Thursday 14 June 2007

The gathering of the links and other random musings.

Public 'unaware' of food origins - "Many British people are unaware that the ingredients for produce such as bacon, porridge, bread and beer come from farms, a survey suggests." [BBC]

The diary of a 14 year old Polish girl who lived in the Jewish ghetto and died in the Holocaust has come to light after being kept safe for 60 years by a friend. [via Parentdish] I was absorbed when I first read Anne Frank's diary (still am), this sounds as though it would be similarly fascinating, if more harrowing to read.

I read that Darcey Bussell is retiring from the Royal Ballet, the BBC has an In Pictures set of photos covering her career there. When I was in high school I was lucky enough to be taken to see the Royal Ballet by the family of one of my best friends and saw her dance. It's something I never would have done with my family. We had a cultural exchange going on -- we would take my friend to folk/traditional music and dance things and her family too me to see ballet and plays in London and Stratford, and sometimes we and our mothers would go see plays and movies at our local theatre. When we got into our later teens my friend and I , sometimes with a larger group of friends would go up to London for some of the Prom concerts in the summer too.

It's something I miss about my life in England, I've barely been to the theatre at all since living in the US and not that many musical concerts, and no ballet at all. Of course we do a lot of music so it's not as though I'm completely bereft, and it's not as if we even get to watch movies these days what with having a baby. It's definitely time to be organising a babysitter and a date for me and the husband.

Late risers unite in Denmark - "If you find it hard to get up in the morning, don't despair - you're not lazy, you're just genetically programmed that way, says the B-Society in Denmark." The link is to an article at the From Our Own Correspondent site, the story's part of the most recent episode (you can listen online or download the most recent episode). I like this idea of adapting society to the way different people's body clocks work. Of course I would since all of our household tends toward late to bed and late to rise!

Cod liver oil 'treats depression' - "It may make the stomach turn, but scientists in Norway suggest that taking a spoonful of cod liver oil each day could stave off depression." [BBC]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I saw Darcey's last performance on TV (we have British Sky TV here in Germany) and it was amazing. The final curtain was so touching. She wept, the crowd wept, her colleages wept, I even cried a bit. It was very touching and you could see how much she was loved and admired and how much she loved what she did. It must have been something to see her perform live.