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The Last Snack

turkey sandwiches for kids

Tomorrow is our last turn at kindergarten snack. I offered to make Miss Priss any snack she desired. What did she pick? Plain turkey sandwiches on white squishy bread (with the crusts cut off). With a big sigh and a heavy heart, I complied. So, here they are. The most basic snack I do, but it is probably the one that Miss Priss likes the best.

That does not mean that you, readers, have to serve plain turkey sandwiches for kid snacks. You can click Party Sandwiches for one of the easiest recipes you will ever follow, but I am also posting links back to old posts with the other super snacks from this year. Are you signed up to bring an item for an end of the year party? Any of the choices below will work!

Dill Dip

Dill Dip, Veggies, and Pretzels

Fruit Dip

apple dip close up

Turkey Wraps

turkey wrap close

Pizza Bread

slice pizza bread

Dirt and Worms

dirt and worms tray

Chex Mix

dinosaur chex mix

4 thoughts on “The Last Snack

  1. My son’s school has all these regulations now. You are only allowed to bring in pre-packaged snacks that are 150 calories or less. It pretty much leaves pretzels and fruit 🙂 I love all your ideas and my youngest would love the simple turkey sandwiches!

    • Oh, that is such a bummer. My daughter’s school is going to something similar next year. I would actually prefer the school provide a graham cracker at snack time than require parents to rotate snack turns if they are going to put all kinds of restrictions on what snacks you can bring. I do have sympathy for the nut allergy, however. Maybe you could make some turkey sandwiches for the your youngest’s lunch box! Thanks for reading.

  2. Roommom, I need your help again! Need to bring a take-home treat for the last day of 2s nursery school. I’m thinking non-edible snack though. Any ideas?
    (I’ve already sent home-made crayons for the birthday treat).

    • How about a cookie cutter with a recipe for homemade playdoh? A bottle of bubbles for each kid? Do you have a class picture? You could print a copy for each family and make some frame type thing with card stock. Let me know what you decide!

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♭♪♫ Papa- Paparazzi ♩♩♫

Flowers never looked so good!    Calling all you non-professional photogs out there!!

Could you use a little cash? Of course you could.  I mean, who couldn’t nowadays, right?  Then I think I may have a fun way to earn it! And it’s kinda easy…

Yamagami’s Nursery is having a contest for the best picture of  flowers.

The contest is basically three stages.

Stage 1: You have until June 26th to upload your best image to the Yamagami’s Photo Contest Page by submitting them to: Flowers@YNurseryNews.com.  You may upload only three submissions.  It could be close-ups of the flower or a wide angle shot of a display of them, just as long as they are the focal point of the image.  Keep in mind, there may be a brief delay getting you pictures to the proper page, so get them in at least three days before the deadline.

Stage 2: Beginning June 27th and thru July 23rd, the public will begin to vote on which images they like the best.  You can find the competing images HERE.   There are some amazing images.  However, don’t let that discourage you from putting your best foot into the contest.  Just as nature’s created millions and millions of beautiful images, your creativity and uniqueness can capture something that most people have never seen.  Challenge yourself to see beyond the stunning colors and the brilliance in the patterns.  The top ten images will then be submitted to a panel of judges who will then award the cash prizes.

Step 3: Beginning August 18th, you can view the images when you stop on by the nursery as they will be on display.  On August 27, Yamagami’s will host an awards show and the prizes for the Top 3 will be given to the photographers with the best images.  All of the Top Ten finalists will receive a small Yamagami’s Nursery gift certificate.

Please read the complete detailed rules before entering and best of luck to all you picture snapping photogs out there.

Sadly, employees of Yamagami’s and their families are not eligible to enter.

Here are a couple of my fave nature shots that I’ve taken.  What do you love to capture with the lens?  Share where do you like to go for that inspiration?

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Measure B – THE FACTS

(Taken from Kylie’s blog)

I get a lot of questions on Twitter and Facebook about Measure B…since it would take forever to answer each person one by one (on Twitter in 140 characters or less) here is a short list of the many articles, links and videos about Measure B. Including the endorsements by the Los Angeles Times and The Daily News. Please read/watch them to get a better understanding about what Measure B is and why you should vote #NoToMeasureB. It’s not just about condom use. It’s way bigger than that.

No on Measure B – LA Times Endorses ‘No on Measure B’,0,1623510.story

“And if they [the adult industry] flee — should we care? Porn is, after all, porn, and even though it has become more accepted in mainstream culture in recent decades and is occasionally considered hip where it was once widely dismissed as smut, it will never be universally embraced….”states The Los Angeles Times, “Yet we should care, not necessarily because porn should be embraced but rather because it is an integral part of the entertainment industry that represents many jobs and a large part of the Southern California economy. Even if there are only a few hundred on-camera performers, porn is estimated to be a $1-billion to $2-billion industry, employing thousands of sound, lighting, stage, technical and other crew members and post-production workers in between gigs in more-mainstream film and television productions.”

“Measure B is well intentioned, but it is likely to stymie county government and bring little benefit to performers. The Times recommends a no vote.”

Daily News: Endorsement: No on B — Measure to force condoms in porn films is redundant and could harm an important local industry

“The real question is whether the threat of disease posed by the porn industry is serious enough to warrant the effort and expense called for by Measure B. The newspaper’s editorial board does not believe the proponents of the so-called Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act have proven that case. We urge a “no” vote on Nov. 6.”

Measure B Would Affect Only 280 Adult Performers in Los Angeles County in Colossal Waste of Taxpayer Dollars, According to the No on Government Waste Committee:

My favorite quote from the article above: “It’s mindboggling to think we are subjecting the voters of LA County to this ballot fight over 280 performers who are already subject to one of the most stringent sexually transmitted disease testing programs in the world,” said James Lee, communications director for the No on Government Waste Committee. “When you couple that with the over $4 million already spent by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in supporting this measure, you have to wonder what kind of porn obsession Michael Weinstein has and what it is taking away from the real threats of HIV.”

‘No on Measure B’ spokesman, James Lee, answers questions about the initiative

One of my favorite blog reads so far:

The Bullshit Behind Measure B & Mandated Condoms in Porn

In case you missed them, here are the PSAs with industry vetran Steven St. Croix:

And the PSA with Tera Patrick and Ron Jeremy:

xBiz article + Adult industry activist and filmmaker Michael Whiteacre YouTube video in protest of Measure B

Direct link to Michael Whitacre’s video on YouTube:

More informative links you need:

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Parole Violations Nearly Sentenced These People To COVID-19

Twenty-eight people were to attend weeks-long drug treatment programs after violating parole. The COVID-19 pandemic nearly trapped them in jail indefinitely.

(JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)

Parole Violations Nearly Sentenced These People To COVID-19

Twenty-eight people were to attend weeks-long drug treatment programs after violating parole. The COVID-19 pandemic nearly trapped them in jail indefinitely.

They were in jail for parole violations, awaiting transfer to a 45- or 90-day drug treatment program at a New York state correctional facility

But as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down New York City, transfers to state custody ceased in mid-March.

Twenty-eight people—all clients of the Legal Aid Society, which provides representation to those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer—suddenly faced indefinite detention.

“New York cannot block access to treatment programs and leave people in jail behind with nowhere to go, only to wait, wondering if and when they will become infected with COVID-I9, and what will happen to them if they do,” wrote Elon Harpaz, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, in a petition to the Supreme Court of New York, Bronx County, demanding their release.

In an order signed yesterday, Judge Alvin Yearwood granted Legal Aid’s petition and ruled that all of the petitioners must be released to the community, under parole supervision. Legal Aid could not say how many people in local jails throughout New York state may be awaiting similar transfers.

“I find it unconscionable of state DOCCS [New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision], which runs the parole system in New York, to leave all these people trapped in limbo in local jails with nowhere to go, no ability to be released, no ability to get to their treatment program, just waiting until they become infected with COVID-19,” Harpaz told The Appeal.

In a statement emailed to The Appeal, the department said it is “reviewing the ruling and cannot comment at this time.”

To prevent transmission of COVID-19, which is spread through respiratory droplets expelled when a person sneezes or coughs—even, some scientists say, when they exhale or talk—public health experts recommend social distancing, wearing a mask in public, and frequent handwashing. But in prisons and jails, people who are incarcerated live in close quarters and are often denied basic hygiene materials. Legal Aid clients have reported that they do not have soap or hand sanitizer, Harpaz wrote to the court. One client told his attorney that his dormitory was not cleaned after six people were removed who tested positive for COVID-19, according to the petition.

The New York City Department of Correction says that it provides all detainees with soap and cleaning products, and promotes social distancing in dormitories by leaving an empty bed between people when possible. But people inside New York City jails have described close quarters, sloppy screening and quarantine procedures, as well as a lack of supplies.

A flurry of lawsuits have been filed to demand the release of those incarcerated in the city’s jails, most of whom are held on Rikers Island and are at imminent risk of contracting COVID-19. On March 27, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that about 1,100 people held on alleged technical parole violations, such as missing curfew, would be released. The courts have ordered well over a hundred people released in response to Legal Aid’s suits.

A March 25 Legal Aid analysis found that the infection rate at the city’s jails was more than seven times higher than New York City’s, which has emerged as an epicenter of the virus. As of April 8, at least 287 people in New York City jails and 441 department of corrections staff members tested positive for the virus.

On Sunday, Michael Tyson became the first person who had been incarcerated on Rikers Island to die after testing positive for COVID-19. He was held on an alleged technical parole violation, according to Legal Aid, which had sought his release along with 99 others. The petition is still pending before the court, according to Harpaz.

“The epidemic is just spreading so fast at Rikers Island that every single day that goes by increases the risk that someone there will catch this disease,” said Harpaz. “There is no more dangerous place in the state of New York and frankly in the world for individuals in terms of being infected with COVID-19 than jails and prisons.”


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The mangled wreckage of the floating school

Award-Winning Illegal Nigerian Floating School Wrecked After Heavy Rain

floating school

Wreckage of the floating school

About Penny Swift

Penny Swift is an experienced journalist who has worked on daily and Sunday newspapers in several parts of the world. Her specialties include news, investigative writing, consumer, health, and medical spheres. She has written more than 40 non-fiction books mostly about construction and home-related topics, as well as decorating and landscaping.

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Herd (Immunity) Today, Gone Tomorrow

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay By ALEX WELTE As of the time of writing …

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WoT EU – Tier VIII of the Week: IS-6

The IS-6 has been in the game for quite some time already, but it is still one very dangerous vehicle. It combines good all-around armour, decent mobility, and high firepower to take on its competition. Also, this Soviet heavy tank benefits from preferential matchmaking – so you only see enemy tanks up to Tier IX.

Tier VIII of the Week – 42.69

  • VIII IS-6
  • 100% crew
  • Garage Slot
  •  Premium Account: 30 days
  • 15 missions: x5 XP for each victory
  • Personal Reserves: +300% Crew XP for 2 hours

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Save time, empower your teams and effectively upgrade your processes with access to this practical Ambient noise level Toolkit and guide. Address common challenges with best-practice templates, step-by-step work plans and maturity diagnostics for any Ambient noise level related project.

Download the Toolkit and in Three Steps you will be guided from idea to implementation results.

The Toolkit contains the following practical and powerful enablers with new and updated Ambient noise level specific requirements:

STEP 1: Get your bearings

Start with…

  • The latest quick edition of the Ambient noise level Self Assessment book in PDF containing 49 requirements to perform a quickscan, get an overview and share with stakeholders.

Organized in a data driven improvement cycle RDMAICS (Recognize, Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control and Sustain), check the…

  • Example pre-filled Self-Assessment Excel Dashboard to get familiar with results generation

Then find your goals…

STEP 2: Set concrete goals, tasks, dates and numbers you can track

Featuring new and updated case-based questions, organized into seven core areas of process design, this Self-Assessment will help you identify areas in which Ambient noise level improvements can be made.

Examples; 10 of the standard requirements:

  1. In a project to restructure Ambient noise level outcomes, which stakeholders would you involve?

  2. Are there any easy-to-implement alternatives to Ambient noise level? Sometimes other solutions are available that do not require the cost implications of a full-blown project?

  3. Were there any improvement opportunities identified from the process analysis?

  4. How can we improve Ambient noise level?

  5. Is Supporting Ambient noise level documentation required?

  6. How can you negotiate Ambient noise level successfully with a stubborn boss, an irate client, or a deceitful coworker?

  7. Are you failing differently each time?

  8. What measurements are being captured?

  9. How will your organization measure success?

  10. How do you measure progress and evaluate training effectiveness?

Complete the self assessment, on your own or with a team in a workshop setting. Use the workbook together with the self assessment requirements spreadsheet:

  • The workbook is the latest in-depth complete edition of the Ambient noise level book in PDF containing requirements, which criteria correspond to the criteria in…

Your Ambient noise level self-assessment dashboard which gives you your dynamically prioritized projects-ready tool and shows your organization exactly what to do next:

  • The Self-Assessment Excel Dashboard; with the Ambient noise level Self-Assessment and Scorecard you will develop a clear picture of which Ambient noise level areas need attention, which requirements you should focus on and who will be responsible for them:

    • Shows your organization instant insight in areas for improvement: Auto generates reports, radar chart for maturity assessment, insights per process and participant and bespoke, ready to use, RACI Matrix
    • Gives you a professional Dashboard to guide and perform a thorough Ambient noise level Self-Assessment
    • Is secure: Ensures offline data protection of your Self-Assessment results
    • Dynamically prioritized projects-ready RACI Matrix shows your organization exactly what to do next:

STEP 3: Implement, Track, follow up and revise strategy

The outcomes of STEP 2, the self assessment, are the inputs for STEP 3; Start and manage Ambient noise level projects with the 62 implementation resources:

  • 62 step-by-step Ambient noise level Project Management Form Templates covering over 6000 Ambient noise level project requirements and success criteria:

Examples; 10 of the check box criteria:

  1. Quality Audit: How does the organization know that its management system is appropriately effective and constructive?
  2. Stakeholder Management Plan: Has a structured approach been used to break work effort into manageable components (WBS)?
  3. Quality Metrics: Do you know how much profit a 10% decrease in waste would generate?
  4. Activity Duration Estimates: A Ambient noise level project manager is using weighted average duration estimates to perform schedule network analysis. Which type of mathematical analysis is being used?
  5. Procurement Audit: Was the pre-qualification screening for issue of tender documents done properly and in a fair manner?
  6. Lessons Learned: What on the Ambient noise level project worked well and was effective in the delivery of the product?
  7. WBS Dictionary: Do work packages reflect the actual way in which the work will be done and are they meaningful products or management-oriented subdivisions of a higher level element of work?
  8. Activity Duration Estimates: Is training acquired to enhance the skills, knowledge and capabilities of the Ambient noise level project team?
  9. Probability and Impact Matrix: Has the need for the Ambient noise level project been properly established?
  10. Team Operating Agreement: Are leadership responsibilities shared among team members (versus a single leader)?

Step-by-step and complete Ambient noise level Project Management Forms and Templates including check box criteria and templates.

1.0 Initiating Process Group:

  • 1.1 Ambient noise level project Charter
  • 1.2 Stakeholder Register
  • 1.3 Stakeholder Analysis Matrix

2.0 Planning Process Group:

  • 2.1 Ambient noise level project Management Plan
  • 2.2 Scope Management Plan
  • 2.3 Requirements Management Plan
  • 2.4 Requirements Documentation
  • 2.5 Requirements Traceability Matrix
  • 2.6 Ambient noise level project Scope Statement
  • 2.7 Assumption and Constraint Log
  • 2.8 Work Breakdown Structure
  • 2.9 WBS Dictionary
  • 2.10 Schedule Management Plan
  • 2.11 Activity List
  • 2.12 Activity Attributes
  • 2.13 Milestone List
  • 2.14 Network Diagram
  • 2.15 Activity Resource Requirements
  • 2.16 Resource Breakdown Structure
  • 2.17 Activity Duration Estimates
  • 2.18 Duration Estimating Worksheet
  • 2.19 Ambient noise level project Schedule
  • 2.20 Cost Management Plan
  • 2.21 Activity Cost Estimates
  • 2.22 Cost Estimating Worksheet
  • 2.23 Cost Baseline
  • 2.24 Quality Management Plan
  • 2.25 Quality Metrics
  • 2.26 Process Improvement Plan
  • 2.27 Responsibility Assignment Matrix
  • 2.28 Roles and Responsibilities
  • 2.29 Human Resource Management Plan
  • 2.30 Communications Management Plan
  • 2.31 Risk Management Plan
  • 2.32 Risk Register
  • 2.33 Probability and Impact Assessment
  • 2.34 Probability and Impact Matrix
  • 2.35 Risk Data Sheet
  • 2.36 Procurement Management Plan
  • 2.37 Source Selection Criteria
  • 2.38 Stakeholder Management Plan
  • 2.39 Change Management Plan

3.0 Executing Process Group:

  • 3.1 Team Member Status Report
  • 3.2 Change Request
  • 3.3 Change Log
  • 3.4 Decision Log
  • 3.5 Quality Audit
  • 3.6 Team Directory
  • 3.7 Team Operating Agreement
  • 3.8 Team Performance Assessment
  • 3.9 Team Member Performance Assessment
  • 3.10 Issue Log

4.0 Monitoring and Controlling Process Group:

  • 4.1 Ambient noise level project Performance Report
  • 4.2 Variance Analysis
  • 4.3 Earned Value Status
  • 4.4 Risk Audit
  • 4.5 Contractor Status Report
  • 4.6 Formal Acceptance

5.0 Closing Process Group:

  • 5.1 Procurement Audit
  • 5.2 Contract Close-Out
  • 5.3 Ambient noise level project or Phase Close-Out
  • 5.4 Lessons Learned

With this Three Step process you will have all the tools you need for any Ambient noise level project with this in-depth Ambient noise level Toolkit.

In using the Toolkit you will be better able to:

  • Diagnose Ambient noise level projects, initiatives, organizations, businesses and processes using accepted diagnostic standards and practices
  • Implement evidence-based best practice strategies aligned with overall goals
  • Integrate recent advances in Ambient noise level and put process design strategies into practice according to best practice guidelines

Defining, designing, creating, and implementing a process to solve a business challenge or meet a business objective is the most valuable role; In EVERY company, organization and department.

Unless you are talking a one-time, single-use project within a business, there should be a process. Whether that process is managed and implemented by humans, AI, or a combination of the two, it needs to be designed by someone with a complex enough perspective to ask the right questions. Someone capable of asking the right questions and step back and say, ‘What are we really trying to accomplish here? And is there a different way to look at it?’

This Toolkit empowers people to do just that – whether their title is entrepreneur, manager, consultant, (Vice-)President, CxO etc… – they are the people who rule the future. They are the person who asks the right questions to make Ambient noise level investments work better.

This Ambient noise level All-Inclusive Toolkit enables You to be that person:

Includes lifetime updates

Every self assessment comes with Lifetime Updates and Lifetime Free Updated Books. Lifetime Updates is an industry-first feature which allows you to receive verified self assessment updates, ensuring you always have the most accurate information at your fingertips.


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Hilton Mandalay

Set in nearly two acres of beautiful gardens, Hilton Maldalay is strategically located in the heart of the city and across from the Royal Palace and Mandalay Hill. The hotel offers a wide variety of accommodation types for any occasion, from rooms with fully equipped kitchens to rooms with private outdoor terraces with some of the best views of the city.

Rupar Mandalar ****

This romantic hotel was opened in 2006 with the main purpose of becoming the best hotel in the ancient capital of Myanmar, Mandalay, being the only Boutique-Hotel in the whole area, with a really great Spa service and 44 fantastic rooms.

Mandalay Hill Resort*****

Set at the foot of the Mandalay Hill and facing the Royal Palace, Mercure Mandalay Hill Resort offers exceptional ambience and style including the renowned Mandalar Spa & Villas. We invite you to rejoice in the beauty and splendor of Myanmar and experience the special magic and luxury of this unique place.

Belmond Road to Mandalay

Belmond Road to Mandalay *****

Discover the Ayeyarwady River’s enchanting sights, fragrances and sounds on this 3 to 11 night cruise aboard the Belmond Road to Mandalay. Myanmar has been captivating the hearts and minds of travelers for centuries. There is no better way to experience all the magic of this country than traveling through its breathtaking rivers.


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Hypothyroidism Symptoms + Ayurvedic Remedies For Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism Symptoms + Ayurvedic Remedies For Hypothyroidism

The Ayurveda Experience August 20, 2017

According to the American Thyroid Association, an estimated 20 million people have some form of thyroid disease,1 many of whom are experiencing hypothyroidism. Let’s take a look at hypothyroidism symptoms and Ayurvedic remedies for hypothyroidism.

What Is The Thyroid Gland?

The thyroid gland is an endocrine gland located in the neck below the thyroid cartilage.

The main function of the thyroid gland is producing thyroid hormones, the principal ones being triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). T3 and T4 are synthesized from both iodine and tyrosine. The thyroid also produces calcitonin, which plays a role in calcium homeostasis.

The two conditions resulting from impairment of the thyroid glands are hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, of which hypothyroidism is more common.

Fortunately, Ayurveda recognizes such thyroid conditions and has various treatments and remedies for the same.

Hypothyroidism is a major condition affecting many people. Most are unaware they have thyroid disease as the clinical signs are not visible externally. Only when they take the blood test will they know.

In hypothyroidism, the thyroid gland does not produce a sufficient amount of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3).

If you would like to learn more about Ayurveda’s solution to thyroid problems, check out Dr. Akil Palanisamy’s course on Thyroid disorders below.

Thyroid course by Dr Akil Palanisamy

What Causes Thyroid Disease?

One cause of thyroid disease is an autoimmune disorder. Antibodies present in the body itself attack the thyroid glands resulting in a condition named autoimmune thyroiditis which eventually destroys the thyroid gland.

Another reason is physical and mental stress. Physical stress can be defined as stress on the physical body where it is not able to accommodate a lifestyle such as fast food, disturbed sleep patterns, and environmental risk factors.

Mental stress can arise from work pressure, emotional weakness, grief or family disputes. All of these factors result in the secretion of cortisol, the hormone which acts as a protective mechanism to stress.

Originally developed as a response to physical threat, when the duration of stress increases too much cortisol causes the tissues to no longer respond to the thyroid hormone signal.

This is known as thyroid resistance. It can cause thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels to be elevated while T4 and T3 are within the normal range. Let’s now look at common hypothyroidism symptoms.

How Ayurveda Can Help Hypothyroidism hypothyroidism symptoms remedies

Hypothyroidism Symptoms

Hypothyroidism symptoms include the following.

  • Chronic fatigue
  • Weight gain
  • Depression
  • Low blood pressure
  • Sensitivity to heat and cold
  • Paresthesias
  • Bradycardia
  • Elevated LDL- cholesterol
  • Reactive hypoglycemia
  • Hoarseness
  • Constipation
  • Headache
  • Muscle weakness
  • Joint stiffness
  • Swollen face
  • Menorrhagia (heavy and prolonged menstruation)
  • Cramps
  • Memory loss
  • Visual problems
  • Infertility
  • Hair loss

Thyroid course by Dr Akil Palanisamy

Ayurvedic View

The main causes of thyroid disease are diet and lifestyle factors that imbalance the digestive fire or agni and metabolism. Stress and overwork also play an important part as this causes imbalanced agni and vitiation of the dosha.

In thyroid disorders, Kapha dosha is vitiated which can cause a depletion of ojas. Once the ojas is affected then the immune system begins to act improperly, attacking the thyroid gland and resulting in depletion of thyroid functions and body metabolism.

After discussing hypothyroidism symptoms and their Ayurvedic perspective, let’s take a look at some remedies and treatments for thyroid conditions.

Ayurveda Remedies For Hypothyroidism

hypothyroidism symptoms

Kapha dosha has the property of guru which means heaviness. It also has the property of manda or dullness. Ayurveda treatment for thyroid conditions like hypothyroidism should focus on reducing manda guna of Kapha dosha.

Ayurveda recommends herbal formulas for hypothyroidism like Vaisvanara curnam for agni dipana, varunadi kasayam, punarnavadi kasayam,and kancanara guggulu. The practice of nasyais also beneficial.

Recommended Foods

Ayurvedic treatment for thyroid recommends foods high in iodine like shellfish in the diet. High selenium foods such as Brazil nuts, oysters, tuna, sunflower seeds, whole wheat bread, pork, chicken, mushrooms, whole grains, and milk are also beneficial.2

Thyroid course by Dr Akil Palanisamy

Foods To Avoid: Alcohol, coffee, cabbage, and cauliflower.

The practice of yoga and meditation every day can reduce stress significantly. Pratimarshya nasya with appropriate medication can control Kapha vitiation. Exercise for half an hour daily can be very beneficial. People with thyroid diseases who regularly exercise for half an hour stimulate the thyroid gland and increase body metabolic function thereby reducing excess weight gain.

Please consult a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner before trying the Ayurvedic remedies for hypothyroidism mentioned in this article.

1 “General Information/Press Room.” American Thyroid Association, www.thyroid.org/media-main/about-hypothyroidism/.
2 House, Paul. “Top 10 Foods Highest in Selenium.” HealthAliciousNess, HealthAliciousNess, 22 June 2017, www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/foods-high-in-selenium.php.

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The Beat DFW Daily Video

Kylie Jenner has been soaking up all the sun she can poolside with her sister Kendall.

The link up didn’t happen if they didn’t take photos right?! Rest assure you they took eye catching photos.

After the internet was being googly eyed over the pictures of the stunning sisters. The trolls walked in the room and the rest was history. A fan online proceeded to zoom in on Kylie Jenner’s feet to point out she had a crooked toe.

Kylie clapped back right away and cleared up why they look crooked and also said she has “cute ass feet”.

Related: Kylie Jenner Is On The Beach Showin’ OFF! [Photos]

Kylie Jenner Is Getting Roasted Online On Her Crooked Toe  was originally published on


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Monthly Archives: October 2021

ZEN by SHISEIDO (1964)

Despite the attractiveness of the name (I live in the zen temple of Japan, many of the structures and their precincts just down the hill: some with such an extreme beauty just sitting in their gardens is mind and body-altering ) I have always thought of Shiseido’s first internationally launched perfume as being the prototypical – and I don’t usually use this denigratory word – ‘granny perfume’. Though obviously a vintage lover – I have long extolled the virtues of the floral woody aldehydic and wear them regularly – just last weekend I wore the extrait of Nina Ricci’s Farouche and fell in love with it properly for the first time, visiting an old park in the rain next to a lake with a bridge dating back to the thirteenth century over arching; the scent adding melancholy and internal atmosphere; I adore Calèche, Calandre, and so many others – but there was always something about the musty, fusty musk/oakmoss finish at the bottom of this scent that made it more than slightly outdated – a flower print hot summer nylon dress and tights at the back of the bus. My feelings of this gerontological edge to the scent (we all get there in the end, but may not necessarily wish to hasten the process), may also be just because I literally gave a bottle of the Zen cologne – lighter, more masculine, a bit Hai Karate and not nearly as good as the parfum that I have only just discovered at a cheap Yokosuka thrift shop – many years ago, when back home from Japan, not long before the end of her life – to my own grandmother. I can see the bottle, in my mind’s eye, gathering dust, in the chintzy, fiftiesy bathroom up the creaking carpeted stairs, with its old lacey Spanish flamenco dolls from their beloved trips to the Costa Del Sol; ceramic bambis with their overlashed eyes; the plastic flowers; the fake feather birds. Zen nested amongst all this, next to my grandad’s unused bottles of Tabac; my nan, when I kissed her hello and goodbye, when she remembered to put some on, would sometimes give off a heartwarming, soft aromatic cushion of Zen from her slightly bristly skin, a scent from a powdered cheek that was pleasant and homey (smelling the bottle of cologne, which cost next to nothing, the other day, I had a real jolt of remembrance and association).

The parfum, however, which came wrapped in some cellophane tossed together with the cologne in an old bargain bin, is another question altogether. I don’t think I have ever encountered the vintage formula before in my time here, and it is a very pleasant surprise indeed. In this concentration, Perfumer Josephine Catapano (Cinnabar; Youth Dew, Fidji – you get the drift) blends the expect flowers, musks and balsams that you get in every fragrance of this light-floral-chypre type, but in the extrait, which I came home to last night after a long, tiring – if quite enjoyable – week of work and applied and sighed to for a while, there is an extraordinarily sentient jasmine note in the vivid top accord, shaded by greenery and a clutch of hyacinath, violet, rose, mimosa and narcissus in the background scintillating quietly, before the more dated, muskier notes make their appearance a little bit later that is delicately beautiful. The scent, overall, is something of a delight in fact – not dissimilar to Van Cleef & Arpel’s First, or the original Nina by Nina Ricci – and a revelation to me. Though only a small bottle, I think I will now keep this little gem in the kitchen next to the lamp stand where I found it the other day as a perfume of ‘momentary pleasure’, one for a moment’s respite when I need to detach. Nan (wherever you are now, RIP) : Nice though it was, I am sorry I short changed you with the cologne. I should have definitely have bought you the perfume.

Filed under Flowers

Fleur de Rocaille is the 90’s, powerhouse honeyed uberfloral often erroneously assumed to be the perfume in the movie Scent of A woman identified by Al Pacino – who (over)plays a blind, cranky retired military colonel with a marvellous sense of smell and the ability to recognize fragrances fluttering from the skin of the fair sex. When this old grump then meets his protegé’s mother (Frances Conroy) for the first time on a cold Autumnal day in New York state – leaning in a little he catches her scent and says, knowingly, ‘Fleurs De Rocaille.’

‘Yes’, she says, taken aback.

That extra ‘s’, here, is crucial.

The original Fleurs de Rocaille, created by Ernest Daltroff in 1934, is a very different entity to its much more strident, unrelenting and at times, even slightly tacky, almost fifty yearl-later follow up. A tremblingly vulnerable, very poetic, musky floral aldehydic scent based on lilac and a posy of other flowers that is at once almost too pallidly emotive to bear, emitting the sense that it truly does intimately know the deep horrors of this world and just wants to be forever protected from them; Fleurs is painfully feminine, exquisitely constructed, otherworldly (if rather old-fashioned, or at the very least; truly not of these times), and yet, because or despite of all this, somehow rather irritating. Sometimes, with Fleurs De Rocaille, you just want to slap it back into reality.

The 1992 release of the ‘new version’, in contrast (minus the ‘s’, still with the lilac, but with a whole bunch of strongly perfumed flowers besides,; gardenia, jasmine; a ton of honey all drowning in amber and sandalwood, very starlet barfly), actually coincided with the film – which I must admit, I thought was utterly dreadful at the time, but which I now, in my young dotage, almost feel a nostalgia for and wouldn’t mind watching again : at the very least it would be fun to see which perfumes Lieutenant Frank Slade gets right and how The Ladies react when the preternaturally gifted nose and army man comes in closer and tells them what they are wearing.

For sure, Fleurs De Rocaille would have been rather special for 1992, no longer fashionable, very much a personally selected gem of a perfume, and would also, you can be certain of this, have smelled quite lovely on Christine Downes ,as she stands looking rather seduced by his attentions in the beautiful light. As he says, ‘auburn hair, beautiful deep brown eyes…’ – a Pre-Raphaelite, glowing delicacy that is ideal for this scent.

If, in contrast, the Woman had been wearing the just released Fleur, we would have an entirely different aura indeed and our Frank might have been quite overwhelmed; repelled, or quite likely, just more blatantly horny. Part of what I consider to be a trilogy beginning with Grès’ Cabotine in 1990, Fleur De Rocaille in 1992, and then Dior’s Tendre Poison in 1994, these three Power Flower bouquets form a very datable, immediately early nineties vibe, at least to me (smelling Fleur De Rocaille in a Chinese restaurant yesterday evening – I had been compelled to go out to Isezakicho in Yokohama and buy a vintage bottle of this Caron as I had seen it sitting in a window in an old junk shop one day and even though I knew that I didn’t entirely like it, I felt like I had to have it. Just to add to my collection, for completism; to be able to smell it again – – – but as I was saying, D, listening to me blah blah blahing about the chronology of fragrance trends and how it was quintessentially nineties, said that on smelling it, surely, it was more eighties, and in many ways he would absolutely right: but during ‘the period of adjustment’ following the end of the loud 80’s florals, there was actually an (ever) diminishing continuation of those brash, intoxicating themes in a lot of mainstream perfumery (think Christian Lacroix C’est La Vie! Ungaro Senso, Ricci Deci Dela etc) even as the gaunt skelettas of the ozonic lotuses were simultaneously gaining in popularity and rendering these out of date florals out of date.

Yet, you know, to me, there is also something rather timeless – or should I say memorable, relevant – about Fleur De Rocaille, just in a different way to its much more rarified relative, Fleurs, who will always be off in a world of her own. And wearing a little – trust me, you need only a very little – on the back of my hand, last night, as the nuclear orange blossom/ lilac slowly morphed into a musky, ambered cedar, I could actually detect the DNA of its antecedent somewhere in the heart of its base (Caron has always claimed that Fleur was a ‘reworking’ of Fleurs). Where Cabotine and Tendre Poison are tighter, cattier, and much greener, Rocaille is quite loose (in many senses); more unapologetically erotic. Possibly stumbling a bit after having too much to drink. A bit ridiculous, like this vintage ad from when it first came out: (“a flower that is not easily picked:’)

Indeed, you could almost even possibly go so far as to say that that is something really rather ‘shameless’ about this perfume, which also gives me another reason to rather like it. When we talk about ‘innocence’ in relation to human history, I doubt that there ever has been such a time in reality, but in retrospect, the period when this perfume came out, for me at least: the tail end of the Economic Bubble in Japan – where Cabotine was a smash hit, Tendre Poison also, and probably Fleur De Rocaille too – was in many ways dumber, ignorant, carefree; silly. There was no internet; the world felt more contained, and a woman could go out on the town on a Friday night wearing a perfume like this and feel sexy, magnetic, and believable. Applied in the right dosage, I am sure that she would, to many, have proven to be irresistible.

Looking at the Caron website, I see that many of the classic Carons have been repackaged and redesigned (yet again ), though I think these look rather intriguing.

I have no idea, however, if the current Fleur de Rocaille smells similar to the original, but the notes are almost the same, and the in house description of ‘an assertive personality…excessively generous‘ certainly sounds familiar and about right. Probably, in some ways, a slightly polished, more up to date version of this perfume might be a good idea, as the bottle I have – slightly tired; some top notes not at their best – the perfume inside stronger than ever as though it has been macerating itself into a frenzy for three decades, awaiting my inevitable arrival – is, as I said, definitely from A Particular Time. Like the much more troubled and troubling Fleurs, however, it also has its own, inimitable place in the perfumery canon. And in truth, the title of the film we have been referencing, The Scent Of A Woman, suits it just as perfectly.

Filed under Flowers

Discovering that writing existed on the subject of perfume was one of the most significant events in my life. Obsessed with scent since late childhood, perfume was something that lived in the format of experience; physically and psychologically felt, internalized, but not expressed. Magazines such as Vogue, with their brief PR intros alongside the mesmerizing new adverts for the latest perfume releases were always eagerly sucked up into my brain and consciousness, but it wasn’t until the 2000’s, with the gradual rise of the internet, and the birth of the first perfume blogs such as Bois De Jasmin, Now Smell This, Perfume: Smellin’ thing, and the like, that the lightning bolt struck and I would sit before the screen imbibing and digesting every word and humming bristingly with excitement.

Prior to this, I had got my greedsome hands, in the late nineties, on two books – somehow even more thrilling to me at the time – The Book Of Perfumes, which I had picked up at Waterstones one day – a very small gift book stacked by the till that was full of some of the many classic perfumes I was intimately familiar with,but described in passionate, sometimes rather camp detail (‘wear only with green taffeta and opal earrings etc). Nevertheless, I lapped up every word, and would sometimes take the book out of my desk from the top drawer and sit there absorbing and re-reading it until I knew practically every word. Another, much larger hardback that was sent me by a friend when I first came here was Perfume by Susan Irving – a history of the Egyptians and the Romans and the Spice Road and Ernst Beaux – the whole shebang from how the roses and jasmine were collected, to heart-stirringly mesmeric vintage bottles of Caron that ignited a shameless lust in me – —- it was a house I had never even heard of until this moment as they never appeared in any department stores of my childhood nor anywhere else; again, when drying my hair in the morning, I would go over passages again and again, a drug to my addiction. Somehow, what had been almost abstract, in my imagination, even as it swirled about my person and clung to my skin like living memories, became even more loomingly important once it was consecrated in text. Once I then, rather late in the day but better late than never, first came across somewhere descriptions of the original guide by Luca Turin: Le Guide, written in French, my friend Helen sent me a photocopied, downloaded manuscript of that epoch-making book, with its witty, literary, and often deeply poetic, completely subjective renderings of perfumes that I thought I would never encounter, and I was on fire, not long afterwards embarked on writing my first perfume review myself ; sat at my desk one bored, autumnal afternoon with nothing to do, I tried my best to conjure up the mythological perfection of Guerlain’s Mitsouko.

If I was stoked by those first entries into perfume writing – The John Oakes book contained only feminine big hits but delved into their construction with fascinating detail and a lot of military metaphors – ‘now come the big guns, an artillery of jasmine’ etc, I would have been ecstatic and foaming at the gills receiving a copy of ‘The Perfume Companion’, the new book by perfumer Sarah McCartney and perfume writer Samantha Scriven, author of I Scent You A Day. Described on the cover as ‘The Definitive Guide To Choosing Your Next Scent’, it really is. Jam packed with information, on point and quite often hilarious reviews, this book gives perfume writing a new lease of life and zest (McCartney is quite the cheeky rascal throughout the book – which is how she also comes across in person (we met once at my Perfume Lovers London Vanilla event, where she kindly handed over to me two of her creations, one of which, Shazam! was a fantastically dense spice concoction that D wore to perfection); ‘cocky’, rebellious, eccentric and clearly a very good writer, many of the laughs that I had out loud through the book come from Ms McCartney’s almost bizarre choice of words (on the subject of 4711 Original Eau De Cologne, by Maurer & Wirtz she writes: ‘4711 is a real bargain and a delightul fragrance: you are commanded to get some‘. Samantha is perhaps more the dreamy romantic, with yearnings for the French Lieutenant’s Woman and stormy shores, more emotionally open than the Naughty Northerner and occasionally rather wistful (“Arpège has the potency to transport me to the Paris of 1927, even when I’m folding laundry in Wales”), though both are equally truly passionate about perfume. In fact, the book positively fizzes throughout with the glee of smelling and creating and wearing scent – Sarah often amusingly flogging quite a few of her own works (” How do I know so much about this? Because I made it“) etc, the overall effect being one of extreme positivity and joy. I started devouring the book on a Friday evening on the bus and felt like a kid in a toy shop – it is quite a hefty tome that is bigger than it looks in this picture, meaning that the authors can truly get in a lot of proper detail and comprehensive reviews for each scent and that it is definitely too much for one sitting – which is exactly what you want. Perfume mad people can’t get enough of this kind of thing . You want to believe that there are still always going to be parts of the guide unread for when you pick it up again for a random perusal, even though in my case I was reading it furtively in the teachers’ room, deliciously post-work with a can on the train, and then had two very late nights on Friday and Saturday as well as a lie in still glue to it this Sunday morning – and I still haven’t read every review.

The structure of the book ensures that all bases in the olfactory spectrum are covered.

Within each of these categories, there are always sub-categories, so that, for instance, within the Herbal section, we find Herbal Classic, Herbal Green, Lavender, Mint, Juniper, and Herb Garden (on Coty’s Aspen, Samantha writes ‘..galbanum and citrus form a vernal dance that could bring a frozen Narnia back to life’, a line I thought was rather lovely, while on every other page there are also little sections of boxed anecdotes or informative briefs such as ‘Smell like a gin palace ‘ – which add extra intrigue, humour (no perfume book has been so full of comedy before) and help to give a sense that you are, along the way, accruing a great deal of knowledge about the history of perfumery and its techniques: this book would blow the mind of the neophyte approaching the entrance to the rabbit hole with trepidation; covering as much as it does – with equal love for every genre of perfume, from marine, to oud, to caramel, to light florals (Samantha is the doyenne of the light floral); you get the full panoramic view of what is available out there in the perfume world, very often masterfully described.

While the lay out of the book allows the authors to stratify scents more rigorously within one umbrella – so under Leather we have separate chapters on Classic Leather, Floral Leather, Tobacco Leather, Patchouli Leather, and Woody Leather (these girls do like their leather), I can imagine that the book might be at times be a little bewildering for some initially. The first time I opened it I was looking at two Vanilla pages and thought I was hallucinating; I then quickly realized that I just happened to be looking at Soft Amber (Vanilla) and Gourmand (Vanilla) simultaneously. Once you get used to the layout, however, it makes total sense and allows the writers to gather and separate their fragrant choices accordingly (on the subject of Soft Amber: there has been a late in the day change in the perfume industry recently, and the term Oriental – the former term commonly used in fragrant anthologies (along with fougère and mossy , still in use – here they use the word ‘mossy’ instead) is now considered offensive and out of date. I completely agree, which is why in my reprinting of my own book, I recently scrubbed all references to ‘Oriental’ myself as well ). ‘Soft Amber’, its obvious substitute, certainly doesn’t have quite as much of a ring to it – tough tits though – and I will admit that I was occasionally bemused and secretly horrified by some of the juxtapositions in certain chapters (Lancôme Magie Noire perched next to the (execrable) Jimmy Choo in the ‘Soft Amber Woody’ section ? (!!!!) but then again, I like the the verve and boldness of both writers, and their logical and rational justifications for their choices (I can relate to a great deal of what they write, incidentally; from quite similar background to me – Samantha was a gothy Cure fan at precisely the same time that I was, and was presumably as hypnotized by all the Big Perfumes just the same way as me; both writers are deliciously anti-snob (there are quite a few sarcastic asides on the preposterously overly expensive fragrances out there, and deodorant sprays such as Impulse and Lynx/ Axe are included right next to perfumes 50 times more expensive than them, an approach I applaud entirely; it is very refreshing).

With each entry in The Fragrance Companion beginning with the name of the scent, a subtitle (under Philosokos, ‘The scent that launched a thousand figs‘), the perfumer who created the potion, and then a £/£££ mark to denote how much you will be forking out (a very Sarah-like expression; for US readers not familiar with a lot of the UK vernacular, this book will be like a grammar refresher on British slang), the reviews are engaging, knowledgeable, and frequently very beautiful. Sarah’s leaflets for her 4160 Tuesdays range are extraordinarily readable (she was the head writer at Lush for a long time); I Scent You A Day is a blog I have long enjoyed for its complete lack of prejudice; its wry humour, and linguistic prowess (I once almost cried at the beauty of a review on there of a perfume from Ariana Grande); all of this present in the Companion. Sarah and Samantha, with their contrasting but complementary styles, pull it all off rather marvellously – my own book feels to me at times tragically solipsistic and melancholically indulgent in comparison – but I am happy, nevertheless, that we will undoubtedly be placed next to each other on international book shelves. The pink will look great alongside the black and gold.

In short, The Perfume Companion is a triumph: and essential reading for the perfume lover, or anyone who is starting to find an interest in the subject.

Filed under Flowers

This has been getting a lot of kitchen dancing traction recently on vinyl. The Narcissus legend set to a laconic neo 70’s stringbeat.

Thank goodness for music and all the private pleasures these last few harrowing eighteen months.

Filed under Flowers

Well, it has been a strange time. ( But when hasn’t it been a strange time recently? )

So up and down. I am not even sure if I can write. But I just thought I would check in anyway, now that I have found a way to circumvent all the obstacles thrust in my path by my computer and by this blog system ( I have not been ‘allowed’ in for ‘privacy concerns’ ); our internet has also been super patchy since a gardener snipped the cable last year; so slow that the lightning speed K-netizens of Seoul would tear our their hair in frustration were they to be confronted with such torpor for even a few seconds; usually I just switch off. Patience has never been one of my virtues.

Where to start?

I don’t know. Until I heard the extraordinarily alarming news that my parents had caught breakthrough infections of the coronavirus over the last two weeks I was on a real ‘life is good’ high (I still am). Possibly, I ‘overreacted’, – moi? ! – this being a very common story in the UK, though not in Japan – but hearing my mother tell me that she has completely lost her sense of smell, I pray only temporarily (” I tried spraying on the strongest perfume I own, Aromatics Elixir, and couldn’t smell a thing”! ); hearing her deep, chesty cough over the phone as she played it all down — prior to this ‘spanner in the works’ I had been in some kind of ecstatic, autumnal floral renaissance.

Unusually for me, going back to work at the beginning of September, for the first time in my life, I decided I was going to wear a neroli. Usually, in my extensive fragrance palette ready for my delectation at any moment I feel the need, the section of orange blossom scents is reserved for a ‘private dab’ here or there on bright sunny days; not perfumes I wear out the house. Firstly, I don’t know if they actually suit me (I suspect that they do not). Secondly, D hates them. Thirdly, who knows if such perfumes are appropriate for the classroom? There are indoles tucked down in those stamens; all might go horribly awry.

Neroli is such a brashly and buoyantly uplifting flower note though – so joyous it bursts through grim and gravity with such a vivid alacrity that I sometimes find it irresistible; particularly in what I have decided is my UR neroli/orange blossom now, Matiere Premiere’s Oranger Neroli, a perfume I have briefly reviewed before, but which I fell totally in love with from the moment I started wearing it every day to the office from the start of the term until now ( I am going to have to get another bottle).

I think of this fragrance as a ‘mathematical’ scent; there is nothing poetic or evocative about it necessarily, aside the memories you are making while you are wearing it – probably in the future it will evoke quite a lot for me, I would imagine – but in and of itself this is not a ‘story’ or a clotted, conceptual maze like so many a perfume these days. Instead, Neroli Oranger is an equilibration of notes: a very alert and spritely neroli and bergamot pas de deux at first generous spritz, fused expertly to a gentle, warm orange blossom from Tunisia; a touch of ylang ylang extra, sometimes perceptible, sometimes not, and finally, for modern anchoring, very subtly rendered, some ‘floral musks’ to keep everything together without feeling too intrusive. The whole is very natural, and I have been loving it so much I could drink it. I love it. Sometimes I think it is good to just go back to the niche scents you have tried briefly and quite enjoyed in the past and give them their proper due; to actually wear them and not get caught up in the ‘what’s brand new’ news cycle.

The same is certainly true of Meo Fusciuni’s heavenly Odor 93, which I wrote about back at the beginning of February when things were heavily chaotic and mind-bending, and the scent of this gloriously woozy tuberose amber felt like some kind of life saver. Like a light in a dark forest. It suddenly ‘appeared’ to me again in my smell conscious one day, and I immediately started craving it again on weekends – strictly neroli for work, tuberose for the days off, alternating in rotation (………..with the palpable positivity in the air here in Japan; vaccination popular – and thus trendy among the kids; all of them getting it done in my classes ; there are of course the allergic and the skeptics and the worried, but very few of the western style ‘anti-vaxxers’ – virtually all of my students have been or are getting vaccinated, the feeling so liberating; everyone masked; case numbers dropping precipitously, even if the lifting of the state of emergency has made everyone go a little bit too crazy in terms of bars and restaurants filling up too quickly – – but let me have my moment of positivity, I beg you; let me bask in this relative feeling of freedom and space; and grace, actually, even if it is just interior and mental; let me immerse myself in my neroli and orange blossom and bergamot oil in my pocket if it gives me that sense of optimism and possibility; that feeling of uplift and light-footed semi-carefree; a vernal sensation that in this topsy turvy world right now feels optimal, instead, for these sunny months of the current Japanese autumn); tuberose, intoxicatingly, innately perfect for a more nocturnal and sensual counterpoint to the orange flower, particularly the Meo Fusciuni, which with its powdered, almost fungally dark ambered narcissus with cumin, birch leaf and clove, but with a pure and beautiful and slightly heartbreaking tuberose flower towering above, is just like a vintage Vol De Nuit Guerlain nixed by the love of a mesmerizing white flower. It is completely addictive and narcotic. The beginning is odd; medicinal, overpowering, but it still sends me into a weird kind of frenzy; I adore how it stays on my clothes, and so I don’t wash them if Odor 93 is still lingering (something animalic; soft…….musky); again, I want to imbibe this one. And I have perhaps been wearing it to excess (“Oh, (chuckling slightly), are you wearing that tuberose again?”). Yes I am. And I know that you like it as well.

Unable, in this current stage of surging, to sate myself only with one, I have been in full Dionysian mode tuberose-wise, these last few weeks, also wearing touches or full sprays of Flos Mortis, Roja Dove Tubereuse, Le Jardin Retrouvé Tubéreuse Trianon: I also finally unstoppered my extract of Tuberosa D’Autunno, a perfume whose moment had surely been waiting until now, and which almost seems to ‘sanction’ my thirst for this flower usually considered more suited to the hot nights of spring and summer rather than the transitional, melancholic bridge leading into winter. A very clear, ‘pink and beige’ classical tuberose soliflore with touches of violet, ylang ylang, tolu balsam, benzoin and coconut, when my vapour of my Odor 93 begins to wooze itself into the nether regions of subconsciousnesses, Tuberosa, in contrast sings clear and bright as a soprano up in the air above when I wear them together (right at this moment, I am still in my not-quite-clean tuberosian pyjamas and hoodie writing this before I hit the shower and switch back to the neroli before I head out to work, although today it is suddenly much colder, and I am wondering if I can get away with a touch of this Profumi di Firenze number instead……….. (?) I remember standing at the Palazzo Vecchio around this time two years ago, a bright morning after a deluge of rain, marble sculptures at the Uffizi standing cleansed in the matinal sunshine, and approaching the boutique, where the passionate Ida Meister was herself perusing the many profumi available in that delightfully well stocked shop, proclaiming her own love, as I approached, for this scent. ‘Such a delightful little tuberose’.

Filed under Flowers

The osmanthus has bloomed twice. A darker orange. Softly perfumed; lovely. But this also gives me an eerie feeling, as though I am in some form of alternative reality: that even if the scent is mellowly resplendent, the rules have changed. All over the neighbourhood the flowers are in peak form, following the semi-typhoon we had last Friday that segued into the most beautiful Indian summer ; all of the finest specimens are now doing their finest apricot duty. This photo was taken a couple of minutes ago, just outside my house.

I have many posts in mind; have been in excellent spirits, and thoroughly enjoying life. Totally alive. Everything would be fine right now except for the disturbing fact that I heard on Sunday that my dad has come down with Covid-19 (double Pfizered, but back in January or February); a breakthrough infection caught at a family gathering that has become the expected flu-like symptoms. He is doing ok, but was already under the weather beforehand and not very well – so it has all come as a bit of a shock. I am worried, and will get back to writing on here about fragrance etc when all is well again.

It is clear, obviously, that the vaccines do work in keeping most people from having severe symptoms: a wondrous success on the part of the scientists. Covid is hardly rare: everyone by now knows someone, a few people, or possibly a large number of people who have been infected with the coronavirus, with varying severities of symptom ; I know that many of my cousins back home have come down with it and come through it; my parents’ friend who lives nearby has gone through the dreaded heavy fatigue and loss of taste and smell but is gradually getting it back.

Still, with all the Halloween festivities soon to be upon us, this knowledge has strongly reinforced my feeling that although things are much better generally, it is not safe enough to go crazy (Japan has been in a real cultural Halloween fever these last few years : it has caught on like wildfire; I experienced it once, in Roppongi, and couldn’t believe my eyes when I arrived at the station and saw oceans of zombies and witches and every other conceivable costume partying all night with the police and loudspeakers telling people to go home (almost riot-like behaviour in Shibuya, also, with cars being turned over etc, to the point that it was banned for a couple of years or at least suppressed with a strong law enforcement presence: last year, with the pandemic, it was off limits); but it was fun; wild, and after all the self restraint and lack of freedom over these last eighteen months it is easy to imagine people really going for it again and throwing caution to the wind, now that the state of emergency has officially been lifted here nationwide (we have been invited up to a costume party in the park at Yoyogi but I have told Duncan no; we are not going to Tokyo for the foreseeable future, and are still going to keep being careful). This latest news, bringing it all shockingly home, is a warning to me that we are not out of the woods, and that caution is key.

As they say in Japan, dad – get well soon –

Filed under Flowers


text:
‘Snowpocalypse’ underwhelms North Carolina students

By Rachel Roberson – rroberso@unca.edu – Staff Writer | Feb. 25, 2015 |

It was called the “snowpocalypse.”

Hundreds of people across the country were worried about poor driving conditions and hypothermia, and UNC Asheville students were no exception.

“There wasn’t even much snow,” Emily Beall, a sophomore art student from Evans, Georgia. “It was just ice.”

Beall said she found the school’s handling of the so-called “disaster” compared to the actual outcome of the “snowpocalypse” to be ridiculous.

“I don’t think the school handled it well,” Beall added. “I think there should have been more canceled classes than there were because it was not safe to drive for those people who live off-campus.”

Other students said they were happy with the “icepocalypse.”

“I enjoyed missing school,”said Hannah Wiepke, an art history student from Chapel Hill. “I enjoyed the ice days — they weren’t really snow days.”

Jane Barnett-Lawrence, a junior history student from Carrboro, said she had painful knots in her back and shoulders all week from tensing up against the cold. Barnett-Lawrence also said she was angry over classes not being cancelled Thursday, despite the high temperature for that day being only 12 degrees.

“Asheville schools were closed because of wind-chill and because it was so cold,” Barnett-Lawrence said. “I have an 8 a.m. every single day.”

Barnett-Lawrence went on to explain how much she disliked the “awful email on how to stay warm,” saying that she didn’t see why classes weren’t just canceled that day.

The email, sent to all UNCA students, provided warnings and tips for safe driving and prevention of hypothermia and frostbite, such as how to spot if someone is experiencing these conditions.

Wiepke said she found the email about safety during cold weather to be funny.

“I understood why it was sent because maybe people have never experienced this weather before,” Wiepke said. “The cold never bothered me anyway.”

Wiepke also appreciated the initial email warning from administration, but she did not appreciate the following email only delaying classes, thus putting students out in the dangerously cold weather.

Wiepke said she slipped and fell on the sidewalk while going to class.

“I think that the school needs to do better with de-icing the sidewalks and the parking lots,” Wiepke said.

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The Bonhoeffer Center is the official website of the Bonhoeffer Society in North America, offering quality resources for research and study Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

March 03, 2020
4132 Koert Verhagen

Bonhoeffer’s Theology of the Cross: The Influence of Luther in Act and Being a Review by Koert Verhagen

Review of J.I. de Keijzer, Bonhoeffer’s Theology of the Cross: The Influence of Luther in Act and Being (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019) xiv + 185 pp. €69.00 (paperback). In J.I. de Keijzer’s monograph, several prominent trends in Bonhoeffer scholarship…
February 11, 2020
12300 TBC Staff

Bonhoeffer Conference at Perkins School of Theology

In the Face of Barbarism: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Culture, Humanity and the Importance of Ordinary Life On February 13-14, 2020, Perkins School of Theology will be sponsoring a short conference, ‘In the Face of Barbarism:’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Culture,…

Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity in Its Christological Context: An Interview with Peter Hooton

Q: We’re excited to talk with you about your new book which explores Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s understanding of religionless Christianity. What initially drew you to Bonhoeffer as a topic for research, specifically his incipient thoughts on religionless Christianity?

PH: I enjoy his company. His writing is always fresh for me and I love his imagery. This, from Ethics, for example: “There is no part of the world, no matter how lost, no matter how godless, that has not been accepted by God in Jesus Christ and reconciled to God.” Bonhoeffer’s growing understanding of Christ’s inclusiveness greatly appeals to me, as does the tension in his thinking between ideas of human sociality—his rejection of “individualistic social atomism”—and the sense of aloneness before God—the conviction that Jesus’s followers “are always completely alone, single individuals who can act and make decisions finally only by themselves.” These are powerful ideas if you take them seriously.

The concept of a religionless Christianity appeals not least because, at first blush, it would seem impossible. Paradox is always beguiling. And for those of us who tend, like Bonhoeffer, to approach the words “religion” and “religious” with some caution, the idea that there may in fact be such a thing as “religionless” Christianity will always be worth exploring. Religionless Christianity emerges quite naturally from Bonhoeffer’s critique of religion. We have thus first to understand what it is about “religion” that he dislikes before we can begin to imagine Christianity without it. Many religious people, when they can see clearly what has been rejected, will be reassured by what remains. And what remains is also then so much easier to see.

Q: It seems as if scholarship has been wrestling with deciphering what Bonhoeffer meant in his articulation of religionless Christianity for decades.  How do you see your work differing from other scholars who have taken up this theme?

PH: The best way to answer this question is briefly to describe the shape of the book, which is I think new to a degree. I saw this project as a journey to be taken with Bonhoeffer and I decided quite early on that we would take it stage by stage, methodically. The book has six chapters which are intended to bring the reader progressively closer to an understanding of what Bonhoeffer meant by the phrase “religionless Christianity” when he came finally to introduce it in 1944, just months before his death. The first chapter considers Bonhoeffer’s historical premise—the belief that we are “approaching a completely religionless age”—in a present-day Western sociohistorical context. The second explores his understanding and critique of religion. The third examines the religionless Christianity of Bonhoeffer’s prison writings in the light of his earlier Christ-centred theology. The fourth explores, and expands on, Bonhoeffer’s approach to nonreligious interpretation. The fifth reflects on the place of mystery and paradox in Bonhoeffer’s thinking and on the importance of preserving a sense of personal wholeness in the face of life’s otherwise always fragile assumptions of purposeful coherence. The final chapter brings the critique of religion and Bonhoeffer’s christocentric theology together in an account of religionless Christianity which further underscores its consistency with key elements of his earlier work. The book aspires to present religionless Christianity not as fragment or aberration but rather as a lucid and persuasive contemporary theology. And it does this always in the presence of the question which inspired Bonhoeffer’s own theological journey from beginning to end—the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” I don’t think religionless Christianity has been presented in quite this spacious and holistic way before.

I should perhaps add that, although the chapter on mystery, paradox, and wholeness may seem a bit of an outlier in this context, it actually helps to emphasize something very important about religionless Christianity. And this is that we are speaking here of Christianity without religion; we are not talking about Christianity without God. The mystery of God becoming human is the heart of religionless Christianity, just as it is the heart of all Bonhoeffer’s theology.

Q: You begin your book noting that if Bonhoeffer was wrong about the dawning of a completely religionless age, then he may also have been wrong about the necessity for a religionless Christianity. How do we go about evaluating Bonhoeffer’s appraisal of history today?

PH: If we look just at Bonhoeffer’s own historical context, we could be forgiven for thinking that his pessimism about the future of religion was simply a product of his own unsettled and violent times. But he was in fact taking a much longer view. Bonhoeffer explains his position in the prison letters. Historical developments have fostered a progressive decline in the significance of religion in the West. A centuries-long “movement toward human autonomy” has attained “a certain completeness” in his time. The world can now be understood perfectly well without God. Human reason and science are sufficient for this purpose.

Although religion has obviously not come to an end in the 75 years since Bonhoeffer’s death, its significance in Western countries has continued to decline. This is perhaps less evident in the United States than elsewhere. In my country, Australia, for example, a bare majority of the population (52 percent) now identifies as Christian. Thirty percent of Australians ticked the “no religion” box in the last census. And less than one in ten Australians attend church weekly. Much of Europe is in a very similar place. We do not live in a religionless age but we do live in a largely secular one whose distinguishing features—pragmatism, reductionism, individualism, humanism—make it increasingly hard for people, simply and confidently, to believe in God. Even religious people are now at most partly religious. As Gerhard Ebeling said some fifty years ago, people are religious only “in the religious province of their being, whereas for the rest over broad stretches of their life their existence is in fact as non-religious as any.” Christianity now makes its way in a Western world whose inhabitants (including many of those who still choose to call themselves religious) do not depend on God in any significant sense of that word. Our present is not the future Bonhoeffer predicted but it is sufficiently like it to support a broadly positive assessment of his historical premise.

Q: Your book reads religionless Christianity alongside more modern accounts of secularization theory. In what ways does Bonhoeffer differ from these accounts given his unique understanding of the West and the West’s centrality in Bonhoeffer’s conception of religionless Christianity? In the same vein, what is the import of religionless Christianity for those outside the West?

PH: Mainstream secularization theory assumes modernity always to lead to secular outcomes, while contemporary variations are more inclined to see plurality and choice as modernity’s primary characteristics. I think Bonhoeffer would have been comfortable with either of these approaches. Secularization really didn’t seem to worry him. He speaks in Ethics of “the great process of secularization” which he understood to be approaching its end in his day and this he took to be essentially good for Christians. It hastened their maturity. He uses the words Mündigkeit—maturity; “of age-ness”—and Autonomie interchangeably in the prison letters.

Bonhoeffer’s notion of religionless Christianity drew strength and purpose from the progressive secularization of Western civilization, although the words “West” and “Western” probably oversimplify what, in Bonhoeffer’s mind, and from an early twentieth century German perspective, was a complex phenomenon. Michael DeJonge points out that, in the Ethics fragment “Heritage and Decay,” Bonhoeffer used the term westlich only in adjectival forms and always to the exclusion of Germany. He used westlich to refer to western neighbours such as France, Holland, and England but, when he talked about these countries and Germany together, he used a different word—Abendland. Bonhoeffer could not accept the Anglo-Saxon claim to see the West as an expression, exclusively, of the liberal-democratic tradition—with which Germany could not identify—and to recognize only one kind of freedom: a freedom from interference and tyranny. Bonhoeffer argued for a more complex idea of freedom for some larger purpose. While, though, Bonhoeffer’s concept of freedom is, I think, critical to a proper understanding of his religionless Christianity, I don’t believe his reflections on the possible shape of post-war Europe to be now of other than historical interest.

Does religionless Christianity have a value outside the West? I don’t know. Bonhoeffer’s example and theology have certainly been influential in the Global South, notably in the development of liberation theology. But in countries where the word “religion” still fits seamlessly into general conversation, and especially in countries with growing Christian populations, a religionless form of Christianity will seem unnecessary and out of place. Whether it has a role to play anywhere depends of course on how it is read. Religionless Christianity will always be misunderstood by those who assume they can read it from its title.

Q: Bonhoeffer’s concept of religionless Christianity is in many ways birthed from his long-standing views and accompanying critique of religion. What do you see as the key elements to Bonhoeffer’s critique of religion, and how is it informed by other theologians he is in dialogue with?

PH: Bonhoeffer’s critique of religion owes much to the early theology of Karl Barth. It was Barth who helped him understand the difference between faith, as God’s gift, and religion, as mere human invention. As Barth put it, we have died with Christ to religion and its laws and now stand before God as people “who have passed from death to life.” Barth’s significance for Bonhoeffer declined in the 1930s as Bonhoeffer was drawn more and more deeply into practical church and political activities. But he is there again in the prison letters which, despite their criticism of Barth’s failure to grasp the religionless implications of his own pioneering critique of religion, are still grounded in the conviction that religion simply cannot bring us into the presence of God. Only the grace of God, which has nothing to do with religion, can do this. There is no human path to God.

But there is, of course, more to Bonhoeffer’s critique of religion than this. In one of the prison letters, he speaks of “the crucial distinction” between Christianity and all religion. Matthew 8:17—“He took our infirmities and bore our diseases”—makes it very clear, he says, that “Christ helps us not by virtue of his omnipotence but rather by virtue of his weakness and suffering.” This distinction—between the powerful but contrived God of religion and the compassionate, vulnerable God of the gospel—lies at the heart both of Bonhoeffer’s critique of religion and of his concept of religionless Christianity. Other elements of the critique—the religious preoccupation with personal salvation; the failure to understand that Jesus Christ claims the whole person and not just some religious part of us; the tendency to see God as the solution only to problems we have yet to solve; and religious assertions of privilege, hierarchy, and domination—all are enlivened, shaped, and molded by this distinction.

Q: Does Bonhoeffer’s conception of religionless Christianity trouble the normative hermeneutical method in Bonhoeffer scholarship which stresses both unity and continuity in Bonhoeffer’s corpus? How do we reconcile the newness of Bonhoeffer’s theological thought in prison with the fact that many of the elements that inform his thinking are already present in his early work?

PH: Bonhoeffer’s concept of religionless Christianity is intended to facilitate a Christian response to life in a world where God is no longer necessarily seen as an essential element of human self-understanding. It is the product of a “world come of age” and incorporates Bonhoeffer’s now fully developed critique of religion. It begins with a question—the familiar “what is Christianity, or who is Christ actually for us today?”—and is driven by Bonhoeffer’s strongly felt need to bring Christians to an authentic understanding of their condition. God wants us to know that “we must live as those who manage their lives without God.” God “consents to be pushed out of the world and onto the cross.” God is now “weak and powerless in the world” and can be with us and help us only in this way. It is precisely this autonomous coming of age that “frees us to see the God of the Bible, who gains ground and power in the world by being powerless.”

Most scholars would, I think, accept Ernst Feil’s description of Bonhoeffer’s theology as a unity within which there is “development and unfolding.” While Eberhard Bethge finds in Bonhoeffer’s letters from prison signs of “a decisive new beginning in April 1944,” he can also clearly see in them evidence of Bonhoeffer’s earlier thinking. The key elements of his prison theology—its affirmation of the life of faith lived wholly in the world; its subordination of power to weakness; the idea that “only the suffering God can help;” and the promise of new life in Christ’s “being there for others”—are all firmly grounded in Bonhoeffer’s earlier theology, including his overarching vision of one reality in Christ.

In the “Outline for a Book,” which accompanied one of the last of the letters from prison, Bonhoeffer declares simply that God is the “encounter with Jesus Christ.” So much of his theology is captured here. The idea, for example, that whatever else and more God may be and surely is, we can only truly know the God who became human. The rest is speculation. Here, too, we meet Christ the mediator—the one who stands before God on my behalf and between me and every “other.” In Jesus Christ we recognize our true humanity as something shared and never solitary. Our sense of I-ness is grounded exclusively in relationship—with God, and other people. Life is thus innately social and necessarily involves accepting responsibility for others. Human freedom, too, is comprehensible only as a relation. In Jesus Christ, God chooses to be free for rather than from human beings and this means that their freedom, too, as human beings made in God’s image, can only be a freedom for others. There’s more to be said about this, of course, but I hope I’ve given you some idea of what I’m talking about.

Q: What is the role of nonreligious interpretation in Bonhoeffer’s understanding of religionless Christianity?

PH: Bonhoeffer believed the work of shaping practical expressions of a new, religionless form of Christianity demanded new ways of thinking and speaking about the Christian faith. Religionless Christianity depended both on a certain way of understanding the human encounter with God and on language capable of conveying this understanding to an audience which, for the most part, knew little of Christian scripture and tradition. Nonreligious interpretation would play a critical role in establishing religionless Christianity. By finding new ways of explaining theological and biblical concepts, nonreligious language must do what Bonhoeffer believed religious language could no longer do. It must tell people “what it means to live in Christ and follow Christ.” It must bear witness to the identity and relevance of Jesus Christ in “a world come of age.”

Bonhoeffer knew this wouldn’t be easy. He left us only one reasonably clear example of nonreligious interpretation in the prison letters when he equated “repentance” with “ultimate honesty.” I’m sure though that Bonhoeffer would have taken us further down this path if he had had the chance to do so. I believe, too, that the work of nonreligious interpretation must go on if we are to treat Bonhoeffer’s concept of religionless Christianity as fully functional theology rather than as fragment or historical artefact.

Where to begin? Bonhoeffer’s prison letters include lists where we find the words faith, repentance, reconciliation, justification, sanctification, among others. But the lists are almost certainly provisional. He is thinking aloud at this stage. The challenge for us, as I’ve said, is to find language that is not only compatible with Bonhoeffer’s emerging sense of a Christ-centred, religionless Christianity but also intelligible to people whose sense of the divine has been attenuated by the dominant assumptions of our age. I take some small steps in this direction in chapter four.

Q: A byproduct of your exploration of religionless Christianity is a fascinating discussion on the burgeoning inclusiveness in Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology. You note that while the early Bonhoeffer was convinced that Christ was present only in the church-community, he is compelled to modify this understanding. How does religionless Christianity motivate this turn towards an alternative understanding of church, and what does it mean for future interpretations of Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology?

PH: Bonhoeffer made his initial position clear in his doctoral dissertation when he said that because community with God “exists only through Christ” and Christ is present “only in his church-community,” then community with God could exist “only in the church.” It followed that anyone who was not in the church was effectively excluded from the life of Christ. Bonhoeffer was never entirely comfortable with this position and was obliged, by the logic of his own Christology, gradually to moderate his understanding. Because Jesus bore the whole of human nature, because, in him, the form of humanity was created anew, and because, through him, all human beings, without exception, were reconciled with God, it necessarily followed that Jesus Christ was present in every human being and the church had a responsibility to reflect this understanding.

Christ, though, was in no way diminished by Bonhoeffer’s progressive change in orientation. The power of Christ’s love was not compromised by the universality of his embrace, which now reached into the most hidden and godless corners of the world. But the nature of Christian life itself had changed for Bonhoeffer. The church was always, for him, more than simply “this or that building with the bell tower.” Christians still enjoyed the benefits of church-community, but there was a very real sense in which the whole world was now their church, because it was there, and not just in Christian fellowship, that the encounter with Jesus Christ took place. The true measure of faith was no longer fidelity to a particular religious institution, but rather a genuine willingness to share, wholeheartedly, the burden of Christ’s love for all humanity.

It may be possible to read Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology in this self-consciously christological way without the benefit of his religionless Christianity, but I don’t think I would have reached quite these conclusions if my focus had been elsewhere. There is an important sense in which Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity—far from being the tantalizing promise of things denied us by an untimely death—actually rounds out and brings to completion a thoroughly contemporary theology of Christian inclusiveness which has profoundly positive implications for the church today.

Q: What is the import for religionless Christianity today? Can we think with, and perhaps beyond, Bonhoeffer’s conception of religionless Christianity in view of our current moment? Particularly, I am thinking about the profanation or appropriation of the sacred in service of geopolitical agendas. For example, Trump’s recent photo op holding a Bible on the steps of a church.

PH: Does religionless Christianity have a contemporary value? Yes, I believe it does and I’ve already had something to say about this with respect to the church. Religionless Christianity won’t of course mean anything to atheists and to uncritically religious people. But it has, I think, much to offer those who stand self-consciously in what the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls “the Jamesian open space”—where they find themselves buffeted by the shifting winds of belief and unbelief—and the many others, both religious and nonreligious, who simply find themselves in this space from time to time. Bonhoeffer spares these people a choice of two unsatisfactory alternatives: the choice between a self-enclosed, entirely secular humanism and an ultimately unconvincing otherworldliness. In Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity, a worldly life of constant decision, risk, and responsibility is held in tension with a genuinely transcendent Other. In this context, Christ’s death and resurrection point not to new life in some other place but rather to a new way of living—of “being for others”—in this one.

Bonhoeffer believed that Christians may confidently place their trust in a God “who is weak and powerless in the world” because they know God, so understood, to be loving and faithful. They know also that the God whose absence is so keenly felt by once religious people is not, and never was, the God before whom they stand continually. They know that “only the suffering God can help” because only in the presence of the crucified and risen Christ does the human encounter with God take place. In this religionless confession of faith, Jesus Christ is not imposed on others but rather presses the claim of the other on us. We meet Christ in other people and see there the grace of God at work in every act of love and human kindness. We reach a new understanding of the abiding presence of Christ in every human being.

There is, though, a balance to be struck between a broadly inclusive religionless Christianity and what Bonhoeffer called the “arcane discipline” which shields and preserves the mysteries of the faith in the liturgical life of the church. Bonhoeffer was always critical of the casual and derisory exploitation of the mystery of Christ by a skeptical and self-regarding world. This is, of course, perfectly exemplified in Donald Trump’s cynical, ill-judged, and bizarre appropriation of the sacred for his own domestic political purposes. Such behaviour is not easily changed. The important thing is to see it for what it is and to draw the appropriate conclusions.

Q: What are you working on now that Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity in Its Christological Context has been published?

PH: No books at the moment. I have a couple of articles—one on Bonhoeffer’s ethic of responsibility and another on the “common good”—which I hope to have published in journals this year. I also have a book chapter on Gandhi and Bonhoeffer in the pipeline and am doing some work on the public value of Christianity for Australia today.

Peter Hooton is responsible for the Research Secretariat which undertakes work in public theology at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture on Charles Sturt University’s Canberra campus. He is a former career diplomat with experience in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the South Pacific. He has a PhD in Theology from CSU and is a member of the University’s Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre.

Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity in Its Christological Context is published by Lexington Books/Fortress Academic. It is available from online marketplaces and is also for sale on Lexington Books own website (