RIP La Liz

I know it's not a skill much prized these days, but there was a time I could name all of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands - from Nicky "Conrad" Hilton to Larry Fortensky, not forgetting Richard Burton twice (!). As a child, I was an oddity, obsessed with Old Hollywood, and no-one represented the glitz, the glamour; the ups, the downs; the sex, drama, and myriad hospitalisations like La Liz.

So even though I'm older, wiser (debatable) and hopefully less myopic - and certainly more jaded thanks to other movie goddesses who shall remain nameless - it is with tender nostalgia that I just learnt of her death.

(ps. All is forgiven re: the debacle of 1959, seeing as Debbie has outlived both you and EF.)

RIP xx

"I Do" - but she can't ...

Andrea Gibson is amazing.



Also amazing, (albeit in a different way)? That bigotry on this scale still exists. That in 2010, in so-called "developed" nations, some people are denied basic human rights. I say this as someone who knows a bit of history: in the not-too-distant future, the prejudice against same-sex/ intersex/ queer couples will look a lot like the bans on racial intermarriage does now - completely ludicrous, hurtful, despicable.

The Person I've Felt The Most Closest To in the Whole Wide World ...

... was waiting in the queue for the gas chamber in Auschwitz when it was liberated in 1945.

That's gotta affect a psyche.

Sometimes I feel like my whole life is an overly rehearsed audition for a role I'm bound never to get in a capacity which will somehow offend various powerful minority groups.

"My Gentle Alpaca"

Love the racial profiling of the bushes! Nice one!



Sad :(

Fighting the Princess Meme

I love you, Sarah Haskins.

Sexism in the City*: Eyns**

Those high- maintenance bitches!


..................................................................................

*part of a new series of photographs that show sexism alive, well, and kicking off in the public sphere. Name. Rinse. Repeat. Shame.

** "one" in Yiddish. My instinct was to go Italian, ie, uno, duo, etc, but decided to give my poor, old, NOT DEAD mother tongue an airing instead.

A Big MStake

"There is a void in the English language which, with some diffidence, we undertake to fill ...

Now, clearly, what is needed is a more comprehensive term which does homage to the sex without expressing any views as to their domestic situation, and what could be simpler or more logical than the retention of what the two doubtful terms have in common. The abbreviation "Ms" is simple, it is easy to write, and the person concerned can translate it properly according to circumstances. For oral use it might be rendered as "Mizz," which would be a close parallel to the practice long universal in many bucolic regions, where a slurred Mis' does duty for Miss and Mrs alike."

THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 1901. Nineteen-oh-fucking-ONE, people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so furious that Ms has not replaced the Virgin/Housewife dichotomy. Did you know that in its original seventeenth century usage, "Mistress" -the equivalent of "Mister"- bore no reference to marital status?

I think this might be my calling, people. An anti-Mrs Campaign. Let's eradicate this menace in our lifetime! Who's on board?

Sack Theresa May!

Unfuckingbelievable.

A minister for equality who doesn't believe in equality ...

Please click here to register your utter disgust.

I Feel Like Adrian Mole

Yes, I was a devotee of Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl and Are You Being Served?, Bless This House, The Good Life, On The Buses, Love Thy Neighbour (forgive me, my peeps, I was too young to know better), etcetera -------- but it was Sue Townsend's comic creation that turned me on to the Thatcher-hate.

There is a poem he writes, asking her if she cries into her "Marks & Spencer pillow", that I have not only never forgotten, but I think of nearly every time I pop into M&S for my superfood salad or fairtrade columbian ground-for-cafetiere coffee.

I feel sad. For the country, and also for the activist/hustler/politician/radical/agitator that I never became, but feel was my calling.

***********************************************************************

ps. Mr P has been saying for ages that he hopes the Tories inherit this current politicosocioecenomic shitstorm because whoever gets in is ultimately ferkakt, and that way we are ensured a Prime Minister Milliband sometime soon ... either one will do! And it's not just because they're both cute and English and Jewish and slightly geeky and ... somewhat familiar. But it helps.

See?! The personal: she is very political after all!!!

************************************************************************

Also: I used to be a MASSIVE comma girl. I was like, ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,," all over the place. But then I met a cool person once who turned me off 'em. 'Nother post. 'Nother time.

Online, unkind?

Just got into a bit of a spat on the Guardian website, which I left with these words:

"Apologies for my rudeness. I just get a bit defensive when writers I admire are attacked anonymously by people with an option to skip articles that aren't to their tastes, choosing instead to insult both the writer and, by implication, their readership (eg, me). I can't even fathom why people do that. I don't give a crap about the financial blogs - should I go tell them?"

and ended with this plea:

"The internet has created a strange, anarchic society which isn't always a nice place to play, and I just think once in a while we should remind ourselves how our interactions would look in real life, and then adjust our antennae accordingly.

Peace."

Why can't we all just get along? No, really. I'm asking.

"Has The Metric System Given Your House Cancer?"

Some bright spark has come up with the "Daily Mail-o-matic", a headline generator for the British newspaper that makes me proud to be Australian.

Click "refresh" for the following gems:

"IS NEW LABOUR STEALING FROM YOUR HOUSE?"
"HAS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IMPREGNATED THE MIDDLE CLASS?"
"IS THE BBC GIVING THE COUNTRYSIDE CANCER?"
"WILL TEENAGE SEX MAKE PENSIONERS OBESE?"

I laugh, but through gritted teeth, with a sad, heavy heart. I get a chance to flick through The Daily Fail at Friday night dinners (that and The Jewish Chronicle: I love MamaInLawlessness Plog but we damn well don't share literary tastes) and those headlines could be - to paraphrase every lazy description of Law and Order - ripped from the headlines.

My Cousin

I just got in to London this morning to find out that my cousin died last week. He was 32.

I haven't seen him for years - that branch of the tree became frail and withered. He was orphaned in a way, years ago: his mum died and his dad may as well have as far as he any use he has ever been to any of his four kids. How any woman can love a man who abandons/ wilfully fucks up his kids is beyond me. He will apparently not be at his son's funeral/memorial. I feel I now want to free him of the burden of schlepping out to my wedding later this year. But what would my dad want?

Yeah. The irony is my cousin's dad (let's call him "Shit Dad") is the brother of my late (as in dead, not tardy) father (aka as "Best Dad Who Ever Lived"TM). Or is that not irony? Bloody Alanis.

RIP B. I am so sorry that I didn't reach across broken adult messiness and try and maintain a relationship with you and my other cousins. I am sorry that that generation was so fucked and that you are yet another casualty of all that preceded you; the sins of the fathers and all that. My heart aches for old memories and what seemed like simpler times but probably weren't so idyllic for the adult characters in the piece. Whatever G-d you ended up following - your mother's Catholic or dad's Jewish - or indeed none at all, may She/He/It/Something bring you peace. And lots of love from your cousin who wishes she had have done ... something. It is making me a bit sick that I believe myself to be this "right on" community-minded person ("I give to charities and I am soooo great!") and yet I don't know most of my relatives because I've at worst bought into, at best not challenged narratives of inane, insane family feuds, fracas and fuck-ups.

xxx