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
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Intrepid Housewife’s Desert Walk
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
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Harrods gives Guido a guiding hand
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
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
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Australia foams at the mouth
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
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
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Still Blogging At 96
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/
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/
Monday, December 3, 2007
FOUR STORIES FOR DECEMBER
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
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
Saturday, November 3, 2007
FOUR NEW STORIES FOR YOU
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
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
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