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A Cat Sanctuary That’s Helping Birds

April 18, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/Monitor Staff.
Carpenters use donated items, such as a surfboard, to create the right environment for cats to play and sleep at a cat sanctuary in Hawaii.

If you are mainly a “dog person,” today’s cat story may seem a bit silly to you. But if you have ever worried about what cats can do to endangered birds, you will be as glad about a sanctuary for feral cats in Hawaii as if you were a longtime “cat person.”

At the Christian Science Monitor, Jackie Valley writes about Lanai Cat Sanctuary. The resident cats, once wild and fierce, are very friendly. That’s because they’ve learned that visitors “come armed with staff-approved goody bags,” Valley says. “[They] saunter up to guests, begging for delicious morsels and maybe some head rubs. The shy cats hang back, with some lounging on benches, curling up in trees, or sleeping peacefully in small condos.

“Call it a cat-lover’s paradise in paradise. This four-acre, open-air haven exists on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

“ ‘This place is made for feral cats to become friendly,’ says Joe Adarna, the sanctuary’s director of operations.

“Decades ago, Lanai contained the world’s largest pineapple plantation. Today, billionaire Larry Ellison owns roughly 98% of land on this mostly undeveloped and rugged island bursting with pine trees. About 3,000 people call Lanai home, and only Hotel Lānaʻi and two Four Seasons resorts operate here. But every year, thousands of tourists make day trips, usually by ferry, to visit the sanctuary, where more than 700 cats live.

“The sanctuary’s purpose is twofold — protect bird species while saving cats. And it all started with one kitten.

“Kathy Carroll needed help. In the early 2000s, a kitten that had been hit by a car wound up in her care. But no veterinarian lived on the island. So Ms. Carroll boarded a ferry, with the tiny cat in tow, and headed to Maui. The kitten survived.

“While on Maui, Ms. Carroll mentioned Lanai’s swelling population of unsheltered, hungry cats that no one seemed to be helping. The veterinarian’s response: ‘Maybe you should look in the mirror and do something.’

“The blunt advice set in motion an effort to trap and spay or neuter the island’s roaming felines. By 2006, however, the discovery of endangered Hawaiian petrels at a higher elevation on Lanai fast-tracked the desire for a physical sanctuary. The seabirds typically lay one egg per year in a ground burrow, making them particularly susceptible to feral cats.

“The sanctuary started in an unused horse corral until it moved to its current location in 2009, Ms. Carroll says. Over time, the sanctuary’s land – once littered with old car parts and discarded refrigerators — transformed into a series of homey enclosures fit for each cat. Older cats, for instance, have their own fenced-in areas, as do cats with special needs.

“The safe space for the cats, in turn, provides protection for the island’s vulnerable feathered inhabitants, including the wedge-tailed shearwater, the Hawaiian coot, the Hawaiian stilt, and the Hawaiian petrel.

“Hawaii is an island ecosystem in which birds evolved without the presence of feline predators, says Grant Sizemore, director of invasive species programs for the American Bird Conservancy. He credits Lanai Cat Sanctuary with playing a ‘valuable role’ in protecting vulnerable birds. …

“The nonprofit’s leaders say fights among the felines are rare. There’s no need to be territorial. The cats have enough nourishment (120 pounds of dry food and 100 cans of wet food per day total), plenty of room (70,000 square feet of enclosed spaces), and, for those who want it, lots of attention (12,000 or more visitors a year). The cost to keep the operation afloat: $2 million per year, most of which comes from donations. …

“Every year, the nonprofit takes in 150 to 200 cats, most of whom come from Lanai. An exception occurred in August 2023 after a deadly blaze swept through Lahaina, a city on Maui’s northwestern coast. The sanctuary opened its arms to 220 cats rescued postfire by the Maui Humane Society. In exchange, that organization agreed to take 220 adoptable cats from Lanai Cat Sanctuary over the next few years, Mr. Adarna says.

“Some cats live out their remaining time at the sanctuary. But the true aim of sanctuary workers – who give the cats unique names – is to socialize them better and help each one find a loving forever home.

“ ‘As they get older, it’s so much better to have a couch and a family,’ Mr. Adarna says.

“The sanctuary facilitates anywhere from 50 to 100 adoptions each year, with new homes as far-flung as New York and Florida. Some of those bonds begin when visitors meet a special four-legged friend at the sanctuary.

“Other visitors come for the cuddles and leave with happy memories. A few have even departed with wedding rings. About a dozen couples have gotten married at the sanctuary.” More at the Monitor, here.

I am not that level of cat person, but I do like cats and am glad they have a sanctuary, especially as I care a lot about endangered birds.

But changing the topic, I’d like to say before closing that it makes me really uncomfortable that one man “owns 98 percent” of this island. Something feels wrong about that.

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What Your Horse Is Trying to Say

April 17, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Rafael Hoyos/Unsplash.
What if horses could speak? What if they already do?

Who remembers Mister Ed, the television series in the early 1960s? The usual bad things were going on in the world at the time, but anyone who needed an escape could indulge in the adventures of a talking horse. Special effects in tv had not advanced very far at the time, but somehow the producers created the illusion that Mister Ed’s lips were moving as if using human speech.

And of course, he often whinnied.

Today we learn from National Public Radio that the dual-layer whinny of real horses is almost as surprising.

Ari Daniel writes that the researcher “Élodie Briefer grew up in the countryside near Geneva — and horses have long been a part of her world. …

“She recalls, ‘I can’t remember at which age I started, but maybe 6 or 7 years old. I did [a] few competitions, but I was never a big fan of that. I would prefer to go for a walk with the horse and enjoy.’

“All this time with horses means that Briefer, now an animal behavioral scientist at the University of Copenhagen, has heard a lot of whinnying over the years. She never noticed anything out of the ordinary until a little more than a decade ago when she was working on a project that involved comparing how different animals, including horses, express themselves vocally.

” ‘The first time I really listened to a horse whinny that I had recorded,’ she says, ‘I was confused because I thought there were two horses — as if there [were] two voices at the same time.’

“Briefer created a visual representation of the sound file, called a spectrogram, to inspect the whinny more closely. And that’s when she saw two frequencies occurring at the same time: one high and one low.

“In a paper appearing in the journal Current Biology, Briefer and her colleagues present a set of experiments that reveal how horses manage to create these two tones simultaneously. It’s a complex feat that seems to be made possible by the anatomy of their vocal tract.

“Briefer was perplexed by what she observed in the whinny for a couple of reasons. First, larger animals tend to produce lower vocalizations, and the high-pitched part of the horse whinny seemed too high for such a big creature. Second, a fair number of birds can produce two simultaneous frequencies like this. But among mammals, ‘it’s quite uncommon, at least when it appears all the time in one type of sound,’ says Briefer. …

“Briefer first went to a Swiss stud farm (where her sister, who’s a co-author on the study, works). She threaded a small camera down the noses of 10 breeding stallions until it was just above the larynx. It’s the same procedure that’s routinely conducted on these animals as part of their physical checkups, so they were accustomed to it.

“Briefer then played the stallions the sound of a female whinnying, or in certain instances, she paraded a mare in front of them. … She noticed how the vocal folds of the larynx vibrated (just like when we speak) to produce the low-frequency part of the whinny.

“In addition, just above the larynx, horses have strong cartilage. The video revealed the cartilage constricting, creating a small opening that likely produced a whistle — the high-frequency part of the whinny.

“Briefer had her first evidence that two different parts of the horse’s vocal anatomy were likely operating in tandem to produce the whinny’s two distinct frequencies.

“Next, Briefer’s colleagues connected with a butcher in France, a country where people eat horses. ‘I know it’s not the same in every country,’ she says, ‘but there it’s quite common.’

“The butcher provided the team with half a dozen horse larynges. ‘And then you blow air through it to reproduce the sounds,’ says Briefer.

“They successfully generated both the low and high tones in the excised larynges, confirming the results on the stud farm. Then, when they blew helium through them, the low pitch was unaffected, but the high pitch shifted higher. That’s what Briefer and her colleagues were expecting, since helium doesn’t affect the pitch of vocal fold vibrations, only that of whistles.

“CT scans provided 3D portraits of the same larynges, revealing ‘a small kind of cavity just above the vocal fold that hadn’t been documented before,’ explains Briefer. That could be where the air is forming a vortex, which then makes the whistle.’ More work needs to be done to confirm that mechanism.

“Finally, the team tracked down several stallions with a rare disease called recurrent laryngeal neuropathy, which tends to paralyze one of the vocal folds fully or in part. They recorded these animals’ whinnies. The low tone was partially absent, but the high pitch was unaffected.

” ‘That was another confirmation that the high pitch is not produced by vocal fold vibration,’ says Briefer. Briefer concludes that a whinny is a unique blending of vocal fold vibration that generates the low pitch and a whistling above the larynx that produces the high pitch. …

” ‘What I really liked in this paper is that they used a very comprehensive experimental approach that combined different techniques and that all converge [on] the same results, says Mathilde Massenet, a bioacoustician at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has worked with Briefer in the past but didn’t participate in the new research.

“As for why horses might be producing these two-toned whinnies, Briefer’s earlier work suggests they appear to encode different pieces of emotional information. ‘The [high-frequency] one indicates whether the emotion is pleasant or unpleasant,’ she says. ‘And then the [low-frequency] one indicates whether the emotion is intense or not.’

“Massenet says that discerning how complex sounds like the whinny are produced can help yield insights into what it is that animals are communicating. ‘Understanding the vocal behavior is important for us to have a better idea of how healthy’ a population of animals is, she says.”

More at NPR, here.

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An Unlikely Route to Knighthood

April 16, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: GuillaumenBaptiste/AFP via Getty Images.
Ali Akbar is shown selling newspapers in the Latin Quarter in Paris in September 2025. The Pakistani-born 73-year-old is believed to be the last remaining newspaper vendor in the French capital.

Our old habits and traditions, the kinds that helped us feel part of a community, are fading fast. Especially in cities. Imperceptibly, we have become more isolated as we alter the routine of exchanging a few words when we buy our morning coffee at a shop with longterm employees — or we pick up a newspaper at a market where we know the owner. We don’t take our daily walk where we’re likely to see the same friendly dog walker or encourage the neighbor’s toddler as he tries out his first time on the park swings.

It is all connected to doing things faster, to “convenience.”

Paris is no exception. And that is why the man in today’s story is cherished.

Rebecca Rosman wrote at National Public Radio in February, “They call him the voice of Paris’ 6th arrondissement. In the cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Ali Akbar is a fixture — with a voice you can’t miss. You usually hear him before you see him, shouting ‘Ça y est!‘ — his signature catchphrase, ‘That’s it!’

“For more than 50 years, the Pakistani-born newspaper hawker has made the same daily rounds on his secondhand bicycle, weaving between brasseries with fresh stacks of papers like Le Monde and Libération. His customers have ranged from neighborhood regulars to Left Bank intellectuals like the 20th century philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and visiting presidents including Bill Clinton.

“And last month, another of his old customers — French President Emmanuel Macron — awarded him one of France’s highest honors, naming Akbar a knight in the National Order of Merit.

” ‘You are the accent of the 6th arrondissement,’ Macron told Akbar in a formal ceremony at the Élysée Palace in late January. … Macron went on to refer to Akbar as ‘the most French of the French — a Voltairean who arrived from Pakistan.’

“Akbar’s medal comes with a quiet footnote: He is believed to be the last newspaper hawker left in Paris. A job that once dotted street corners across the city has almost vanished, pushed out by the internet and the collapse of print journalism sales. In a city that now gets most of its headlines on phones, Akbar still delivers them by hand.

“At 73 years old, Akbar still works seven days a week, 10 hours a day — rain or shine.

“Born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, the oldest of 10 children, he says that growing up in poverty, he had one big dream — to make enough money to build his mom a house. Just before his 18th birthday, he left home, determined to make a better life abroad. …

“For a while, he cleaned floors on a ship in Greece, picking up the Greek language. After that, he spent some time in the Netherlands and in the northern French city of Rouen.

“When he wound up in Paris in 1973, an Argentinian friend suggested he start selling newspapers with him in the Latin Quarter. One of the first titles Akbar sold was a satirical weekly, which shocked him with its raunchy cartoons and irreverence toward French politicians.

” ‘My first thought was: in my country, if you do that, they will kill you,’ Akbar says.

“He then added mainstream dailies, and grew to love the work of newspaper hawking, barely thinking twice about 18-hour days. …

“But that doesn’t mean things were easy. There were times when he was homeless, choosing to sleep on the streets to save money and send it back to his family.

” ‘I was always thinking of my mother and her children,’ he says.

“Eventually he was able to fulfill his dream of building his mom her house. In the years since, he has continued earning a modest living selling papers. After an arranged marriage back in Pakistan, Akbar and his wife, Aziza, settled in a Paris suburb and raised five sons. …

“He is not afraid to acknowledge the hardships he has faced. The title of his 2005 memoir hints at what lies beneath the jubilant image that’s made him famous: I Make the World Laugh, but the World Makes Me Cry.

“Even so, Akbar [chooses] to focus on the positive. ‘You can meet bad people everywhere, and there are also good people everywhere,’ he says, when asked about his struggles. …

“For his family, his medal is also about healing. ‘It has put a bandage on old wounds,’ says his son, Shamshad Akbar. …

“People in the neighborhood say Akbar has given them something priceless — a chance for daily human connection.

” ‘He’s interested in you, and then you’re interested in him,’ says longtime customer Michel Mimran. ‘And this is very rare now in the big cities.’

“These days, Akbar says he’s lucky to make about 60 euros — about $70 — a day selling papers. …

“On a recent Sunday afternoon, Akbar pushed open the door of a packed brasserie on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Heads turned. From the back of the room, a small crowd started chanting his name. Then the rest of the place joined in.”

More at NPR, here.

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Afgan Women Read in Secret

April 15, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Rukhshana Media.
Every Thursday, five friends come together – one over the phone – to discuss what they’ve been reading. They call their group “women with books and imagination.” Such determination offers hope for Afghanistan. After all, as one of the group says, “If a woman is aware, a family is aware.”

When we were young, it was not unusual to be so enthralled by a book that we would read it with a flashlight at night under the covers, knowing that we could get in trouble. But trouble was never going to be anything much worse than a scolding.

Not so for women in Afghanistan whose reading of forbidden texts is against the law and whose rebellion could ultimately lead to death.

Azada Raha, from Rukhshana Media, reports at the Guardian, “Four young women sit together, waiting for the phone to ring. When the call finally comes, their friend’s voice is crackly and hard to make out, but they wait patiently for the signal to improve so they can start discussing their chosen book.

“Every Thursday, the five friends come together away from the disapproving gaze of the Taliban for a reading circle. They read not for entertainment but, as they put it, to understand life and the world around them. They call their group ‘women with books and imagination.’

“Most of the women in the group meet in person, but Parwana [their names have been changed here], 21, lives in a different district so has to join by phone. She was still a child when the Taliban pulled girls out of education, so didn’t get to finish school. Now, she says, her entire week revolves around books.

“ ‘When they banned us from attending school, I lost all hope. My mother encouraged me, but I knew things wouldn’t improve,’ she says. ‘I decided to do something myself.’ …

“This week, Parwana is leading a discussion on The Year of Turmoil, a novel by the Iranian writer Abbas Maroufi about a young woman named Noushafarin who finds herself trapped in an oppressive marriage. Set against the backdrop of turmoil in mid-20th-century Iran, its themes of repression, faith and patriarchal power resonate strongly with the women. …

“ ‘She represents women who have suffered, who have remained trapped, and who are oppressed by family and society in today’s Afghanistan,’ says Parwana of the character. ‘From the very beginning, I identified with her; it was painful, very painful.’

“Most of the books the five women have discussed since they started the reading circle last June are classics, and most deal with issues of power, suffering, and the place of women. … The works they’ve read include George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Zoya Pirzad’s I Will Turn Off the Lights and Symphony of the Dead, also by Abbas Maroufi.

“Most of the books can be found online and downloaded free, although occasionally they borrow books from libraries.

“They meet every week for an hour-and-a-half at the home of one of the members, varying the location to avoid scrutiny in a country where women’s freedoms have been severely curtailed.

“Parwana sometimes has to climb a hill to get a strong enough internet connection on her phone to download the book they are reading. But it’s worth it, she says, and she has the support of her elder brother, who has told her to keep at it. … ‘The excitement I feel for these sessions is indescribable,’ she says. …

“ ‘Reading has always been an integral part of my life,’ says the group’s coordinator Darya, 25, who was in her third year of a language and literature degree when the Taliban closed universities to women. ‘When I read, I feel as if I’m in another world – the characters, the places, nature. Sometimes I cry with the story, sometimes I laugh. But always, books have given color to my life.’

“Darya says The Year of Turmoil had a particularly strong impact on her. ‘This novel narrates years full of pressure and restriction. … Her situation mirrors the lives of people in today’s Afghanistan – people grappling with educational restrictions, social repression and political pressure. Like the characters in the novel, we keep hope alive through resistance and learning.’

“Roya, another member, explains the purpose of the circle this way: ‘Most women who accept oppression do so because they are unaware of their rights. The books we read are about suffering, choice and standing up to force – things we ourselves live with every day.’

“Morwarid, 22, says many women in Afghanistan resemble Noushafarin, who she sees as ‘trapped between tradition, religious power and social judgment.’

“ ‘She transforms from a silent woman into an aware human being. Her fate shows that, in such an environment, the very desire to choose is a form of resistance,’ says Morwarid, who won a place at Balkh University in northern Afghanistan to study law and political science, but wasn’t able to take it up before the ban was introduced.

“ ‘The very night I was supposed to leave for Balkh, universities were closed to women,’ she says. ‘I cried until morning. Life became dark for me. Through reading and this group, I gradually emerged from that nightmare. … The Taliban fear aware women. To confront the Taliban, one must become aware and grow – all together,’ she says.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Office Buildings Become Housing

April 14, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Valerie Plesch/NPR.
The Washington Monument is seen from the sky lounge of the rooftop penthouse at Accolade, a former office building.

In Boston for a long time, builders of office buildings and politicians thought it was brilliant to build out some undeveloped low land called the Seaport District, or Innovation District. Environmental voices weren’t loud enough to compete with that sort of unity, never mind the tendency of that part of the city to flood. (See the movie Inundation District,)

Then came Covid.

Companies stopped relying on office buildings. Even after the intense days of the pandemic, both workers and their employers saw benefits in allowing employees to work at home.

‘There’s a concept in the industry called ‘extend and pretend.’ 

The question became, what can we do with those empty buildings?

Eleana Tworek and Jacob Fenston reported recently at National Public Radio about a growing trend to convert the buildings to housing, which unlike office space, is badly needed.

“The room looks like your typical office suite,” they write, “white walls, low ceilings, gray carpet worn thin from years of foot traffic. But for this vacant office outside Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., real estate developers see potential.

“Matt Pestronk is the president of Post Brothers, a development company that bought the entire office building back in 2021, along with a neighboring building. Instead of making updates to attract new business tenants, Post Brothers decided to convert the old offices into more than 500 apartments.

“  ‘This location is a little bit off the beaten track for major office tenants, and it’s an incredible residential neighborhood,’ Pestronk says. …

“Cities across the U.S. are grappling with two parallel problems: too much empty office space and not enough housing. Nationally, office vacancy rates reached roughly 20% in 2024, after years of employees working from home. At the same time, the national housing shortage is in the millions. …

“Post Brothers has completed half a dozen office-to-residential conversions so far. Its project in D.C., which broke ground last month, is the largest such conversion in the city to date.

“Pestronk says the overall structure of the buildings will remain the same, but with some major additions. A lighter-colored limestone-like aggregate facade will replace the gray concrete from the 1960s, and old inefficient windows will be replaced by larger ones that let in more light per unit. …

“  ‘One of the advantages of doing conversions is that we don’t have to dig a hole for a foundation because there’s already one,’ he says.

“Plans for the completed building include luxury amenities such as a pool and a dog park. Projected rent for a one-bedroom apartment is around $4,000 per month, but 60 units will be set aside as affordable housing. …

“Tracy Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies adaptive reuse of old buildings, says the scale of the shortage far outpaces what conversions can provide.

” ‘Office-to-residential conversion is not going to solve the housing crisis,’ she says. But she argues that these projects still matter.

” ‘ It does kill two birds with one stone, in terms of providing some housing supply,’ Loh says. And it tends to create housing in central, transit-accessible areas that are in high demand. …

“Loh says this downturn is unlike past office slumps and warns developers against relying on old cyclical patterns to continue.

” ‘There’s a concept in the industry called “extend and pretend,” ‘ she says. ‘In times past when there’s been a glut of supply in office space, it has gradually resolved itself over time with new growth and new demand.’

“This slump in office demand is likely to persist, though. In our digital age, office storage is less essential because files live on our computers. So even when workers are coming into the office, employers need less space per employee.

“D.C. leaders are responding to that shift. Since 2024, the city has completed 11 office conversions, creating nearly 2,000 new apartments. Mayor Muriel Bowser has made adaptive reuse a focus of her administration, offering incentives such as a 20-year property tax abatement to encourage developers to move forward.

“Today, D.C. has the second-largest number of planned office-to-residential conversions in the country, just behind New York City. But it’s a trend that’s gaining popularity more broadly, in cities from Dallas to Manchester, New Hampshire.”

More at NPR, here.

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To Revitalize Indigenous Languages

April 13, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Newberry Library.
This image from the Newberry Library in Chicago represents the clans of the ogimaag (chiefs) of the Lake Superior bands of Ojibwe. The clans are shown united at a time when they were petitioning the US government to revise treaty boundaries set in 1842. 

In Chicago, there’s a library with an impressive indigenous studies collection, of which the art above is an example. I have never seen anything like it, a charming illustration of tribal chiefs, their individual symbols, and their collaboration to deal with the US government. It is in the Newberry Library.

Courtney Kueppers reported recently for WBEZ about the library and a $4 million grant “from the Mellon Foundation that will help widen access to Indigenous languages, some of which have been on the brink of disappearance.

“The research library holds roughly 2,400 items directly related to more than 300 different Indigenous languages as part of its vast Indigenous Studies collections, which include more than one million manuscript pages, 11,000 photographs and 2,000 maps.

“Right now, only a small percentage of that is available digitally, which can pose a barrier to tribal nations and scholars. Part of the new grant funding will focus on making more of the collection available on Newberry’s website, with a specific focus on language-related items.

“ ‘Those are often of major interest to tribal nations who are working on language revitalization activities,’ said Rose Miron, Newberry’s vice president for research and education. …

“The loss of Indigenous languages has been called a state of emergency. Many languages were nearly eradicated after the U.S. federal government attempted to force Indigenous people to assimilate in the 19th and 20th centuries through orders that included Native American boarding schools. …

“ ‘Children were literally being punished for speaking their own languages and being forced to speak English instead,’ said Miron, a historian whose area of study has focused on Indigenous history in the Great Lakes region. Now, as many tribal nations focus on revitalizing languages and teaching them again, Miron said items in the Newberry’s collection can play a critical role, especially for nations with no living speakers. …

“The Newberry collection includes Bibles and other religious texts created by missionaries who were attempting to assimilate tribal members by translating those works to Indigenous languages. Among the other linguistic items are boarding school materials that were translated into Dakota. …

“Miron said, ‘I have seen people in the collection weep upon seeing something that is related to their family, or is related to their community that they’ve never seen before.’ …

“In total, Newberry says, more than half the funds will go directly to tribal nations.

“ ‘We fundamentally believe that tribal nations are the best representatives of their own history,’ said Miron, adding that the library is also open to repatriating items in its collection.

“The Indigenous collection at the library originated with a donation in 1911 from the wealthy businessman Edward E. Ayer, whom Miron said was an avid collector of books, manuscripts, artwork and publications about different tribal nations. Ayer also endowed the collection, and that has allowed the Newberry to grow the collection over the years and dedicate a librarian to it. …

“The latest round of Mellon funding is an extension of a previous planning grant, which the museum received in 2020. The planning process resulted in the ‘Indigenous Chicago‘ project, which looks to provide information and resources on Chicago’s historic and modern-day Indigenous communities. It includes interactive online maps that reinterpret Chicago’s history from Native American perspectives.

“The project comes amid other recent local efforts to better recognize Indigenous people and their culture. A new partnership between the American Indian Center of Chicago and the Forest Preserve of Kane County led to the introduction of a new bison herd, bringing the animals to the local tallgrass prairie for the first time in 200 years. The center will steward the herd.”

More at WBEZ, here. If you live in Chicago or visit, try to give us a firsthand account of the library.

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Pokemon Explained

April 12, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Reuters.
By the time Pokemon landed in North America in 1999, it already had a fully formed media ecosystem. Above, a Nintendo employee displays Pokemon Gold, left box, and Pokemon Silver.

Perhaps because I never learned how to play video games, I missed out on the Pokemon craze. But now that Pokemon is celebrating its 30th year, I think it’s time to catch up. My kids were grownups when their own kids were into it, and John was so keen a few years ago, he could be seen wandering across streets absentmindedly following a Pokemon character that appeared on his phone.

What was it all about?

Philip Drost reported February at Canadian Broadcasting, “As a child, Satoshi Tajiri loved to collect and play with bugs in his backyard. As he grew up, he loved going to the arcade to play video games. So he decided to merge the two. The result? One of the biggest franchises in the world. 

“ ‘Pokemon is almost a lifestyle at this point,’ Matt Alt, a Tokyo-based writer and author of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World, told [CBC’s] Sunday Magazine.

“[In February] Tajiri’s creation, Pokemon, celebrates its 30th anniversary, which it kicked off with a Super Bowl ad featuring celebrities such as Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Lady Gaga, Trevor Noah, Jisoo, and Lamine Yamal discussing their favorite Pokemon. …

“Tajiri began working on a game for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1990. … Development took six years, but on Feb. 27, 1996, Pokemon Red and Green were officially released in Japan. 

“Alt says when Nintendo realized it had a hit, it threw its weight behind it. It made comic books for the franchise, a cartoon series and trading cards — a common marketing practice in Japan, Alt says.

“By the time Pokemon landed in North America in 1999, it already had what Alt calls a fully formed media ecosystem.

“ ‘It hit like a meteor,’ Alt said. ‘It absolutely profoundly transformed the childhood fantasy space in the West.’

“Hanine El Mir was seven when her brother got a Game Boy Color, the follow-up to Nintendo’s original Game Boy. … Since then, El Mir has played every Pokemon game that’s been released, and now she studies video games at Concordia University in Montreal. Even the music from the games has an effect on her, she said.

“ ‘It transports me to a different time, a time with less responsibility,’ she said. ‘I’m on my parent’s couch not having to worry about anything, just playing for hours and hours during summer,’ said El Mir, who has researched the power nostalgia has over Pokemon fans.

“Pokemon cards, which cost just a few dollars a pack when they came out, can now sometimes be worth thousands — or in rare cases, millions — inspiring scalpers to snatch up as many as they can to resell.

“Then there’s Pokemon Go, an app that took the internet by storm by allowing people to catch the cute little creatures on their phone by walking around in the real world. …

“Pokemon’s intense popularity around the world has made it what’s known as a soft power, according to Shaoyu Yuan, a scholar of international relations and adjunct professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. …

” ‘[Soft powers] don’t arrive as a policy memo, they arrive as a music playlist, weekend movie or TV show binge,’ said Yuan. ‘Once culture becomes a shared reference point, it quietly does something political.’ And that’s what happened with Pokemon.

“In the 1960s, Japan became an economic giant, which created fear in the Western markets, Alt said. This prompted the U.S. government to slap tariffs and restrictions on Japanese goods such as cars, electronics and appliances. 

“But the government wasn’t worried about toys, action figures, video games or TV shows. …

“Alt said, ‘While the adults were trying to keep Japan out of American markets, they didn’t realize at the same time that Japanese fantasies were flooding in, and they were transforming us young people as we consumed them.’ …

“Pokemon will kick off celebrations for its anniversary on Feb. 27 [2026], the same day Pokemon Red and Green were released in Japan 30 years ago. 

“And while the franchise continues to turn a profit, El Mir said the biggest challenge for Pokemon will be what happens when the nostalgia runs dry and those who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s are no longer consuming these products. …

“But Alt said that over 30 years, Pokemon has managed to keep up with its younger fan base. In addition, the franchise has so many facets, from battling to collecting, that it brings in all types of people. …

“ ‘It’s really a testament, I think, to the vision and to the passion of Satoshi Tajiri. Pokemon not only continues to be alive, you know, decades after its release, it’s thriving. It’s not even Japanese culture anymore, it is global culture.’ ”

More at CBC, here.

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The Dying Art of Stone Lifting

April 11, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Johnny Savage/The Guardian.
David Keohan, aka Indiana Stones, lifting a stone on a beach in County Waterford. 

When the great James Hackett first visited his cousins in New Shoreham, Rhode Island, he commented on how much the island looked like his native Ireland. He wasn’t the first notice. It’s largely because of the ubiquitous stone walls.

Some of those walls have giant boulders placed strategically as a base. Today I’m learning that such boulders have a long history in Ireland, a history most contemporary Irish knew nothing about. Rory Carroll writes at the Guardian about the man who dug out the history.

“David Keohan surveyed the County Waterford beach and spotted a familiar mound half-buried in sand: an oval-shaped limestone boulder. It weighed about 115kg [~253 lb].

“He wedged it loose with a crowbar, wiped it dry with a cloth, dusted his hands with chalk and paused to gaze at the Irish Sea, as if summoning strength from the waves pounding ashore.

“He hunkered down, gripped the boulder and hoisted it to his lap. Legs trembling, Keohan straightened his knees and hoisted the weight up to his chest, close enough to kiss it. Two seconds later he lowered and dropped the boulder, which thudded back on to the sand.

“It was a demonstration of the ancient sport of stone lifting. Keohan has almost single-handedly revived the practice in Ireland and helped stir global interest.

“ ‘It’s not just about strength. Every single lifting stone has an amazing story attached to it,’ said Keohan, 47. …

“To his fanbase Keohan is better known by his Instagram handle Indiana Stones. On there, he is a scholarly Hercules who parses myth, folklore and literature to locate boulders around Ireland that for centuries were used to test strength and bond communities.

“Some were lifted at funeral games to honor the dead, some to celebrate harvest festivals and some to mark a chieftain’s ascension, said Keohan. ‘One stone was almost like a job interview to become a stonemason – you had to be strong enough to lift it.’

“To lift a designated stone … a few inches above the ground was known as ‘getting the wind under it,’ said Keohan. ‘That was a great day in a young man’s life. If you lift it to your knees, you’re a champion. Lift it up to your chest, you are a phenomenon of strength and spoken about for generations to come.’

“He has identified 53 lifting stones, spanning beaches, fields and graveyards, and hopes to locate dozens more. To lift such a stone today is to connect with all those who previously managed the feat, a continuum that in some cases stretches back millennia, said Keohan. …

“Few in Ireland had heard of the sport until Keohan stumbled into it.

“When Covid restrictions shut gyms in 2020, the former kettlebell lifting champion started using stones in his garden as weights. Galvanized by documentaries about stone lifting in Scotland, Iceland and the Basque region, he made a post-Covid ‘pilgrimage’ to the 127kg [280 lb] Fianna stone in Scotland. ‘It was strength, mythology, history. I fell in love with it.’

“After reading Liam O’Flaherty’s 1937 short story ‘The Stone,’ about an elderly man who tries to lift the ‘manhood stone’ of his youth, Keohan tracked down a pink-tinged granite lump that matched the story’s description on the Atlantic island of Inishmore, where O’Flaherty grew up.

“Now, a sport that was all but forgotten boasts a devoted following on Instagram and TikTok, and a competition organized by a group called Irish Stone Monsters. The ride-sharing company Lyft has sponsored a stone lifting studio at a Dublin gym.

“Enthusiasts trek to remote rural areas to try to lift designated stones. A stone in County Clare named after Mrs Kildea, a possibly apocryphal figure who reputedly lifted an enormous boulder, has inspired women to take part. Last year a boulder known as Cloch Bán, or White Stone, was shipped to enthusiasts in Boston.

“Stone lifting practices existed across Europe, Asia and Africa, said Conor Heffernan, a cultural historian at Ulster University. The legend of the warrior Finn McCool creating a path to Scotland by laying basalt columns in the sea – the Giant’s Causeway – illustrates Ireland’s connection to its rocky landscape, said Heffernan. …

“Keohan and Heffernan are seeking to get stone lifting included in Ireland’s inventory of intangible cultural heritage – a first step to Unesco recognition.

“Guided by local lore, the National Folklore Collection, and tips from Instagram followers, Keohan has found dozens more stones around Ireland. ‘This dam burst of information came out,’ he said. ‘It has given me purpose and a reattachment to what it means to be Irish.’ …

“The father of three, who works at a construction depot in Waterford, has tapped into a passion for Irish culture that has also boosted the Irish language, road bowling and TikTok’s #GaelTok content. Keohan has written a forthcoming book, The Wind Beneath the Stone.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Man Builds a Mini New York City

April 10, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: David Lurvey/Museum of the City of New York.
Joe Macken’s “He Built This City” is a 50-by-27 foot piece made of wood and cardboard. It’s on display at the Museum of the City of New York (1220 5th Avenue at 103rd Street) through summer 2026.

Today’s story is about determination. Specifically, it’s about the determination of a former trucker who spent decades building a replica of the five boroughs of New York City, now displayed at the Museum of the City of New York.

For the Smithsonian, Sonja Anderson wrote, “In 2004, truck driver Joe Macken created a miniature replica of New York City’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza out of balsa wood. Although he had intended to stop there, he realized he was hooked.

” ‘Then the next day, I built another one,’ he tells CBS News’ Steve Hartman. ‘And then I built another one.’

“Macken kept building for more than two decades. He worked his way through Manhattan and began work on the other boroughs. He made 320 sections — each representing about a square mile of New York — with wooden buildings, painted parks and tiny artificial trees. When he ran out of room at home, he rented a storage unit.

“Macken ended up with a 1,350-square-foot model depicting New York City in its entirety. Last summer, his work went viral on TikTok.”

At the Guardian, Alaina Demopoulos adds to the story.

“In 2003, Joe Macken built a miniature model of a bridge out of popsicle sticks [but] ‘It got destroyed, and I was kind of bummed,’ said Macken, who is now 63. ‘So I figured, let me build something better.’

“Twenty-three years later, that ‘something better’ survived another truck drive – this time to the Museum of the City of New York, which now houses the project that spiraled into Macken’s life’s work.

“After the accidental bridge demolition, Macken focused on another New York landmark. He carved a mini replica of 30 Rock, the art deco skyscraper and centerpiece of Rockefeller Center. That went well, so he started adding on, using wood to render the surrounding Midtown neighborhood. His mini Midtown became mini Manhattan. Then, he decided to model all of New York’s five boroughs, block by block.

“The result is a 50-by-27ft piece made of wood and cardboard, held together by glue and the sheer determination Macken needed to get it done. … Macken said, ‘I just started cutting one little house at a time.’ It took him 10 years to cover Manhattan, and then another decade to get through the rest of New York.

“In the late 60s and early 70s, Macken watched the twin towers rise from his childhood bedroom window. He remembers seeing cranes hoist girders into the sky. ‘It was my favorite building,’ Macken said. So he put it in the model, which has replicas of both One World Trade Center, which opened in 2014, and the original towers. ‘No matter what, the [former] World Trade Center was going to be in there,’ he said. ‘That was just a personal thing I wanted to do.’

“Before it arrived at the museum, Macken kept the model in a storage unit near his home. Macken, a former truck driver, stacks the boards into piles when transporting the piece. He tries to avoid another model bridge massacre by ‘driving slow.’ …

“The museum exhibits the model in a large, ground-floor gallery, arranged from due north to south. Manhattan, the borough used to getting all the attention, is dwarfed by the outer boroughs, reminding viewers that much of the city’s magic occurs far away from tourist hubs.

“ ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about how knowable and unknowable New York City is to all of us, whether we’re from here or just have a mental picture of this place,’ said Elisabeth Sherman, MCNY’s deputy director and chief curator. …

“There are binoculars placed on the outside edges of the model, so viewers can take a closer look at specific sections. People who live near landmarks can easily find their blocks – one museum employee pointed out their home on the edge of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. …

“Sherman said that when museum staff first saw the model, ‘we were all standing around squealing, “Look, there’s our museum!” “There’s the Met, there’s the Guggenheim.” ‘ …

“Sherman first heard of Macken the way many others did: last summer, the project went viral on TikTok, when 8 million people – coincidentally, that’s about the population of New York – turned into his delightfully lo-fi first video. In the clip, Macken stares directly at the camera, holding up downtown Manhattan, making sure to point out his beloved twin towers. It was not his deal – Macken said his daughter egged him on.

“ ‘I’m totally clueless when it comes to that stuff,’ he said. ‘It took me longer to download the app than it did to build this whole thing.’ “

More at the Guardian, here. For Sonja Anderson’s report at the Smithsonian, click here.

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America Meets India’s Tap Dance

April 9, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Yuvraj Khanna.
Of her collaboration with kathak dancers from India, tap dancer Dormeshia said, “What really struck me was how familiar some of their footwork feels. We might be using a different part of the foot, but rhythmically we’re speaking the same language.”

Recently in New York, dance traditions from two different countries collaborated to showcase their similarities — and to have some cross-cultural fun.

Brian Seibert wrote at the New York Times in February, “Some do it with metal. Others go at it barefoot and with bells on. But these dancers can communicate across those differences, through music.

“In ‘Speak,’ American tap dancers collaborate with their counterparts in kathak, a classical Indian percussive dance form. …

“On the tap side are Michelle Dorrance, the only tap dancer to have won a MacArthur grant, and Dormeshia, widely considered the world’s greatest. Representing kathak are Rachna Nivas and Rukhmani Mehta. …

“On Feb. 21, ‘Speak’ is to have its New York premiere at 92NY as the culmination of ‘What Flows Between Us,‘ a daylong festival of Indian music and dance curated by Nivas. In line with 92NY’s ‘Women Move the World’ series, of which it is a part, all the leading artists are women. …

“ ‘Speak’ has two bands: a jazz trio and a group of classical Hindustani musicians. There are traditional solos in each idiom, but the kathak dancers also jam with the jazz players, and the tap dancers trade rhythms with the tabla drummer. …

“In one sense, ‘Speak’ is a demonstration of differences between kathak and tap. Where tap dancers have amplifying metal on the bottoms of their shoes, kathak dancers drum the floor with bare feet; they wear bells around their ankles that mark accents like a shaker but also resonate nearly continuously, almost like a high-pitched drone. Each form has distinct ways of using the feet and organizing rhythm, developed over centuries.

“The collaboration has been a learning experience that both sides have had to approach with a beginner’s mind. Dorrance described the ‘insane’ but pleasurable challenge of jumping into a kathak meter of 9 ½ beats. (Tap dancers usually work in threes and fours, maybe fives.) ‘The kathak footwork is so subtle and so fast as it moves between notes that it’s hard to see what’s happening,’ she said.

“Mehta recalled struggling to understand jazz grooves and marveling at tap technique. ‘There are so many things that Michelle and Dormeshia can do with their feet that we can’t,’ she said. …

“Teaching each other has also revealed much about their own forms. ‘It’s like a mirror,’ Nivas said. ‘Michelle and Dormeshia ask me questions about things I learned without being fully aware, and I have to investigate my form to answer.’ …

“Dorrance alluded to the tradition of improvisational exchange in tap, in which one dancer will copy or ‘steal’ a move or rhythm from another dancer, then change it. This is called ‘making it your own.’

“ ‘Some of the exchange here is stealing it back,’ Dorrance said. She can take a tap step that has been translated through the bodies and traditions of the kathak dancers and incorporate it back into hers.

“ ‘We were teaching them the Shim Sham,‘ Dorrance said, referring to a routine from the 1920s that almost all tap dancers know. She noticed that the kathak dancers were shifting their weight in a manner derived from Indian technique. ‘And I’m like, “That’s a great choice, why don’t I shift my weight that way?” ‘ …

“Improvisation is an essential part of kathak, Nivas said, though these days it is often neglected in favor of choreography. With their guru, she and Mehta ‘lived it day in and day out,’ she said. ‘But with him gone, we’re always wanting to have that nourished and fed, and Michelle and Dormeshia do that.’

“This is what flows between them. ‘Hanging around with these tap dancers feels like home,’ Nivas said. …

“The women also connected through a shared reverence for elders. ‘We all take very seriously being tradition bearers and cultural historians,’ Dorrance said. The dancers spent many hours showing each other video footage of masters in their arts, many long dead, delighting in the discovery of similarities.

“ ‘Speak’ is a continuation of a project by Nivas and Mehta’s guru, [Chitresh] Das. In the early 2000s, Das, in his 60s, met the then-young tap phenom Jason Samuels Smith while jamming near the dressing rooms at a performance at the American Dance Festival. ‘It was like love at first sight,’ Nivas said. ‘They couldn’t stop dancing together.’

“That meeting grew into a duo performance, ‘India Jazz Suites,‘ which toured North America and India many times. (It was the subject of the 2013 documentary Upaj: Improvise, produced by Mehta.)

“ ‘Both had this generosity of spirit where they brought in their own communities and worlds,’ Nivas said. Through Das, Nivas met Smith, who invited her to the Los Angeles Tap Festival, where she met Dormeshia, taught kathak and bravely leaped into the intense competitions of one-upmanship that tap dancers call cutting contests.”

More at the Times, here. The little videos really illustrate the text well.

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Experiment in Housing for Artists

April 8, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Ian C, Bates.
If everything goes as planned, San Francisco arts organizations will help revitalize parts of the city and then benefit from a neighborhood resurgence without fear of skyrocketing rents.

People increasingly recognize the power of artists and arts groups to improve the economic health of a community. That’s one reason why we keep seeing stories about government efforts to support artists or at least give them a place to work.

Zachary Small wrote for the New York Times about the nonprofits spearheading the latest approach in San Francisco.

“The small house on Russell Street where Jack Kerouac worked on On the Road in the 1950s now has an estimated value of more than $1.7 million — far beyond what any respectable Beat poet could have paid for two bedrooms in San Francisco. Not far away, Janis Joplin’s one-bedroom pad in Haight-Ashbury would rent for some 20 times what it most likely went for in the late 1960s, according to property records. And the studio where the photographer Dorothea Lange worked near San Francisco’s Union Square now has a price tag higher than what most artists these days can afford. In 2017, the space sold for nearly $2.7 million.

“If these artists were around today, it’s unlikely that they would recognize the neighborhoods they helped to define. In the years since the tech industry moved into the area … the artists who turned downtrodden streets into desirable enclaves have been priced out of their neighborhoods.

“But to produce their best work, many artists depend on cities as arenas of creative cross-pollination. And cities, it turns out, need artists, who give them cultural cachet, heighten the quality of living on offer and promote economic growth.

“So in a region where many young artists struggle to afford rent, much less purchase property, nonprofit leaders have pursued a potentially transformative idea: What if they could curb gentrification by subverting the traditional rhythms of the real estate industry? Trading financial gain for lasting impact, several older artists have donated the houses they bought decades ago to community land trusts, legal entities that can break the cycle of displacement by ensuring properties are handed down from one artist to another at affordable prices.

“Last year, for instance, a 79-year-old artist in Oakland, Calif., bequeathed the bungalow she purchased in 1978 for $22,700 to a program called Artist Space Trust run by the nonprofits Northern California Land Trust and Vital Arts. When the artist dies or moves out, the home, which is now estimated to be worth more than $1 million, will be converted into a so-called split title, allowing the trust to hold onto the underlying land as it sells the house to another artist at a below-market price. Artist Space Trust will put the proceeds from the sale toward buying additional properties.

“ ‘These properties are permanently removed from the speculative market for real estate and will never return,’ said Meg Shiffler, the director of Artist Space Trust, which was founded in 2023. ‘When one of our homeowners decides to leave, the property returns to the trust, and through a selection process, we can place another artist or family.’

“Similar programs are unfolding across the Bay Area, and not only for housing. The Community Art Stabilization Trust, for instance, is purchasing buildings abandoned by tech companies during the coronavirus pandemic and, following the land trust model, is converting them into low-rent work spaces for arts groups. …

“In the 1960s, it was [New York’s] SoHo, the formerly industrial neighborhood south of Houston Street where artists illegally squatted in lofts, which had been vacated by factories leaving Manhattan to be closer to modern ports.

“The lofts’ high ceilings and reinforced floors suited early residents like the video artist Nam June Paik and the painter Chuck Close, whose works could reach monumental scales. The artists could pay meager rents — between $50 and $125 a month — to landlords who otherwise had empty buildings. They beautified their spaces; many outfitted them with basic plumbing and lighting. …

“ ‘Economic revival historically starts with artists,’ said Rafael Mandelman, the president of San Francisco’s board of supervisors. ‘The challenge is that if they are successful, it leads to increases in cost and prices for the people who made that happen.’ …

“What is happening in San Francisco suggests that artists have learned from the history of gentrification. And many of the nonprofit organizations helping artists acquire properties through land trusts or below-market deals have plans to expand nationwide.

“ ‘This is a unique moment where we could be the most active player in the real estate market,’ Ken Ikeda, the chief executive of the Community Arts Stabilization Trust, said recently, as he walked through a downtown building on Market Street.

“The building, which the nonprofit has purchased for $7.3 million … looked down on Sixth Street, one of the city’s most troubled corridors, marked by overdose treatment centers, homeless encampments and, frequently, armed police officers.

“If everything goes as planned, the arts organizations set to work in the building will help revitalize Market Street and then benefit from the downtown resurgence without fear of skyrocketing rents. The Community Arts Stabilization Trust will see the value of its portfolio increase and continue to develop affordable spaces for arts groups.”

More at the Times, here.

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Flamenco in the Ice Rink

April 7, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Compañía Antonio Najarro.
Choreographer Antonio Najarro, center, poses with Madison Chock and Evan Bates during training in Montreal last January. Najarro teaches flamenco for ice dancers.

Today’s article is about an artist of the dance world, a choreographer, who has expanded the boundaries of Spanish dance into areas like ice dancing and water ballet.

Mercedes L. Caballero wrote about him on February 9 at El País.

“When he was a child, Antonio Najarro, 50, would skate from his home to the Conservatory. His calling was dance, and he pursued it until becoming a leading figure in Spanish dance and flamenco, eventually directing the National Ballet of Spain from 2011 to 2019.

“He had no idea back then that skating would become another way of shaping and spreading dance. He didn’t even fully grasp it in 2002, when he received his first request to create a choreography for the French Olympic skaters Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, who had spent some time in Andalusia working with other flamenco creators — apparently without much success. ‘It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me,’ he says over the phone to El País. ‘They saw my work and noticed that I had also choreographed for fashion and film, and I imagine that openness to taking dance beyond the stage was what interested them.’

“Drawn in by this adventure on ice, Najarro packed his bags and moved to Lyon, where he spent long stretches working with them. Two years later, the pair won the gold medal at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Their winning program, ‘Malagueña,’ brought new shades and possibilities to figure skating — and opened new paths for Najarro to expand flamenco and his own creative work.

“The most recent piece is titled ‘The Matador and the Bull,’ and this Saturday it will compete at the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics, performed by U.S. skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates, seven‑time national champions and three‑time world champions. [They won a silver medal in individual ice dance and a team gold.]

“ ‘I’m not interested in bullfighting, but they had a very clear idea of what they wanted. … Spanish dance draws heavily on bullfighting gestures — positions, movements — and they’ve captured them beautifully.’ …

“Since he began choreographing for ice skating, Antonio Najarro’s work has won seven Olympic gold medals, earned through his contribution that emphasizes the most artistic side of the sport.

“ ‘Even Paloma del Río [the Spanish journalist and legendary voice of TVE’s broadcasts] has praised on several occasions this quality of choreography that goes a little further,’ Najarro says. ‘After that “Malagueña” I choreographed, dance creators began appearing more regularly in skating. Before that, it was the coaches themselves who put the programs together,’ explains Najarro, who has worked with skaters from different countries and says he sets aside political or national considerations when deciding whether to take on a project.

“What does he look for when deciding to work with certain artists? ‘That they’re not afraid and that they like to take risks,’ the choreographer says. ‘That they’re open to exploring different paths, even if they feel uncomfortable at first because they’re unfamiliar. I’ve also been lucky enough to work with the best, technically speaking,’ he adds. 

“Spanish skater Javier Fernández is one of them. A seven‑time European champion and Olympic medalist, he also collaborated with Najarro beyond the world of competition. That was with the show Flamenco on Ice (2019), right after retiring and after winning his seventh consecutive European gold in Minsk.

“When Najarro took charge of this flamenco‑on‑ice production with Fernández, he was directing the National Ballet of Spain, where he also left his mark with the kind of open, permeable Spanish dance he champions — one that breathes beyond rigid compartments, connects with other disciplines, and becomes more visible.

“Synchronized swimming is one example, a sport in which the choreographer has also contributed his creations. ‘My goal is to project Spanish dance and flamenco into every possible context.’ …

“Coming back the other way, from skating to dance, he says he has learned several things he later applied to his own company. ‘For instance, the fact that there isn’t a single focal point or front for the audience. This concept of creating in 360 degrees has helped me broaden my staging vision.’

“Najarro stresses the importance of understanding the different skating disciplines when approaching a choreography. He focuses on ice dance, a freer category in which acrobatics are not the main element. ‘There are many rules; in fact, the first thing I do when I start creating is include them, so I know what can and cannot be done.’ A clear sequence of choreographic steps, spins, and a diagonal are required; lifts that raise the female skater above the male skater’s shoulders are not. ‘Only lifts around the body are allowed.’

“Meanwhile, the choreographer continues working with his dance company, which has three productions on national and international tours that will take them to France, Russia, and China in the coming months.”

More at El País, here.

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Ukrainian Vets Tackle Theater

April 6, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: Reuters/Alina Smutko.
Members of the Veterans’ Theatre group rehearse for an 18th‑century Ukrainian parody of Virgil’s Aeneid, in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 12, 2025.

What can make-believe do for the scars of war? Ask these wounded veterans in Ukraine who have entered the world of the theater and found it healing.

Alina Smutko and Dan Peleschuk report for Reuters, “Ukrainian soldier Andrii Onopriienko ran into a challenge when he took up his new hobby of acting: having to learn his lines just by listening to them. The 31-year-old lost both eyes when two Russian anti-tank rounds ripped into his position in the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka in 2023.

“He memorized his part nonetheless. Like the other veterans in his Kyiv-based group of around 15 actors, Onopriienko has found healing and fulfillment on stage, after a friend told him of a theatre looking for injured veterans and suggested he join. He reluctantly agreed to take part.

“ ‘Yes, we might not have an arm, or legs, or eyes — but we aren’t giving up,’ he said.

“Russia’s war, now entering its fifth year, has left countless Ukrainian soldiers wounded, with tens of thousands suffering one or more amputations.

“Some of those with life-altering injuries struggle to reintegrate into a society itself navigating how to absorb a generation of maimed men and women.

“Coping methods vary. For Onopriienko and his fellow troops-turned-thespians, none of whom had ever acted before, it meant taking to the stage.

“Reuters followed the group, called Veterans’ Theatre, as they prepared for an avant-garde performance of an 18th-century Ukrainian parody of Virgil’s Aeneid.

“ ‘It’s rehabilitation and socialization,’ said Onopriienko. …

“Russia’s war has left deep scars across wide swathes of Ukraine and its population, with no end in sight. … Yehor Babenko, 27, was wounded in the first year of fighting when Russian forces struck his base in the southern region of Mykolaiv.

“His face deformed by severe burns, he speaks by regulating a tube in his throat with one of two mangled hands that are missing all of their fingers.

“That did not stop him from committing to months of taxing rehearsals full of dancing, twirling and tumbling.

“Babenko, who began working as a veterans’ psychologist last year, said the transformative trauma of serious injury often compels people to seek meaning in something new.

“ ‘I know a lot of cases where people opened up or tried things they never dared to try,’ he said. …

“The director, Olha Semoshkina, told Reuters she had individually tailored the roles, which were heavily based around physical movement, to suit each veteran’s injury.

“Performing on stage poses not only physical challenges, the actors said.

“Babenko, for instance, said it was difficult adjusting to a creative field which encourages free thought after spending years in the rigid order of the military.

“Taras Kozub, 53, lost his left arm after storming an enemy position. … Today, the folk music aficionado plays a hurdy-gurdy with a specially designed prosthetic appendage that attaches directly to the instrument. …

” ‘The first thing I realized is that you can’t fool anyone while onstage,’ [Kozub] said. ‘It’s like you’re standing there naked.’

“During the premiere in Kyiv, the veterans stomped and shuffled across the stage under bright neon lights, and to live musical accompaniment by Kozub and others.

“They received a boisterous ovation from members of the audience, some of whom cried or embraced. Babenko says it was critical for his fellow comrades to understand that life does not simply end after a serious injury.

“ ‘Sometimes, you understand it’s the opposite, that it just starts getting going.’ ”

More at Reuters, here

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Photos Winter to Spring

April 5, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photos: John and Suzanne’s Mom.

The photo below is a good example of the snow piles we saw this year, and it isn’t even from our biggest storm. It shows Debra’s Natural Gourmet trying to make a little room for customers.

What an unusual winter! My husband was able to ski cross country 12 times n Carlisle, Massachusetts, and that doesn’t include the extremely cold days when he stayed home.

Ann winkled me out of my shell to pay visits to two impressive quilt shows. Sometimes I think I’d never see anything new or interesting without her high energy.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston displayed patchwork from rural China. The museum actually sent an expedition to China to hunt down samples like the ones below, often made by poor, unidentified women in the 1970s and 1980s from available scraps, including synthetics. The materials might be unimpressive at times, but the artistry, I thought, was genius.

We also went north to the Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts (click here), to hear quilter Hollis Chatelain’s talk on the emotional effects of different colors and to see her latest work. The quilt I’m showing here is on a tragic topic, the proliferation of school shootings. It shows bullet-shattered glass with rays going outward, each ray the name of another mass shooting. In the lower right we see children huddling in fear. The quilt is called “Ripple Effect.”

Yeah, that’s heavy. But I do respect Chatelain for using her art to engage with the troubles of our times. Everyone needs to wage peace and justice in their own way.

My retirement community’s chair pilates teacher, shown here with her band, wages peace through her music. The residents below do it by exercising their free speech.

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The South Pole Was Just the Beginning

April 4, 2026 by suzannesmom

Photo: UK Army/Wikimedia.
Captain Preet Chandi in 2021. Nicknamed Polar Preet, Chandi has made three solo expeditions to Antarctica.

Today’s story is about a woman who loves to push her boundaries, test how much more she can do. What she especially loves is solo travel to the antipodes.

Hannah Al-Othman writes at the Guardian, “The record-breaking British explorer Preet Chandi, who made history trekking solo to the south pole, is now turning her ambitions north.

“Nicknamed Polar Preet, the 36-year-old from Derby has made three solo expeditions to Antarctica, earning herself four Guinness world records. …

“Chandi reached the south pole for the first time in January 2022, traveling 702 miles in 40 days, and becoming the first woman of color to complete a solo expedition to Antarctica.

“A year later, she broke the record for the longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey, skiing for up to 15 hours a day on as little as five hours’ sleep, while pulling her kit and supplies … “through winds of up to 60mph and in temperatures as low as -30C [-20F].

“She covered 922 miles over 70 days, beating the previous world record of 907 miles (1,459km) set in 2015 by the retired lieutenant colonel Henry Worsley.

“Now, Chandi is in training to try to become the first woman to travel solo and unsupported to the north pole. She will set off from Canada and the journey will involve traveling across sea ice, crossing sections of open water, climbing over rough ice. …

“The physiotherapist, who served as a medical officer in the British army for 16 years, reaching the rank of captain, joked that when she first told her ‘proud and supportive’ Indian family of her plans, ‘some of them thought I was talking about Southall rather than the south pole.’

“After she collected her MBE in 2023, Chandi said: ‘Wherever we start from, we can go and achieve anything.’ …

“On a visit to Landau Forte college in Derby, the [Catherine, Princess of Wales] said: ‘I just think it’s incredible, what you’ve been able to achieve. … As humans we are meant to connect and be with each other, and being on your own all that time is really challenging.’

“Chandi is now training, and fundraising, for her latest record attempt. … ‘When I reached the south pole the first time [January 2022], I said on my blogpost: “I don’t want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces,” ‘ she wrote on her GoFundMe page.

“ ‘I was told no on so many occasions, called stubborn or rebellious because I wanted to do things that were out of the norm and push my boundaries.

“I want to encourage others to push their boundaries, it is amazing how much your world opens up when you start to do so.’ …

“Chandi took unpaid leave from the army to complete her Antarctica expeditions, and is now on a career break. During her service she was deployed in Nepal, Kenya and a six-month UN peacekeeping tour to South Sudan, where she organized a 30-hour endurance event to raise money for charity. She completed the full 30 hours while other soldiers would join her for anything between one and 12 hours.

“Her taste for endurance challenges came after she undertook an ultra-marathon much closer to home. After completing the Dusk till Dawn 50 mile challenge in the Peak District, she caught the bug for adventure, and began seeking out bigger and bigger challenges.

“ ‘Anything ambitious can feel out of reach at the beginning. I’m often still amazed at how far I made it,’ she said. ‘If a Punjabi girl from Derby can get to Antarctica, you can go and achieve anything.’ “

More at Ziba Adventures, here. See also the Guardian, here.

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