planet. - From the book "Jungle Warfare" (1944).

Newspaper scoops are no longer possible. Today's instant worldwide communication means that any important newsbreaking story is immediately copied, rephrased or translated, to be posted on thousands of news websites in dozens of languages within minutes.

But 66 years ago, in World War II, in the tropical jungle of Papua-New Guinea, where Allied troops were fighting Japanese invaders, a unique newspaper called Guinea Gold published a record number of world scoops.

That was because US General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific, had given Guinea Gold permission to publish his communiques 20 hours before the news was released for the rest of the world's media.

New Guinea was the only war zone where the US armed forces did not produce a local edition of their own newspaper, Stars and Stripes. Guinea Gold, with separate American and Australian editions, fully met their needs.

Earlier in 1942, Melbourne Herald war correspondent Reg Leonard had suggested that the Australian Army should produce its own daily newspaper. Promptly crowned a major, he became Guinea Gold's foundation editor.

Years after the war had ended, Mr R.B. Leonard, O.B.E., managing director of Queensland Newspapers Pty. Ltd., said that Guinea Gold's success was due very largely to dedicated people below officer rank - men who toiled uncomplainingly and for long hours in the ramshackle buildings that housed its overworked plant.

He spoke of soldiers intercepting radio news by matchlight during bomber raids, some who set type by hand when mechanical equipment broke down, and others "whose brawny arms provided power for the presses when the electrical power failed."

That was the memorable occasion when Japanese bombers attacked Port Moresby powerhouse at 2am.

Horace ("Chis") Chisholm, the paper's last editor, also recalled the event: "Officers and men and natives toiled and sweated together as they turned the heavy press over by hand, but every unit received its share of the 5000 copies they produced.

"Overcoming incredible production problems, the newspaper came out seven days a week without missing a single day, from November 1942 to June 1946. Its 1,320 days' continuous publication was easily a world record for service publications. At its peak in 1944, it produced 64,000 copies (US edition 37,000, Australian 27,000). Maximum readership was estimated at 800,000.

"The front and back pages concentrated on up-to-the-minute news from around the world, including coverage of major sporting events on the back page. Page 2 was devoted to extracts from Australian and US newspapers published a few days previously, which air transport crews delivered to Guinea Gold.

"Soldiers with newspaper experience, who had been transferred from other units when Guinea Gold was established, wrote news stories by taking shorthand notes of shortwave radio bulletins from Australia, the US Armed Forces station in San Francisco, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), All-India Radio, and others.

"At Lae, the second-hand Miller high-speed flatbed press ran 20 hours a day, printing 34 million copies in little more than two years. When it was retired after the war, it had 50 welds. It's now an exhibit at the National War Museum in Canberra."

You can see a photograph of th sturdy press in action here: http://cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/017121

Writing in Sydney's Weekend Australian Magazine in 1982, Chisholm recalled:

The worst crisis in Guinea Gold's life was the day that the Port Moresby linotype and the Dobodura press broke down simultaneously.

The problem was overcome by having the type set in Dobodura, flying the type 100 miles over the Owen Stanleys [mountains], and the paper printed on the Moresby press. Papers for the northern edition were then flown back over the Owen Stanleys.

It was a good example of the co-operation received from the air forces. RAAF pilots flew almost daily over the Japanese lines to drop small bundles to forward fighting areas, and the day after the American forces landed at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, Flying Fortresses dropped Guinea Golds to them.

Always we thought of the men we served: men fighting in the lonely, dank, rugged, slimy jungle depths, hauling guns up steep mountainsides, repairing shell-torn signal wires under fire.

On a lighter note, "Chis" recalled that when the newspaper promoted a "Girl I Left Behind" contest, 1700 photos of wives, sweethearts and baby daughters swamped the editorial office.

It was a beauty contest, with full-page portraits of gorgeous girls on the front pages of a Sunday supplement, and smaller photos daily. It proved so popular that it ran for more than four months. An Australian/US judging panel decided the winners were (Australian) Miss Dorothy Faull, Federal Capital Territory, friend of Leading Air Craftman M.J. Jones, RAAF and (US) Mrs G. B. Osmun, wife of Captain G. B. Osmun, US Army.

Among his other memories, "Chis" wrote: "On one occasion a consignment of crossword blocks and clues failed to arrive from the mainland. Staff-Sergeant E. Shackle (the Telegraph, Sydney) solved the current one and compiled one on a pattern previously used."

A few years after the war ended, one of Guinea Gold's printers, Paul Jefferson Wallace, of Sydney, compiled and published a 32-page history of the newspaper, which is now one of my most prized souvenirs. It also provided useful material for this article.

Wallace reported that on moonlight nights in its early days, production of the newspaper was often interrupted by air raids, but deadlines were still met. Blow-lamps were used to melt linotype metal during frequent power supply breakdowns.

Because the hand-set type was so badly worn, it had to be packed with layers of gummed paper underneath, to raise it to type height. On one occasion, the printers ran out of T's. A native Papuan chiselled some out of wood. When there was a shortage of R's, editor Reg Leonard added tails to P's by cutting them from L's.

Wallace also explained why an Army newspaper was needed in New Guinea. "In 1942, isolation was a morale-destroying disease in New Guinea" he wrote. "Radio sets were few and far between, men were cut off from day-to-day news.

"The result was a flood of false rumours which swept along the Owen Stanley trail when Australian troops were just starting to push the Japanese back from their mountain strongholds.

"From the first edition on November 19, 1942, until the presses rolled to a stop on June 30, 1946, with the enviable record of 1,320 days of continuous publication, Guinea Gold daily brought to the news-hungry men of the Australian and American forces serving in the steaming jungle, topics of interest to allay their boredom and boost their morale."

In all, 237 Australian soldiers worked on Guinea Gold for varying periods. Not one of them was there for the full three and a half years' life of that unique and vital newspaper.

FOOTNOTE. Greg Ray described OhmyNews reporter Eric Shackle's army career, in a 2004 feature story in the Central Coast Weekend Herald http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/humour_fears.htm
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The Queen WAS amused!

2008-10-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

She giggled at a laughing baby clip

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. You can view it (with better links) at http://tinyurl.com/5o5hce

Britain's grandmotherly Queen Elizabeth II giggled http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/3210566/Queen-visits-Google---and-is-amused-by-YouTube-video-of-laughing-baby-boy.html when she watched a video of William Nilsson, Sweden's famous laughing baby, while visiting Google's London office last week. If she had been shown a video of Ethan, America's famous laughing baby, she would have laughed out loud.

If you doubt that statement, try to keep a straight face when you watch Ethan's hilarious but brief YouTube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXm696UbKY Little things please little minds, and Ethan had tremendous fun tearing magazine pages.

"You can tell that he is going to be one of those guys that falls out of his seat in laughter at movies," one online viewer commented.

Ethan's father, Greg, shot the film in 2004, before anyone had heard of YouTube. " I was at home playing with Ethan when he ripped an old magazine and started to laugh," Greg recalls on his web site http://www.laughingbabyethan.com/story "I wanted to get him laughing on film for his mom, who was at work, so I grabbed the camera and started to tape. The result is the 'Laughing Baby' video."

Greg put a clip on the internet in January 2007. It won YouTube's 2007 "most adorable" award, and has received almost 20 million hits. It has inspired thousands of other proud parents to post similar clips on the web.

Ethan is now four years old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYq5g_XRsdQ
Asked how Ethan was coping with his world fame, his father told OhmyNews: "Ethan was born in September 2004. He has no idea about the 'world fame.' I think it will be a few years yet before he can grasp that reality. 'Internet famous' is about as far as I would stretch his actual level of fame.

"As for other info, since Ethan is only 4, we try to keep as much privacy as possible with respect to our names, jobs and location. Obviously, we didn't expect this level of attention for our kid when we posted him on YouTube, so we try to be as careful as possible."

Ethan's parents are both in their mid-30s and Grag has been a stay-at-home Dad since Ethan was born.

The Swedish Laughing Baby video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttF5HVYtlQ that so amused the Queen was posted on YouTube in August 2006, and quickly became one of its top clips. So far it has attracted an amazing 64 million hits.

William's father shot the film in his kitchen, apparently getting his son to laugh by saying "boo" to him. Comments range from a sweet "isn't he cute" to a sour "this baby sounds as if it has asthma."

Not everyone is happy about the spate of laughing babies. "Look Who's Laughing: Giggling babies have taken over YouTube. Next stop: Madison Avenue" was the heading over a story by Janelle Nanos in Slate online magazine on Dec. 31, 2007.
http://www.slate.com/id/2180950/

"Turning found video into good advertising is harder than it looks," Janelle wrote. "The danger of using YouTube footage in a television ad is that if the spot isn't well-executed, viewers feel shortchanged, since they know they can see the same spot online without a corporate logo tacked onto the end of it."

Rain Man Inspires London Stage Play

2008-10-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. You can view it (with better links) at http://tinyurl.com/3k5dqm

Twenty years after his moving story was told in the Oscar-winning film The Rain Man, Utah's modest prodigy Kim Peek, who will turn 57 on November 11, is again being impersonated in an updated stage play with the same title at London's prestigious Apollo Theatre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Theatre

British stage actor Adam Godley has won critical acclaim for his sympathetic portrayal of the autistic Raymond, a character inspired by Peek and played in the film by Dustin Hoffman (who won an Oscar for the Best Actor in a Leading Role).

Thanks to the film and countless TV, radio and press interviews, Peek has long been the world's favorite and best-known savant (learned scholar).

"Described as a confounding mixture of disability and brilliance, Kim is in love with knowledge," says the Multiple Sclerosis website Extraordinay People. http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/misc/kimpeek.html

"... Kim was diagnosed as being mentally retarded at birth, but with father Fran's unflagging support he has developed a memory that is without equal.
"Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Kim has lived there all of his life. The local library is Kim's favourite place in the world. Kim devours books on anything and everything, as many as eight in a day.

"He reads at a phenomenal rate, a page that may take you or me three minutes will take Kim about 10 seconds. He reads the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye and will retain about 98% of it.

"He has 15 subject areas but about the only thing he can't do is, he can't reason out mathematical problems."

Another autistic savant, who can reason out mathematical problems, is Britain's Daniel Paul Tammet (29). Born in London, the first of nine children, he has written in a memoir, how having epilepsy, synaesthesia and Asperger syndrome all deeply affected his childhood.

He can calculate huge sums in his head in seconds and instantaneously recognize prime numbers, but he finds emotions difficult to understand and has trouble telling left from right.
He says he sees numbers as complex synaesthetic shapes with color, texture and motion. Thirty-seven, he says, is lumpy like porridge, while eighty-nine reminds him of falling snow. Sequences of digits form visual landscapes in his mind.

In March 2004, Tammet set a European record when he recited the famous mathematical constant Pi from memory to 22,514 decimal places in five hours.

He has been studied by scientists at California's Center for Brain Studies and at the Cambridge (UK) Autism Research Centre, and has been described as "autism's Rosetta Stone".

You can read about his life and achievements in his regularly updated blog, Optimnem http://www.optimnem.co.uk/about.phpAccording to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet Tammet and his domestic partner, software engineer Neil Mitchell, live together in Kent where they have a quiet regimented life at home with their cats, prepare their meals from their garden, and prefer their privacy.

They operate the online company Optimnem, where they create and publish language courses. Tammet has publicly discussed his relationship with Mitchell, his savant abilities, and his sexual orientation.

On the other hand, Kim Peek and his father, Fran, who is now 81, have spoken to five million people and traveled more than two million miles, sharing their story. Last Saturday, they were in Portland, talking with autistic children and their parents and friends at a function arranged by the Autism Society of Maine.

Earlier this year, they entertained a packed house in their home state of Utah. Nexy day, the Provo Daily Herald published this interesting report : http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/254402/

Has Utah's Kim Peek ever met Britain's Danial Tammet? Yes. You can view their meeting by playing this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdeAq7_r63g&NR=1

In another video, Peek hugs Tammet and tells him “Some day you will be as great as I am.”

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Self-Powered Electric Car Is a World First

2008-09-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

This article was first published by OhmyNewsInternational. For easier reading and access to the numerous links, please click on
http://tinyurl.com/4wbdrq
---------------------------------------------------------------

A strange-looking vehicle is tipped to attract world attention when it's unveiled at the Paris Motor Show (Oct 4-9). It's the first solar and electric autonomous car in the history of the automobile, French carmaker Venturi claims.

Dubbed the Eclectic, it's a revolutionary vehicle powered by the sun's rays or, when there's no sun, by a wind turbine (an optional extra).

"Eclectic... opens up a new era in the field of mobility," says Venturi, which plans to market the car next year.

"Reserved for daily driving in urban areas, its low energy consumption makes it the most economical environmental vehicle ever built."

A British filmmaker named Danny, who drives his own electric car in London, shot a news-breaking video http://www.dannyscontentment.net/ showing the Eclectic prototype on a test run in Monte Carlo, the city in which it was built.

Until it's unveiled officially, the Eclectic is still a concept vehicle. It was featured in the movie Babylon A.D., where it was seen as a police car of the future.

But there are still problems to be overcome before the car will be allowed on British roads.. One critic, Auto IT, commented : "Great video and great to hear that the Eclectic might come to London. Photovoltaics will work in overcast conditions - they just don’t generate as much juice. More importantly, the Eclectic will need some mudguards to be legal on UK roads (and to stop the rear passengers getting a faceful of puddle). Doors might be an idea too."

Electric cars are making more impact in Europe and Asia than in America and Australia, where few people have even seen one. The latest electric cars have lighter batteries and greater range than previous models, a trend that is sure to continue.

In the US, Genenal Motors' keenly-awaited Chevrolet Volt, "a new plug-in electric car that could save a struggling GM" to quote Time magazine

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1841374,00.html?imw=Y will not be available until the end of 2010.

Australia expects to have its first plug-in electric car by the end of next year, when Mitsubishi intends marketing its baby i MiEV in that country.

Electric cars are no novelty on the roads of India, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Germany, Norway, the UK and other countries where they are made.

India is turning out thousands of electric cars, including the Tara Tiny, http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/17tara1.htm "the world's cheapest car," that sells for just under one lakh (100,000 rupees, or $US2146).

Ten electric cars already on the market are illustrated and described here. http://chisblassternardone.blogspot.com/2008/09/10-electric-cars-you-can-buy-today.html

In South Korea, CT&T http://www.ctnt.co.kr/eng/ exports electric vehicles to Canada , USA, Indonesia and China. Millions of TV viewers worldwide saw the Korean cars in use at the Beijing Olympics.

CT&T is about to build a large plant in Fiji,
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2300794.htm?tab=pacific for the local market and for possible export to Australia and New Zealand.

The giant South Korean firm Hyundai plans to launch its first LPG/electric vehicle http://www.physorg.com/news134846723.html next July, and is thinking of marketing it in China and Australia.

In India, the G-Wiz is manufactured by the Reva Electric Car Company (http://www.revaindia.com). Reva was formed in 1995 to manufacture environmentally friendly, cost effective electric city cars. Designed in California, the car was developed and tested in India and launched there in May 2001.

The car is designed as a nimble, no-frills electric vehicle for non-polluting urban travel. It can carry two adults and two small children, and is designed for inner city use.

GoinGreen www.GoinGreen.co.uk began importing the car into the UK in 2003 and has since sold about 1000 of them.

The latest model - the G-Wiz i - has a range of up to 48 miles, a top speed of 50mph, better braking, improved interior and a newly designed crash cell jointly developed with Lotus.

The three-wheeled German-built Twike (the name is a cross between Twin and Bike) is a light electric vehicle for two passengers. Buyers can select an all-electric version, or choose a model with pedals to save electricity, extend the range, and provide exercise for the driver (sometimes called the pilot).

"The combination of muscle power and electric motor, together with
the joystick steering, imparts a completely new driving experience," says the
Twike website http://www.twike.com

Dr. Andreas Schroer, in charge of the company's UK sales division, says
"The Twike transports its passengers into a new vehicle dimension. With a maximum range of 90 miles per charge and a top speed of 53mph a Twike easily meets your daily needs.

"At the same time the Twike is 10 times more efficient than a normal car. The futuristic joystick steering is easy and fun to use. The optional pedal drive adds to the fun and fitness of the passengers and saves even more energy."

Twikes were first made in Switzerland in 1996. Two years later,
the FINE Mobile GmbH launched the German production line and finally became the exclusive producer.

London eletric car owners don't have to worry about the soaring cost of liquid fuel., since they don't have to pay road tax or the London congestion charge of eight pounds a day - all-electric cars produce no carbon emissions.

Many UK councils also offer free parking for electric car users. In parts of Central London electric vehicles can park for free, and some places even offer free charging. EDF Energy is installing 250 on-street charging points nationally.

You can see many of the latest electric cars by visiting GreenMotor.co.uk http://www.greenmotor.co.uk/search/label/electric%20cars and Channel 4's Top10 http://www.channel4.com/4car/gl/gallery/feature/24420/ Skeptics and conspiracy believers ask "Who killed the electric car?" in this now well-known video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJAlrYjGz8

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Bearskin Blitz Misses Mark

2008-09-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

If the British Government bows to pressure from Animal Rights, and orders Buckingham Palace foot guards to remodel their iconic black bearskin helmets with false fur, not a single bear's life will be saved.

The sad truth, conveniently overlooked by well-meaning but highly emotional animal lovers, is that the famous, 18-inch (45.7cm) high helmets are made from skins of bears culled because they have reached pest numbers in parts of North America, or were victims of roadkill.

Britain's Minister for Defence Procurement, Baroness Ann Taylor, is responsible for acquiring all of the British Army's equipment. She has just met the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to discuss the possible use of synthetic materials and new designs.

Robbie LeBlanc, PETA director in Britain, who spoke to Baroness Taylor, said "It's important to show that Britain is a modern nation and you can still have great traditions, but not have that level of cruelty involved in slaying bears to make hats.

"It's so incongruous that Britain and all of Europe are modern nations here and still you have the Queen's guards ... walking around with an entire dead bear on their heads."

"New Palace Bearskins May Spare the Bear," the London Guardian newspaper announced on Sep 1, with an eye-catching photo of guardsmen flaunting their top-heavy (one and a half pounds) headdress. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/01/military.fashion

Millions of tourists visiting London eash year photograph members of The Queen's Foot Guards whose shining black bearskins offset brilliant scarlet tunics on ceremonial parades.

It's just another round in a long drawn out battle. Five years ago, Caroline Davies reported http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1424257/Animal-lobby-forces-Foot-Guards-to-look-for-alternative-bearskins.html in the London Daily Telegraph:

"For two centuries the Sovereign's Foot Guards have been distinguished by the foot-high bearskins that top their scarlet ceremonial uniforms. But now, to appease animal rights campaigners, defence officials are seeking an alternative to the traditional headgear, which dates back to the Battle of Waterloo.

"Complaints to the Queen that her soldiers should switch to faux fur have resulted in a search for a synthetic bearskin - so far without success."

The wonderfully British-named Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Dick-Peter was quoted as saying "We have tried artificial fibres to try and get away from using bearskins. But nothing works. It either doesn't hold its shape, or it cannot withstand the weather, or it fails to retain the right colour, or it stands up in a very surprised manner in the wrong electrical conditions."

Next, in 2006, some 70 PETA activists staged a naked protest http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/5002082.stm against the use of bearskins.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Dick-Peter again made the headlines. He told BBC London that fake fur does not have the same qualities as the real thing.

"It looks like a 60s Beatle wig," he said. "It just doesn't look right and if the wind blows it sticks up. The rain soaks into the fibre and it ends up an extremely heavy piece of sodden material on somebody's head. In hot electrical conditions, all the hair will stand up - a really bad hair day."

Caroline Davies wrote that the bearskin cap could be traced back to the Grenadier Mitre cap, which, in 1712, replaced the three-cornered (tricorn) hat when it was discovered that for a Grenadier to throw his grenade, he had to sling his firelock across his back, which invariably resulted in his hat being knocked off.

Fine, glossy pelts from female bears are reserved for officers. Other ranks have to make do with rougher male pelts. Helmets can last a century, and are sometimes passed from father to son. A good bearskin "should look like an apple in front, and a pear from the back."

Black bears live in the wild in 41 of the 50 U.S. states and in every Canadian province bar Prince Edward Island. In Canada, about 500,000 black bears mainly inhabit forested areas, according to figures from the British Fur Trade Association. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada says the black bear is "not at risk."

If you are not an animal lover, you may like to join a bear-shooting expedition at Rick Dickson's Black Bear Hunts, in Wawa, Ontario, Canada: http://www.nlmotel.com/dicksonsbear.htm

Found! An even older blogger

2008-08-03T03:43:00.000-07:00

This story has just been published by OhmyNewsInternational: http://tinyurl.com/5brv3d

R.I.P.OLIVE, AVE MARIA

2008-07-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Thousands of bloggers around the world are mourning the death on July 12 of Australian great-great-grandmother Olive Riley, who was the internet world's oldest blogger. She would have been 109 on October 20.

Messages of condolence have caused her website http://www.allaboutolive.com.au/ to crash, although it still displays a moving eulogy from her friend and scribe, Mike Rubbo.

Heartwarming emails expressing affection and admiration for Olive and sympathy to her family and friends have poured in to her proxy website http://worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com/. They came from dozens of countries, from young and old, Christians, Moslems, Hindus and atheists, united in their love, admiration and sorrow at the passing of a simple soul with a mighty spirit.

Here's a small selection from more than 200 emails: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8375349020852816851&postID=7603448855105047693

the Razzler (Johore, Malaysia) said... Oh gosh.. I am so sad!! A message for Olive. Though we've never met, you have always been my inspiration to be strong, to live life to it's fullest! We love you so very much Olive!! We'll continue to sing happy songs.. May your soul rest in peace!

Alireza Ashtari (Iran) said... i found out about you and your intersting blog in an iranian newspaper! God Bless you.

Texas 1st (Dallas, Texas) said... I read about Miss Olive late last year, and was not able to find her blog until I saw the story today. As I read the stories, they touched me very deeply, and bring back memories of listening to my Gramma Lee tell her stories of growing up in the Oklahoma Territory, USA. It was a sad day when she left us. And it seems a sadder day still now that Miss Olive has left. Mine and my family' thoughts and prayers are with you all. Miss Olive seems to have reached out and touched the whole world. I'm glad she touched me...

Rod Landaeta (computer scientist, Caracas, Venezuela) said... Condolences from Venezuela... The world has just lost a great blogger.

Shaan Jadhav (Pune, India) said... Sad to hear the news about olive. My condolences.

kassy pajarillo (23-year-old hoterlier and nanny, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, US) ) said... My condolence to Mrs.Riley. She's such a woman of might and love.

FxDi@mOnD (Paulo Faustino, "23-year-old gambler and tipster", Leiria, Portugal): said... My condolences from Portugal to Miss Riley. All bloggers from Portugal and Brasil already know there history and she's loved by is amazing life history. All the best to the family.

Christine (54-year-old semi-retired theatrical costume-maker, Sydney, Australia)said... I'd like to send condolences to Mike and Katya, and all Ollie's family and friends. Also to the staff at the nursing home, my deepest sympathy and good wishes to you all.

Devonshire Dumpling (care assistant, Devon, England) said... Thank you for sharing your memories Olive, what an inspiration you were.

Nopiedra (Nelson Piedra, 32, informstion engineer, Loja, Ecuador) said... Mis condolenscias desde Ecuador.

barbara (born in US, grew up in Hawaii, living in Paris) said... I'm very touched to read about Mrs Riley and her blog. I'm of course a blogger & I salute this incredible lady. She is a living example that one is never to old to try things in life. Rest in peace.

81duz1d0 - 81duz1d0 (biduzido), Programmer, Brazil said... R.I.P. Olive. You can be gone, but your posts will last forever in the internet.

With Olive's depature from the blogosphere, the Spanish media have rejoiced that Maria Amelia Lopez has apparently regained the title of the World's Oldest Blogger, a ranking that Olive took from her 18 months ago.

Maria Amelia is 96 years old, although her blog is confusingly titled A mis 95 anos/ 95 years old blogger. http://amis95.blogspot.com

The now outdated heading reads "My friends in Internet, today I am 95 years old. My name is Amelia and I was born in Muxia (A Coruna - Spain) on December the 23rd of 1911. Today it's my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog."

Amelia, like Olive, has an amazing memory. She writes entetainingly about her girlhood, Spanish politics past and present, and any other subject that interests her alert mind. Her grandson Daniel records and transcribes her observations, then posts them word for word on the internet.

Her website has attracted nearly 1.3 million hits. If only someone fluent in both Spanish and English would find the time to tranlate her words and her many reader' comments into English,that number could double.

FOOTNOTE. To see a video of Olive Riley enjoying an oyster lunch with the author, click HERE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lviE4ZKXao

END

Pumpkins' One-Mile Barrier

2008-07-03T00:14:00.000-07:00

This story was first published by the South Korean citizen reporters' journal OhmyNewsInternational: http://tinyurl.com/6ccnve

Rival engineering groups in the United States are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars pursuing a bizarre dream: to be first in the world to hurl a 10-pound pumpkin one mile (5,280 feet).

A few party-poopers say it can't be done, because they believe no pumpkin can stand up to the G-forces involved. But horticulturists have now developed pumpkins with extra-thick skins -- not recommended for pies, but great as projectiles.

At least two groups have come close to reaching the one-mile barrier. According to a You-Tube video, Guinness World Record Pumpkin Chucker, Matt Parker's Aludium Q-36 Pumpkin Modulator, described elsewhere as "a giant peashooter with an 80ft. long tube," propelled a pumpkin 4,860 feet at Morton, Illinois, in 2001, setting a world record.

But the Delaware-based World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association (and that's not a typo) maintains that the world record is slightly less - 4,434.28 feet - achieved by a 14-ton air cannon named Second Amendment.

"The World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association does not recognise any shots other than those at the Association event" says WCPCA President Frank E. Shade.

"Vary factors such as weather, elevation and propellant used could drastically affect the distance. Example, a shot in Denver's thin air would go infinitely farther than one at sea level. We only allow compressed air by our rules and elsewhere they could use anything including rockets or explosives.

"Matt [Parker] competed here [Nassau, Delaware] with us but he never made that distance with us."

Parker's epic performance took place in his hometown, Morton, Illinois. (In 1978, the State Governor proclaimed Morton to be The Pumpkin Capital of the World.)

"Whoosh... A giant blast of air expels a pumpkin from an 80 foot-long tube. Traveling at nearly the speed of sound, the pumpkin follows a graceful arc towards the horizon. It will land with a splat nearly a mile away.," the Morton Times-News reported in 2001, adding:

The chuck that shook up the Morton Pumpkin Festival was made by the Aludium Q-36 Pumpkin Modulator, a giant contraption that looks like the results of cross breeding a howitzer with parts borrowed from the International Space Station.

One hundred feet long and tipping the scale at 36,000 pounds, the Q-36 is really a giant pea shooter. An 80-foot long tube is connected to a 1,800-gallon compressed air tank. "We can run up to a maximum pressure of 125 PSI," says Matt Parker, one of the designers of the Q-36. Matt punches numbers into a calculator and announces, "At atmospheric pressure that would be 18,000 cubic feet of air." That is the amount of air in a 2,250-square-foot house - all of it just to blow a 10 pound pumpkin out of an 80-foot tube. "Muzzle velocity is 1,000 feet per second," says Matt. Again the calculator springs into action. "It's traveling 681 miles per hour when it leaves the tube, but it loses velocity quickly."

Matt Parker is co-owner of Parker Fabrication, a family-owned machine shop in Morton's new industrial park. In addition to Parker, the crew of the Q-36 consists of Chuck Heerde, James Knepp, Rod Litwiller and Steve Young.

"The guys have had a lot of fun with it," says Bonnie Parker, Matt's mother. Bonnie is the office staff of the family business. She also is the chief cheerleader for the pumpkin-chuckers and serves as the archivist of the Q-36's exploits. Framed newspaper articles detailing the Q-36's world record shot adorn her office wall. In addition to the local papers, her collection includes a picture from the front page of the Wall Street Journal and an article from the London Times.

The entire Parker family takes their punkin' chuckin' seriously. "We don't have grandchildren, so this pumpkin chucker is our baby," explains Bonnie. When asked about the cost to build such a contraption, Pat Parker, Matt's father, is quick to point out, "It's not about sponsorship or advertising or money. It's about people putting their ideas together to solve a problem. A lot more people contributed to this than the five who have their names on the official entry form."
[Above extracts courtesy Morton Times-News.]
Q-36's main rival, the air cannon Second Amendment is owned by S & G Erectors, of Howell, Michigan. Last November it took part in the Punkin Chonkin contest for the fourth time.

"We were in competition with 106 machines, each utilizing various methods of propelling a pumpkin, such as centrifugal force, torsion, human powered, catapults, trebuchets and the ultimate, air cannons," says its website.

"The event had some 40,000 to 50,000 spectators and was covered by CNN, AT&T Dish, The History Channel, Costa Mantis, a documentary film producer from California, and several local TV channels...

"Our world record of 4,434 feet is still intact and we will work out the bugs, trying for that ultimate shot of one mile. Numerous times in practice, we achieved shots over 5,000 feet, just short of the 5,280 that we need to be the first to shoot the mile."

Towering over most contestants was the Big Ten-Inch air cannon , with an aluminum barrel 10 inches in diameter and 100 feet long. You can read about it at http://www.geocities.com/zbig10inch/

FOOTNOTE. Pumpkin throwing is a popular sport in many US cities and small towns. Pumpkin festivals are held wherever these vegetables are grown and eaten, and that goes for most of the world. In Goomeri, Queensland, Australia, instead of being hurled by gigantic air guns, pumpkins are treated more gently, by being rolled down a hill. For more details and photos of the Goomeri festival, see http://www.goomeri.org.au/pumpkinfest/

END

Slinging Limes From a Purple Bra

2008-06-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

While most of the world's nations are hoping to outlaw cluster bombs http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/05/080529_cluster_wt_sl.shtml small groups of engineers and students are modernizing a medieval war machine.

Called a trebuchet (pronounced tray-boo-shay), it was a huge mechanized catapult, a seesaw-like device powered by a counterweight, employed in attacking besieged castles.

Attackers were reputed to have hurled severed heads of their enemies over the castle walls. That may or may not be true. But this year's miniature machines have a peaceful purpose. They'll be used to hurl eggs various distances, to be caught, preferably unbroken, at an English village fair.

The home-made trebuchets will be a highlight of the third annual World Egg-Throwing Contest in Swaton, Lincolnshire, on June 29. Eggs will "fly through the air with the greatest of ease", and helmeted competitors will try to catch them at the end of their flight.

Three points will be awarded for a successful “hurl” when the egg is caught without touching the ground and is unbroken. If the “target” is struck and the egg broken, the unfortunate would-be catcher wins just one point.

Andy Dunlop, President of the World Egg Throwing Federation, is organizing the contest in aid of local charities. Full details are shown on the official website http://sbc.edu/news/?id=2587 says:

Engineering students used trebuchets to hurl plastic limes at a not-to-scale replica of the Alamo. Billed as a re-enactment of the Battle of La Margarita, the teams were scored on distance and accuracy...

“Only at a women’s college can ... a trebuchet sling be a brassiere cup,” Sweet Briar assistant professor of engineering Scott Pierce observed, watching his students maneuver their medieval-era weapons into launch positions.

A C-cup, purple in color.

The two trebuchets made of two-by-fours represent the students’ end-of-semester projects. They had designed, analyzed, modeled, constructed and analyzed some more; it was time to see which machine would perform closest to their mathematical predictions. This is the point in the engineering process where reality and math intersect, Pierce said.

Team Jose Cuervo won the day, beating Team Los Positivo Fringe by a hairsbreadth. The prize was a candy-filled piñata that came with the option to load it into the winning trebuchet and chuck it.

“We’re throwing this thing,” said Amanda Baker, a junior engineering major. Sophomore Jenna Wasylenko wasn’t so sure. “I don’t think it will fit in my bra.”

If the girls take their trebuchet across the Atlantic to Swaton and wrap their c-cup around an egg, it's a safe bet we'll all watch the TV news to see whether the catcher ends up with egg on her face.

Here are the latest updates, announced by Andy Dunlop on June 2:

At least 12 trebuchets have been constructed or are being built.

A Latvian led team is currently putting its final touches to a machine constructed out of aluminium in Peterborough.

A USA team from Houston is completing its final planning. The American team has a real problem flying the machine over, as “weapons of mass destruction” are not allowed on normal passenger planes. They intend to construct from scratch once they arrive.

The Welsh team from Cardiff is preparing, for the first time since 1294, to invade England with its homemade trebuchet. This fearsome team consists of the current World Record Holder for Dry Foam Flinging and Runner up in the World Pea Shooting Championship.

One English team is arriving from Northumbria University, to help beat off the Welsh challenge, with machines designed and constructed as part of a degree course.

FOOTNOTES. Here's another story about trebuchets, written five years ago: Pigs Can Fly; So Can Pianos, Horses, Cars.

Anagram film wins award

2008-05-28T03:21:00.000-07:00

(in other words, flaw winds a grammarian)

An eight-minute film about anagrams has won the American Documentary P.O.V. Short Film Award at this year's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. Its title, ARS MAGNA (Latin for Great Art) is an anagram of the word ANAGRAMS.

It features two of the world's best anagrammers, Anu Garg and Cory Calhoun. As someone long fascinated by this form of word play, I first wrote about them nine years ago. http://wordsmith.org/anagram/article-sydneymorningherald.html

I praised Cory, who was then a 22-year-old student at Western Washington University, for having composed what I thought (and still think) was the world's best anagram, based on Hamlet's famous soliloquy:

Original phrase (Shakespeare). :

To be or not to be, that is the question, whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Anagram:

In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.

"Believe it or not," Cory told me by email in 1999, "I created that anagram phrase without any aid from a computer program. I started by arranging all the letters in a more or less alphabetical order, then thought of several Shakespeare-related words. I created a list, then (as I often do with anagrams) let the letters 'speak to me', as to what word would go around the mainly Shakespearian words.

"All along, I tried to yield a phrase that made a direct comment about the play itself. Often, and much to my fright, I'll look at words and phrases and almost instantaneously come up with an anagram of it. For example, I once saw the word Spectrum on a car, and Crumpets sprang to mind."

Today Cory, now 31 and living in Seattle, is a man of many talents and interests. He describes himself as an anagrammatist, puzzlesmith, designer, writer and artist. He says on his website: http://myspace.com/coryscalhoun

"I'm currently living in West Seattle with my gorgeous wife Miriam. We're both arts majors; my day job is chef at the Essential Baking Company; hers is HR operations at Tommy Bahama. That is, until A) I get a publishing deal, B) she gets a gig in either nutrition or music, or C) both.

"I’ve got eclectic tastes and embrace my inner geek. I make crossword puzzles and anagrams ...belt out karaoke with the gang, scrutinize and revel in the latest 'Lost' theories, and rock out to the odd TMBG track."

Anu Garg, the India-born Wordsmith who founded the global newsletter A Word A Day, http://wordsmith.org/awad/ has long been intrigued by the magic of anagrams. "They never lie," he quipped several years ago.

Researching the web in 1999, I discovered to my surprise that the letters spelling ANAGRAM GENIUS could be shuffled to show that his NAME IS ANU GARG. That was confusing, as William Tunstall-Pedoe, a clever Cambridge (UK) software developer and entrepreneur, runs a commercial website called Anagram Genius, and markets software with that name. http://www.anagramgenius.com/

Anu also lives in Seattle, with his wife and daughter. In addition to composing his daily newsletter, he writes books about words, and designed and runs the Internet Anagram Server, http://wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

Tap in your name (or anyone else's) and in a flash you'll see myriad anagrams using those same letters.

Anagrams have provided amusement for many centuries, and in numerous languages. Thousands of clever anagrams in English are listed on hundreds of websites. Here are a few favorites:

Elvis = Lives

Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one

New York Times = Monkeys write

Dormitory = Dirty Room

Mother-in-law = Woman Hitler

The Detectives = Detect Thieves

Schoolmaster = The Classroom

Presbyterian = Best In Prayer

A Decimal Point = I'm a Dot in Place

The Countryside = No City Dust Here

Listen = Silent

A Telephone Girl = Repeating "Hello"

The Morse Code = Here Come Dots

And here's a classsic anagram composed years ago by Steve Krakowski, that has just become topical again: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Neil A. Armstrong = A thin man ran; makes a large stride; left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!

"Ars Magna" starring Anu, Cory and his lovely wife Miriam, was produced earlier this year as an entry in the International Documentary Challenge. http://documentarychallenge.org/

One hundred and twenty-two film makers from sixteen countries set out to make a documentary in five days. "Ars Magna" is travelling on the festival circuit and will be screened at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle on July 10.

To view it now, click HERE http://www.pbs.org/pov/shorts/shorts_arsmagna.html

DISCLOSURE. The author of this article is Anu Garg's copy editor.

Citizen Reporters in World War I

2008-05-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

Harry Lamin, a British soldier who endured the horrors of life in the trenches of the Western Front in World War I, was one of the world's first citizen reporters. His homely despatches are now being posted on the internet, http://wwar1.blogspot.com/ exactly 90 years after he wrote them.

His letters to his family, posted one at a time, read like a serial cliffhanger, causing thousands of present-day internet surfers worldwide to worry about his welfare. 'Where is he?" one frantic viewer wrote a few days ago. 'What's happened? I need the next letter! Is he dead? Is he alive? It's been 8 days and no word from him!'

Three years ago, Bill Lamin, now 59, an information technology teacher living in Cornwall, England, read a bundle of letters his grandfather, Private Harry Lamin, had written from the western front in 1917-18. He sorted them into chronological order, and just one year ago began posting them as a blog. http://www.wwar1.blogspot.com/ which has attracted more than a million hits.

Bill rightly says, 'What has been produced is a moving and poignant account of an ordinary man's experiences in an extraordinary situation. I have edited nothing. The spellings and grammar are exactly as Harry wrote them.'

Harry was conscripted in 1917, at the age of 30, and served with the York and Lancashire Regiment. He survived historic and bloody battles including Messines Ridge http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/messines.htm and Passchendaele, http://www.macknortshs.qld.edu.au/ANZAC/passchendaele.htm , which are still remembered for the appalling loss of lives of soldiers fighting on both sides.

'It is a rum job waiting for the time to go over the top - and without any rum too,' Harry commented in one letter. On June 11, 1917, he wrote to his brother Jack about the battle of Messines Ridge.

'We have had another terrible time this week the men here say it was worst than the Somme advance http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/somme.htm last July. We lost a lot of men but we got where we were asked to take. It was awful I am alright got buried and knocked about but quite well now and hope to remain so.

'We were praised by the general and all, everybody said we had done well, quite a success. I will tell you more when I see you.'

Today, hundreds of thousands of web surfers are anxiously waiting to learn whether Harry was wounded or killed in the closing stages of the war, when he was stationed in Italy.

Grandson Bill is keeping that secret, letting readers share the anxiety the family must have suffered while awaiting another letter from Harry... or a fateful telegram from the War Office.

On a happier note, here's a letter Captain Charles S. Normington, a 24-year-old American World War I soldier, wrote from Paris to his parents on Armistice Day, 11 November, 1918. His daughter, Lois Haugner, of Appleton, Wisconsin., recently posted it on the internet. http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/999999990422/APC0101/50930004

Dear Folks:

Arrived here last night, and was on the street today when the armistice with Germany was signed. Anyone who was not here can never be told, or imagine, the happiness of the people here.
They cheereed and cried and laughed and then started all over again.

Immediately a parade was started on the Rue De Italiennes and has been going on ever since. In the parade were hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the U.S., England, Canada, France, Australia, Italy and the colonies.

Each soldier had his arms full of French girls, some crying, others laughing, each girl had to kiss every soldier before she would let him pass.

When those early citizen reporters Harry Lamin and Charles Normington wrote to their folks 90 years ago, they could not have imagined their letters would be read by countless netizens around the world in 2008.

Niagara Falls on Deck

2008-05-10T23:17:00.000-07:00

Mild-mannered Bostonian Jeff Deck crossed the United States unmolested, blithely correcting hundreds of typos displayed in public places , but as soon as he crossed the Canadian border last week he was threatened by "two very large, chain-bedecked men," who told him: "Keep walking, or we’ll fix it so you can’t walk anymore.”

"This sounded like a persuasive argument, so Benjamin and I kept walking," Jeff reported in his whimsical blog http://www.jeffdeck.com/teal/blog/?p=83 on 9 May. " I decided that the whole town [Niagara Falls, Ontario] could go to hell, for all I cared.

"In our first three encounters, we’d been rebuffed, threatened, and condescended to, and from here on I would feel no obligation to point out mistakes to those who had wrought them."

Instead, he contented himself with photographing numerous typos he found in Niagara Falls, and displaying them in his popular blog.

Calming down, the 28-year-old crusader wrote: "My indignation died down when we made our way out of the wretched tourist area and to the Falls themselves. They seemed a bit smaller than they had looked to me the last time I visited, but then again, I’d been around twelve or thirteen at the time."

Before crossing the border, Jeff amended a sign in a fruit store in Erie, Pennsylvania, offering MACINTOSH apples for sale. He changed the spelling to McIntosh.
"We’re not talking about one of the computing products put out by my much-loathed nemesis, after all, so an a is unwelcome," he said.

He's right, of course. McIntosh Red apples were named in honor of a Scottish immigrant's son who discovered seeds of a marvelous new apple in Canada more than 200 years ago. His name was John McIntosh, and today his apples are one of the world's favorites. You can read about him in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McIntosh

There's an interesting link between McIntosh apples (the fruit) and Mac Apples (the computer), explained by TAM, The Apple Museum: http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=44

Steve Jobs came up with the name in early 1976. At the time, he was often visiting and working on a small farm friends of his owned. It was a hippie commune where Steve spent a few months of the year.

When he returned from one of those stays, he told Steve Wozniak about his idea. Jobs probably was working on apple plantages. Or he just wanted their startup to be in front of Atari in the phone book. Or it was a tribute to Apple Records, the music label of the Beatles.

Well, perhaps the computer should have been labelled the Apple Mc!

Jeff Deck's Fearless War On Typos

2008-04-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

Mild-mannered New Englander Jeff Deck, 28, from Manchester, New Hampshire, hated typos so much that he founded the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). Then on March 5 he set out on "a crusade to edit America", an epic journey that took him to the U.S. west coast. He's now in Wisconsin on his way home.

He has stopped off at more than 100 cities, towns and villages, fearlessly using a paintbrush and marker pen to correct the thousands of typos he spots wherever he and his "cuddle partner" Jane go. His friends Benjamin and Josh accompanied him for parts of the journey.

Sadly, his well-meant help (cynics might call it nitpicking) isn't always appreciated, and has led to some tense situations. Here's an extract from Jeff's amusing blog, describing his visit to a bar in Spokane, Washington:

There were only a couple of other customers in the place, and the music was plenty loud enough to go around. A big dude manned the bar inside. I approached, and he said, "What can I do for you?"

"I... uh... I noticed that your sign outside for margaritas spelled it M-A-R-G-I instead of M-A-R-G-A."

"Yeah, and?"

"I was wondering if you had an extra A, so that the sign could be corrected."

"Does it really matter?" He had a kind of threatening joviality in his responses, like he was either amused or ready to explode or both.

"Yeah, it does. I'm actually going around the country fixing typos, and thought I could... help you out."

"Well," said the bartender, still perched on the edge of volcanic emotion, "I don't have any extra letters, or the key to open that sign. I'll let my boss know that he can't spell, though. Is this really what you came in for? You're not going to order a drink?"

"Noooo," I said, and it was time to skedaddle.

In Las Vegas, Jeff noticed posters at the Circus Circus casino (including one in lights) announcing 'Welcome to the world's Greastest Greastest Circus!' Jeff wrote in his blog:

GREASTEST! GREASTEST! An abomination against all that is right and true. We needed to inform someone in charge. It was our only hope for seeing this perversity wiped from the land. The problem was, we couldn't actually find anyone in charge... everyone in the garb of Circus Circus was trying to sell us something. We wandered around until, finally, someone directed us to a thick-necked man scowling at some register tape. His reaction to our crucial piece of intelligence?

A blank look, then: "I'll... uh... have to tell someone about this."

Which you can recognize by now, cherished readers, as a synonym for thudding indifference. We tried to help you, Circus Circus. We wanted to end the era of you looking like a fool. But it seems that era will go on into the foreseeable future.
Reading of those encounters prompted us to send an email to Jeff, asking if he had been assaulted by any unrepentant misspellers. He replied: 'No, no violence or police involved anywhere, thankfully. We did encounter someone in LA who called us a naughty word, though.'

Asked if he thought his epic trip had been worthwhile, he said: 'Certainly it's been worthwhile! There are a lot more people out there now carrying Sharpies [a brand of markers] around with them.'

Jeff's well-written blog attracts a healthy following by some of the world's many other typophobes. Here are comments from two of them:

Bless your heart for reassuring me that I am not the only spelling and punctuation nut left in North America! The print media, mainly newspapers but not excluding books, magazines, and the internet, make me crazy with their pretense of proof-reading, and the poor spelling (and general indifference to spelling) of today's generations infuriate me on a daily basis. I rant and rave about it, but have never had the guts to do what you are doing to bring it to folks' attention. Way to go, Jeff! - Ruth M. Newton.

Thanks for the laughs, and cringes too! I can barely read our local newspaper without finding typos in the first few moments of sitting down to read. It's so highly annoying, I stopped reading the local newspaper and currently get most of my news online instead. Not that there aren't typos online...- Kathleen.

Thanks to Jeff Deck for permission to publish extracts from his TEAL Web site:
http://www.jeffdeck.com/teal/

To see a Good Morning America video of Jeff fixing misspelled signs, visit The Human Spell Check:
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2323700/7292670

Centenarian Columnist's Californian Comeback

2008-04-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

Thirty years ago Californian Frank Pelatowski decided that as he had reached the age of 70 he would stop writing his weekly column in his local newspaper, the Mariposa Gazette, http://www.mariposagazette.com/ and enjoy retired life. Now, as a sprightly centenarian, he has revived the feature, which means he is probably the world's oldest columnist.

His nearest rivals for the title are thought to be Australia's Ken Sillcock (97) http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=382345&rel_no=1 and Britain's Henry Jackson (95) http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=382207&rel_no=1

'I decided to come back because I've lived long enough to set one record and the Gazette has been in print long enough to set another,' he says. 'You see, not only is the Gazette an old paper, it's the oldest continuously-published weekly newspaper in all of California. On Jan. 20, 2004 it turned 150 years old, having never missed an issue.

'Some people say I have a lot of energy for a 100-year-old man. They may be right. I'm not only going to write new columns, but I'm still doing other writing, including a book titled "The Wit and Wisdom of Frank Pelatowski", which will be in bookstores later this year.'

Frank was born in Massachusetts on August 10, 1907, when Theodore Roosevelt was his nation's president. His parents were Polish immigrants. He grew up in Connecticut, with 10 brothers and sisters.

In 1923, after leaving High School at 16, he joined the U.S. Navy - so young that he needed a note from his parents. He served on the then new battleship USS West Virginia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_West_Virginia_(BB-48) cruising down the Atlantic coast, through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean to Australia and New Zealand.

Nearly 20 years later, in World War II, the Navy recalled him to serve a second term, as a chief petty officer.

Here are extracts from Frank's website:

I've been married twice, both wives died while married to me. I have no children, but consider many children to be like grandchildren to me.

Like my father before me, I spent most of my life as a builder. I was also involved in the community; I even ran for office once - and lost.

That was enough of politics; but I served for years as an officer in the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Lions Club and other groups right here in Mariposa.

I've been a writer all my life, and my work has appeared in several publications. I've completed children's books and have two or three unfinished manuscripts in my files.

Though I moved 'down the hill' and have lived in Merced for many years, I have fond memories of Mariposa County and have many friends in the area.

I'm hoping to visit often, to renew old friendships and create new ones. I want to meet Gazette readers and learn about their lives.

Frank lives in an old folks' home in Merced. Like most centenarians, he has failing eyesight. He dictates his columns to his friend and fellow writer David Burke, who hopes to syndicate them to other newspapers as well.

Frank's first column written after he turned 100 was titled 'World's oldest column returns to the Gazette' http://www.mariposagazette.com/opinion/contentview.asp?c=239967

His second column was a nostalgic story about his Navy days, called 'Rollin' in my sweet hammock's arms' http://www.mariposagazette.com/opinion/contentview.asp?c=240503.

Frank has also made a YouTube video that's well worth checking out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9WLE1wBuYM&eurl=http://worldsoldestcolumnist.blogspot.com/

He says he likes writing stories with happy endings.

FOOTNOTES. Merced (population 210,554) is a county in California's Central Valley, north of Fresno and and southeast of San Jose. Mariposa (population 1,373) is the county seat (administrative center) of Mariposa County. Its name is the Spanish word for 'butterfly', after early explorers saw flocks of Monarch butterflies http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm there. Mariposa and Merced, 40 miles apart, both call themselves 'The Gateway to Yosemite.' Mariposa being 30 miles from the national park.

The passenger liner SS (Steam Ship) Mariposa maintained a regular service linking the US west coast with Australia and New Zealand before WWII, when she became a US Navy transport troopship. http://www.pinetreeline.org/metz/photos/pm-55c.html

Here's another centenarian journalist!

Mildred Heath, of Overton, Nebraska, is only five months younger than Frank Pelatowski. Born on January 4, 1908, she works five days a week as the Overton correspondent of the Beacon (Nebraska) Observer. She may be the world's oldest working journalist, but her present job does not qualify her to compete for the 'oldest columnist' crown.

'Residents of Overton, a farm town of 646 people east of Lexington, marvel at Heath's energy,' says Omaha World-Herald staff writer Paul Hammel. http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1219&u_sid=10224210 'The only concession to her 100 years is an electric scooter she rides one block to work. She broke her hip five or six years ago...

'Her main chores are answering the phone and filing photographs, although she still calls local residents to check for news of their families. She asks most people to write up their items and drop them off at the paper, but she still uses an electric typewriter regularly.'

Is Ken (97) world's oldest columnist?

2008-04-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

London's famous journalist Henry Jackson (95) is probably Britain's oldest columnist, but Australia's Ken Sillcock has trumped him by two years for the world title.

"Hey, we have a bonzer 97-year-old columnist," (Bonzer is an Australian slang word meaning excellent) Alan Wheatley, editor of Melbourne's Bonzer! webzine ("The Online Monthly Magazine by, for and about Wise Elders") exclaimed when he read our story about Henry Jackson. http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2008/03/worlds_oldest_c_2.php

During World War II, Ken (born 8 Oct., 1910) was a wireless (radio) operator in the Royal Australian Air Force. He served in the UK in Bomber Command, in Lancaster aircraft making perilous destructive raids over Europe.

Checking some of Ken's recent stories in the Bonzer! archives reveals much about his varied and eventful life.

He has written a biographical book called "Three Lifetimes of Dairy Farming in Victoria" about his grandfather and father and his own work as a dairy herd tester before he became Deputy Chief of Agriculture for the state of Victoria.

"Science for me seemed to end in 1930, two years into a four-year degree course, when the Great Financial Depression intervened," he recalled last November.

"Through life, skills which seem unrelated can combine to change one's destiny. For me, this happened in music. Until the end of 1924 my mother taught me to play the piano tolerably well. Ten years later I joined the local brass band as a learner and bought a cornet, just as a hobby, until I joined the AIF [Australian Army] in 1940 as a bandsman/stretcher bearer. This, together with my background in science, led to me being chosen for anti-malaria training.

"My elementary training in entomology was put to use in 1940 when the AIF sent me to a school on malaria control conducted in the Jordan Valley, where the disease was endemic and control work was in place. We applied our new skill in Lebanon and, later, in Sri Lanka.

"That ceased, for me, with our return to Australia, but in 1943 my previous studies of Physics and Mathematics were most helpful when I transferred to the RAAF and studied Radio Theory as a major subject in the Wireless Operator course. Science became a dominant interest again when, in 1945, I had the opportunity to complete my degree course, and in my subsequent career."

Ken attracts young as well as old readers to his writing. Here's a tribute written by Sarah, a 24-year-old Brisbane blogger http://todaysapatheticyouth.blogspot.com/2005/11/remember-this.html

"We still have old guys like Ken Sillcock alive at the moment, who are trying their best to pass on to us the lessons they took away from their painful experience of war. But we're not even listening, and soon, there'll be nothing to remember."

Here's a sample of Ken's lucid writing, from his latest column in the April edition of Bonzer! http://home.vicnet.net.au/~bonzer/p-o-v.html

Our money was fairly reliable when it consisted of alloys of gold, silver and copper, which only a metallurgist could fake, and genuine coins were minted only by the legal government of the nation. In my grandfather's lifetime he carried sufficient money for his daily needs in a spring-loaded case in a waistcoat pocket at the end of a chain.

On one side it held five sovereigns (pounds) and on the other five half-sovereigns. Banks with secure vaults were set up so that people could have their money stored safely when not needed. A fee had to be charged to pay the people who provided this service.

Things started to go wrong when banks started to make the rules. At first they were required to hold in their vaults gold to the value of five-sixths of the gold they held on behalf of their clients. Then note-printing was introduced when the Bank of England was given a licence to print them, and lend them out at interest.

Ken has a word of advice for his readers. He says old people who remain active and interested in their community tend, as a group, to remain more healthy than those who think they are ''too old, over the hill, or finished."

Last December, he sent this email to his friends and admirers:

I havIe an important message for the world, and I ask that you pass it on, especially to those who do not have email. It is: Don't be in too much hurry to help those who are disabled.

That sounds a bit at odds with the Christian spirit and with the beliefs of other codes of life, until I add: First, find out what help they need which will not cause them further damage.

Our bodies were designed long before the wheel and the hydraulic lift were invented. They work on a system of levers well understood by those who studied Physics or Mechanics to Year 10.

Every lever has to move through part of a circle around its pivot. It cannot, for instance, go immediately from the horizontal to the vertical position, but must arrive at it in two stages.

In a chair with arms my technique was to push myself halfway up, then change my grip to include a forward thrust and then steady myself on a firm object or with a walking stick.

So there I was, in my 97th. year, the oldest at our annual Air Force Europe lunch. The chairs didn't have arms, so I sat down through the toasts etc. At the end, when I had to get up, without warning, the two young and fit blokes, barely in their eighties, grabbed me under the armpits and, with the kindest of intentions, hauled me straight up, in defiance of the Law of the Lever.

In the days following I learned that a "crook back" is not just a dull sort of pain. It is that much of the time but. if you make a wrong move, it hits you with an uncontrolled spasm which really hurts. The only way to avoid that is to stand up or sit down in a slow spiral, not straight up or down.

I have just moved out of hospital into my own home, a separate house on my son's block. Indoors I use a wheeled walking frame and have a few grab bars installed, and have help calling to check on me, but I am not yet allowed to go outdoors unaccompanied. Time will heal a cracked vertebra and an apparently strained muscle on my left side.

On the positive side, I have gained this knowledge to pass on, extra compassion for those worse off than I am, and especially for those who have similar injuries much earlier in life.

I can still enjoy some independent living, still in touch with the whole world through Internet.

My family have been most supportive, even sacrificing time they should have given to their work, and the Department of Veterans' Affairs has sometimes anticipated my needs.

Ken moved into a 24-hour serviced aged care facility just before Christmas. He told one of his friends: "As I have to be here I aim to contribute something to the life of the place. I guess that’s what we should aim to do, whatever life deals up to us."

With the approach of Anzac Day (April 25) Australians (and others) may like to read Ken's moving poem, The Jinx Kite http://www.wordandnumberpuzzles.com/bonzer/B/contributions.html

World's oldest columnists' sexpert tease

2008-03-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

London's Henry Jackson (95) is the favorite to succeed Rose Hacker (101) as the world's oldest columnist. Rose, a socialist, sex educator, writer and social justice campaigner, died on February 4.

"Mrs Hacker had her first column published [in the Camden New Journal] in September 2006 - when she was 100," said a BBC report http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7227551.stm

The Camden newspaper is continuing to publish her articles: http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/rose_hacker.html

Henry Jackson, her probable successor to the Oldest Columnist crown, has been in the newspaper trade all his life, starting as a junior reporter on a local newspaper, then working for Odhams Press, the Associated Press of America, the Daily and Overseas Mail, the Sunday Dispatch and The Observer. He launched his own motoring magazine in 1953 and then added more titles to what became the Bugle Press Group.

These days he's a weekly columnist for Britain's daily literary newszine Open Writing, http://www.openwriting.com/ published in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

"Henry's entertaining mixture of news and memories, prose and poetry, makes for one of the best reads in any week," says editor Peter Hinchliffe, who often writes feature stories about life in Britain for OhmyNews.

Henry and Peter have given us permission to publish these extracts from three recent columns in a series of candid confessions headed "Looking Back: The Women in My Life":

I was just 23 and working hard five days a week at a job I loved, and to earn more money I took an extra Saturday job on the Sunday Dispatch newspaper. Eileen had her clients and most evenings I would bring her home from somewhere in Chelsea or Kensington. Later on I taught her how to drive and she drove me to work then used the car during the day and brought me home at night.

I was a total sex novice and Eileen was an accomplished teacher. But I was too young and unpractised in the complex art of love making and never achieved sexual equality with her and this caused me great sorrow...

I changed jobs twice quickly on my way up the publishing ladder, each time for more salary, and when the war came I had three jobs at the same time---as a sub editor on the Daily Mail, as a sub editor on the Sunday Dispatch, and as assistant to the Editor of the Overseas Daily Mail. I earned a lot of money and worked seven days a week.

I also changed cars and bought a family car, a Morris saloon, that took us all over the country on holidays. And after I crashed it in the wartime blackout at 1a.m. on my way home from the Daily Mail I bought a Fiat 500 which ran on a whisper of fuel.

Then I left my rented house in Hampstead Garden Suburb and bought a three bedroom house for £16,000 in Mill Hill, on the northern outskirts of London, just when London became a target for German bombers. I built a concrete bomb shelter in the garden and continued on the Daily Mail until I received a call to join the Navy.

Eileen drove me to Paddington Station and I took a train to Torpoint in Cornwall and joined HMS Raleigh, a Royal Navy training camp, as an Ordinary Seaman. My pay was a pitiful 24 shillings and sixpence a week, one fifteenth of my previous weekly earnings. While at Torpoint the camp was bombed by German planes and during the attack one bomb demolished the shelter next to mine and killed all 46 occupants.

From Torpoint I was moved to HMS Raleigh, the Navy barracks at Chatham, then to HMS Wildfire training centre at Sheerness and finally to HMS Auricula, a Flower Class corvette engaged in Atlantic convoys and based in Liverpool.

The war at sea was at its peak and leave was rare but Eileen drove up to Liverpool once to spend the night with me at the aristocratic Adelphi Hotel where they did not like letting rooms to ordinary seamen but the manager changed his mind when he discovered that I was a friend of the owner of the world famous Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

[Fast forward nine years.] The year 1944 was an important year for me. I had returned home after two-and-a-half years abroad in the Royal Navy and the war at sea was still raging. I came home to find my wife living in my house with a Canadian soldier and she refused to give him up.

I was serving in a Fleet minesweeper at the time and the Normandy invasion had just begun. After a minor scuffle with a German mine off Arromanches we came in for repairs at the Royal Albert Dock in London and I managed to scrape some leave. I was 32, angry with the war, angry with my wife, lonely and bitter. My life had fallen to pieces.

The latest instalment of this real-life soap opera begins:

Last week I described my return from overseas during the War to find my wife living in my house with a Canadian soldier so I telephoned Joan, a former neighbour.

I obtained Joan’s number from the new occupants of her house and she gave me such a warm welcome that I went round to see her. The shapely Joan was still an attractive blonde but she had put on a pound or two and she wore a flowery apron that made her look exactly like her mother.

From the bottom of a cupboard she produced a bottle of wine and we drank to Old Times. Then she produced another bottle of wine and we drank to More Old Times. Then the outlook became very misty and there was no outlook and I woke up in bed with Joan. We were both naked....

To find out what happened next, you'll have to read Henry's entertaining column in Open Writing: http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2008/03/yards_of_french_1.php

Intrepid Housewife’s Desert Walk

2008-03-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

While soldiers of many nations face danger and hardship in the deserts of Iraq, Israel and Palestine, a party of adventurers from Britain have each paid 250 pounds ($US507) to enjoy a luxurious "desert walk" in neighboring Jordan.

"I have had a few text messages saying that all is well apart from the gruelling temperatures, the swimming in the Dead Sea, having your dinner cooked for you every night and sleeping out under the stars in a desert. What a hard life it is!" stay-at-home husband Simon Elmont scoffs in his family blog.

"Liz is hoping to get back to Guernsey on Sunday evening and back home on Monday morning in time to make my lunch."

Liz Elmont, 29-year-old mother of two young children, had responded to a fund-raising appeal by the British charity Dogs for the Disabled, which required every Desert Walker to raise at least 2500 pounds ($US5075) in sponsorships.

"This is a truly spectacular five-day trek through the Arabian desert in Jordan starting at the Dead Sea – the lowest point on earth – and finishing in the ancient rock city of Petra," the organizers said on the official website http://www.dogsforthedisabled.org/Supportus/OverseasChallenges.htm

"Your personal challenge is to raise funds to train puppies for Dogs for the Disabled – offering confidence, companionship and independence to disabled people across the UK.

"Sleep under the stars each night as we trek with our Bedouin guides through areas of amazing solitude and great beauty.

"Our route takes us from the bottom of valleys to the top of mountains over terrain that is exciting and challenging. The shared experience of this very special hike is guaranteed to be full of friendship and fun as well as a wonderful way to raise money to give disabled people increased independence and companionship."

Here are a few edited extracts from the Elmont blog, recounting Liz's adventures:

Friday, March 9. So this is it! I'm off to Jordan this weekend! I'm flying out of Guernsey tomorrow and should be back in about ten days time all being well. If I manage to get any info through to Simon I'm sure he'll update the blog while I'm away. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Sunday, March 9. I'm stuck in Heathrow Airport waiting to meet up with all the others travelling to Jordan for the Desert Walk. I successfully managed to get here without getting lost once - nothing short of a miracle for me! Hopefully that's a good omen for the rest of the trip.

Thursday, March 13. ...and the headlines tonight:

BONG - Liz got up the mountainsBONG - She doesn’t know what shes been eating for the last few days but is glad she hasn't seen the insides of the catering tent!BONG - she should reach journey's end tomorrow at PetraLiz has inadvertently strayed into a mobile phone area so managed a quick call home earlier this evening to relay the story so far.

Dodging rockets fired from Israeli gunships and whilst trying to pick out the camel meat from her dinner she informed me that all was well apart from a very sore toe and the obligatory dodgy knee.

The Desert Walk was scheduled to be held from March 9 to 16, so it may have ended by the time this story is published. For a last-minute account, click on Liz's fascinating blog http://elmontsonline.blogspot.com/

Simon's Own Efforts
Simon Elmont isn't always a stay-at-home childminder. He took part in The 2005 Polar Race from Resolute Bay in Nanavut (the former North West Territories) to the Magnetic North Pole. Pulling 70kg sledges, competing teams walked or skied more than 400 miles in temperatures as low as -40 degrees centigrade.

The team of Simon Elmont and Steve Wright won third prize, completing the course in 14 days, 22 hours, 7 minutes.

""With all this time on my hands, it has been very easy to get into my own expedition planning mode - that'll teach you to leave me on my own for a few days," Simon wrote to Liz last week.

"I have an offer of a job in Baffin next year for a two week guiding trip followed in 2010 by Steve and me attempting to ski across Greenland, following the famous Nansen route.

"As always, a sponsor is required, so any corporate directors reading this please get in touch!"

This story was first published by the South Korean journal OhmyNewsInternational: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=382084&rel_no=1

END

Harrods gives Guido a guiding hand

2008-01-30T23:19:00.000-08:00

A strange-looking giraffe is just one of many equally bizarre animal images painted by a versatile and talented commercial artist, Guido Daniele, of Milan, Italy, to be displayed for sale at Harrods famous store in London from February 4 to March 30.

You can see the giraffe and some of his other weird hand paintings by clicking on this article from the London Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=510990&in_page_id=1770

Clever, aren't they? We were intrigued when we first saw an image of an eagle's head several years ago. It reminded us of those comical hand shadows of rabbits, cats and other animals that we used to project on to our children's bedroom walls at night. Those were illustrated in a book published back in 1859.

Daniele won fame in the early 1990s for his "body painting" illustrations for advertisements by several globally-known companies. To produce eye-catching ads for a chocolate maker, he covered the bodies of attractive models with the client's products.

Three years ago he successfully combined two traditional portrait techniques, photography and oil painting, to produce six enhanced "hand" images, which had to be seen to be believed. Don't just take our word for that. See them for yourself by visiting the Guido Daniele website(see link below).

We asked Guido about those marvellous hand paintings. Using a keyboard without the letter J (J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the standard Italian alphabet) he replied:

"Thank you very much for your appreciation; the hands-animals-painted were a Leo Burnett project in Milano ( Italy ), the art-director called me and asked me if whose possible for me to paint hands as a different animals ....i say 'of course', but not every animal...so I advise which whose best.

"We decide to start with a good photographer , a good model and every day I've paint different subyect just looking some photos printed on paper . Later , my yob whose retouched by computer just a little : as the elephant tooth.

"Cheers, Guido."

Just how he paints his eye-catching pictures is fully described in his website.

FOOTNOTE. While researching this story, we found a fascinating YouTube video of hand shadows by anothr type of artist, Raymond Crowe, "Australia's only unusualist," at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas. It's well worth a visit.

LINKS
Guido Daniele's website http://www.guidodaniele.com/
Children's wall shadows http://mindbluff.com/shadow.htm
Raymond Crowe's video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW-3KwXpkkM

This story has been published by the South Korean citizen reporters' online journal OhmyNewsInternational: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=381620&rel_no=1

Australia foams at the mouth

2008-01-26T02:46:00.000-08:00

Amazing photographs of "Crazy ocean foam ... near Sydney" are so weird that many web surfers (and some real ones) think they must be fakes.

They're real all right, but they were not taken anywhere near Sydney. They show masses of foam four meters (13 feet) deep, washed up at Yamba, a small beach and fishing resort 677km (421 miles) north of Sydney, Australia's largest city, but only 287km (178 miles) south of Brisbane, our third city.

Last week (on January 23) a similar phenomenon occurred further north, at Point Cartwright, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, just north of Brisbane.

It may be significant that Yamba lies at the mouth of the mighty Clarence River, while Point Cartwright is at the mouth of the Mooloolaba River.

A quick check shows that the Yamba photos were the work of a commercial photographer, Bill Counsell, who is more used to recording outdoor weddings. His dramatic pictures of the foam have circled the world, copied on hundreds of websites and blogs, usually without a credit line.

Counsell sold his photos to the Sydney Daily Telegraph and the London Daily Mail, and then they took off in a media frenzy, being copied globally in the press, on TV and the internet, usually without permission.

A website in Ukraine displayed the photos with captions in Cyrillic script.

"I've had an amazing response from all corners of the world, from men's girly magazines to German science magazines and everything in between," Counsell told me,

What caused the foam to form? Counsell, who lives within walking distance of the clubhouse, said he learned of the foam starting to build the day before he took his sensational photos.

"I think the foam was created by a combination of events: no rain at all for two or three months and then a lot of rain over a couple of days at the same time as the sea was in a semi-cyclonic condition -- large swell, strong winds, heavy rain and big tides," he said.

"In lay terms I think the sea was the Mixmaster, the beach was the bowl and the stormwater run-off (full of modern day chemicals and detergents etc) were the ingredients, so with the combination of these factors coming together, the surf was literally whipped up."

Commenting on the story in the US, One Man's Blog said: "This is definitely one of the strangest natural phenomenon I've ever read about. Just imagine dumping enough dish-washing liquid into the ocean to turn all the waves into light and fluffy soap bubbles that are soft enough to blow out of your hand into the air!

"Well, that's basically what happened off the coast of Yamba in New South Wales!

"Here we see kids frolicking and playing in the wonderful ocean foam, oblivious to the fact that it is comprised of dead plants, decomposed fish, and seaweed excretions!"

The London Daily Mail's Sydney correspondent, Richard Shears wrote:
"Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles. These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore.

"As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam. The foam 'surfs' towards shore until the wave 'crashes', tossing the foam into the air.

"'It's the same effect you get when you whip up a milk shake in a blender,' explains a marine expert. 'The more powerful the swirl, the more foam you create on the surface and the lighter it becomes.'

"In this case, storms off the New South Wales Coast and further north off Queensland had created a huge disturbance in the ocean, hitting a stretch of water where there was a particularly high amount of the substances which form into bubbles."

In Australia, a surfer calling himself Barnacle wrote in a message to the RealSurf forum:
"John Dengate of the NSW Department for the Environment and Conservation was on ABC Radio yesterday and said it was due to small sea organisms that are literally pulverised by the large swell resulting in a very fine protein suspension in the sea.

"The protein mix coats the air-bubbles created by the waves to create a stiff froth, just the same way as egg protein coats air bubbles to make meringue, and beer protein coats air bubbles to produce a head of foam in a beer glass."

Finally, Ian Scott-Parker, from a town called Hurricane in Utah, USA, wrote: "The explanations for the creation of the foam seem too varied to be reliable. Various natural products are foaming agents (extract of horse chestnuts was used in early fire extinguishers) but saline solutions are usually considered to be anti-foaming agents.

"On balance I like the crushed plankton providing protein foaming agent hypothesis, when the high level of fresh water coming in from the Clarence River provides a suitable non-saline environment for the foam to be generated.

"Australia Foaming at the Mouth would be a good headline." [Thanks, Ian.]

He added: "There is already a range of cosmetic products named Aussie on sale in the USA, so I feel sure there is room in the woo-woo sector for All Natural Yamba Plankton Body Wash -- Harness the Power of Cyclonic Weather Systems To Beautify Your Skin. A version for men would be a possibility -- Enriched With Guinness Head for a Whiff of the Pub and the Ocean All in One Lotion."

LINKS
Cappuccino Coast http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=478041&in_page_id=1811
Sludge oozes at Point Cartwright
http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008/jan/24/monster-deep-emerge-sea-foam/
Bill Counsell, photographer http://www.billcounsell.com/
Ukraine website (Cyrillic script) http://www.4post.com.ua/travel/13689.html?photo=5
Pacific Ocean near Sydney turns to foam
http://onemansblog.com/2007/09/28/pacific-ocean-near-sydney-turns-to-foam/

This story was first published by OhmyNewsInternational, http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=381567&rel_no=1&back_url

Still Blogging At 96

2008-01-13T15:45:00.000-08:00

Spain's oldest blogger, María Amelia, seemed pensive when she began making a brief video of her 96th birthday celebrations on December 23. Then she tried to blow out two candles on her decorated cake. With her first and second puffs,only one light went out She blew harder. The remaining flame flickered, but stayed alight. Several more puffs, but the candle stubbornly refused to be extinguished.

Maria Amelia's face lit up like the candle. "Dios me dió 1 año más!" ("God has given me one more year!") she exclaimed, waving her arms excitedly. You can share her spontaneous joy even if you can't understand Spanish, by viewing her latest video http://amis95.blogspot.com/

Emilio Pérez Touriño, president of Spain's autonomous community of Galicia, sent a congratulatory birthday message to Amelia.

Amelia's 96th birthday marked the completion of her first year's blog, which was the previous year's gift from her grandson Daniel, who helpfully types the posts that she dictates to him.

When I interviewed her for OhmyNewsInternational a year ago, http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=341010&rel_no=1&back_url= she said her name was María Amelia. Last month she revealed for the first time that her full name is María Amelia López Soliño Abente Barros. (The automated translater says it's María Amelia López Soliño Abente Mud, because the Spanish word barros means mud in English).

One year ago, Amelia was hailed as the world's oldest blogger, but since then she has been dethroned by Australia's 108-year-old Olive Riley. http://www.allaboutolive.com.au/

Both these wonderful oldtimers have thousands of supporters reading every word they dictate, but sadly all Amelia's observations are recorded only in Galician (galego) and Olive's only in English.

Let's hope that someone fluent in both languages will offer to translate their posts for the benefit of their monolingual admirers.

* This story was first published by the British daily literary webzine "Open Writing": http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2008/01/still_blogging.php

** For 500 more stories, on many different subjects, please read my free e-book: http://bdb.co.za/

FOUR STORIES FOR DECEMBER

2007-12-03T01:05:00.000-08:00

babies,solar power, ausra,Author Eric Shackle, in Sydney, Australia, and webmaster Barry Downs, in Kimberley, South Africa, invite you to ride the Internet's magic carpet and read these latest stories, that have been posted at http://bdb.co.za/shackle

Artists love The 12 Days of Christmas
December 13 is "day number one" of The 12 Days of Christmas for most of us, but centuries ago Day Number One was Christmas Day, December 25. Talented Australian photographer Anne Geddes displays her version of 12 drummers drumming in one of her books. The drummers are all babies beating toy drums. 0712

Solar power: California shames Oz
While some Australian politicians plan to build still more atmosphere-polluting coal fired power stations, the nation's leading solar energy scientist, Dr. David Mills, neglected by his adopted country, has moved to the US to help build a solar thermal power station in Central California.

Islanders re-enact The Pig War
Few people other than North Americans have heard of the once-threatened Pig War between Great Britain and the United States, but residents of tiny San Juan Island, where it occurred in 1859, re-enact it every year.

Olive Riley's Lost Cousins
As a great-great-grandmother, my friend Olive Riley (108), the world's oldest blogger, often wonders how many living relatives she has. Since she was the youngest of a family of 12 children, there must be hundreds of their descendants she has never heard of.

To read these latest articles, please visit http://bdb.co.za/shackle

FOUR NEW STORIES FOR YOU

2007-11-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

The World's First Multi-National e-Book

Author Eric Shackle, in Sydney, Australia, and webmaster Barry Downs, in Kimberley, South Africa, invite you to ride the Internet's magic carpet and read these latest stories, that have been posted at http://bdb.co.za/shackle

Cinderellas, aged 10 to 108
Australia's Olive Riley is a 21st century centenarian Cinderella. In less than a year she has rocketed from relative obscurity to global internet fame as the world's oldest blogger.

Welsh couple's quirky quest
For years, we've been intrigued by bizarre pastimes such as worm charming and egg throwing. Now, to our delight, we've found two kindred spirits - a fun-loving Welsh couple.

Is the game of Conkers really dangerous?
The ancient game of conkers may be making a comeback in Britain, after being banned from many school playgrounds several years ago, when it was condemned as dangerous.

3-D artist amazes Londoners
Talented American 3-D sidewalk artist Kurt Wenner has crossed the Atlantic and set to work, amazing passers-by at a London railway station. See pictures of his wonderful artistry.

To read these latest articles, please visit http://bdb.co.za/shackle

Quirky Couple's Queer Quest

2007-10-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Quirky Couple's Queer Quest
For years, we've been intrigued by bizarre pastimes such as worm charming and egg throwing, and have written about those and other world championships held every year in remote parts of the world.

Now, to our delight, we've found two kindred spirits -- a Welsh couple who take part in as many world championships as they can, if the events are held in the UK. And let's face it, the Brits have long had a reputation for such offbeat activities.We first heard about the couple when we read an interesting story by Katie Norman in the South Wales Echo. Here's how it began:

"Emma Hagerty, 27, and her boyfriend, Mark Rye, 28, have made it their mission to enter as many unusual world championships as possible.The couple, of Whitchurch Road, Gabalfa, Cardiff, entered 30 weird and wonderful international standard events last year.

"As well as competing in many crazy golf competitions, they have entered a conker tournament, a dry foam throwing contest and a tin bath race -- all at world championship level."

We emailed Mark Rye for more details of their strange pursuit of world titles. He replied:

"i am guessing you know what we have been doing over the last year and a bit, but here is a summary. me, the girlfriend and my mate tom spent last year travelling the length of the UK entering as many world championhships as we couldthis led us to northern ireland, scotland, wales, england and even the isle of man. at the end of the year we had entered 30 world championships.

"however i have not been able to leave it at that, so it is now my hobby entering world championships.drop me a line back with anything you want to know, as if it is a world championships in the uk i probably know about it."

Of course we were eager for more, so we asked Mark if he had managed to win any world titles. He told us:

"i did manage to become the dry foam throwing world champion and world record holder, also i defend my title this year.i don't know if i said before but there were 3 of us travelling around last year me, emma and my childhood mate tom.

"we have entered both the conkers and the worm charming. although it does have to be said that our worm charming skills do need to be work on, as we only managed 5 worms in our half hour. tom did manage to go one further and get 6 of them out of the ground.

"as for the most fun, it is hard to say. but dock leaf pudding cooking is up there. there are a few pictures of the event here: [photo 11 is me]in this event you have to cook a dock leaf pudding 'live' on stage while the local brass band plays, i think the word surreal was invented to describe this."

Searching the Internet, we discovered that Emma-Jayne Hagerty, 27, is a health worker and her partner, Mark Rye, 28, an administrator.

A World Circular Chess Championship Web site reported: "Organisers welcomed four new entrants from Cardiff and Edinburgh, Ian Lewis, Mark Rye, Tom Maxwell and Emma-Jayne Hagerty, who have embarked on a mission to enter a series of world championship events staged across the country, including cheese-rolling, wellington-boot throwing, worm-charming and pooh-sticks."

Pooh sticks aren't what you might imagine. The annual championship, held in Oxfordshire, is "based on A.A. Milne's tales about Winnie the Pooh and friends," according to a 2003 BBC report.

We were gratified to read that "In keeping with recent sporting events, the Australians beat the English to first place in the team competition."

Life Begins at 80: the blog

2007-10-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

Life Begins at 80: the blog

Casting the Net from Au to Za

Australia's Olive Riley is a 21st century centenarian Cinderella. In less than a year she has rocketed from relative obscurity to global internet fame.She is probably the oldest of the world's 108 milllion bloggers.

Dubbed "the world's favorite grandma," Olive will celebrate her 108th birthday on October 20. Birthday greetings from many parts of the world have already been posted on her captivating Web site.

Staff at her aged care hostel in Woy Woy, 50 miles north of Sydney, are arranging a party in her honor. Her friend and helper, film maker Mike Rubbo, hopes to recruit a group of eight-year-old children (a century younger than Olive) to serenade her.

By an uncanny coincidence, in Redwood, California, the Historical Glass Museum Foundation will present their second "Magic Show and Dinner" on Olive's birthday, although they probably have never heard of her.

Where will it be held? At CINDERELLA House, 324 W. OLIVE Avenue! Will they sip champagne from Cinderella's glass slipper?

In Auckland, New Zealand, Emma Forbes, a 10-year-old ballet student, is playing a young Cinderella in five performances by the touring Royal New Zealand Ballet.

She told Eloise Gibson, of the New Zealand Herald, that her dance teacher had chosen her for the part because she was the right height for the costume. That probably included the shoes.

Over in the U.K., producers of a Christmas pantomime in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, searched the town for an aspiring actress with a foot that fitted perfectly into their glass slipper, in the same way that the prince searched for Cinderella in the world's favorite nursery tale."

A horse-drawn carriage, a glass slipper, a fresh-faced bellboy covered in buttons... the only thing missing is Cinderella!" reported the Grimsby Telegraph.

"As the search for the belle of the ball continues, Buttons ... scoured the streets of Grimsby for the lady whose dainty foot must be a perfect fit for the glass slipper during the official launch of this year's Grimsby Auditorium panto."

They finally chose a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Zoe Belding, who will play the leading role when the panto opens on Dec. 7. And would you believe this? One of Cinderella's "ugly sisters" in the New Zealand production is named Zoe Bedford. Another weird coincidence.

Hold on!. It's not certain that there ever WAS a glass slipper. Some historians think that Cinderella's slipper was originally made of fur, which would have been more comfortable but less glamorous.

They believe that long ago, when a linguist translated the story, he mistakenly wrote the French word for glass (verre) instead of that for fur (vair)

"This theory has been widely discredited now and most scholars believe he intended glass slippers all along," Karen Price reassures us, in an interesting story in Britain's Western Mail.

"The earliest version of the Cinderella story is said to be from China, where a small foot was a sign of great beauty in a woman," Karen writes. "From those humble beginnings she has gained worldwide status: in France she is Cendrillon, in Italy Cenerentola, Germany Aschenbrodel, and Russia Zolushka."

...And in the blogosphere, she's Olive Riley. Happy birthday, Ollie!

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This story has been published by the South Korean citizen reporters' journal OhmyNewsInternational: http://engdev.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=432241&no=380651&rel_no=1