COSE BLU

I found this meme over at Rowena's and all you have to do is show 7 blue things from around the house, so here we go:

My kitchen table, which I bought because all my Sicilian visitors were scandalised that I didn't have one, is light blue. I figured that I wouldn't be able to match the wood colours of the units and dresser, so decided to go for something brighter:

A blue plate from Malta which Marie-Laure and David brought me from their day trip there in the summer. [You can take the trip from Pozzallo.]

Blue in the magnificent peacock feathers which Lucia brought me last week:



Books about Sicily with blue covers:



Predominantly blue coffee container:



Blue necklace which usually decorates my dressing table mirror:



Finally, Simi wanted to model one of her Italian winter coats again:



She says "Woof!" to all her readers and hopes you'll like this song:

Vasco Rossi - Occhi blu


I don't tag but if you would like to do this meme I'll be happy to visit your blog.

PHOTO MEME

I don't often do memes but this one is simple and quick and doesn't involve an intricate set of rules. In addition, it was Leslie over in Canada who tagged me and she was tagged by Liz in Wales, then Anne in Oxfordshire told me I'd been tagged. All three of these lovely bloggers are friends of mine so how can I refuse? Here's what you have to do:

Open the fourth file where you store your photos. Pick the fourth photo. Explain the photo. Pass the challenge on to four other bloggers.

Even I can manage that; in fact, as I have two computers, I can manage it twice. Here goes:

The fourth photo in the fourth file on my desktop computer is of my beautiful, blondie girl playing with her favourite "Mister Tuggy" toy:

The fourth photo in the fourth file on my laptop is of a rice timballo that Irma made a few weeks ago. I keep forgetting to ask her for the recipe:

Now I'm going to break these nice, uncomplicated rules as I don't tag. However, if any of you would like to do this meme on your sites I'll be happy to visit.

BOOK MEME

I found this one at Cherie's, too, and the Sunday after Christmas, when many of us might be opening the books we received as gifts, seems a good time to do it:

What was the last book you bought?
Estasi culinarie, about the dying days of a famous food critic. He's not a very endearing character and the story is told through the viewpoints of people he is related to or has come into contact with. It is the first novel of Muriel Barbery, a French novelist who has been translated into Italian. Her second novel, L'Eleganza del riccio, is selling well here.

Name a book you have read more than once.
I recently reread How Green was my Valley by Richard Llewellyn. I read it for the first time when I was 16. A few weeks ago, I felt I wanted to hear some Welsh voices and , in rereading this, I could hear them in my head! Of course, it portrays a Wales that has long gone. I remember my father's favourite line from the book was, "How beautiful is sleep."

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life?
I'm sure that many have but two that come to mind are La Peste by Albert Camus, which I first read for French A level and The Last of the Just by André Schwarz-Bart. I remember reading the Camus just after the Aberfan disaster, when I had already begun to doubt the existence of god. The second book made me realise how important it is to fight prejudice the moment it begins - and it begins insidiously.

How do you choose a book, eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews?
Usually by reviews or personal recommendation but jacket blurb influences me if I am browsing in a bookshop.

Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
Mainly non-fiction, especially biography. The most fascinating biography I've read this year is Daughter of the Desert - The Remarkable Life of Gertrude Bell by Georgina Howell. I had heard Bell's name but confess I knew nothing about her until I read this book. She was instrumental in the founding of the country we now know as Iraq and, whatever you think of imperialism, it has to be admitted that she foresaw many of the problems of today's Middle East.

What's more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?
I think the quality of the writing just has the edge! For instance, I can't normally stand detective fiction, but can happily read a Sherlock Holmes story or a Camilleri. I'm not very keen on descriptive writing.

Most loved / memorable character
I can't name just one!
Jo in Little Women; Miss Wilberforce in South Wind; Sarah Burton in South Riding; Jess in A Long Way Down. Oh, dear, that's all women! Professor Bhaer in Little Women; Bertie Wooster because he is such a chump that you can't help liking him; Mr Micawber because his attitude to money is like my Dad's [and my own]; Bertie, the 6-year-old with the awful mother in Alexander McCall Smith. But I think my favourite character of all time is Aunt Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield. [Another woman - sorry, James!] If ever I want cheering up, I just turn to the passage where David tries to introduce himself: "Go along! No boys here!"

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?
Dickens - The cricket on the Hearth
Márquez - Living to Tell the Tale [the first volume of his autobiography, which I am finding it difficult to get into.]
O. Cappellani - Sicilian Tragedi [a Sicilian "black comedy" which I can't wait to start!]
Estasi Culinarie [see above].
The Raymond Briggs Father Christmas books - because their gentle humour sends me to sleep happily.

What was the last book you read and when was it?
The Return, a very well-researched novel about the Spanish Civil War, by Victoria Hislop. I couldn't put it down and I finished it last week.

Have you ever given up on a book half way through?
Very rarely. Last year I did give up on The Pale Horseman, the second volume in Bernard Cornwell's Alfred series. I'd enjoyed the first one, but this sequel was just too "masculine" for me!

I cannot finish this without mentioning the whackiest book I have read all year. It is To Noto by Duncan Fallowell, the story of the author's drive from London to Noto, in Sicily, in the eighties. It is full of name-dropping [only I don't know any of the names], very funny in places and decidedly odd. And it ends in Palermo!

CHRISTMAS MEME

Hairdresser no. 2 has cleverly "grown" these sparkly leaves among the other plants in this container.


I found this at Cherie's Place:

1.What is your favourite Christmas carol/song?
Hark the Herald Angels Sing: I find it uplifting and, as everybody sings it loudly, no one notices if you are off-key.

2.White lights or multicolored?
Both.

3. Do you have a cut tree, live tree or an artificial tree?
Artificial and, as I am rather sentimental about it, I brought it with me from the UK.

4. Eggnog, mulled cider, or hot chocolate?
None of those - I'm a g&t lady.

5. Do you decorate your house with lights?
Just my tree and in a crystal bowl I have I put baubles topped with flickering lights - quite effective.

6. Do you write a Christmas letter?
This year I did and sent it electronically to most people. My handwriting is terrible now!

7. Do you like receiving Christmas letters/photos?
Yes , and I get really miffed with those who don't send them!

8. What is your favorite Christmas story/movie?
I reread A Christmas Carol and A Child's Christmas In Wales every year: the line, "There are always Uncles at Christmas " in the latter takes me right back to childhood. The movie has to be Little Women - the version with Winona Ryder as Jo and Susan Sarondon as the mother. I cry every time!

9. Have you ever made a gingerbread house?
No, I'm not sufficiently dextrous.

10. Poinsettias or holly?
Poinsettias - we get enormous ones here! I like the cream ones as well.

11. Do you display a nativity scene?
Yes, one you can light with tealights that I got from Lakeland [a UK kitchen shop]. Here nearly every household displays a crib and often the figurines are family heirlooms.

12. Do you bake Christmas cookies?
Usually, yes.

13. Ham or turkey?
Turkey but I used to hate eating it for days afterwards in Britain! I'd love to do a baked ham for friends here but the hams are cured in a different way and are not suitable.

14. In what languages can you wish someone a Merry Christmas (without cheating)?
English, French, Italian, Spanish, Welsh and Czech.

15. Do you know all the words to Jingle Bells?
Yes - Italians are always asking me to teach them the words! They persist in singing it as "jingle bell" / jingles bells", though.

16. Do you put presents under the tree?
No, I've no pazienza, so I open them all as soon as I get them!

17. How do you eat a candy cane?
I've never eaten one.

18. What is your biggest holidays pet peeve?
British women's magazines going on ad infinitum about "How to survive your family at Christmas" or "How to cater for 50, 000". It never occurs to them that there are people who would give anything to have a family to host and cater for or that Christmas is a difficult or sad time for some.

19. What is your favourite Christmas tradition?
Carols from King's on Christmas Eve. I used to listen to it on radio 4 but now I watch it late on BBC World. Here in Modica, the "city of 100 churches", my favourite tradition is listening to all the church bells ringing at midnight.

20. What was the best present you ever got for Christmas?
"Fluffy" the teddybear. I still have him!

A LIGHTHEARTED ONE

Most of you will know that I don't often do memes, but I liked this one from nunyaa's site:

The Ageing Meme

At a certain age women should: realise they are fantastic! When I was young, a woman of 50 - 60 was regarded as "old" and often looked and dressed as if this was the case. Now no holds bar us!

At a certain age men should: appreciate fantastic, "real" women and stop going after bimbos!

When I was a kid I thought I would: lead a conventional life.

Now that I'm older I wish: that I had credited my parents with actually knowing something!

You know you are too old to party when: you'd rather put your slippers than your stilettos on; never leave off the lippy, though!

You know you are too young to retire when: you use the internet more than your students.

When I was in high school I listened to the music of [please appreciate here that the UK high school phase is a long one, as you are normally in the same school from when you are 11 to when you are 16 or 18]: Shirley Bassey; Helen Shapiro; Cliff Richard; Elvis; The Beatles; The Searchers; Cilla Black; Tom Jones; the Walker Bros; Dusty Springfield; Mary Hopkin; Engelbert Humperdink [to name but a few and I still have all the vinyl, too!]

Nowadays I find I like the music of: Patrizio Buanne; Chopin; Zucchero; almost anything Italian.

On my last birthday I: had a wonderful meal with friends.

On my next birthday I want to: do the same!

The best birthday present I ever got was: my watch, on my 21st, from my Dad. I still wear it.

The first time I felt grown up was: when I wore my first long evening dress.

The last time I felt like a kid was: I always do!

When I read: The Second Sex [de Beauvoir] and The Last of the Just [André Schwarz-Bart] they changed my life, the first because, despite its faults and omissions, which are many, it charts, through history, the ambiguity with which all women struggle and the second because it shows how pernicious racism can be.

Last year was: interesting, challenging and full of new friendships and experiences.

Next year I hope: to still be around!

A GIFT FROM ANNE AND A MEME FROM LESLIE

I know I keep saying that the friendships you make through blogging are amazing but I do believe it's true: this morning this lovely, clever fridge magnet from Anne arrived and nothing could have cheered me up more. She made it herself and I do envy really creative people. Thank you, Anne.

Leslie has a meme which I found interesting; you have to answer each question with one word only, so here goes:

Where is your mobile phone? Somewhere!
Your significant other? Dog
Your hair? Colourneedy
Your mother? Saintly
Your father? Generous
Your favourite thing? Reading
Your dream last night? Forgettable
Your favourite drink? Cointreau
Your dream/goal? Security
The room you’re in? Booklined
Your ex? Bastard!
Your fear? Dementia
Where do you want to be in six years? Around!
Where were you last night? Home
What you’re not? Conventional
Muffins? Yep!
One of your wish list items? Emerald
Where you grew up? Didn't!
The last thing you did? Cooked
What are you wearing? Lipstick!
Your TV? Off
Your pets? Family
Your computer? Misbehaving
Your life? Busy
Your mood? Changeable
Missing someone? Often
Your car? What?
Something you’re not wearing? Glasses
Favourite Store? Rinascente
Your summer? Hot!
Like someone? Umm...
Your favourite colour? Blue
When is the last time you laughed? Today
Last time you cried? Yesterday

I don't tag but will be glad to read you if you want to do this meme.

BOOK MEME

I have been tagged by the excellent Beaman for the book meme which is currently doing the blog rounds. As it is a literary meme, I will do it! You have to grab the nearest book to hand, turn to page 123 and write down the 5th sentence and the next 3. OK, I am currently reading the 2003 edition of Flora Fraser's biography of Emma, Lady Hamilton, Beloved Emma. To be honest, I am finding this tome to be one of those rather dreary historical biographies which describes in detail not only every meal but also almost every bowel movement of its protagonists. However, I persevere because I like reading of the Hamiltons' life in Naples at the time of the "Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" and, as long-term readers of this blog will know, I am fascinated by Nelson's Sicilian connection, which I wrote of last year in a series of posts beginning here. Horatia Nelson, Nelson and Emma's illegitimate daughter, is buried in the chuchyard at Pinner, [north London] where I used to live. [Poor lady - she could never bring herself to acknowledge Emma as her mother.] And this romanticised version of the lovers' story is said to have been Churchill's favourite film.

Sentence 5 on page 123 quotes Emma herself, writing of Sir William Hamilton:
"He has no diners, but what I can be of the party."
She goes on:
"Nobody comes without they are civil to me; we have always good company. "
Now Fraser takes up the narrative:

"From this proud summary, we can deduce that there were some ladies and gentlemen who preferred not to come but to be uncivil about Emma elsewhere. There had been further changes in the domestic arrangements."

I think sentence 3 here is interesting as it makes one wonder how much has really changed with regard to how both men and women are apt to treat a woman they regard as "fallen".

I don't tag but some of you may find this a pleasant meme to do.

Note to my students : the first two sentences quoted from the book are written in an 18th century English style which you should not copy!

WCL'S HOUSEHOLD TIPS

I admit that I couldn’t think of anything to post about tonight but my friend the Winchester Whisperer has come to the rescue with this meme asking for "household tips". That’s a laugh for a start as I am the world’s worst housekeeper. I love cooking because it’s creative but I detest cleaning and ironing and resent the time these tasks take. A couple of weeks ago a friend here – a liberated woman with a demanding job – told me she envied my single state because, “There is no one to ruin your clean floor just after you have polished it.” Huh? – Get real!


Here goes:

1. A plastic spray bottle containing a few drops of peppermint oil diluted with plenty of water could be a summer friend. Spray some of the contents liberally around your kitchen once or twice a week and ants and flies will be discouraged from trespassing.
2. [A Sicilian one]: Garlic placed on a windowsill should keep mosquitoes at bay.
3. Don’t waste the dregs of bottles of “flat” tonic water or other fizzy drinks. Chuck them down the loo and they will help to clean it.
4. [From here on I am going to cheat and the tips will be about cookery / entertaining]: You will get more juice from a lemon or an orange if you put it in the microwave for a few seconds before squeezing [only I don’t have a microwave here – boohoo!]
5. [From my Sicilian friend Giovanna and I have been doing this for 16 years, now – apologies if you read it on an early blog post here]: Always add a halved potato to the water when cooking pasta.
6. A curdled sauce can nearly always be rescued by the addition and vigorous mixing in of a couple of ice cubes off the heat.
7. When entertaining, set the table before you do anything else. Then it all looks organised even if you get in a panic. Get your glad rags and make-up on and look glamorous even if some of the cooking has to wait. And if you are entertaining the “housekeeping police” spray polish around and then loads of perfume – or invite nicer people in the first place.

"Err, that's it", as they say. Buon divertimento.

[I don't tag.]

7 x 8

I do memes if I haven’t done the particular one before, if I think I can make a decent post out of it and – yes – sometimes if I’m stuck for an idea. This one from Lady Mac made me think:

8 things I’m passionate about:
1. My dog
2. Italy
3. Books
4. Cooking
5. Language learning and teaching
6. Any form of bullying – in schools, at work, on the internet, anywhere – angers me.
7. I hate narrow-mindedness.
8. Unkindness is so unnecessary.

8 things to do before I die:
I’ve done the big one – I moved to Italy!
1. Publish a book
2. Buy a Sicilian villa on the proceeds
3. Visit Mendocino – because of that song by Kate & Anna McGarrigle [no room for it on list below]. Along with Carrickfergus, I think it expresses homesickness perfectly.
4. Fly long-haul first class but only if I can take ALL my make-up on board!
5. Meet James, Ellee, Lady Mac, Winchester Whisperer and jmb! [Be warned: I eventually manage to do most things I set out to do!]
6. Fall madly, irresponsibly in love one more time – with an uncomplicated, straight, solvent, single man. [Well, all right, I suppose he can be a bit complicated!]
7. So many more books to read!
8. So many more recipes to try!

8 things I say often:
1. All to my dog: “Good girl/Pretty girl//I’m only putting on lippy – it’s not time to go out/Simi day today” [on a day when I’m staying in].
2. A lot of unprintable Anglo-Saxon swearwords.
3. “Shit! I can’t see to find my glasses.”
4. “Pazienza” .
5. “Buona giornata /serata” [“Have a good day / evening”].
6. “He /she’s on his / her way out, then”, whenever a British Prime Minister gives a minister his “unreserved backing”.
7. “Con ghiaccio e limone, per favore” [“Ice & lemon, please”].
8. Cincin!

8 books I’ve read recently:
1. Hot Mettle – Brenda Dean
2. As a Dodo
3. Shakespeare’s Wife – Germaine Greer
4. Delizia! – John Dickie
5. The World According to Bertie – Alexander McCall Smith
6. Love in a Torn Land – Jean Sasson
7. Dear Olivia – Mary Contini
8. L’Amore molesto – Elena Ferrante


8 songs I could listen to over and over:
1. Va, Pensiero – Pavarotti or a Welsh male voice choir
2. Nella Fantasia – Katherine Jenkins / Summer /Paul Potts
3. Sapore di Sale – Gino Paoli [every Italian’s favourite summer song]
4. À Quoi Ça Sert l’Amour? – Edith Piaf & Theo Sarapo. In this song the young man asks the experienced, older woman what’s the use of love because he’s heard it brings only pain. She replies that it does bring pain but also much joy. “C’est triste et merveilleux – It’s sad but it’s wonderful”. I like to think that Sarapo really loved Piaf. I have no reason to believe that he didn’t.
5. Always on my Mind – Presley / Patrizio Buanne
6. Waltz Across Texas – Ernest Tubb. I just can’t sit still when I play this. It reminds me of my line-dancing days and Simi thinks I’ve gone mad!
7. Last Man in My Life – Shirley Bassey
8. The Prisoner’s Song – Brenda Lee
And my ringtone is Je ne regrette rien.

8 qualities I look for in a best friend:
1. Be trustworthy.
2. Be kind, above all else.
3. Understand it’s not always easy to be single.
4. Humour, humour, humour!
5. Don’t be narrow-minded .
6. Stay in touch – you don’t have to live in my pocket, but don’t let me make all the effort in the friendship. An email saying, “Sorry, I’m busy – speak next week / month” is nearly always possible .
7. Don’t call me when I’m listening to The Archers – unless, of course, you are in trouble, in which case you can call me any time of day or night.
8. Love my dog.

8 people I’m passing this on to:
Anyone who feels like doing it. [I don’t tag.]

A ROOM WITH A VIEW

Lady Mac has tagged me with the “What’s the view from your window?” meme. [Note: I will do memes only if they interest me and I think I can make a half-decent post from the idea; otherwise, I leave them and I don’t tag.]

The first question I ask myself is “Which window?” but I suppose it has to be the lounge one. From my study and kitchen windows [glass doors really] I can see only the long balcony of the house facing this block. The lady of the establishment is one of these energetic souls who always has her washing hanging from the balcony by 8am and between that hour and 10 am she can be seen dashing about, cleaning, sweeping and scrubbing the shutters, windows and the balcony itself. So I don’t look across there very often , lest I become infected with this “housewife” virus, though I think I am immune to it.

My lounge window, at the narrower end of the apartment, looks onto another neighbour’s house and, although I can see the balconies and windows, I cannot see inside, nor would I look if I could[unless Al Pacino or Tom Jones suddenly decided to use the space as a changing room]. My neighbours can probably observe my lounge activities, as their windows are higher, but they probably don’t bother and if they do I can only surmise that their lives are very unexciting! The garage of this dwelling has a flat roof and it is by looking down at that that I can tell if it is raining but sometimes in summer you think you can see raindrops on it then, like a desert mirage, they turn out to be only what a friend calls “gocce di caldo” – heat drops. I can also look down upon the top of my neighbour’s olive tree [which makes a nice swishing sound in the wind] and upon the run where he keeps his dogs [who have ruined my life. Yes, Simi still gets up at 5.30 am if she hears them. She has given up barking at them but does expect me to “rise and shine” with her!]

The left hand side of the street is obscured by the olive tree but to the right I can make out who is walking up and down and keep a look-out for my elderly “discerning shopper” neighbour: if he appears carrying a crate on his shoulder or grinning broadly I realise that he has found some beautiful, fresh, in-season produce and, as I know his route by now, I sometimes rush down to discover which roadside lorry he has been buying from. I can’t carry the crates, but if I decide it’s produce that will keep a while or that I can preserve in some way, the sellers will decant it into carrier bags, with which I can just about stagger back.

Sometimes I amuse myself watching all the motorists searching for parking spaces near the post office here. [In Britain no one would drive to a city centre post office.] Reader, if you saw them later, backing out of the street into lines of oncoming traffic, you would be anything but amused, I think!

At siesta time in summer, of course, the street resembles one from a ghost town: you see nothing and nobody during those hours. And when the shutters are open on summer nights, the moons I behold are glorious: that’s the time to put on some Bocelli and dream!

That is what I can [or can’t] see. What I can hear through my window is, I think, more interesting: at around 8 am the splashing of water as the women clean their halls and throw the contents of their buckets down the street; the man who comes around in a small fruit & veg truck announcing his wares on Wednesday and Friday mornings; the chorus of the cicadas on summer evenings and sometimes around midday if it is very hot; and when Simi and I hear “chug-chug-chug” we run out onto the balcony to see where the water lorry is headed. But my favourite sound has to be one I have mentioned many times on this blog: it is that of everyone opening up their shutters to let the cooler air in on summer evenings.

"FIRST POLITICAL MOMENT" MEME

The other day Gracchi tagged me with the “your first political moment” meme. I said, in the comments, that it was the final resignation of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. We had a newsagent’s shop in Bristol at the time and I was standing behind the counter [which was much taller than I was] with my Mum. I’d seen Churchill’s photo on the front of a newspaper – I was 5 but I knew who he was, as everybody had a stauette or picture of him in those days – and Mum was explaining to me that “The Queen is sad but she’s pleased that he will be able to have a rest.”

I can also remember the “You’ve never had it so good” speech, the Profumo affair, the days when Harold Wilson seemed to be forever on the TV and was always being photographed in that mac of his ,the simultaneous rise of political satire on British TV [TW3, which seemed so revolutionary at the time] the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Winter of Discontent and the election and resignation of Margaret Thatcher. [I wasn’t a Tory but was prepared to give her a chance, until she started preaching Christian values such as beating the hell out of the Argentinians; when her political demise finally came, I celebrated it.]

And I have my first Italian political moment, too: the great surge of hope I felt at Berlinguer’s Eurocommunism of the late 1970s and early 80s. I really thought that they’d cracked it and that there was going to be new hope for the world. How wrong I was. Only now do I realise that there is going to be no new hope for the world until we stop looking at everything from a “eurocentric” point of view.


Gracchi calls all these memories “Kennedy moments” and I thought I’d tell you about the original one, as it certainly was the first time a political event touched and shocked me deeply: By 1963 we had moved to Soundwell, in the suburbs of Bristol. It was a Friday evening and Mum, Dad, Grandpa and I were sitting around the black and white TV. It was nearly time for my favourite programme, Emergency Ward 10 , when all of a sudden a picture of JFK was shown. My first reaction was that a war had been declared. [I was absolutely terrified of war; I had heard so many horror stories from my parents’ generation, who were, I think, deeply in shock from the experience of WW2 for a good 20 years after its end.] Then a solemn voice announced that JFK had been shot in Dallas. We just looked at each other; we couldn’t believe it. JFK was young, he was a hero [nobody knew about the womanising then] and, more importantly for my friends and me, he was good-looking! The voice on the TV said that more news would be brought to us later, and after a few minutes [there was no “at the scene” reporting then] we were told that the President had died. They were going to bring us Emergency Ward 10 shortly, but then they said that in view of the gravity of the news, solemn music would be played instead. [Now, I knew this was serious news, and I was sorry for Jackie, but I was extremely annoyed that I couldn’t drool over Dr. Chris Anderson in my favourite medsoap!] My great aunt Mabel, “Auntie”, who lived with us, was a very well-read, intelligent and totally self-taught woman and she could have told you everything about any historical subject you cared to discuss. She would have been about 80 at the time and was at one of her church meetings, and Dad said we would have to be very careful how we told her, as she would become very upset. Well, Auntie came in at some time after 8pm, and Dad gently told her she would not believe the news that she was about to hear. I remember she went pale, and when Dad told her what had happened she shrieked and covered her face with her hands, then sat down quickly. Dad got her a sherry. Auntie immediately saw the significance of the event for the world, but what shook her, as it did all of us, was the thought of that young life being just wiped out like that, and when we heard about Jackie screaming “Oh no, no” in the car it broke our hearts. A few days later, when we saw the footage of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald right in front of the police, Dad and Auntie exchanged meaningful glances and even I knew that something was very rotten in the States of America.

At school the following week we had to write, for English homework, about the “Person I most admire”. You can imagine what happened: all the boys wrote about JFK and all the girls, except me, wrote about Jackie. Oh, I wanted to all right but my Dad wouldn’t let me! He said it was too predictable a subject, that I could not possibly make it interesting – for what did we really know about her? – and he forced me to write an essay entitled “Our Family Doctor”. I was mad with him because I wanted to be like everyone else, but I got an “A” and all my friends were berated by our teacher: “All you have said is that you admire President Kennedy because he got shot!” he screamed at the boys. [Well, they were 13. They were hardly capable of writing political analysis, were they?] And: “All you can talk about is her hair and her clothes!” he yelled at the rest of the girls. Looking back, what on earth did he expect? It was a silly title to set during that week.

And now I am nearly 58 years old and I have seen the political contours of the world change as they never have before, following another shocking day in 2001. Yet the day of the Kennedy assassination remains, for me, the day the world grew old.

I don't tag but if anyone else wants to do this meme I'll be happy to read your thoughts in the comments or on your own blog.