tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55709121687661022992011-09-17T09:30:59.000+02:00Ambient TextMartha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.comBlogger811100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-14971361260436116632011-02-27T21:54:00.006+01:002011-02-27T22:08:16.502+01:00

Life before News is subject to (alternative) development in the future.Please scroll through themes and/or dates on the right and enjoy (re-)reading what you may find.lifebeforenews@gmail.com will continue to receive and appreciate your comments.Thank you!

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-15462889728478665712010-11-22T09:39:00.011+01:002010-11-22T10:31:37.178+01:00

Haunting is the word most often applied to this song. Chances are that you already know I Wonder as I Wander, an Appalachian ballad heard on the street in North Carolina (USA) by John Jacob Niles. Niles, a Kentuckian singer and lover of traditional music, found the music produced by a ragged young girl enthralling. He paid her to repeat the song many times as he took notes. Niles subsequently

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-41095593238163153272010-10-31T13:27:00.010+01:002010-10-31T14:45:37.802+01:00

“It was time for us to not see each other for a while; we really needed a break."The young woman across the aisle was clutching her cell phone, staring out of the train window as she conversed. The car was fairly quiet and all passengers could follow her side of the conversation.“We needed to take some distance.” That sounds like private information to me, and, if possible, I would want to avoid

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-48541806424646117182010-10-10T11:56:00.003+02:002010-10-10T12:13:35.453+02:00

Prance – a frivolous mode not reflected in our times; Switzarland – a superior misnomer; Unite Kingdom of Britain – unlikely, at least not any time soon. What’s in a name? The country names pictured above appear on a globe of extraordinary origin, as explained in an earlier post: http://lifebeforenews.blogspot.com/2007/11/global-local-something-like-this-pt1.htmlA recent dinner-party conversation

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-9247069707751073392010-09-29T10:25:00.002+02:002010-09-29T10:38:58.067+02:00

Fortunate circumstance allows me to assemble these titles on my own bookshelf for this group picture to be presented during a wee presentation later today on engaged writers from the USA. Preparation of said presentation has robbed me of the time to post thoughts here on just how these (and many other titles) books occupy common ground. I have called upon the reader to enlarge a photo and read

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-52150769991206716722010-09-05T13:58:00.011+02:002010-09-05T16:21:57.384+02:00

I am already on the alert while approaching the multi-story building – in the absence of a sidewalk, I’m forced to walk either on the rim of the bicycle path or in the soggy grassland at its edge, where my foot is quickly engulfed by mud. The bicycles hurtling along the straight stretch of road before the curve around the building are being pedalled at significant speed, the cyclists absorbed in

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-75808870260209448282010-08-16T13:29:00.004+02:002010-08-16T13:53:07.541+02:00

This is the story of a few Parisians, some of Chinese origin, others of French and mixed parentage. Some of the Chinese are or were undocumented, others have forged their way into French society. Some are blood relatives, others are bound by official documentation or unspoken agreement, pressure from and loyalties to distant dons. I first met them through French friends of mine, a couple in Paris

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-69689429804887397852010-08-02T09:32:00.007+02:002010-08-02T21:09:18.115+02:00

The newspaper from Texas arrived in Amsterdam with a visitor, who, like others before her, had kindly contacted me before leaving her home to ask if there was anything I wanted from the USA. “A local newspaper, please.” I like reading the most local of stories, of knowing that I’m supporting a local economy somewhere by encouraging the purchase of what I consider to be an important presence in

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-79623672427805929292010-06-05T11:26:00.004+02:002010-06-05T11:57:41.004+02:00

A new national government will be elected in the Netherlands on 9 June; election anxieties always mount for me when I receive my free copy of the candidates list (see above), which this year carries the names of 672 candidates.I have addressed the subject in earlier posts: please see, for example "EU Election Anxieties" on 31 May 2009, when the 289 candidates put to the test my abilities to get

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-12188942908540518522010-04-30T17:45:00.003+02:002010-04-30T18:01:51.772+02:00

I saved the receipt from the Glasgow green-grocer to remind me of Marta’s accent. She was a new resident of Scotland from Poland, working for Asians, and I imagined hearing all of that when she spoke. Throughout that neighborhood, commerce was being livened up by more new Britons (see LBN post Those Persians 25 March 2009). Eastern Europe used to be far away, but EU-member Poland in particular

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-29007616115854848632010-03-25T20:33:00.007+01:002010-03-25T21:00:03.267+01:00

From the International Letters Home Archive emerges correspondence between Lurline Birchum and her mother. The fonts in this typeset version appear to have been selected with the aim of replicating the appearance of the original handwritten version. It is unclear whether the earlier handwritten version was notated by Lurline herself or put on paper by another literate townsperson at Lurline's

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-44035827173315340342010-02-25T10:33:00.010+01:002010-03-02T12:52:36.365+01:00

Previously on Life Before News:Not allowed to show you (Pt.1) – May 25, 2007So far this much is known: Not allowed to show you (Pt.2) – June 5, 2007From the rough graffiti displayed on January 30 to – by reassuring coincidence - an elegant anarchist cocoon: “Coming soon…” is the full text on the English-language webpage of the Library I entered on the day when the Dalai Lama and Barack Obama

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-20107655530050556292010-01-30T23:50:00.005+01:002010-01-31T00:16:11.879+01:00

Laws and constitutions are subject to interpretation, that much we all understand by now. But when a Dutch lawyer confessed to me that nobody in Holland really knows exactly how many laws there are to begin with, because they’re all rumbling around in profusion on computer chips in The Hague, I wondered if this was an aspect which could at some point spawn unforeseen complications. Breaking

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-16379441745418846022010-01-09T17:10:00.014+01:002010-01-09T23:41:15.001+01:00

[please see video below text]A departure board of the old, clattering kind: few lights, great sound – hanging in the Gare du Nord, the train station where passengers heading north bid Paris farewell. People arriving from the north must weave their way towards the street through the crowds, staring upwards at the display until their train’s track number spins into view or recording short videos

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-27504377716979705012009-12-28T00:30:00.004+01:002009-12-28T00:40:18.590+01:00

Would the author of this communication please contact me asap?

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-74039091318440706952009-11-28T13:48:00.006+01:002009-11-28T14:12:46.780+01:00

Recently I was provided with the opportunity of revisiting the ways in which the written word can aggravate and highlight irreversible frictions. Content tends of course to antagonize in any number of ways, but I’m talking about something else. The mere involvement of the written word raises hackles in some quarters. If the written word is perceived as being light-years away from the spoken word,

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-13541690274547281492009-10-13T20:00:00.035+02:002009-10-16T13:40:07.325+02:00

Censorship of books in the USA works in fascinating ways. It’s grassroots - no official 'Office of Censor' decree in use here. Citizens can approach libraries and schools and challenge specific titles. If the challenge is successful, the work in question could be either restricted or banned. "Banned Books Week" was recently celebrated throughout the land - in support of freedom of speech, not

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-59716327648089708742009-09-29T11:48:00.012+02:002009-10-16T13:40:45.486+02:00

Should this be your first encounter with the person of Oum Kalsoum (that's her at the mic in the above picture), you may want to look her up, and for that purpose you have numerous options, including : Umm Kulthum, Om Kalthoum, Oum Kalthum, Omm Kolsoum, Umm Kolthoum, Um Kalthoom) (Arabic: أم كلثوم ). Egypt’s most celebrated singer crossed the river in 1975 at the age of approximately seventy-five

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-23003714038864008502009-09-10T20:45:00.009+02:002009-09-10T21:12:17.231+02:00

My parents were married on September 10, 1938, after a whirlwind courtship in and around Toronto, Canada (Mom) and New Haven, Connecticut, USA (Dad). Her mother was critical of daughter Mary swanning off with an uncivilized Yank; the family of Alfred was disdainful towards the import bride with no previous exposure to New England protocol.But Mary was swept off her feet by the bold young lawyer

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-30156620753626609872009-08-18T12:01:00.005+02:002009-08-18T12:12:16.681+02:00

(Vacation Spirit 3rd and Final; Please see previous two posts for Vacation spirit 1 & 2) Biomechanical analysis provides a breakdown of the race among the fastest men on earth. Click on the top photo for a closer look at the details. All related media coverage and commentary combine to make this a very lucrative 9.58 seconds, the time required by Usain Bolt to cover 100 meters at the 12th IAAF

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-89324252454167121382009-08-07T10:32:00.015+02:002009-08-07T11:03:23.447+02:00

The July 23 LifeBeforeNews post was offered in the spirit of vacation. Vacation is still the dominant mode in Amsterdam, but meanwhile entries are piling up fast for ‘English as Accessory Pt.2’ (Please see ‘English as Accessory’ May 2, 2009) as the holiday season wears on. Please bear with me: your vocabulary list of Dutch words may be longer than you think, because they're English. And consider

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-15777159903237113052009-07-23T21:13:00.004+02:002009-07-23T21:33:08.421+02:00

Unbeknownst to me, there was a place named Badcall in the area I was headed for in northwest Scotland. I hadn’t been able to resist the cheap flight between Amsterdam and Aberdeen, where I rented a car, knocking off the outer left mirror when passing through the first stone-walled village in my path. I spent a few nights in Kinlochbervie (see marker ‘A’) in a Bed & Breakfast by the sea; the door

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-86371617106876745682009-07-14T14:49:00.005+02:002009-07-16T07:51:19.834+02:00

One of the great tenets of social cohesion is slated to adorn a drain pipe, or line gutter, near me. The Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” was voted in by residents of a neighbourhood in the Dutch capital. Five proverbs attributed to the Chinese sage Confucius were in the running.While many do credit Confucius, others say the author was Epictetus, the Greek

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-76479357919043894372009-06-25T21:25:00.007+02:002009-07-02T20:37:38.645+02:00

Please note: the above image is the start of a video clip; duration 00’27” (twenty-seven seconds). A first choice would be a provincial cafe.It could be so relaxing, so down.So grand - a monumentalconverted residence in a big country town.The staff glides along behind a marble bar.These North Country people are rich.So why go here to write this?There’s no tension-filled entrance,when the

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-1519889583293065542009-05-31T11:34:00.011+02:002009-06-01T19:03:55.435+02:00

When I sent off my absentee ballot to vote in the US elections last Fall, I devised and enclosed a self-addressed stamped postcard bearing the message that my ballot had been safely received by the Florida officials. They sent it back to me! Another feel-good moment in the November 2008 US elections!This week, I’ve been reminded that election ballots can be fearful to behold: the Dutch version of

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-69169991267942732542009-05-14T12:32:00.010+02:002010-08-16T10:21:42.693+02:00

When asked why I choose to live in Europe rather than in my native North America, I have on occasion been known to reply:Things didn't work out that well over there. We're all coming back.Just kidding! Some people laugh with me. Others are alarmed. Let's face it, this is basically an out-emigration continent, and it can take a while for both immigrants and natives to adjust.An update from friends

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-90432267213072817392009-05-02T22:04:00.010+02:002009-05-02T22:30:24.873+02:00

Learning Dutch involves making choices. Depending on where you live, you may or may not want to take on the local accent and vocabulary (regional dialects are another issue altogether). Differences in pronunciation can be significant – perhaps less for foreigners more accustomed to adjusting to new sounds than for, let’s say, Dutch TV-makers, who are prone to adding subtitles when non-mainstream

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-76465647114987910002009-04-25T09:56:00.012+02:002009-04-25T10:28:05.883+02:00

Torture and Tourism: a European PerspectiveOnce upon a time, a seasonal exhibition was launched in Amsterdam, an educational money-maker: Medieval Torture, the freak/horror show, no longer on the sidelines of a recreational circus. The public would pay to stream through: relieved when spewed out at the other end, steadied by the thought of having learned something. The public (natives and foreign

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-40861702816732315822009-03-25T12:17:00.007+01:002009-04-03T13:51:34.153+02:00

A professor of Iranian origin now working in the Netherlands introduced Persian culture as 'the place where Asia kissed the Middle East.' I'm sure he said 'kissed.' He may also have said 'embraced' in the next sentence or two. It's possible that he also referred to China kissing Turkey. What's absolutely certain is that he referred to a mutual acquaintance of South Asian origin with significant

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-35810631457681785642009-03-07T17:26:00.007+01:002009-03-07T17:42:13.833+01:00

I made some notes while watching the unbelievably fast, balanced and cool-headed speed skaters from around the world who are competing in Salt Lake City, USA this weekend. Luckily for me, they're on TV in the Netherlands.Please click to enlarge the photograph and read.For previous reference to Salt Lake City, please see June 16, 2007.

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-89917359244615124352009-03-01T12:17:00.002+01:002009-04-03T13:54:36.550+02:00

The Medicine Wheel is central to the culture of the Plains Indians in North America. It is a sacred symbol for all knowledge. The eye-shaped Medicine Wheel shown here was printed in the TIPI Newsletter.The Thialf Hall in the Netherlands is a state-of-the-art skating rink where major international competitions are held. [Please see also post March 3, 2008, 'A Win-Win Situation', where I hinted

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-406148401804324602009-02-28T21:55:00.000+01:002009-03-01T17:37:34.276+01:00

I have two months to study this brochure and determine whether or not I qualify for the $35,000,000 (thirty-five million dollars) class action settlement from Bank of America. As it stands, I think I have to send them a letter either way: I can include myself or exclude myself. I think. 35-mln, peanuts these days, especially for what will in all likelihood turn out to be a pretty big class, but

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-78871147606870923402009-02-07T22:12:00.017+01:002009-02-10T19:21:21.638+01:00

I've been called many names in my time [Please see 'Name as Gerund, ' January 21, 2008] but this was a real surprise, breaking what had felt like a long, tedious stretch during which my name was spelled correctly on all envelopes arriving in the mail. And I've never been addressed as the familiar term for a handkerchief. That, of course, is actually written as 'hanky' or 'hankie.' Now I know:

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-27864167866808341082008-12-31T11:56:00.005+01:002009-09-21T09:41:41.903+02:00

Some good news in the final weeks of 2008: this Polish-language sign was removed from the window of a store in my Amsterdam neighbourhood. I do not read Polish (please see http://lifebeforenews.blogspot.com/2007/06/no-vocabulary.html) but upon inquiring inside was told that it warned potential shop-lifters of the presence of security camera’s. Theft had become a major problem for retailers in

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-41459072110371796212008-12-07T11:19:00.004+01:002008-12-07T11:44:45.321+01:00

Interludes with friends aside, there were only two moments on that long day of travel and conversation in and around Havana when I felt that everything came together: during the regular broadcast of the nation’s favorite soap opera, and later on, at the police station. Apart from those two interludes, it was disjointed - in a normal way, like any series of encounters where people wonder if the

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-40829276775270160442008-10-20T10:17:00.003+02:002009-04-03T13:55:06.162+02:00

I waited, but when the Friday evening paper was hours overdue, I finally called the customer service desk. Promises were made about passing on the information to the local distribution point in Amsterdam. Monday came, and the paper fell through the mail slot early, folded around a hand-written note on scrap-paper which read (in French, rather than in Dutch or English, the de facto second language

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-76004214817714667802008-10-04T21:57:00.008+02:002008-10-23T20:50:18.933+02:00

Pt.1 - please see September 27, 2008.No pen and paper was at hand, so the young man suggested that I use my cell phone to write down the information he was about to share. We met by chance, two customers in overcoats standing in the True Crime section of a bookstore in Glasgow. I scanned all the shelves; he noticed, smiled and asked if he could help. Typical, I thought to myself, of local people

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-55243645871590243572008-09-27T00:25:00.004+02:002008-10-23T20:47:37.073+02:00

As a newcomer to the streets of Glasgow, I’ve been charmed by the one the friendliest urban populations I’ve encountered anywhere. If tribal registration standards were applied in Scotland, I would qualify in terms of bloodlines, reinforcing my perception that the willingness of Glaswegians to engage with a stranger is not a mere courtesy extended to an obvious foreigner. A quip on a street

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-67512800131039293292008-09-14T13:14:00.007+02:002009-03-05T09:13:33.915+01:00

Name-tags, handsewn onto clothing and other household items, are not something I see every day. Here’s one I have read and reread. The excellent quality of both bed sheet and label, the color and strength of their material permit me now, presumably a good long while after manufacture, to speak of their endurance.Recently an acquaintance of many years placed a suitcase (that briefly belonged to me

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-63599475186646808782008-09-03T22:14:00.008+02:002008-09-03T22:44:36.070+02:00

My neighbour thinks that basically I’m a good person, easy to get along with, probably affectionate with friends. He has never said as much, and he wouldn’t; that would be ungentlemanly, and Wallace is very well-mannered. But I can see the expectation in his eyes. I know how to read drunks, and he knows that I know. So I'm safe: he'll keep trying to bamboozle me; I'll glide through like a fairy.

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-74115659522332188432008-08-19T21:05:00.003+02:002008-08-19T21:17:47.196+02:00

From: The Acoustic Properties of Clay (fins quan?)El Masnou is a municipality rising to the west from the sea: a maze of alleys, staircases and undulating north-south roads has grafted the town onto the hilly terrain...the old steps are too wide to take one at a time, so you must hobble down. A gutter slashes a central drain for late-summer rains which flood the main road below, blocking traffic

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-88924935438194516072008-08-14T14:52:00.001+02:002008-08-14T14:55:38.402+02:00

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-40452301851901365042008-08-03T17:08:00.004+02:002009-03-25T16:46:51.469+01:00

The car stopped just short of the main drag in the old Cuban district of Tampa, Florida. I wanted to visit and walk along in search of José Martí, the Cuban poet and revolutionary who lived in a number of foreign locations in the final years of Spanish colonial rule in his homeland in the late 19th-century. Tampa was one of the most fervently revolutionary sites on Martí’s itinerary, and it

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-22018172890174232732008-07-21T16:06:00.008+02:002009-03-25T16:46:51.470+01:00

Pt 1 - May 31, 2007 Pt 2 - June 25, 2007Pt 3 - September 14, 2007Things have been developing favorably for Hua and her family in Paris since their brush with the law some time ago. It was almost a blessing in disguise: when daughter Hua was picked up on the streets and turned over to the police, concerned French neighbors rushed to the aid of these illegal immigrants from China, and suddenly the

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-7482836857587507912008-07-07T18:03:00.005+02:002009-04-03T13:55:42.706+02:00

A credit card company offered me thirty free minutes on (in?) a golf simulator (I looked it up: a golf simulator [the Dutch word is formed by joining the two English words, and the Dutch word was used in spite of the fact that the advertisement was distributed in English], not surprisingly, creates a sort of virtual golf), thus engaging my brain in one of a myriad of wasted moments of alarm and

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-35191736693005403302008-06-22T14:34:00.005+02:002008-06-22T15:00:44.807+02:00

I once knew a woman who longed to return to her country of birth, Canada, even after receiving this scarf as a present. It was intended as a joke, but, overwhelmed as she was by sentiment; she found it whimsical, much to her family’s chagrin. A friend of a friend of a friend of hers had once retrieved it from musty heaps of second-hand items, and so began its long trajectory through the closets

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-51569034388861017862008-06-10T22:27:00.005+02:002008-06-10T23:03:04.008+02:00

When I first caught sight of it, the sign was tacked to a wall in a shady corridor of the Municipal Judicial Authorities building in Kandy, கண்டி, a Sri Lankan mountain town. The three alphabets were graceful together; the colors enhanced by age. The message seemed either absolutely effective (the setting couldn’t have been quieter) or perfectly located, like a stage direction conveying a desired

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-50780816837336762412008-05-29T17:57:00.009+02:002009-03-05T09:12:37.824+01:00

From left to right:Who wants to answer a call when the number is withheld?For the duration of a 23-minute skype call with a far-off friend, Skype tried to lure me to their online store by saying that the audio wasn't working.Another Martha Hawley on IMDb has stolen my only film role and I want it back, but so far no luck.(for a 'Very Brief Technical Reference,' see August 4, 2007)

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-33322016313205945992008-05-11T14:08:00.005+02:002009-04-03T13:55:42.706+02:00

Drought warnings are in effect in parts of the Dutch countryside. But in Amsterdam, a city of canals, the sunny weather has been highly appreciated over the past week, since before Liberation Day 2008 - that's May 5th. Liberation Day marks the release in 1945 from Nazi occupation during World War II. Things have gone pretty well in Holland since then. Holidays are considered a basic right for all

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-5490289418548274872008-04-28T19:03:00.012+02:002008-05-11T16:25:59.513+02:00

The Future: The bicycle path in Seville extended into a traffic circle. I was impressed by the exclamation mark serving, I assumed, as a warning to cyclists along this route which I walked several times a day. Another point which caught my attention was that, in fact, I never saw any cyclists. Several times a day for less than a week – that is not enough to argue that there were no cyclists, so I

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-10588602819955622002008-04-18T11:29:00.006+02:002008-09-11T14:26:28.445+02:00

The first time I met a Zimbabwean was so long ago that he was in fact still a Rhodesian, the chief tenant in an apartment nestled, not far from my new job, into one of colonial Hong Kong’s residential neighbourhoods on the mainland, extending between dense, coastal commerce and farmland running north to the People’s Republic of China. The Rhodesian was a short, slight figure, a young white man

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-18989397991290866592008-04-07T11:54:00.009+02:002008-04-25T09:35:21.783+02:00

Where were you?I needed to relax, so I went for a drive. I grew up in car-culture, where there was space to coast gently or even speed up without experiencing stress. Really? That’s so funny. It’s such a guy-thing. She was genuinely surprised, even though she had known me for a long time. But she had grown up in a city built for boats, surrounded by countryside originally designed for tractors

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-90288124469992700002008-03-20T17:47:00.004+01:002008-09-04T00:38:59.493+02:00

Time to release my files, to offer transparency on documentation I’ve held onto, some of it for a very long time. First up: the “Roses are red…”quips written by a childhood friend on the back of a card which reads “Learn to complain without suffering.” This appealing take-off on the self-help industry was ahead of its time. As young girls we were amused by the messages on both sides of the

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-3772850754788788972008-03-03T15:23:00.011+01:002009-04-03T13:56:20.172+02:00

He is losing his edge, the articulate right-winger in The Hague who has provided one-liners and sound-bites for what seems like a very long time already. In one of his recent anti-Muslim rants, in this case connected with burkhas (or was it the burkhini?), he stood in front of camera’s - wearing a dark suit and light-colored shirt, as do most of his many dozens of male colleagues darting back and

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-32875917674363844462008-02-17T18:24:00.006+01:002009-04-03T13:56:20.172+02:00

Free local newspapers, advertising brochures with shopping coupons, neighborhood weeklies, take-out menu’s and single-sheet ads for everything from chimney-sweeping and fortune telling to computer courses are plunked down on adjoining treads of the stone staircase leading up from the sidewalk to the front doors of four apartments, of which one is mine. In this country we have the option of

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-13019560842092856732008-01-30T14:26:00.003+01:002009-06-27T12:39:36.360+02:00

I was looking for a reference work on the fourth floor of the Central Public Library of Amsterdam. As spelled out on an English-language page produced for their website (http://www.oba.nl/): "The right to information is enshrined in law and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." An employee assigned to the fourth floor reference section had said that if there were any books with

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-63647150540425736922008-01-21T16:52:00.003+01:002008-09-04T00:40:57.783+02:00

http://www.boomerwolf.com/soundsmovies/single.auThe letter from Greece began with 'Deer Martha' and I imagined myself catapulted away from the computer, hooves clanging on bare floors as I struggled to stay in forward motion. I eventually found refuge behind trees and was thankful for the profound silence.Martha Howley, Hooley, Ms. Horley - these arrived in the mail at later dates, with more

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-45003551720462701432008-01-03T16:24:00.002+01:002009-04-03T13:56:20.173+02:00

I tried to get a specific and clear appraisal of the roof problem from the plumber-turned-roof repairman still lingering in the doorway before he bolted down the stairs and vanished. I say ‘bolt’ because of his surname, which translates into English as “Rabbit,” and I imagined him, reluctant as he had been to use the ladder leading to the skylight roof access, applying equal strength of feeling

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-33659038044035282402007-12-19T14:20:00.002+01:002008-09-04T00:41:41.315+02:00

Lots of snow had fallen by 6 p.m. that day. We drove along the hilly Connecticut roads flanked by magical scenes. Majestic trees, stone walls lining the slopes, the front porches of wooden homes - even the vast parking lots at shopping malls were beautiful under the snow.I had lived in Amsterdam for a decade and my daughter was born there, so the New England winter scene was nothing short of

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-26716815371360036162007-12-10T13:23:00.002+01:002008-04-14T17:52:54.259+02:00

Onward, Mississippi is not a rallying cry for this state in the southern USA, but rather the name of a location, a town at a crossroads. Not the crossroads of Robert Johnson and the Devil and the birth of the Blues fame, that's farther north in the Delta. Onward marks the spot where drivers of cars heading North anticipate entering the 'real' Delta, and where south-bound travellers leave the flat

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-55586184621570943442007-12-03T15:05:00.001+01:002009-04-03T13:56:50.743+02:00

A friend gets the credit for planting the notion of "The International Grease and Starch Cookbook" in my brain. She was referring to the fact that everywhere you go, there's a favorite way of serving puffy, deep-fried flour: doughnuts, Indian fry bread, Latin American Buñuelos, Spanish Churros, Chinese You Tiao, and the list goes on and on.I was once served the Corsican variant, to my surprise,

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-24453437805107401922007-11-26T17:07:00.003+01:002008-09-11T14:26:48.283+02:00

The globe you see was made by imprisoned Sinhalese Marxists sometime before December 1993, when it came into my hands as a gift from a therapist in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. This therapist worked with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) sufferers, including combat and torture survivors. Among his patients were leftist Sinhalese nationalists seized during anti-government uprisings.Once in

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-24150641106852987312007-11-13T15:21:00.001+01:002008-04-25T09:37:45.827+02:00

Had I remembered to take the book I was reading when I left the house, none of this would have happened. Recalling the events of that ride is as hectic as the journey through the over-built landscape of the Netherlands at locomotive speed is peaceful, or so one might expect. The train sped through fields lower than the barges on the parallel waterway with its perfect border of trees. I held

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-41085125549453637002007-11-01T13:42:00.003+01:002008-05-11T16:33:14.710+02:00

A Love Poem for Celebrating Halloween in ChinaWe could just as well have been there,celebrating Halloween in China.It is large-scale. Entire highways of witches united in the tonal ‘boo’.All the single-child families dress the babefor the encounter with the spirits.They are horribly proud of their offspring.Toothless elders screech with delight.Clusters in masquerade let people dothat clever

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-46424856433040085272007-10-30T13:46:00.000+01:002007-10-30T16:52:05.930+01:00

I do appreciate good use of the Subject Line in e-mails, but this one caught me off guard.I was taken aback, even though I had indeed been corresponding with the General Manager of the cemetery where a number of family members are buried. Most significantly: my parents are there. When these four words popped into view on my computer screen, awareness of previous communications failed to sustain

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-17082866073010695322007-10-22T19:42:00.003+02:002008-09-04T00:42:18.661+02:00

The Rugby World Cup 2007 is over now, and South Africa won. I was reminded that it was on when I walked by a French fast food establishment and saw that one of France's star rugby players had agreed to the placement of his signature on top of their seasonal cheeseburger variants. The man who signed the cheeseburgers is France's fly half Frederic Michalak. I bought the cheeseburger so that I could

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-92179733453986535152007-09-27T12:15:00.004+02:002008-05-11T16:31:38.873+02:00

I wanted to stay close to the Bakery window, where otherworldly cascades, ornamental sugary creations seemed to grow towards the glass. The sweet twists were white, golden, copper and orange in color. For a moment it was like being inside the miniature magical world of a sugar eggs with peep holes, a present I had received on Easter Sundays as a small child. I felt so close to that inedible,

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-66489318972357465662007-09-25T11:44:00.000+02:002007-09-25T12:15:13.060+02:00

As I entered the Metro I bumped limbs with a young woman who held 1 arm bent at the elbow and raised like a spear to apply lipstick - just as I was pulling down a seat next to her in the central section of the car, where 8 people in total can sit down in combinations of 2, at the crossroads of the long main aisle and the short alley running between doors on both sides of the car. This open space

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-33423364797481260212007-09-14T20:10:00.002+02:002009-03-25T16:46:51.473+01:00

In parts 1 & 2 (see May and June archive) Hua was introduced as the 9-year old illegal Chinese immigrant, picked up by police on the streets of Paris, taken into custody, and released into the custody of her parents that same evening thanks to the intervention of alert neighbors and experienced social activists in the ‘quartier.’ An estimated 50,000 illegal children are in France, where

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-6021989673298167902007-09-03T00:24:00.004+02:002009-06-27T12:38:26.549+02:00

He was the most professional newsreader on the night shift at the radio. His colleagues preparing to read the news (to other listeners, in other languages) routinely entered the soundproof booth way in advance to shuffle papers, sift through the news items to locate pronunciation hurdles and to fumble with the soundboard knobs in the minutes leading up to a broadcast. Throats were cleared,

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-29533807747719673202007-08-19T11:53:00.002+02:002008-04-18T11:45:39.333+02:00

Nothing about my physical appearance suggests that I am Egyptian. Nevertheless, while in Egypt, I passed as a resident foreigner. My clothing evidently created that impression: loose-fitting garments covered all limbs. More importantly, I was unaccompanied on the streets, heading for specific work-related destinations, except for the final day, when I visited the Great Pyramids and bought papyrus

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-30370691722548742862007-08-04T12:21:00.003+02:002009-03-05T09:11:37.217+01:00

My bank's website provides information which is apparently legal in one language and 'without legal force' in another. I do not immediately understand what is so 'convenient' about this arrangement, but I'm sure there's a very good explanation. Previous correspondence with the bank concerning their designer use of Arabic texts led to an impasse (please see blogs of May 25, June 5), and I will not

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-18144367621761895532007-07-30T23:11:00.001+02:002010-12-23T15:04:52.951+01:00

I was really looking forward to the heat of the Florida Everglades, to seeing a 'gator or two, and to talking to the locals in one of the few towns around. We drove into such a town center one day.“We’re all white, five-hundred and thirty-six people, and twenty-five blacks.”“No Seminole?”“One [man], and his wife is white.”We could tell that conversation was going nowhere, even just a minute or

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-13137012407983613802007-07-09T12:36:00.002+02:002008-05-11T16:34:49.181+02:00

My bicycle remained unused and inert while I was out of town. The tires needed air, so I stopped at the pump hanging outside of the bicycle store around the corner from where I live. Anyone can use it. I forced the kickstand down with my right foot and squatted to unscrew the tiny, black cap on the valve, coming face to face with a poignant world on the tire, its hub, the spokes: ladybugs stood

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-47585404066511753672007-06-25T15:43:00.005+02:002009-03-25T16:46:51.474+01:00

In pt. 1 (see May 2007 archive), the young Hua was last seen walking, nearly skipping, down a boulevard in Paris, hand-in-hand, with a tall police officer. She had been found alone on the street, or perhaps inside the metro, it wasn’t clear, and with no parents at home to receive her, she was taken into protective custody by the authorities who said she would be held at the Office for Minors.The

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-65682373201236070232007-06-16T00:02:00.002+02:002009-03-05T09:10:53.975+01:00

Several years ago, I found part of Steve Walker’s boarding card in a hotel room.I had been surprised to find the stub on the floor of the large closet when I pushed open the folding doors. The room appeared to be spotless, with only this fairly substantial paper scrap on the floor. It seemed to me - in this new era of heightened security - to be a significant discovery. Steve, the passenger, had

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-77228742639446142822007-06-11T12:21:00.002+02:002008-04-14T17:56:50.725+02:00

Finding myself illiterate in Poland, I followed a color scheme. Racially, Warsaw appeared to be almost completely white, like me. The parks added a strong element of green.In the late 20th-century, multinationals had moved into office buildings around public spaces, and the adjacent hotels for business travellers were marketing those recreational zones. The welcome folder in my room included the

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-41056349655771229562007-06-05T16:27:00.003+02:002009-06-27T12:36:43.841+02:00

I had written to the bank requesting a translation, should they have it, of an Arabic text on a plastic file given to their clients. In response, the bank sent me another product for clients: a paper file (which tucks inside the plastic one) with relevant design background information on its inside cover. Eight examples of bookkeeping techniques throughout the ages are depicted, including the

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-68308067810710580202007-05-31T12:11:00.004+02:002009-03-25T16:46:51.475+01:00

Hua was a nine-year-old girl from Eastern China who had joined her parents in Paris just two months before we met. I was their neighbor, and they passed by my window twice a day. Her mother described, whisking a clenched fist over an outstretched palm, how she paid twenty-thousand euros for the necessary travel documents. Hua lived with her parents on the ground floor of an old apartment complex

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-53309602715052290012007-05-25T13:37:00.004+02:002009-06-27T12:35:17.844+02:00

How long should I have remained standing in silence, waiting for answers from a man frozen in concentration as he stared at a page of words I did not understand? I had asked this local consultant for help in translating a text. Interrupting the meditation to apologize for trouble caused before swiftly departing might have been offensive, indicative of a lack of faith in this person’s willingness

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5570912168766102299.post-57544691428132725682007-05-22T22:39:00.001+02:002008-04-09T10:10:26.822+02:00

Certain libraries allow visitors to photograph books as long as the camera is silent and no flash is involved. This is terrific when the library you are in is far from home and the books can't be checked out. I hadn't thought of it myself until spending about ten days printing out microfilm copies from a special collection in the basement of an otherwise attractive building. At one point I left

Martha Hawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181167247846208701noreply@blogger.com2