#the sunday telegraph

[z-ko]

[lolane]

EYE OF THE STORM – EDITA VILKEVICIUTE BY DAN MARTENSEN FOR THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH.

[scansfrommagazinesandbooks]

[openingpandorasbox1]

KEEP A DIARY

Keep a diary, blog, or journal.

Many teenagers like to record their thoughts and feelings. Keeping a diary or journal or writing a blog is an excellent way to catch your breath and reflect on the people, events, and moods you experience. It’s also a way to release feelings that might otherwise stay bottled up inside. In fact, studies suggest that daily expressive writing can reduce stress, boost the immune system, and improve memory and academic performance, and help recover faster from traumatic events.

(from The Sunday Telegraph)

#keepadiary #keepablog #keepajournal #thesundaytelegraph

[derekpadron]

This Whole Battle Against the Conservatives Over More Disability Benefits is a Losing War if It Remains in Government Monopoly as Government Benefits Due to the Fact that Government Socialists from Democratic Party to Labour Party Raise Big Taxes on Our Farms and Foods Companies and Our Banks that Invest in Such Foods Companies like McDonalds, Agribusinesses, Burger Kings, Walmarts, Bank of England, Bank of Canada, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase Just to Pay for Small Scraps for Us Disabled Diabetics Who Can Go Blind! I suggest we Negotiate with Conservatives in Cutting Taxes for the Rich by Bringing Down Rich Corporate Taxes on Our Foods Companies like McDonalds and Walmarts and their Rich Capital Gains Taxes and Rich Dividends Taxes as well as Our Banks and Their Banks' Taxes Getting Lowered Also, to Help Raise Charity Funds in the Capital Markets Sector as Money Can Grow INFINITELY and UNLIMITEDLY EXPONENTIAL without so much Sacrifice through the Capital Markets Sector that feeds on Tax Cuts, instead of Big Bankrupt Government! I Support TONS of Disability Benefits as I am Disabled myself and I believe we should receive 3 Times the Disability Benefits and more than what we are currently getting, as well as being allowed to work 2 hours per week and 2 hours per day up to 7 days per week to work Sweeping Floors and Frying French Fries at McDonalds to receive Employee Discounts for Our Cheeseburgers, French Fries, Sodas, and Ketchups! 🍟💵💰❤️

[hotfuss]

brandon flowers in the sunday telegraph, 2010.

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Happening Londoners, 1965 by totallymystified Via Flickr: From the Weekend Telegraph magazine, April 1965. Photograph by Horst Munzig.

[lolane]

EYE OF THE STORM – EDITA VILKEVICIUTE BY DAN MARTENSEN FOR THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH.

[thewalrusespublicist]

My smug ass when I'm right.

Why I’m so excited about Ian Leslie’s book

I know we’re all excited/nervous about Ian Leslie’s John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs but I think it’s potential impact hasn’t been fully realised or discussed. When I say get your shit together, company is coming and ‘mclennon’ is breaking containment I mean it.

Why do I say this? There’s been so many books on the Beatles, what’s different about this one? Well, it’s the author. Ian Leslie is a known entity outside of Beatledom and has written widely outside of it. I’d bet quite a bit of money that he got the book deal because of this. Ian Leslie also has media experience and links to journalists and major publications. He will know the right people to market the book to and how to get the book attention. It’s likely he’ll get at least one article in a major newspaper and writes well enough that his articles on the Beatles go viral. All in all, I don’t think it’s inconceivable that the book will get enough press to make the best-seller list. This is unlikely to be a book shoved to the back of the bookshop, more probably it’s going to go pride of place on displays at the front and in windows. Think about it, a book on John and Paul’s love story right there in prominent view on the shelves for everyone to see. It would make an impression, even if the person who sees it doesent even glance inside.

Increasing that likelihood of best-sellerdom is the fact that he’s not with a small indie publisher, he’s with faber and faber who are a big fish in the book pond. They also won the book deal from other publishers which suggests that they are keen on the project and that other publishers thought the idea would do well. That means they have enough money and faith to properly market the book and mass distribute it. Let’s make no mistake about it, this is a book that is meant to be read by a much larger audience than most Beatle books. There’s a reason that there’s a quote from another famous celebrity on the UK version rather than an academic: this isn’t for hardcore Beatles fans, this is for your dad, your friend, just whoever casually likes the Beatles. The original date, price point and design (won’t go into it but the design screams general modern audience) does point to it being meant as a Christmas present. It’s now changed to Easter but the same intent still stands.

The potential reach is what gets me so excited. Books like Tune in are ones that a select number of people will read, Ian Leslie’s is the one that the general public will read and the one that will shape their opinion. If he is willing to go as far as he does in podcasts and sticks the landing, this book may well change the general pop’s view of the John and Paul relationship for good.

Roll on April 2024!

[dansnaturepictures]

14/04/2024-Dandelion seed head in the garden, worm out the front, Redstart on a walk from Telegraph Hill in the New Forest, tree out the front and views on the New Forest walk.

The Redstart among my first of the year today and I was also delighted to hear my magical first Cuckoo of the spring here and see my first Green-veined White butterfly of the year at Lakeside. Woodlark, Mistle Thrush, Buzzard, Red Kite, daisies and my first tormentil and milkwort of the year were other highlights in the New Forest. Tufted Duck, the Great Crested Grebe chicks, Ring-necked Parakeet, Speckled Wood, garlic mustard, herb-Robert speedwell, ground ivy, red deadnettle and Green Woodpecker heard were other Lakeside highlights.

[eddisonpearson]

Mary Murphy's eagerly-awaited first novel is out now. A Sarah Odedina Book from Pushkin Children's designed by Jet Purdie, The Minute Minders is written and fully illustrated by Mary Murphy.

"The world that Murphy creates is captivating. The Minute Minders is a treat for all ages." ― Patricia Forde, Laureate na nÓg "A fresh take on the 'tiny person' theme with a beautiful empathetic message!" ― Harriet Muncaster, author of the Isadora Moon series “The Minute Minders by Mary Murphy is a funny, sweet fantasy adventure about fidders, tiny people who help humans. Illustrated by Murphy throughout, it’s perfect for age 8+. (Or to read aloud to 7+)” — Sarah Webb "A book with heart and humour and a bit of jeopardy, served up with a light touch and a wink." ― A.F. Harrold

"A timeless classic in the making and so full of heart." — NetGalley reviewer

"A delightful tale full of many messages and themes which would lend itself to being a class story time book. I can't wait to buy my own copy to share with my class as I'm certain they'll enjoy it as much as I did." — NetGalley reviewer

"Now that I have finished this book, I am not just going to leave it on the shelf but will keep reading it over and over again." — Books Up North review by Emaan, aged 7

"‘The Minute Minders’ is a completely captivating, thoroughly enjoyable read, full of warmth and humour ... Stevie is a wonderful character … Her relationship with her father is beautifully captured … Mary Murphy’s world building is brilliant." ― Through the Bookshelf

"Mary Murphy's first chapter book for older readers is a delightful story ... Readers will be transported into a magical world that closely resembles ours ... Highlighting the importance of friendship, this story shows how a little bit of kindness and care can go a long way and how the actions we take, even if just for a minute, can make a world of difference." — Inis Magazine (Children's Books Ireland) review by Elanur Eroglu Williams

"The Minute Minders is a wonderful middle-grade debut novel. A heartwarming and captivating story which is full of adventure, fantasy and empathy. I love the hidden messages throughout about never giving up which will not only support younger readers but educate them as well ... about checking in on people, supporting them and making small changes to improve our mental-wellbeing which is something we could all do with doing even from a young age. The illustrations are just stunning and really help to bring this fabulous story to life. ... The Minute Minders is a perfect book for upper primary libraries and classrooms and is a great match for fans of books by Cressida Cowell, RJ Palacio and Andy Shepherd." — Emma Suffield, blogger, Waterstones Senior Bookseller and SLA School Librarian of the Year 2018

"With soft pencil illustrations throughout, Murphy’s first longer book for older readers has the cosy feel of a new classic." ― The Irish Examiner

"The Minute Minders, a richly imaginative tale from Mary Murphy, takes the ‘little person’ framework and imbues it with new life. ... Some children’s books prove especially hard acts to follow. Any story about tiny people secretly interacting with human beings, for example, is fated to draw comparisons with Mary Norton’s beloved series The Borrowers (1952), which told the story of a family of such people who live clandestinely in the walls and floor of an old English house. ("Borrowers don’t steal… except from human beings.") The Minute Minders, an enchanting debut novel by Mary Murphy, is also about tiny people – and it is to Murphy’s great credit that it doesn’t feel borrowed at all." ― The Telegraph; review by Emily Bearn, 17th January 2024

"This is the first book in a series, told through Stevie's frank and funny voice." — The Week Junior; Book of the Week review, 27th January 2024

"In the tradition of Borrowers, Minpins and flits, fidders are tiny people who live alongside humans. But fidders are there expressly to help, putting thoughts into heads to nudge people in directions that will make them happy, fulfil their dreams, save their lives. They can also communicate with cats and dogs, and they have various jobs: some reveal truth, some inspire creativity, and “minute minders” have one minute to solve problems. Stevie is a ten-year-old fidder who lives with her dad, and gets him into trouble by breaking the rules of interactions with humans, which leads to tasks on which their livelihood and dream holiday depend. These include helping two lonely children to find each other and deal with a bully. This delightful book has empathy, sweet pictures, a virtuoso meta ending, and a good deal of wise advice." — The Sunday Times best books for children 2024; Children's Book of the Week review by Nicolette Jones, 28th January

[literaryvein-reblogs]

one more list of "troublesome" words

waiver, waver

Waiver - a relinquishment of a claim

Waver - to hesitate

whence

”And man will return to the state of hydrogen from whence he came” (Sunday Telegraph).

Although there is ample precedent for from whence—the King James Bible has the sentence “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help”—it is nonetheless tautological.

Whence - means “from where”

It is enough to say “to the state of hydrogen whence he came.”

wound, scar

The two are not as interchangeable as writers sometimes casually make them.

A scar - what remains after a wound heals

Thus it is always wrong, or at least stretching matters, to talk about a scar healing, including in figurative senses.

who, whom

For those who are perennially baffled by the distinction between these two relative pronouns, it may come as some comfort to know that Shakespeare, Addison, Ben Jon-son, Dickens, Churchill, and the translators of the King James Bible have equally been flummoxed in their time.

The rule can be stated simply:

Whom - used when it is the object of a preposition (“To whom it may concern”)

or verb (“The man whom we saw last night”)

or the subject of a complementary infinitive (“The person whom we took to be your father”).

Who - used on all other occasions.

Source ⚜ More: On Vocabulary ⚜ Writing Basics ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[mariacallous]

Opening a kosher restaurant in New York City wasn’t always in the cards for Raif Rashed, a Druze from the village of Usfiya in northern Israel.

But as Rashed, the owner of Taboonia — a new Druze restaurant in the Garment District that’s currently seeking kosher certification — will be the first to tell you, sometimes life can take an unexpected turn, especially after a tragedy.

An engineer by trade, Rashed, 40, moved to Hackensack, New Jersey, in 2019 to take a job at an Israeli manufacturing company. In October 2023, he was visiting family in Israel when he extended his trip to could help his brother, Radda — who had run a catering business and food stall there, also called Taboonia, for a decade — work a busy event.

Fatefully, that event was the Nova Music Festival. Intended to be a 15-hour party overnight dance party, the festival was the site of one of the deadliest massacres that occurred when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

During the violent chaos that unfolded, Rashed was separated from his brother, who ultimately survived. He sought cover behind a car belonging to his friend Erick Peretz, who was at the festival with his 16-year-old daughter Ruth, who had cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair. Rashed watched Peretz and his daughter seek cover behind an ambulance, then, to his horror, witnessed Hamas fighters burning the vehicle. Erick and Ruth Peretz’s bodies were identified 12 days later; they were among the more than 380 people murdered at the festival that day.

The experience turned Rashed’s life upside down. “I was in crisis [for] a year,” said Rashed, who added that, in the aftermath of the attack, “I looked middle-aged within hours.”

Rashed was stuck in Israel for several months, as his passport was stolen in the attack. When he finally returned to the United States, he quit his engineering job. Seeking comfort, he found himself cooking the foods of his childhood, like manakish — a type of flatbread served with toppings like za’atar, hummus, and labneh — or the very thin, crispy Druze pita, rolled into a wrap and filled with cucumber and tomato salad, hummus, hard boiled eggs, feta and chickpeas.

The Druze are a small religious and ethnic minority in the Middle East, with a population of about 1 million spread across communities in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. (Israel has vowed to protect the Druze in Syria if they come under attack from the new regime there, and this week Syrian Druze visited a Druze site in Israel for the first time in decades.) In Israel, Druze communities, comprising less than 2% of the population, tend to be patriotic and serve in the military, as Rashed did. “We don’t have [a] country, but we serve the country we live [in],” he said.

Inspired by reconnecting with Druze cuisine, Rashed decided to open an American outpost of Taboonia.

“For me to sell the food from our culture, and especially my mother’s recipes, this is my baby,” he said.

On Oct. 5, 2024 — almost exactly one year after the terrorist attack — he launched the Taboonia food stall, selling Druze food and coffee at the New Meadowlands Market at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Saturdays and at the Grand Bazaar on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Sundays. It was an instant hit.

The same month he opened his food stall, Rashed met his future business partner, Ray Radwan. Radwan, a Druze born in New Jersey whose family is from Lebanon, works in the restaurant industry, and the pair decided to open a brick-and-mortar outpost of Taboonia at 832 Sixth Ave. Construction on the fast-casual dining space, which seats roughly a dozen people, began last November, and the restaurant had its soft-launch opening last month.

Until recently, the only Druze eatery in New York has Gazala’s, an Upper West Side restaurant run by Gazala Halabi. When Gazala’s was targeted with anti-Israel vandalism in February 2024, scores of local Jews turned out to show support. The pattern repeated that July: Following a Hezbollah rocket attack that took the lives of 12 children and teens in a Druze town in northern Israel, Jewish New Yorkers showed up at Gazala’s in droves.

“It really feels like a family,” Halabi said of the Jewish community’s support at the time. “I really feel, again, like I’m not alone.”

But the city’s significant population of kosher-keeping Jews could not join in the rush. Gazala’s is not kosher and serves shellfish alongside serves Middle Eastern specialties like kibbeh, meat-stuffed grape leaves, shawarma and lamb.

Taboonia is vegetarian, making it relatively easy to achieve kosher certification. Rashed said the restaurant is expected to receive its certification from Rabbi Zev Schwarcz at IKC in the coming weeks, and that there will be a grand opening celebration, likely after Passover. And because Taboonia isn’t owned by a Jew, it should be able to stay open on Shabbat and maintain its kosher status — an added perk.

“See, to be Druze, is a plus,” he said.

Rashed said it’s just good business to seek kosher certification. “Kosher, everyone can eat, OK?” he said. “But not kosher, not everyone can eat.”

But he is also grateful to the support he’s gotten from Jews in New York and beyond — including through a recent viral video that the actress and pro-Israel activist Noa Tishby posted about him on Instagram.

“My community is Jewish,” he said, adding that he attended school alongside Jewish students, and that his Hebrew is better than his Arabic or English. “I am around Jewish since 13 years old.”

Rashed’s six years in New York and New Jersey have influenced his palette, as well as the restaurant’s menu. In addition to traditional Druze foods, Taboonia also serves some cross-cultural treats, like everything bagel-seasoned bourekas, filled with mozzarella cheese.

Rashed hopes that Taboonia will be a place of repast and respite for New Yorkers of all stripes.

“Me and other Druze, Lebanese Druze, we [are] all of us all together [in the] middle of the war, in the middle of New York, to show the world we can make it a different way, and maybe we can make a change for some people, yes?” Rashed said. “Because [in] this place you’re going to hear Arabic, Hebrew, and English. No one is going to judge anyone about anything.”

[ostensiblynone]

'I was stoned - didn't feel a thing'

Filed: September 26th 2002 | The Telegraph UK

Noel Gallagher talks to Neil McCormick about spirituality, songwriting, fatherhood, and how he walked away from a spectacular car crash in America

Noel Gallagher recently survived a high-speed, head-on collision in the front passenger seat of a taxi cab in Indianapolis. "It was my first car crash," he cheerfully reports, brusquely asserting that this flirtation with mortality did not represent a life-changing experience. "Nothing flashed before my eyes! Not a fucking thing! It only lasted a couple of seconds. It'd take a lot longer than that for my life to flash by, man!"

Currently on the second half of a world tour with Oasis, the elder Gallagher brother is on typically garrulous form as he recollects the events of August 7. "My mam was on the phone going, 'Thank God you're all right!' The way it was reported in England, it was like I was dragged by my hair from the wreckage of a burning car. The thing is, I was stoned off my nut. It was a day off and I got properly blasted. I didn't feel a thing!"

Noel was returning from a visit to a guitar shop with band members Gem Archer and Andy Bell when the accident happened. "For some reason, I got in the front of the cab. Never done that before, but I'm off me head, right, and I'm looking down this road; it's a beautiful sunny evening; there's a car coming towards us. Then all of a sudden our driver hit the brakes. I sort of looked up, and there was the loudest bang I've ever heard in my life. Then it went really dark because the air bag exploded. So I'm stoned in the dark with two black eyes, and the car alarm's going off, and the taxi driver is shouting in Moroccan or something, and I'm thinking, 'What the fuck is going on? Is this a car bomb?' I kick myself out the door and Gem's got blood pouring out of his nose, but Andy had his seatbelt on, skips out, not a scratch, not even a hair out place. I'm sat on the road, and its blistering hot, and Andy was stood looking over me and - I didn't find this out until two days later - he says the first thing I said was, 'Get us me shades out the car.' Do I rock or what?"

Noel wound up in hospital with neck trauma for which he is still receiving physiotherapy. "All's well that ends well, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody," he says. "The thing is, I'm a great believer in karma [the Buddhist belief that present actions affect future existence]. I'm always preaching that everything happens for a reason, man. What you give is what you get. Then me and my girlfriend split up, and four days later I'm in a car crash, and I'm thinking, 'But I'm a really good person. Why is this happening to me?'"

What with Noel's self-confessed past drug problems, acrimonious divorce, constant sibling squabbles and generally volatile relationships with a band who always seem on the verge of breaking up, one might imagine he would have every reason to suspect his karma was in a dubious state. However, as even the most cursory inspection of his songwriting canon will reveal, Noel presents himself as optimism personified. "My life's been a celebration," he insists. "Shit goes wrong. Sometimes there's a disturbance in the force, Luke. But this is my destiny. I'm honoured to have been given the gift to write songs and play them to people, because I'm not really good at anything else. I can make my daughter laugh, but that's about it."

Although his tendency is to be flippant, Noel seems to take these concepts seriously. "It seems plausible that what goes around comes around. If you want to be treated with respect, you should at least respect the person that's in your nearest vicinity," he says. "I don't buy organised religion. I actually envy people who go to church on Sunday and sing their arses off and come out feeling a better person, but it's all bullshit to me. My parents were Irish and I was brought up a Catholic, but all it left me with was guilt."

So what does the eternal optimist have to feel guilty about? "I feel guilty that I'm not going to be around every day for my daughter. That eats away at me pretty much all the time. When I see her, and then I have to give her back, and she's crying, 'I don't want to go, Daddy.' But I never felt guilty over the success and the cash. That's what you get given for doing something right."

Noel says he won't attempt to impose any particular beliefs on his two-year-old daughter, Anäis. "She might be able to teach me something, who knows?" he says touchingly. But then he adds: "Knowing her mother, Meg will have her at the Church of Standing on One Leg or something stupid." This brief outburst is the only flash of vindictiveness during our encounter. Little By Little, the new Oasis single (released this week), written and sung by Noel, might be taken as bitter comment on his ex-wife Meg Matthews ("The wheels of your life are slowly falling off"), but Noel insists he is not an autobiographical songwriter.

"The songs have universal appeal; that's why they're such huge songs," he says. "The truth that's in them is a truth to the listener not a statement by the songwriter. I always felt the meaning of Wonderwall was taken away from me by journalists who said it was about Meg. That was a song written about the imaginary fairy on your shoulder that you ultimately believe is going to come and save you from yourself. When I sing it these days, it's about my daughter."

Also included on the single is She is Love, again sung by Noel. He admits, in this case, that it was "inspired" by his former paramour, Sarah MacDonald, but adds: "The song doesn't belong to anyone. It belongs to the people."

Certainly, self-revelation is not Noel's style. "I never truly write from a personal perspective because I have to give it to Liam to sing, and he has to believe the songs are written through him, by me. And my brother is a piss-taker of the highest degree. If he even smells a rat, he goes, 'I'm not having that.'

"So I write from the perspective that there's this imaginary person singing the song, and he's called Noel&Liam. I guess it's a defence mechanism. I'm not allowed to bare my soul. Really, I'm quite a private person and I don't want anybody to know what's going on inside my heart. And then sometimes I worry that I'm not getting it out. When all the shit was going on a couple of years ago, I was going to do a solo record, and I was going to lay it on the line. But then I thought do I really want people to go, 'Ah, there he is. Now we can pigeonhole him'? So I write songs about 'we' and not 'me'. If I'd made a career out of writing songs about myself, there wouldn't be that many people turning up every night, that's for fucking sure!"

That there is a soulful, slightly troubled spirit beneath Noel's surface optimism is not hard to discern. "When I get down, I don't want to pick up a pen," he says. "I go to the pub and get pissed. Wallow. Sit in the corner and be spiteful to strangers in my head. I've just split up with my girlfriend and come out of a car crash, so I'm not writing any songs at the moment. Radiohead would get a box set out of a car crash but I think all my songs should be a celebration. There's enough negativity in the world.

"The first two lines of Hindu Times say it all to me: 'I get up/when I'm down.' I wait for it to pass, until the disturbance in the force has calmed. I wouldn't play a song to this lot in the band that had the opening line of, 'Sitting in my room as the rain pours down the window.' They'd just burst out laughing. Liam would tut and walk out."

So where, I ask him, do all the darker emotions within him go? "I suppose I'm going to have a musical nose-bleed soon," he says. "I can't keep it locked up for ever. I know it's got to come out somewhere. I just don't know if I'm looking forward to it."

[safedistancefrombeingsmart]

Some more pics I found today. That first one... 🥵

Source: The Telegraph and BBC 1 Sunday

(The 1st two are colour adjusted by me.)

[paulandlindalove]

Linda McCartney photographed by Clive Arrowsmith for The Telegraph Sunday Magazine, 1987.