All Purls. No Swine.
For those who don't know, guinea worm is a parasite which lives in contaminated water, and has long been a scourge of West African nations, a parasite which invades and infests its hosts via the digestive tract, and eventually migrates to extremities like the lower leg, blistering and bursting painfully before the worm gradually emerges--just… Continue reading Dracunculiasis–Guinea Worm
Really, righteous people. If what you want to do is endanger yourselves (you keep on saying that you feel endangered, because--what else--Trump!) by bravely stepping up to the line and perhaps even crossing it, I should have thought by now you'd have noticed that you've felt no consequences--ever--for doing so. Just like Meryl Streep at… Continue reading No Kings? Grow Up Already!
Today, I claim executive privilege and repost with considerable emendations, one from the past. It's a personal anniversary, my sixth--in wedding anniversary terms that would be "iron"-- and I'm in a bit of a reflective mood: I don't think any of my sentiments have changed in the intervening years. I haven't been to any "far… Continue reading Far Away Places–2024
Fifty-eight years ago today, on January 15, 1966, two of my family’s dearest friends were murdered. Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello (pictured right) was the Premier of Northern Nigeria and Sardauna of Sokoto. Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (ATB) was the first (and so far only) Prime Minister of a Nigeria that had achieved its independence from Britain on October 1,… Continue reading These Were My Father’s Muslims
Several months ago, I wrote a "very preliminary" book review of John Blashford-Snell’s From Utmost East to Utmost West: My Life of Exploration and Adventure. Happily, someone took me up on the challenge to read the entire book and write the actual whole thing, and the result is this post on the Ricochet main feed. (Worth… Continue reading On Family Memories and the Meaning of “Gift”
The following is a lightly edited version of a post I wrote on the Queen's death, a year ago today: The only British monarch of my lifetime died a year ago today. She was crowned in June 1953, slightly more than a year before I was born. I was named after her, “Elizabeth,” and–for my… Continue reading “I have to be seen to be believed”–Queen Elizabeth II
Yesterday was Memorial Day in these United States of America. Somewhere along the way, I heard a small blurp on a news report that May 29, 2023 was also the seventieth anniversary of Edmund Hillary’s and Sherpa Tenzing’s successful ascent of Mt. Everest. It is a time so long ago (barely sixteen months before I… Continue reading “Because it is There”
So. Today's "Google Doodle" is (God knows why) on the subject of "Jollof Rice." Jollof Rice is a staple of West African (particularly Nigerian) cuisine, and it is--along with such stuff as fried plantains and groundnut chop, that with which I grew up. I've never found a recipe since, which approximated my hazy memories of… Continue reading Jollof Rice!
“I have to be seen to be believed”–Queen Elizabeth II The only British monarch of my lifetime died today. She was crowned in June 1953, slightly more than a year before I was born. I was named after her, “Elizabeth,” and–for my middle name–after my grandmother who was to die when I was only a… Continue reading We Saw Her. We Believed. And Now She’s Gone.
I'm so glad that Tom Daley, a British Olympic gold-medal winning diver, a gay man who bravely "came out" in 2013 (despite being under the threat of being thrown to his death from the top of buildings or of being anally penetrated with a rough-sawn stake and set out in the sun to die while… Continue reading Dear Tom Daley, Get Educated, and Get Your Head Out of Your Bum, Please