jueves, 1 de febrero de 2018

Unattended package causes confusion

Eugenia Lincoln is not easily amused.

Jane Fagan | Jan 31 2018 | comment

Eugenia Lincoln and the Unexpected Packageby Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
written for ages 7-10 | highly recommended
published in 2017 | Candlewick | 112 pages

After reading this book one feels happiness and a desire for that sort of community neighbourliness that used to be so common once upon a time.

Reading Kate Di Camillo is a joy and like others I found this story to be particularly uplifting and wonderful. There is something about a story that cracks through a bitter heart to release joy.

A mysterious package arrives on the doorstep of the strictly practical Eugenia Lincoln’s home. Although this would likely be a lovely surprise for many, it is not so for the elderly, strict Eugenia. Much as the people who live on Deckham Drive are amazed and want to share the excitement - Eugenia just wants it all to go away. She is cynical.

The fact that the pig from next door wanders in curiously, hovering around her house to see what is in the box is even more aggravating to Eugenia. How "aggravating" and "unpredictable"; how ‘pig-filled'. (p.11)

In the end she opens the package - and this is just more of a bother to her when she finds out it is of all things, a musical instrument - an accordion.

To Eugenia, this is NOT wondrous. This is NOT joyful.

“Whoop-de-doo” Eugenia is way too busy for an oversized, unexpected package that turns out to be a noisy old accordion. She couldn’t care less about it. She determinedly shuts everyone out and tries to return it to its sender - but this doesn’t work. She makes a plan of action to destroy it or give it away, it is mere clutter to her. She retreats to her bedroom shutting the door firmly on the world.

We all have a bit of Eugenia Lincoln in us - that is why I very much enjoyed the humour of watching her try to twist her way out of anything remotely poetic. She is so sullenly determined to keep things as they are. But at night those few notes that someone squeezed out of the accordion come back to play in her memory and soul….could it be breaking through her bitter exterior?

What will happen to the accordion, will it stay with Eugenia or will it be relegated to the clutter heap? Read on to find out what will happen when determination to get rid of the accordion meets magic of sorts on Deckawoo Drive.

A former children's librarian, Jane Fagan is currently a full-time wife and mother of two.

January 31, 2018

Of all the things that, a decade ago, one might have predicted would become a political issue, who would have thought of the wedding cake? But it has, and no less an institution than the United States Supreme Court is deliberating about one right now. That particular cake, like a few others in recent years, was one that did not get made for a same-sex couple who requested it.

If you want to refresh your memory about what exactly is the issue you can revisit this article we published in December. Our lead article today, however, is not about the controversy as such, but why both sides see the wedding cake as so significant. In a long but fascinating essay that we have republished from The Family In America journal, sociologist D. Paul Sullins explains the symbolism and history of this ceremonial confection in its three-tiered, white-iced, topped by a figure of the bride and groom form. Apparently this owes a lot to Queen Victoria, whose wedding banquet

“presented the British populace with a cake of outsized dimensions that definitively crossed the line from food to spectacle. The cake’s bottom later, more than 10 feet in circumference and weighing over 30 pounds, served primarily as the base for a pedestal upon which stood three distinct tiers, topped by an elaborately carved scenario of Britannia blessing the Queen and her bridegroom, Prince Albert.”

There are some pictures with Dr Sullins article, which I highly recommend as background to one of the most unpredictable court cases of all time.