One Person's Crap Is Another Person's . . . .

The beauty of a summer fair is the recycling - one person's junk becomes another person's luxury while we, the PTA, make a benefit. Madeleine takes full advantage of her freedom and £10 to buy three stuffed animals including a giraffe about as big as her, a "buddy back-pack" (self-explanatory), a miniature bowling set, a marbles game (most marbles lost by dad on the way home), a poster of the human body and, with Eitan, a fooz ball table. I tell them not to get too comfortable with this last item because "I am taking it straight to the dump" which nets horror from the Shakepeares. We also purchase some plants from the plant stall and I buy, like, ten classics from the book stand for 10p each. Bargain. This includes "Roots" by Alex Hailey, something by Stephen King, "Bonfire of the Vanities" (just to read the first, most awesome, first chapter), "Robinson Crusoe" (why not?"), Chinua Achebe's classic "Things Fall Apart" (to send to Tim) and something on Patagonia (to send to Sloan). I also buy a tombe en francais which, like the others, will probably stay at my bedside until I get bored (or finish O'Brien's The Master & Commander series, which has absorbed much of my free time since 2001 - thank you, Eric). The only downside is the news I must break to Eitan that another of his ManU heros leaving - this time Carlos Tevez (he cried bitter tears about Ronaldo). But, on average, everybody ahead.

Candy Floss

Cotton Candy or "fairy floss" as they say in Australia nets good money at any fair including our fair since it is basically nothing but sugar and .. air. Since y'all are interested and according to Gourmet magazine, cotton candy was invented in 1897 by William Morrison and John Wharton and first introduced at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 as "Fairy Floss" with great success, selling 68,655 boxes at the then-high $0.25, half the cost of admission to the fair. Fairy floss was renamed to "cotton candy" in the 1920s, and I am sure Moe had some part of this because St. Lous is, afterall, his home town. Tootsie Roll of Canada Ltd. has a bagged product called "Fluffy Stuff" that it claims was first introduced at the 1893 World's Fair so there is indeed controversy. Woo hoo. The US celebrates National Cotton Candy Day on December 7.

So I admit to being waaay behind on my blogging and no way am I going to describe last week's race across Europe. Instead, I will focus on L'église de la Madeleine, which Sonnet and I have visited before and a Roman Catholic church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondisement of Paris. It was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army and its south is the Place de la Concorde and to the east is the Place Vendome and to the west L'église Saint-Augustin. So Wednesday evening and with my travelling companions we climb the stairs around 8PM to find the entrance doors open and, in concert, is Vivaldi Four Seasons. I am able to charm the door guard to allow us to sit at the back and we hear the most sublime music .. in the most spectacular setting. Afterwards the sun remains at dusk and we find the perfect cafe for wine and dinner. It is not difficult to remind myself why we live in Europe.

Summer Fair IV

I arrive home late Friday evening greeted by Sonnet and the kids, who are a bit too excited about Saturday's school Summer Fair which, dear reader, I am partly responsible for again. Glutton for punishment. So early Saturday morning I turn around again, out of the house early and with a coffee drip keeping me alive. The fair mostly runs itself as the mums of the various classes converge last minute to set up rides, stalls, auctions, toys, bbq, drinks, candy floss and so on and so forth. Tempers can run hot as everything never perfect and I avoid several gals who have something on their mind that just simply must come out. This, you see, my management style. The past few years we have netted around £13 or £14 grand but this year will be down maybe 15% due to the recession as the high street less willing or able to support us. Still, this ain't bad for a PTA afternoon and as a bonus, we get some community building to boot. The weather holds out, despite a forecast for rain, and large puffy (sometimes threatening) clouds sail overhead. Who can forget two years ago when celeb Angie Best (deceased football legend George Best's wife) officially opened the fair and it flooded on queue. Angie, of course, wearing snake skin pants and high-heels. Between racing around and saying my greetings, I also hang with the youngsters. For no reason at all I wear a pair of pink goggles which only the kids will ask: "why?" to which I respond: "why not?" To those of you who think my outrageous school ground behavior goes unrewarded, on intrepid young lad marches up to me and states: "you are the cow legend" then walks off, leaving us adults bemused. In short, I am in my sweet spot.

Cheer!

Weirdly enough, I sit in Amsterdam watching a chearleading competition on the tele. I thought this was an American phenomena - you know, sports and stuff. Sonnet and I went to Cal vs. Washington at Memorial in '94 (her first football game) and she was fascinated by the the skin: "perky," Sonnet said. But these gals work hard - jumping and skipping, tossing and tumbling. You go, girls. This has been a busy week from London to Paris to Zurich and now tonight. Yes, I am on the money trail and we have had good meetings so far I think. The weather has been perfect - top of the summer so far reminding me why I live in Europe. In the background is Iran's protest over the thrown election 12 June. Today, for instance, saw 100s of thousands in Tehran despite government's effort to block media including internet and twitter. Yea, right. So far limited violence but we all remember the slaughter of Tiananmen Square twenty years ago. Iran's yuf, born too late for the Iran-Iraq war, want freedom and sex and drugs and rock and roll. They also want a meaningful place at the civilised, global table and reform. By contrast, the "Great Generation" (as Friedman puts it) are those who fought the war and conservative. They support the existing Islamic order who came to power at the expense of the Shah and us, held hostage and rightfully villified for medelling in that country's affairs. They want power in and beyond Persia and respect, which nuclear weapons provide. But the world has changed since the Islamic Revolution and Ahmadinejad a freak: "Israel is a rotten, dried tree that will be annihilated in one storm." Scary stuff following his stollen election. We watch and wait. Why can't we all just love each other like the chearleaders?

Photo from the www somewhere.

A Day

Madeleine in the back of the car - bored. Bored. Bored. We drive by Harrods as I snap this photo (car at a red-light, emergency break on). She could care less about the department store. Poor kid, dragged alongside for my amusement. There is no such thing as wasted time when your kids involved, however - at least from my end. I try to get a few conversations going but she resists - subjects like school, friends, homework and football draw a blank. She perks up a bit when a group of teenagers walk past which she sometimes equates to smooching, forced into her face by a semi-naked couple with locked faces. An add, of course. This somehow leads to a discussion about teen-age pregnancy and why we do not want to do it. We also talk about cigarettes and why people smoke and Madeleine: "because they cannot stop?" which is the best answer I did not think of. I add "enjoyment" and that it may seem cool; she concludes that "your friends might do it" which we agree is the worst reason. It takes real will power to not offer jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge if your friends jump from the Brooklyn Bridge .. So I think I have done a few good things today as Dad. We shall know in time what sticks.

Madeleine desperate to go to the news-agents to buy some "some stringy liquorice" but thwarted by Sunday hours.

Madeleine, Self

I give Madeleine my camera and tell her to "go for it," which she does. We are at my office and I try to do a little work before the week, which sees me across Europe with Correlation Ventures. Madeleine keeps me company though she is bored in, like, 15 minutes. She draws. She tapes. She goes through my desk and looks for things she can take. I am not complaining though - it is a lovely Sunday and I am happy to have some friendship.

I log 13 miles this morning in preparation for Berlin. 14 weeks and counting. My route takes me westward on the Thames from Mortlake to Ham House. From the internets I riff: Ham House built in 1610 for Sir Thomas Vavasour, Knight Marshal to James I and in 1626 passed into the hands of William Murray who had been the "whipping boy" for the future Charles I. He took the punishment on behalf of the young prince, and formed a close bond with him, growing up to share his taste in art and architecture. Between 1637 and 1639, Murray remodelled the interior of Ham. He created the Great Staircase and the suite of sumptuous rooms on the first floor: the Great Dining Room (now the Hall Gallery), the North Drawing Room, and the Long Gallery with its adjoining picture closet. When the Civil War broke out in 1642, Murray naturally joined the Royalist cause, and was created the Earl of Dysart for his loyalty. All this in my backyard. I discovered the place when kids 3 and 2 and Sonnet kicked me out of the house one Sunday morning ("Get out" she said). There are easy trails to walk the estates and stables for polo and show horses. I think then I was as tired as this morning, after ten.

Self Portrait VII

We meet James and Emily in Hyde Park on a brilliant summer's day. This the weather I think of when considering England: warm, with large puffy clouds making the blue sky a friendly canvas. Definitely The Beatles and "Yellow Submarine." Britain looks like a cloud after all. Ben, year-five, and Mia, year-three, offer the perfect companions and the children play football and Frisbee until Madeleine clips a 20 somethings head. I drag her over to mumble "sorry" and when I sternly rebuke her for not being more generous she whines: "but I didn't even know her!" Emily is the Executive Producer at the BBC, whose show The Forum is presented by Bridget Kendall and aims "to discuss and challenge big ideas." Recent shows have teamed Environmentalist Sunita Narain, science historian Arthur I Miller, writer Paolo Giordano. Or Sociologist WJ Wilson, philosopher Roger Scruton, film-maker Clemens von Wedemeyer. Or Political economist Deepak Lal, writer & comic AL Kennedy, Tatar poet Ravil Bukharaev. How cool is this? The Forum is on radio, Internet b'cast or podcast. Emily, like Sonnet, has a unique job and totallly great for it. Before The Forum, she was responsible for the BBC Book Club where I recently met Lionel Shriver. And before that, the World Services Religious programming. She rocks.

Madeleine shows me a pea-pod: "Look, Dad, it's perfect. I am going to take it to show-and-tell."

Madeleine collects all sorts of bugs from the backyard putting them into a tuper-ware, covered with Seran Wrap. She adds a few leaves and a grass or two for their comfort. She leaves the encasement by the back-steps, where I find them this morning.

The car radio chimes the BBC's Big Ben announcement of 6:00PM. I ask Madeleine in the back: "what time is it?"
Long pause.
BBC Announcer: "And the news, at 6PM."
Madeleine: "4PM?"

Friday Night, Baby

Madeleine plays Friday Night Fives, losing 3-2 - improvement! - and I ask if their opponents handicapped? Eitan busts up from the back-seat. From there we go to swim practice and the improvement impressive: Madeleine laps for an hour while Eitan 90 minutes. Proudly, he tells me 1,600 meters or 64 laps. The boy needs 42 strokes to cross 25 meters and since I've had a revelation regarding stroke technique, I want to share it with my future Olympians. This nets a donut as both inform me oh-so-bluntly that they would rather die then receive help from Dad. When I press, Eitan: "Why do I care? What does it have to do with football?" and Madeleine: "Be quiet." Fair enough, though my prior jock inwardly hurting. And indeed, tomorrow is football, as Eitan reminds me like, infinity. The Kew Park Rangers next "friendly" tournament on 21 June, which conflicts with the Summer Fair so I just might not tell him. This sets an unpleasant precedent but, hey, he cannot go anyway so why knock him up? (I may revise the story under assumption that the playground knows all). The better long-term news is that Eitan on KPR's travelling squad for league play starting September. The Rangers field two age-nine teams of 11, including substitutes, and over-subscribed as break-away Kew Association folded after taking the best players and now want in. We, will .. what is the word I am, looking for?.. oh - yes, CHERRY PICK the kids we want back. Now I would never suggest that I am an overly aggressive soccer dad -- at least on the pitch, anyway. Eitan delighted to have Callum from KA who, Eitan informs me, "is, like, the best player in East Sheen" which, you know, says a lot.

Madeleine: "Dad, how many pages until you finish that book?"
Me: "Well, if I have read 250 pages and there are 300, how long will it take?"
Madeleine: "An hour?"

Sonnet to Eitan, after desert: "Stop eating Doritos!"

SFO, 1983

How about this one -- on my way to Geneva, Switzerland, for my junior year of High School (not pictured is David Ellis, who accompanied us to the airport). I am 16 years old. Given how difficult it has been for me to decide on London vs. California, New York or the Bay Area .. how on earth I picked up and left everything I held dear remarkable to me (Sonnet and I discuss this very point as recently as this morning reminded, in part, by this photograph). I do believe Moe has chucked his plaid jacket aside for the photograph, probably at my request, anticipating then this moment now. Dave and I laughed uproariously at its hideousness driving across the Bay Bridge then. Later, Moe pulled me aside and gave me one of those lessons that has stuck. "Jeff" he said, "I noticed your amusement with my jacket. Well, I often meet corporate or high paid lawyers and they all have expensive suits and handsome ties.. in [ABC important case], the lead counsel was irritated by this jacket.. and assumed I was just some schmuck. He underestimated me. I used to wear it just to get under his skin. And I won the case, in the end."

I think I was pretty nervous about Switzerland though not conveyed by the picture. I was excited, too, of course and anxious to meet the family I would live with. Talk about an interesting way to make up for my failings in Mr. Dillingham's french class, where I would have received a "C" (or worse!) if I had not dropped the course. I failed an early exam and oh the sweetness of erasing it, and the class, from my permanent record. That decision probably set me up for the Ivy League. And swimming. I found Geneva via Berkeley Barracudas coach Phillipe Henri, who trained with Genève Natation 1885; he wrote his old coach Tony Ulrich and the rest, as they say, history. Unique was the timing - an Olympic year - and the club owned seven legitimate medal contenders including Dano Halsell, who broke Robin Leamy's world record in the 50 meter freestyle (long course) at the July '85 Suisse Nationals. His time of 22.52 lasted less then six months, broken by Tom Jaeger. Today, it stands at 20.94 by Frédérick Bousquet, the first under 21 seconds, in one of those NASA suits (here is anther Frenchman breaking the 100 meters). Dano was all skin. Switzerland did win its first Olympic swimming medal: a bronze in the 200 meter breast stroke by the remarkable, and relatively old, Etienne Dagon. At 24, he was several years beyond retirement and continued competing many years after. Maybe it was his 14 year old girlfriend? Ah, Europe - but this for another time.

So back to the present: Iran votes today, and turn-out has been described as "extraordinary." It is hard to imagine that hard-liner Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad, the sixth and current President. He became president BTW on 6 August 2005, after winning the 2005 presidential election and the first president of the Islamic Republic in twenty-four years who was not a religious cleric (despite his title, he does not hold the highest constitutional office in Iran, which belongs to the Supreme Leader of Iran (Ila Khamenei) according to their constitution. So today's tenth presidential election and Mahmoud challenged by the Iranian reform movement and former President Mohammad Khatami, and a leading opponent, until he left the raced and endorsed former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Former speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karroubi, another Reformists, is also running as is former Commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rezaei, a Conservative. There have been huge rallies everywhere leading up to today - and remarkable to think how this former "Axis of Evil" has more compelling candidates then most Western countries .. let's just hope Ahmadi-Nejad gone. His comments on Israel and mission to obtain nuclear weapons destabilising the region. And tomorrow, it could be so.

Joyce And The Irish Catholic Church

"'O pa!' he cried. 'Don't beat me, pa! And I'll say a Hail Mary for you.I'll say a Hail Mary for you pa, if you don't beat me.I'll say a Hail Mary..'"
--James Joyce, Dubliners, p. 79

I read Dubliners last summer and this passage from "Counterparts" remains with me: after a grueling day of abuse from his boss and stress over how to get enough money to get drunk, narrator Farrington returns home in a sullen mood to find his dinner cold. He takes his anger out on his young son Tom who begs his father not to beat him by bribing him with prayers. The passage demonstrates Joyce's contempt for the Catholic Church.

"Counterpoints" relevant as the Irish Catholic Church accused of 'endemic' rape and abuse of children in their care including beating and humiliation that were "common" at institutions responsible for 30,000 children. A nine-year investigation, concluding in May 2009, found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls while government inspectors failed to intervene. The high court judge Sean Ryan unveiled a 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.The country not anywhere near coming to grips with this horror and betrayal of its young people. I hear one horrifying testimony on NPR this morning, and must turn off the radio so Madeleine and Eitan cannot listen. How can one explain?

Drawing of the mosaic reconstructing its original state.The subject is Christ teaching the apostles in front of heavenly Jerusalem.

Gracie and Madeleine

One last shot from before the wedding. The kids don't see enough of their family, which is a shame. Sonnet and I also grew up far away from our extended families, though not separated by an ocean, and I suppose we turned out OK though of course I ponder what my children miss.

Back To Normal

Madeleine back to Special K which is a tough break following two weeks of those little sugar cereal boxes that the kids lovingly ranked for the morning's selection. Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Sugar Pops go first - who would ever choose Raisin Bran or Chex? - while Eitan loves Frosted Flakes. Yes, it is a rough life but being home has its benefits too - like Natasha and school friends.

For me and Sonnet it means the salt mines, made worse with the tube strike which began yesterday, 7PM, as the Royal Maritime and Transport union (RMT) walk off the job. Bastards. Conductors earn £40,000 a year with benefits and a generous holiday package exceeding the standard five weeks. They work less than 40 hours per week and retire at 52.

What they do have is us by the balls, and they ensure the status quo by squeezing.

A London subway fair about $6, or highest in the world. NYC, by comparison, recently raised itself to $2 which takes you from Manhattan to Brooklyn faster than any taxi, which we did couple weeks ago. Boris needs to sort himself out and this a first major test - the strike costing London £85MM a day, according to the Evening Standard, and way more in grief and aggravation.

Today's mess made worse given England's World Cup Qualifier against Andorra (first half score: 3-nil England; Rooney 2+Lampard 1)(did you know Andorra has the highest life expectancy in the world at 85?).

So, chaos on the streets and Sonnet avoids it by jogging. If we all do so, the industrial action could become a blessing.

Larry And Diane

Larry and Diane walk down the "isle" and I note the petals, gently laid by cousin Jake and Madeleine, who took her responsibility seriously wearing her new dress. Given how fast she grows, this will probably be its only showing. The last time Larry made the stroll with Susan in July, 2002. Can it really be seven years already? No doubt, he is a proud father and everything around us attest to Larry and Marcia's parenting skills.

So we are back to London Monday morning greeted by Natasha and powering through jet-lag. Been here before. I have plenty of work catch-up and Sonnet groans: "Opinions Day" when the museum open once a month to the general public who introduce their various treasures to the curators for an opinion (NB this is not a value-appraisal). Somewhere inside Sonnet's job there is a New Yorker story waiting to be written. Our Big Trauma upon re-entry Madeleine's toy bag left on the plane. These include a penguin, 'Tuddles,' 'Tyson, who is my second favorite,' a goat a tiny bird "which was already broken," a small turtle and a leapard. I dutifully head to BA's baggage retrieval and fill out a claim: "lost stuffed animals." When BA learns that a tearful seven year old involved, they crack into action and I imagine ten beefy guys scouring every plane at Heathrow. At least I hope so as Madeleine's sorrow genuine and my heart breaks - these lost guys her friends who have been with her in some cases for many years. Finger's crossed.

Eitan: "I'm getting a gold fish, a parrot and a hamster when I turn 11."

Madeleine: "Eitan, you can't have all of them!"

I ask: your favorite part of the holiday?

Madeleine: "I can't choose."

Eitan: "Being in CT and swimming in the lake and water tubing, the Yankees game and Vermont."

Sonnet: "The last night on the dance floor with the whole family."