A tale of two racisms

Which country do you think is more racist: France or the USA?

Hop over to La France Profonde for a more fully-developed post on the subject...

Say it ain't so...

I know Seattle has mushroomed since I left the Pacific Northwest in 1990. The city that was once America's best-kept secret has become a sprawling center of urban chic.

But have living conditions there really gone downhill?

"The top five cities in the Americas were:

Vancouver (3rd)
Toronto (15th)
Ottawa (tied for 18th)
Montreal (22nd)
Calgary (24th)

The lowest ranking Americas city in the top 50 was Seattle (tied for 49th)"

All right, Seattle is still in the Top 50 of the Mercer Human Resource Consulting Worldwide Quality of Living Survey.

But it ranks after those "real" big cities, the East Coast ones: Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C..

How can this be?

(Photo from Visit-Seattle.com)

The immensity of it all...

If you drop by here from time to time, you may have noticed my distinct lack of blogosphere presence these days.

I think I am cutting back.

For me, there have been stages in my blogging adventures. When I got started, I really didn't know what I was getting into. As I've said before, I thought maybe -- just maybe -- my parents might read my blog from time to time.

Several blogs? I didn't even know that was possible!

Then I started to get into it. Really into it. Too into it.

When I look back on the last year or so, I realize a huge percentage of my home time was spent blogging, commenting, and reading blogs.

Now some of my home time is going to be spent on those activities.

I'm in the stage of trying to get handle on the immensity of it all...

On vacation!

Cuisine Quotidienne was the first to go...on vacation. Then La France Profonde. Now, as I face my last four days in Olympia and prepare for a one-week trip to Colorado, I have to declare And So Forth officially on holiday until September.

I have noticed a lot of bloggers taking time off this month -- so if that is the case for you, relax and I'll see you in the blogosphere in September!

Ouway le montagne bike trail?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's vacation in the USA seems to be cause for plenty of chuckling.

I had to laugh at the big flap in France about Nico Sarko daring - -and deigning -- to set foot stateside for his vacances. Who does he think he is, anyway? Shouldn't he just go to some two-star campground like everybody else? Maybe he'd run into some of the Socialist party mucky-mucks who are criticizing his choice of destination! Right...

And Meredith over on Poppy Fields brought up an interesting hypothesis about Cecilia Sarkozy's sudden case of a sore throat right before she would have been spending the day with Bush. Could she have faked it all to get out of the photo... "ops?"

Now Bush is claiming he would be delighted to holiday in France...as long as he could hit the open mountain bike trail:

" Asked by reporters if he would be willing to follow Sarkozy's example and take a vacation away from home, Bush said: 'Of course I would ... there's some spectacular spots around the world ... great places to relax.'

What about France, if Sarkozy should invite him? 'Absolutely. Absolutely. Particulary if he could find a place for me to ride my mountain bike,' responded Bush, who is an avid enthusiast of the sport."

(Extract from "Bush would holiday in France, if he could go biking," The Economic Times)

S'il vous puh-leeease!

Back to School Resolutions

Some people make New Year's resolutions; I make back to school resolutions.

Sure, it may be a little early to write about going back to school. After all, I have well over three weeks left in my decidedly generous summer vacation.

Yet, as August advances, I can't help but think about getting back into the classroom and back onto a routine...a better one than last year, of course.

I will streamline my lesson plans, all the while trying out new methods and activities.

I will better organize my grocery shopping in order to cook simple and delicious meals on weeknight evenings.

I will use my long ( I do teach in France, don't forget) lunch break to good avail.

And so forth!

Sunday Scribblings: Decision

I can see why some people are tortured by choices. Not by what to eat in a restaurant, or what to wear in the morning -- although, come to think of it, some can get pretty worked up by those seemingly minor questions.

We often feel we would have made better decisions with hindsight. ("If I had known that, I would have..." or "In retrospect, it would have been better to...?") Yet I would posit that the consequences of any major decision are so vast that knowing them beforehand would only paralyze us more.

18 years ago I decided to move to France to be with my future husband. Of course, if a voice had told me "You will be happy there and have two beautiful children, but if you stay in the USA you will be killed in a car accident at the age of 33," the decision would have been all the easier to make.

But what if a voice had laid out several equally attractive and fascinating life paths? How could I have ever made a proper choice?

It's likely a good thing that most life-changing choices are made relatively rashly, with little understanding of how overwhelming their consequences will be.

(Read more decision-oriented Sunday Scribblings posts here.)

Greetings from my home town

By the way, I'm spending the summer in my birthplace and home town: Olympia, Washington.

I'm in no way taking a vacation from blogging or writing, but lately posting on this blog has depended on my inspiration -- which was really the point of creating And So Forth anyway.

To tell you the truth, this entry is mainly just an opportunity to post this great image created by my friend and former student Siouxfire.

If you've dropped by here and aren't finding enough of interest to read, check out his excellent cultural "blogzine," Siouxwire.

Sunday Scribblings: Wicked

Originally posted in April, I thought I'd bring this one out again for this week's Sunday Scribblings prompt: "wicked."

While America mourns the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre...

"guns don't kill, people do," right Mr. President?

Don't forget to read articles about other massacres like in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

but maybe "bombs don't kill, people do." What do you think Mr. President?

"Well, look behind the eyes.
It's a hallowed hollow anesthetized
'save my own ass, screw these guys'
smoke and mirror lock down...

We're sick of being jerked around,
We all fall down."

(Lyrics from Bad Day by R.E.M.)

Blog Bulimia?

All right, so I was going to hold off on announcing the creation of my fourth blog until I had really set up its layout, until I had figured out how to insert this incredibly cool banner that my friend Siouxfire created for me, until I had lined up many fabulous links, until I had Typepad totally figured out...

Then I remembered that if I had thought about all of that before launching La France Profonde or Cuisine Quotidienne, I wouldn't even be writing a single blog -- certainly not this one.

And hey, I kind of like the post I just wrote over there. So feel free to stop by.

Favorite Childhood Flicks

I have been wanting to post to Ten on Tuesday for several weeks, but find it is pretty hard to think of ten of anything on short notice. I always seem to come up with five, but then struggle with the rest.

This week's subject struck my fancy, though:

Ten Favorite Movies from your Childhood

I haven't looked at the other posts yet, but know I will sadly realize that my childhood must seem practically prehistoric to many of the bloggers.

Be that as it may, this was still a fun list to write.

My parents encouraged my love of musicals, and I am carrying it on to my own children, who are participating (as I blog this) in an excellent summer musical comedy program in Olympia, Washington.

Most of these movies aren't really "kids' movies" as such, and a few are definitely adult movies. In fact, 2001 and Dr. Zhivago are among the first "grown-up" flicks I saw -- which may be why they left such an impression on me.

I'm not sure these are in order of preference, but they are roughly in the order of the number of times I saw them. For the top five, that was an awful lot.

1. The Sound of Music

2. The Wizard of Oz

3. Mary Poppins

4. 2001: A Space Odyssey

5. Oliver

6. The Pink Panther

7. Doctor Zhivago

8. My Fair Lady

9. Pinocchio

10. The Aristocats

Long, beautiful hair

I am relieved to see male college students once again sporting hair. I grew up in the sixties and seventies, and long hair gave boys not only a young, rebellious look but also hid a multitude of ills.

When I arrived at university in 1977, most of the older boys were still frequenting hair salons...infrequently. But by the end of my college experience, it was morning in America, and barber shops were sharpening their scissors and razors for a haircut-intensive decade.

Recently, I've noticed that long hair has crept back into young men's psyches -- and onto their heads.

This is as it should be.

(Click here for more hair, courtesy of Sunday Scribblings.)

From read to reel

It's been so fun participating in Sunday Scribblings that I feel like I could use another group to give some direction to And So Forth. Enter Booking Through Thursday -- a fun site I ran into through a fellow Sunday Scribbler. Every week it posts a question related to books, and this week the query is:

"1. In your opinion, what is the best translation of a book to a movie?
2. The worst?
3. Had you read the book before seeing the movie, and did that make a difference? (Personally, all other things being equal, I usually prefer whichever I was introduced to first.)"

I couldn't really come up with a "worst" rendition, but as far as a great movie version of a slightly sloggy book, I would have to go for The Wizard of Oz. It's one of those movies where the film version achieves such perfection that the existence of the book seems almost unnecessary.

I'm actually not sure if I read the book or saw the movie first, but it doesn't really matter -- all things are not equal in the two versions.

Sorry, L. Frank Baum.

Hilarity Guaranteed

Laughing hysterically while reading a book in public is not something I do very often, but Notes from a Small Island caused me to chortle, snort and sob in the most embarrassing places.

Although Bill Bryson's book about Great Britain is already 10 years old, and presents more about Thatcher's legacy than may be relevant today, it still gives a delightfully hilarious vision of the small but mighty nation.

Whether you're an Anglophile or an Anglophobe, you will find something to enjoy in Bryson's caustic, keenly astute, and ultimately fond portrayal of "the Small Island."

Salute to Sunday Scribblings

I was a bad girl and didn't do my Sunday Scribblings last weekend.

Not that I didn't want to. Let's just say the word "slippery" didn't inspire me to new heights of blogging brilliance.

73 scribblers did have something to write about "slippery' and as usual, the variety of their interpretations is overwhelming. From prose to poetry to posts, Sunday Scribblings presents a merry cross-section of writing genres, and the best thing is that it doesn't take itself too seriously.

I can't wait until next week, when my jet-lagged mind should be recovered enough to scribble a few lines...

In the Stars

It's been decades since I read my horoscope. What I won't do for Sunday Scribblings!

Today happens to be my birthday, and the first horoscope I googled gave me this sound advice:

Don’t be too surprised if you start to feel you need some space. The Cancer/Capricorn opposition could put you in quite an aloof or detached mood today. Schedule yourself some time, and if possible postpone any decisions or discussions relating to romantic matters!

"You need some space...schedule yourself some time..."

I think this is a good motto for my coming year.

Check up in one year on how well I followed the suggestions: same time, same blog.

This post was inspired by the Sunday Scribblings writing prompt for this weekend: "What's your sign?

Just What I Needed - 100 More Blogs!

If you're reading a blog as unfocused and diverse as And So Forth, I'm sure all you need is a hundred more blogs to feed into your aggregator.

But here they are anyway.

What do you think of this list?

My conclusions:

1.) Having read few or any of these "Top 100" blogs, I am totally out of this loop.

2.) Any list that would rank Slashfood as a top food blog needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

3.) One cool entry: The Barenaked Ladies' contribution to the blogosphere, BnLBlog.com.

(Cartoon courtesy of Dave Walker)

I have a secret...

I have a secret....

The kind only very important politicians are in on.

What was it again?

Merde, j'ai oublié!

C'était dans mon BlackBerry.

Click here for other not-so-secret Sunday Scribblings.

Shelter from the Storm

Following my flurry of communication with ex-students on my last post, I did something I swore I never would do: I created a MySpace page. It is too lame to link to for the moment, but at least I'm friends with my daughters and one of my nieces now.

Seriously, I thought this move might help me keep in touch with the younger generation, which is important for a teacher. And it has already allowed me to waste my time on a funny musical activity that my niece had posted on MySpace. Try it out, it's a great way to be unproductive at your computer for an hour or two.

Directions:

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

Now my niece admitted that she didn't totally follow rule 3, which means her answers are all clever and she ends up sounding like the arbiter of musical taste that she probably is at the ripe age of 20. (Well, weren't you?)

I, on the other hand, followed the rules and even accessed my WHOLE music library, including some of my daughters' songs that they have probably disowned by now. The only change I made was to skip artists who had come up more than twice -- my "shuffle" function doesn't seem that random sometimes.

So here are my musical answers to twenty questions:

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
“I Can Love You Like That” -- Boyz II Men

2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
“Just Go Ahead Now” -- Spin Doctors

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
"Hey Man" -- Jim Murple Memorial

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
"I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (with Flowers in My Hair)" -- Sandi Thom (Pourquoi pas?)

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
"Gold Dust Woman” -- Fleetwood Mac

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
"Sweet Hitchhiker” -- Creedence Clearwater Revival

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
"Johnny B. Goode"-- Chuck Barry

8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
"La Fin du Monde"- Cali (That may have been the case a few times -- I hope it's not now!)

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
"Thunder Road"—Bruce Springsteen

10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?
"So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)"- R.E.M.

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
"South Side"-- Moby (Interesting, she has lived in two houses on the South side of our town.)

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
"Bad Day” – R.E.M.

13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
"Everloving"—Moby

14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GROW UP?
"Candle in the Wind"- Elton John

15. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
"My Only Love"- Roxy Music (I'm not planning another one, but this is a pretty good choice.)

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
"A Simple Twist of Fate” – Bob Dylan (Ha! That's even better.)

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
"Hand in Hand” – Elvis Costello

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
"Kid"- The Pretenders (Pretty funny for a teacher)

19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
"Sing It Again"- Beck

20. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
"Shelter from the Storm” – Bob Dylan

If you do this activity, post the link in comments to this post. I always like getting a glimpse inside people's music libraries.

Eccentricity Serendipity

As a French teacher in the USA, I was fortunate to have a number of bright and creative students. One of the most memorable was a young man who was crazy about all things French, and who traveled to France with me on a small group trip I led.

I suppose for a high school student in the late eighties, he was considered a bit eccentric. I considered him brilliant, and always wondered what his future would hold.

Years went by, and unfortunately I never stayed in touch with him, nor did I ever really find out where life had led him.

Then this very morning, I received a rather mysterious comment on And So Forth:

Salut. C'est un petit monde, mon professeur.-Pierre-Marie

Pierre-Marie? I can barely remember many of my former students' real names, let alone the French first names that they chose for class. And why did any of my students have silly names like "Pierre-Marie"? (I guess that's beside the point.)

Frantic searching through pseudonym-laden blogs and websites ensued.

Finally I found out who Pierre-Marie was. He's living in the Czech Republic and appears to be an excellent modern artist. Why am I not surprised?

Salut, Siouxfire.

Your message came just in time to inspire me for today's Sunday Scribblings.

Click here for more Sunday Scribblings inspired by the prompt "eccentricity."