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A Word about Feet

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 13, 2025| 6 Comments »

Above: In Chinese medicine, massaging different parts of the foot improves the health of body regions thought to correspond.

I’ve been interested in reflexology since 2007, when I ventured behind a Shanghai sandwich board that read “foot massage” and engaged with a young woman who spoke no English. It was a pretty aggressive massage, but I walked on air afterward.

Back in the States, I went to a place called Joyful Feet a couple times, and recently took a short class to learn about the philosophy. That class focused on hand massage, which was interesting but not the same.

Phil Daoust explored the topic of foot care, starting with pedicures, at the Guardian.

“I am in a south London nail bar,” he wrote, “reclining in a motorized armchair, mechanical fingers kneading my back while my feet soak in a little whirlpool bath. Someone has brought me coffee. …

“It has taken me 61 years to have my first-ever pedicure, and the moment I sat down all I could think was: ‘Why did it take me so long?’

“The next 40 minutes are bliss. … I leave Jolie Nails & Spa with a spring in my step, on feet that … well, no, you still wouldn’t call them beautiful – that will take several more sessions (and something to put a shine on my nails; I quite like the look of Boy de Chanel, probably in black) – but at least I’m no longer ashamed to show them to the world.

“This is not about getting beach-ready. … I have belatedly realised that if I want to make it to 100, I’ll have to take care of my feet. Unless I keep them strong, and flexible, and sensitive, more and more activities will slip out of reach. In the worst of all possible worlds, I will have a fall and end up in hospital. …

‘Our feet are literally the foundation for any movement we might make,’ the longevity guru Peter Attia reminds us in his book Outlive.

” ‘Whether we’re lifting something heavy, walking or running, climbing stairs, or standing waiting for a bus, we’re always channelling force through our feet.’

“They’re also crucial to balance. ‘They’re the feedback point for the brain to know where it is in its environment,’ says Asha Melanie, a York-based personal trainer with an interest in longevity. In their natural, unshod state, feet are our main point of contact with the earth. ‘There are hundreds of thousands of sensory receptors in each foot,’ Melanie says. ‘And then we put our clumpy shoes on and stop them from being able to feel anything.’

“More than that, I’d argue: we forget they should feel anything. We wrap them up and it’s out of sight, out of mind. … I’ve only really become aware of mine in the few months since I started yoga. There they were, naked, ugly and surprisingly unstable. Yoga teachers would tell me to spread my toes, or to ground ‘all four corners of my feet’ and I’d think ‘How?’ and ‘All four whats?‘ …

“This pedicure is my way of telling my feet: ‘I see you. I will do better by you.’ …

“Melanie says, now they’re fit for polite company, I must stop hiding them away. ‘Go barefoot as much as possible,’ she advises. … That doesn’t mean I should immediately chuck away my shoes, Melanie says, but I should try to transition towards something less chunky and cushioned, with plenty of room for the toes to spread and wriggle. ‘It has to be a gradual process, so that all your ligaments, tendons and joints can adapt.’

“But this is just the first step. Now I’ve freed my toes, I need to re-educate them, so I can spread them when I need a more stable base, or put my weight precisely where it’s needed. I could start by just splaying them out: simply standing or sitting in bare feet, then willing the toes to separate and spread a little. … I am embarrassed at how hard it is to isolate – or try to isolate – individual toes or groups of toes. … I struggle to move just the two biggies without taking everything with them. …

“How long will it take to make real progress, I ask Melanie. ‘How long is a piece of string?’ she says. ‘The more you put in, the more you’re going to get out of it. But doing a couple of minutes every day, you could see a difference in weeks.’

“I should also keep an eye on my big toes, where any weakness can lead to knee, hip and back pain. ‘It sounds ridiculous,’ Melanie admits, but when you’re walking this is where you push off, so problems here will affect the rest of your body. One way to build strength is to sit on a chair and lift your big toe as far as you can with your index and middle finger. Then, without moving any other muscles, press down with your toe while lifting with your fingers, so that nothing is moving yet both your toe and fingers are trying to. Hold for seven or eight seconds, relax and repeat four or five times.

“What else should be on my to-do list? Improving my ankle mobility, apparently. ‘Everyone should be doing ankle cars [controlled articular rotations],’ says Melanie. This is as simple as sitting down with one leg out in front of you, then keeping the leg immobile while slowly rotating the foot through its full range of motion, five times clockwise, then five times anti-clockwise, before repeating with the other leg.”

Much good advice on soles and arches, too, at the Guardian, here. No paywall.

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Still Making Canoes in Estonia

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 12, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photos: Avedis Hadjian.
Estonian canoe maker Mr. Ruukel works on his latest dugout canoe outside his barn in Tohera.

Today I want to share a lovely photo essay from the Christian Science Monitor about a canoe maker in Estonia. Be sure to click through and see all the pictures at the Monitor.

Avedis Hadjian writes, “Aivar Ruukel is one of the last five masters in Estonia who make the Baltic country’s traditional dugout canoe, known as a haabjas. Until the 1960s, it was the conventional means of transportation in the Soomaa, or ‘land of bogs,’ region during the spring floods, locally called the fifth season.

“Mr. Ruukel and Priit-Kalev Parts, another haabjas maker, are the most vocal advocates for preserving the tradition, which is threatened by the making of fiberglass or other modern – often motorized – boats.

“Both Mr. Ruukel and Mr. Parts learned their craft from older masters in the early 1990s, shortly after Estonia gained its independence from the Soviet Union, and are now trying to engage the new generation, training young apprentices in haabjas building. …

“On a gray morning, Aivar Ruukel is scouting for the ideal aspen in the Soomaa, a vast wilderness area in southwestern Estonia. The aspen is the preferred tree for making [the] traditional dugout canoe – an art that is now endangered.

“ ‘The ideal tree should have the shape of a pencil, but every tree is perfect in its own way,’ even if only a few can be used to build the boat, says Mr. Ruukel.

“Some of the trees are covered with black canker, a fungal infection. ‘You can’t make a haabjas out of them, but they are used by woodpeckers to make their nests, so they serve a higher purpose,’ he says.

“Mr. Ruukel is one of the last five masters in the Baltic country who make the canoes. Until the 1960s, it was the conventional means of transportation in the Soomaa [during] the spring floods. …

“Both Mr. Ruukel and Mr. Parts [train] apprentices in haabjas building. A skillful wielding of the axe to hollow out the tree is only part of the required expertise and techniques, which also involve expanding the trunk by filling it with water and then hanging it above a carefully controlled fire.

“What was a necessary means of transportation in the past has now become an Estonian identity marker. In 2021, haabjas building was inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.”

More at the Monitor, here.

In the “search” box at this blog, you can find several posts about Estonia, a country that’s interesting in more ways than one. (For example here, here, and here.)

Mr. Ruukel (left) and Jari Hyvönen, his brother-in-law visiting from Finland, paddle in canoes on the Pärnu River.

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Dive-In (Sic) Movie Theaters

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 11, 2025| 7 Comments »

Photo: Waterworld/City of Tea Tree Gully.
Chlorine cinema … Zootopia screens at the “dive-in” cinema at Waterworld Aquatic Centre in South Australia.

Back in the day, drive-in movies were a thing — watching a feature from your parked car, a box for the sound hooked inside, probably ordering food delivered to your window. There are not too many active drive-ins any more, but in Australia, “dive-ins” (you read that right) are a cherished tradition showing no signs of being mothballed.

Chris Baker writes at the Guardian, “Imagine you’re lying on an inflatable [raft], fingers and toes dangling in warm, rippling water. It’s almost dusk and the early evening calm is shattered by a piercing scream. Suddenly a great white shark appears, mouth agape with enormous, monstrous teeth. Nearby swimmers who were quietly chatting a moment ago are now flailing in terror.

“You’re at Aquamoves pool in Shepparton, central Victoria, watching Jaws while paddling in the pool at their dive-in movie night.

“Dive-ins are a time-honoured tradition in landlocked Australia, where residents can’t easily access what much of the nation takes for granted on a hot summer day: proximity to the coast or an air-conditioned cinema. …For a little more than the price of a regular swim, locals get to watch a movie on a screen next to the pool while they splash, bob or float. …

“Often, as in Shepparton, the film screened has some connection to the sea, water or swimming. Think Penguins of Madagascar, Finding Dory or Moana.

“My first experience of a dive-in was as an adult at Mount Druitt in western Sydney during the January school holidays. I had scheduled an evening catch-up with old friends in the area, and their kids had insisted we go to the local pool. As night fell, Lightyear, an origin myth of the Buzz Lightyear character from the Toy Story franchise, was projected on to a large screen. …

“The kids’ excitement, like mine, was apportioned between the pool and Lightyear, and we applauded wildly with pruny fingers as the credits rolled.

“Dive-ins harness many of the best things about Australian summers: balmy evenings, the relief of a refreshing dip, and the novelty (for children) of being able to stay up later than normal because it’s school holidays. …

“Many Australians who experienced dive-ins as kids carry nostalgic memories into adulthood. Thirty-something Angus Roth grew up in Canberra and was a regular at the Big Splash water park dive-ins in the early 90s. He continued the tradition by taking his two kids to wet screenings. He associates some of his favorite Pixar movies with ‘the smell of chlorine’ and says he ‘loved the free-range nature of the evenings where the usual rules of “sit down and be quiet” didn’t apply.’

“A hint of anarchy pervades the best dive-in experiences. The managers of Aquamoves pool in Shepparton recognized this and showed terrifying genius in programming Jaws to a floating audience in 2019. It was such a hit that swimmers plunged back into shark-infested cinematic waters a year later to see Blake Lively pursued by a great white in The Shallows.

“Bikash Randhawa, the chief operating officer at Village Roadshow Theme Parks, agrees the best dive-in evenings combine fun with a sense of occasion. At the Wet’n’Wild water park in Oxenford in Queensland’s Gold Coast, the park’s ‘giant wave pool transforms into a floating cinema featuring a 45 meter [~148 foot] squared screen.’ …

“Dive-ins are also a much-loved institution at Waterworld Aquatic Centre in Ridgehaven, South Australia. They host one screening in January and another in February, often with a theme. When Barbie screened, kids and grownups donned hot pink bathers and lurid accessories to channel their inner Barbie and Ken, while their ‘Splash for a cure’ dive-in for The Incredibles brought staff and patrons out in spandex and capes to raise funds for the Leukemia Foundation. …

“Dive-in sessions don’t always end when summer nights are over. The University of Newcastle’s Students Association holds a free winter dive-in July at the heated pool at its Callaghan campus as part of its midyear welcome back week. …

“Not to be outdone, Griffith University in Queensland presents its dive-in at the Mount Gravatt campus at the start of the academic year. A giant inflatable screen commands pride of place; popcorn, fairy floss and snow cones are on the house, and students are encouraged to come in costume. …. Psychology student Abbie Chen says “watching a Hunger Games movie in a floating inflatable doughnut was fun and pretty surreal, and the silliness of the evening brings people together”.

“For Jen Curtis, a farmer who lives in Victoria’s central highlands wine country, a movie at the local pool brings respite from the summer heat and is a welcome distraction from physical labor. But more importantly, she says: ‘It’s about connection, making our own fun, and looking after each other.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here. Np paywall. Fun pictures.

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Celebrating a Freed River

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 10, 2025| 6 Comments »

Photo: San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images.
Leaf, Lisa and Chaas Hillman look on as construction crews allow the Klamath River to run freely for the first time in nearly a century, near Hornbrook, California, in August. 

Everything done to Nature for human convenience has a downside. We have dammed up many rivers over the years for water reservoirs and electricity, flooding whole ecosystems. In the last couple of decades, though, we’ve been trying our best to restore what was lost, often with the guidance of indigenous tribes that always knew better.

Gabrielle Canon has one story at the Guardian.

“Explosions roared through the canyons lining the Klamath River [in 2024], signaling a new chapter for the region that hugs the Oregon-California border. In October, the removal of four hydroelectric dams built on the river was completed – the largest project of its kind in US history.

“The blast of the final dam was just the beginning. The work to restore the river, which winds 263 miles (423km) from the volcanic Cascade mountain range in Oregon to the Pacific coast in northern California, is now under way. …

” ‘It has been more successful than we ever imagined,’ said Ren Brownell, the spokesperson for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a nonprofit created to oversee and implement the removal. …

“The Klamath River was once an ecological powerhouse – the third-largest salmon-producing river in the American west. Its basin covered more than 9.4m acres (3.8m hectares) and its network of wetlands was the largest in the region. The ecosystem was home to millions of migrating birds. Tribes, including the Hoopa, Karuk, Klamath, Modoc and Yurok, thrived in this bountiful and beautiful watershed for thousands of years, with the river providing both sustenance and ritual.

“Over the last hundred years, these landscapes have been drastically altered.

“After the first dam began operating in 1918 – one of four that would eventually be forged in the lower Klamath to provide hydroelectric power to communities nearby – the course of the river was changed. The dams obstructed the migration of salmon and other native species, which help carry nutrients into the systems from the ocean, to cascading effects.

“They also held on to huge stores of sediment that would otherwise have flowed downriver, and created shallow reservoirs that quickly heated when the weather warmed. Increased water temperatures in the river allowed toxic algal blooms to thrive.

“In recent decades, the climate crisis has turned up the dial, deepening droughts and fueling a rise in catastrophic fire as the region grows ever hotter. The impacts only increased as more water was diverted to support the farming and ranching in the region, and more habitat was altered by mining and logging.

“Twenty-eight types of salmon and steelhead trout, seen as indicator species that represent the health of the ecosystems they live in, have been listed as threatened or endangered.

“As the Klamath ecosystem deteriorated, there was growing recognition that removing the dams would be a crucial first step in helping the region recover and build resilience in a warming world.

“But, faced with a strong resistance to change in local communities tucked around the reservoirs and a long history of difficult battles over water in the parched landscapes in the west, dam removal seemed all but impossible. The land for the dams was taken from tribes during the throes of colonization and development and more recently supported energy corporations that had shareholders to answer to.

“Then, in 2002, disaster struck. Algae flourished in the shallow warming waters that year, exacerbated by the dams and decisions from the US Bureau of Reclamation to divert vital flows to farms, leaving little for fish. The event killed 70,000 salmon and thousands of other species, resulting in one of the worst die-offs ever to occur in the US.

“The layers of fish floating belly-up sent an important signal of the horrors that could continue into the future if the dams remained. Forming a coalition, tribes up and down the Klamath launched a fierce campaign to educate the public, inform the shareholders of the companies that owned and operated the dams, and petition their boards. They protested and attended public hearings, and engaged with state and federal officials.

“It took decades of advocacy to convince PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, to let go of the aging infrastructure straddling the Oregon-California border. But in the mid-aughts, assured by shifts in public opinion and incentivized by the steep costs to relicense the dams, the company agreed it was time to see them go.

“In November 2020, nearly 20 years after the die-off, an agreement was forged between a long list of stakeholders that included tribal and state governments and federal agencies. The Klamath River Renewal Corporation was created to oversee and implement the removal.

“The organization had to help bring residents near the reservoirs onboard, navigate dozens of species-management plans, and model how outdoor-recreation enthusiasts could continue to enjoy the river. Ranchers and fishers, environmentalists and farmers, and locals and visitors all had connections to the basin, and were eager to weigh in. …

“Brownell, who grew up along the riverbanks, was standing in the canyon as the blast of the first dam released flows and the river that had been held over the last hundred years found its way back to itself. …

“There were moments of trauma along the way. Over the 100 years the dams were standing, they had held back 15m cubic yards of sediment. When the dams were removed, the heavy dead organic matter had to run downriver, soaking up oxygen in the water. Extensive modeling had predicted a severe impact on aquatic life, but no one knew how bad it would get or how long it would take for the river to regain its health. Some models predicted the suffocating conditions could linger for up to a month.

“ ‘I was braced and prepared but it was still tremendously hard,’ said Brownell, recalling how the water, rid of oxygen, looked like oil as it cascaded through its banks. ‘You can easily compare a river’s health to an individual’s health,’ she said. ‘Often when someone is sick, they are going to get worse before they get better. … The whole time everyone was so excited because it felt like the start of something – I just felt sick,’ she said.

“Leaf Hillman, a Karuk tribal ceremonial leader who has dedicated decades to seeing this project come to fruition, helped keep hopes high with assurances that these were signs of healing.

“ ‘For me it was beautiful,’ he said, recalling how he felt even when the rushing waters became clouded by silt. ‘I could envision what it was going to look like – a restored river.’

“In the end, the river lacked oxygen for only two 24-hour periods, a far shorter time than scientists had feared.”

At the Guardian, here, you can read what happened next. No paywall.

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Thrills for Citizen Archaeologists

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 9, 2025| 4 Comments »

Photo: Gordon Noble, University of Aberdeen.
The community archaeological dig at the East Lomond hillfort site. 

Did you ever want to be an archaeologist? I think there was a period in childhood that it interested me, encouraged by gifts of picture books about the discovery of Knossos in Crete. But then I moved off in other directions.

Perhaps you had that experience, too, always wondering what it would have been like. Today there are opportunities to get a taste of that world as a volunteer.

Libby Brooks writes at the Guardian about the thrill of being a citizen archaeologist in Scotland.

“They were moving forward in a line across the 10 sq metre [~108 square foot] trench, volunteer excavators elbow to elbow with academics, and Joe Fitzpatrick was at the far edge.

“He was digging around the hearth of a building, about 60cm (2ft) below surface level, when he hit the earth twice with his mattock and out it popped – a rare bronze spear butt, a metal fitting placed over the end of a wooden shaft to counterbalance the spear head. Covered in Pictish inscriptions, it had remained buried for more than one and a half millennia, and was one of the most groundbreaking archaeological discoveries of 2024 in Scotland.

‘The hair stands up on the back of your neck and you tingle,’ says Fitzpatrick, of the moment he realized the significance of the find. ‘It is special.’

“Fitzpatrick, who has always had a passion for history, got involved with the regular community dig at the site of the East Lomond hillfort, beside the village of Falkland in Fife, as a retirement activity.

“He was working next to Prof Gordon Noble, the head of archaeology at the University of Aberdeen, who was leading the dig: ‘We just looked at each other,’ Fitzpatrick recalls. ‘Two men with their jaws hanging open, dumbfounded.’

“He helped unearth the artifact in July, during excavations organized by the Falkland Stewardship Trust and the University of Aberdeen, which bring together members of the public and students to help uncover settlement remains dating from around the second or third century AD to around AD700.

“He is one of a growing legion of citizen archaeologists, eager volunteers who are sustaining projects across the country even as volunteering more generally is in decline.

“Fitzpatrick says: ‘A lot of people who retire are more aware of keeping active and outdoors, but we also have young people working out what to do after their studies, and the media has broadened archaeology’s appeal with programs like ‘Time Team’ and ‘Digging for Britain’ – it’s not just Oxford dons doing it.’

“An ‘exceptionally rare’ find like the spear butt boosts team morale … says Noble. ‘Community involvement has really ramped up in the past 10 years,’ he says. ‘There’s the excitement of uncovering the past on your doorstep. These volunteers come from all walks of life.’ …

“Although Volunteer Scotland has warned that last year’s Scottish Household Survey results ‘point to a crisis in volunteering,’ for those participating in culture and heritage the numbers remain constant, compared with a drop of four percentage points elsewhere.

“Jeff Sanders, the head of outreach for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, says the cost of living crisis has affected individuals and their ability to participate, but also organizations and their capacity to put things on for volunteers. …

“As well as funding challenges, Sanders says there is a push to diversify volunteering – volunteers are often retirees with more disposable income. Sanders also works on the Make Your Mark campaign, which worked with the Scottish Refugee Council over the summer to co-design archaeology taster sessions to attract people who wouldn’t ordinarily get involved in volunteering.

“This ‘continuing upward trend’ in community involvement has prompted Emily Johnston to chart the citizen archaeologist phenomenon as part of her doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh. She has launched a database of community archaeology activities across Scotland, Outreach in Scottish Archaeology (OScA). …

“Says Johnston, ‘A lot of volunteers have been really interested in archaeology from a young age. It’s about creating a tie to your past and gives people a sense of identity.’ “

I love the idea of “taster sessions” for volunteers — in any field. I imagine more people would take on gigs if they knew there was no embarrassment about dropping out. They would keep trying things until they found the right opportunity for them. I tried volunteering with many ESL [English as a
Second Language] organizations until I found the right fit.

More at the Guardian, here.

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Gold Layers on Medieval Mosaics

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 8, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: Reuters.
The Monreale cathedral was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2015, and has recently undergone extensive restoration.

Some organized religions eschew signs of wealth and pomp. For others, such things emphasize the value they put on their faith. I always like hearing about the individual stonemasons who gave their heart and soul to carving small corners of the great cathedrals, but I have mixed feelings about covering churches in gold, however beautiful. I was not part of the fundraising for my church’s dome, which one member paid to gild, covering the sky-blue paint.

All to say that an extraordinary amount of gold is now drawing tourists to a cathedral in Sicily, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The BBC’s Sara Monetta writes, “On a hill overlooking the city of Palermo, in Sicily, sits a lesser-known gem of Italian art: the cathedral of Monreale. Built in the 12th century under Norman rule, it boasts Italy’s largest Byzantine-style mosaics, second in the world only to those of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

“Now, this Unesco World Heritage site has undergone an extensive restoration to bring it back to its former glory. The Monreale mosaics were meant to impress, humble and inspire the visitor who walked down the central nave, following the fashion of Constantinople, the capital of the surviving Roman empire in the east.

“They span over [69,000 square feet] and contain about [4.6 pounds] of solid gold. …

“Local experts from the Italian Ministry of Culture led a series of interventions, starting with the removal of a thick layer of dust that had accumulated on the mosaics over the years. Then they repaired some of the tiles that had lost their enamel and gold leaf, making them look like black spots from down below. Finally, they intervened in the areas where the tiles were peeling off the wall and secured them.

“Working on the mosaics was a challenge and a big responsibility, says Father Nicola Gaglio. He has been a priest here for 17 years and has followed the restoration closely, not unlike an apprehensive dad.

” ‘The team approached this work almost on their tiptoes,’ he tells me. ‘At times, there were some unforeseen issues and they had to pause the operations while they found a solution. For example, when they got to the ceiling, they realized that in the past it had been covered with a layer of varnish that had turned yellowish. They had to peel it off, quite literally, like cling film.’

“The mosaics were last partly restored in 1978 , but this time the intervention had a much wider scope and it included replacing the old lighting system.

” ‘There was a very old system. The light was low, the energy costs were through the roof and in no way it made justice to the beauty of the mosaics,’ says Matteo Cundari. He’s the Country Manager of Zumtobel, the firm that was tasked with installing the new lights. …

“I ask Fr Gaglio what it was like to see the scaffolding finally come off and the mosaics shine in their new light. He laughs and shrugs.

” ‘When you see it, you’re overwhelmed with awe and you can’t really think of anything. It’s pure beauty,’ he says. ‘It’s a responsibility to be the keeper of such world heritage. This world needs beauty, because it reminds us of what’s good in humanity, of what it means to be men and women.’ “

More at the BBC, here. No firewall.

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Cure Your Ham in the Bell Tower

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 7, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Altitude.
At Saint-Pierre Cathedral in France, winds from the surrounding plateaus create an ideal environment for curing ham in the bell tower. 

I’ve read about decommissioned churches being repurposed for affordable housing or art centers, but today’s story is the first I’ve seen about providing an important service for pig farmers.

Emily Monaco writes at Atlas Obscura, “In Saint-Flour, a town in the Auvergne region of central France, the highest cathedral in Europe perches at 892 meters (nearly 3,000 feet) above sea level. Saint-Pierre sits at the confluence of the dry winds blowing across the surrounding plateaus, making it, surprisingly, the ideal place to age local hams to perfection.

“This church-aged charcuterie was the brainchild of Philippe Boyer, who became rector of Saint-Pierre in 2011. Soon thereafter, he encountered his first challenge: The 600-year-old cathedral was in need of some TLC, specifically for its 19th-century choir organ. Repairs would cost several thousand euros, money no one had. …

“Boyer was undeterred. ‘I said to myself, “Why not make a product in the spirit of the great medieval abbeys, who made their own food, which they sold to survive, to live?” ‘ he says. ‘In this case, it’s not for us to live, but to give new life to heritage.’

“Boyer began by adding beehives to the cathedral roof, and, following the success of the resulting honey, he turned his attention to one of the region’s star products: Jambon d’Auvergne, a ham boasting a protected status similar to Champagne or Roquefort.

Typically aged in drying rooms for eight to 12 months, these hams, Boyer figured, could easily be aged instead in the cathedral’s breezy north tower.

“He mentioned the idea to a reporter from local newspaper La Montagne, and the article caught the attention of farm cooperative Altitude. ‘We thought the idea was pretty original, pretty iconoclastic,’ recalls Altitude communications manager Thierry Bousseau, noting that the group also thought the project would be the ideal way of promoting the work of their farmers and salaisonniers, experts in the art of curing and aging charcuterie like sausages and hams.

“A host of bureaucratic hurdles loomed, including authorizations from French health services and the certifying board granting the hams IGP (Indication Geographique Protégée) status. And of course, the architecte des bâtiments de France, a civil servant devoted to the protection of state-owned buildings, had to be consulted. ‘He gave his OK,’ says Bousseau, and so, in June 2022, Bishop Didier Noblot officially invoked the protection of Saint Antoine, patron of charcutiers, in blessing the first hams.

“Today, hams produced by one of Altitude’s 30 farms are first aged in the cooperative’s aging rooms. Only the best are selected for sale to the Association des Amis de la Cathédrale, whose volunteers meet weekly to replenish the supply, carrying each ten-kilo (around 22 pounds) ham up the 150-odd steps of the spiral staircase to the tower. Here, they’re swaddled in bags and suspended from hooks just beneath the 19th-century bells. About 50 hams hang here at any given time, dry-aged for at least two months under the watchful eye of Patrice Boulard, a member of the Association and an expert salaisonnier with Altitude. The environment, he says, makes for a superlative ham. …

“But after just a few months, the project hit a snag. The new architecte des bâtiments de France noticed grease stains on the floor below the hams, and, Boyer recalls, ‘he started to panic.’ The stains were easily explained by the fact that the bells are greased every six months, but, fueled perhaps by the memory of Notre-Dame’s 2019 conflagration, the architect dubbed the hams a fire hazard. ‘Hams don’t catch fire, just like that,’ protests Boyer. But the group was nevertheless forced through yet another series of bureaucratic hoops. Six months after adopting new protocols, things seemed to have settled, Bousseau recalls. ‘And then in October 2023, we got a letter.’

“By this point, Boyer had been transferred to nearby Aurillac, so it was the new vicar, Jean-Paul Rolland, who received the news: The changes had been deemed insufficient, and effective immediately, the hams had to be removed.

“But Rolland took advantage of the bureaucratic tangle in forming his response. ‘He decided that the diocese, as the renter of the space, was not responsible for what happened in the cathedral,’ says Bousseau. ‘He got the message across that basically, the hams weren’t going anywhere.’

“These days, the status of the project is ‘a bit convoluted,’ admits Bousseau. ‘Officially, aging the hams is illegal, but the reality is that they’re still there.’ And despite their novelty, they’ve become beloved among locals. ‘Saint-Florins have appropriated them,’ he says, ‘as though they had always been.’ …

“According to Bousseau, ‘There’s a contradiction regarding the announcements made by the state. “We can’t finance our heritage.” And then we, at the local level, find solutions, and there’s a civil servant putting a wrench in the works.’ …

“In late October, the Minister of Culture voiced her official support of the hams.”

Wondering what blogger and farmer Deb has to say about all this.

More at AtlasObscura, here.

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A Playground to Control Floods

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 6, 2025| 7 Comments »

Photo: Inside Climate News.
Children play with a water fountain at a park in flood-prone Hoboken, New Jersey. The playground doubles as storage for stormwater runoff.

Yay for humans who come up with ingenious ways to mitigate the effects of climate change! Here’a a clever idea from Hoboken, New Jersey.

Victoria St Martin reports at Inside Climate News (via the Guardian), “For a city that is almost small enough to fit inside Manhattan’s Central Park just a few miles away, a lot of history has played out within the narrow borders of Hoboken, New Jersey.

“It was the site of the first organized baseball game in 1846, home of one of the US’s first breweries in the 17th century and the place where Oreo cookies were first sold in 1912. And, as any Hobokenite will tell you, the Mile Square City, as it is called, is also known for something else.

“ ‘Everything floods up here,’ Maren Schmitt, 38, said with a nervous chuckle on a Tuesday afternoon as she watched her two boys climb at a city playground.

“Nearly four-fifths of the land area in Hoboken – which sits on the western banks of the Hudson River – rests on a flood plain. And its intense susceptibility to flooding has probably never been more apparent than it was during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when 500m gallons of storm surge flooded the city.

“But now … Hoboken officials have put in place a series of measures designed to mitigate the destructive effects of storms that are driven by climate change, including one innovation that the city hopes may become known as another Hoboken first.

“Located at the corner of 12th and Madison streets, one of Hoboken’s newest playgrounds, known as ResilienCity Park, [is] doubling as a storage area for roughly 2m gallons of stormwater runoff. …

“The park, which sits on five acres barely a mile and a half from the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, features swing sets, slides, a basketball court and an athletic field – and, underneath it all, a below-ground tank capable of holding hundreds of thousands of gallons of stormwater that city officials say would have otherwise spilled on to the streets or streamed into the basements of Hoboken homes and businesses.

“Building climate-resilient – or climate-smart – playgrounds is part of a growing movement among municipalities and environmental advocacy groups in the US. … The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation group, estimates it has helped fund the construction of more than 300 such play spaces in communities around the country, including Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles. …

“Some spaces, like those in Hoboken, utilize an underground tank, porous artificial turf and scuppers or openings on a basketball court to store excess stormwater. Others increase resilience with newly planted trees that can absorb carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants; once they mature, those trees also provide shade cover that can reduce the heat island effect of urban areas, a problem intensified by the traditional black asphalt playgrounds commonplace generations ago. …

“ ‘Every geography is going to have slightly different stressors,’ [Daniella Hirschfeld, an assistant professor at Utah State University who studies environmental planning] said. ‘Hoboken is a place that used to be an island. And the amount of water that it needs to store is very different than where I am here in Utah. But ultimately, you know, places can perform both as a safe haven for stormwater and, hypothetically, can even be a safe haven for fire, which is another threat that we’re facing.’

“Caleb Stratton, Hoboken’s chief resilience officer, recalls how city officials asked him to lead the rebuilding and recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy. The park, one of four planned resiliency sites in the city, was primarily paid for with infrastructure replacement grants, including roughly $10m from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Stratton said a key element of the park’s design was its multipronged approach to flood mitigation.

“ ‘It’s a park, stormwater pumping station, the whole thing,’ Stratton said during an interview at the park while a cluster of summer campers squealed on a playset nearby. ‘This is all the strategies mixed up into one.’ …

“In addition to the underground stormwater detention tank, which holds 1m gallons of water, Stratton said above-ground infrastructure including rain gardens could hold a million more. An above-ground pump can also send water back into the Hudson.

“ ‘What we’re doing is creating places for the water to go so that we can manage it and keep it off the streets, keep it out of people’s buildings, and get prepared for the uncertain future, which we’re kind of experiencing in real time.’ …

” ‘They need more like this, for sure, so the kids can get outside,’ said Tyrik Davis, 26, a resident of nearby Fairview, New Jersey, who was visiting the park with his children, Naylani, six, and Tyrik Jr, three. ‘Especially this generation. There’s no more kids at the parks. They’re all inside with their phones.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here. No paywall.

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Italian Police Foil Art Thieves

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 5, 2025| 3 Comments »

Photo: Roberto Salomone/The Guardian.
Italy’s Carabinieri cultural heritage protection squad at work. The force recently uncovered a clandestine dig in the middle of Naples.

Every morning on the social network Mastodon, German archaeologist Nina Willburger (@ninawillburger) posts a beautiful, or at least curious, artifact from a dig. The history of archaeology suggests that not all of them were unearthed in legal ways, but they are in museums.

Nowadays there are strict laws around digging. Which is why Italy needs its cultural heritage protection squad.

At the Guardian, Angela Giuffrida wrote about the team’s latest success.

“Looking towards the semicircular apse with a frescoed image of a partially identifiable Christ on a throne staring back at them, the archaeologists crouching in the small space deep beneath a residential building in Naples were left speechless. They were amid the remains of an 11th-century church.

“The archaeologists, however, could not take the credit: the historic jewel, which had just been seized by police, was dug up by tombaroli, or tomb-raiders, illicit gangs who for decades have been plundering Italian cultural sites, in turn fueling the global market for stolen art and antiquities.

“Investigators believe the group’s leader was a local entrepreneur, currently under investigation, who owns two apartments in the building above. His cellar was turned into a well-organized excavation site, from where the tomb-raiders dug a warren of tunnels leading them about 8 metres [~26 feet] down into ancient Naples, where they unearthed medieval art. …

“But impressive though their workmanship was – they even installed concrete pillars to prevent the structure from collapsing – officers from the Naples unit of Italy’s Carabinieri cultural heritage protection squad unmasked the gang and confiscated the church after a covert investigation.

“The force also recovered 10,000 fragments of Roman and medieval pottery from the alleged gangmasters’ homes and 453 intact artifacts, including vases, terracotta lamps and coins. …

“The gangs commonly work by marking out clandestine excavation spots close to known archaeological sites, which in the Campania region surrounding Naples can include Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum or areas where there were Roman settlements. So uncovering a clandestine dig in the middle of the city took the specialist squad by surprise.

“ ‘When you think of Pompeii, for example, you know a dig can lead to a wealthy domus where prestigious objects can be found,’ says Massimo Esposito, the chief of the squad’s unit in Naples. ‘But it’s rare to find one in the heart of Naples.’

“The group’s alleged leader is believed to have had an inkling that there might be something beneath his home when construction works nearby on the city’s metro were interrupted and the site cordoned off after a small part of the remains of another, albeit less historically interesting, church emerged.

“The group worked for several months, carrying out their noisiest activity during the day, but not loud enough to attract complaints from the building’s residents. Little did the gang know that their comings and goings were being observed by Esposito’s team, with the squad staking out the building and wiretapping its alleged leader’s phone. Suspicions were especially aroused after seeing him carrying boxes filled with materials. …

“The Carabinieri’s cultural heritage protection squad was established in 1969 with the task of protecting Italy’s priceless cultural assets. Since then, more than 3m stolen artworks and relics have been retrieved, including those that ended up on display in some of the world’s biggest museums, such as the Getty in Los Angeles.

“Art and relics thieves in Campania especially thrived in the 1980s, taking advantage of a devastating earthquake at the beginning of that decade to ransack churches of paintings. The long-lost La Desposizione, a 2-metre high masterpiece painted by Angelo Solimena in 1664 depicting the crucifixion, was recently returned to Campania only after it was spotted on display in a museum in the Marche region. …

“Esposito met the Guardian in his unit’s office located in Castel Sant’Elmo, a medieval fortress overlooking Naples. He was surrounded by relics … including a wine amphora and a house-shaped sarcophagus believed to have contained the remains of a child, and various other funerary objects dating back to the fourth century AD. The artifacts are usually kept there pending the conclusion of judicial cases, before being either returned to their origin or entrusted to museums. …

“Data in recent years indicates a gradual decrease in crimes against cultural heritage. Laws for crimes against cultural heritage have been tightened, and work intensified to return stolen assets from abroad. … Use of social media, especially over the past decade, has also made it easier for the squad to identify thieves. A trove of funerary treasures, believed to have belonged to Etruscan princesses and illegally excavated from an underground tomb in Umbria, was retrieved in November after police came across a photo of the bungling thieves posing on Facebook as they attempted to sell it online.

“ ‘Despite the risk, there is sometimes this egotistical element: they want to boast about the beautiful items they’ve found,’ says Esposito.”

Check out the treasures at the Guardian, here. No paywall. Donations are important to the Guardian‘s journalism.

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A Hot Dance Scene in Brazil

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: María Magdalena Arréllaga.
“People dance into the wee hours,” writes the New York Times. “For many young Brazilians, the charme scene has become a symbol of Black identity and culture unique to Rio’s working-class areas.”

I’m always grateful when the mainstream media digs into an aspect of another culture, something I know nothing about. Today we learn of a vibrant scene that has thrilled thousands of people since the 1970s. And what did I know about it before? Nothing.

Ana Ionova writes at the New York Times, “Trucks, buses and cars rumbled overhead, drowning out Marcus Azevedo’s voice. In the distance, sirens blared and exhaust pipes backfired. From under a highway overpass, Mr. Azevedo, a dance teacher, shouted over the noise, ‘Five, six, seven, eight!’

“He hit play on his phone, and the first song started blasting from a pair of crackling speakers. Six rows of dancers began shuffling, twisting and popping their hips in unison. The playlist? All R&B classics. …

“The dance routine wouldn’t have been out of place in New York City or Atlanta or Los Angeles. But we were on the decaying fringes of Rio de Janeiro, a metropolis better known for samba. And this dance is called charme, a style born here in the 1970s as an ode to American soul, funk and, later, R&B.

“This spot, in the working-class suburb of Madureira, has become a temple for lovers of charme over the decades. By day, it’s where many hone their moves. Once mastered, the steps are flaunted at nighttime parties known as ‘baile charme.’

“ ‘This is a magical place,’ said Mr. Azevedo, 46, who began dancing charme — Portuguese for charm — when he was 11 and now leads a dance company focused on the style. ‘There is something spiritual, an energy that can only be found here.’

“But the old-school R&B tracks shouldn’t fool anyone into thinking that this is a nostalgic crowd yearning for a throwback. This hotbed of charme is attracting an increasingly younger crop of dancers, who are keeping the scene alive — and transforming it in surprising ways.

“On a recent muggy Saturday morning, a few dozen people — from restless children and lanky teenagers to men and women in their 50s and 60s — flocked to the shady overpass. They were there for a class led by Mr. Azevedo and three other instructors, all part of a program meant to introduce charme to more people.

“A small group practiced steps before class started. ‘It’s not hard — a little step here, a little step there,’ said Juliana Bittencourt, 30, an administrative assistant, showing a fellow student how it’s done. ‘Charme is medicine, it has the power to cure anything.’

“Geovana Cruz, 20, a bank teller who had come from São Paulo by bus that morning, excitedly stepped into the front row of dancers.

“ ‘It’s addictive,’ said Ms. Cruz, who comes nearly every week and whose charme dance routines on TikTok draw thousands of likes. …

“ ‘Charme is not just music,’ said Larissa Rodrigues Martins, 25, a schoolteacher. ‘It’s a place where we share and learn from each other — not just about steps, but also about life.’ …

“The birth of charme is rooted in the influx of Black music and culture from the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. At a time when Rio’s far-flung, impoverished outskirts offered young people few sources of pride or identity, the rhythm and style of American artists like James Brown and Stevie Wonder emerged as an inspiration.

“One night in 1980, a D.J. named Corello was working at a club and decided to mix in some Marvin Gaye. ‘Now it’s time for a little charme, slow your body down,’ he called out. The term stuck and came to define the homegrown urban dance movement.

“After many Black social clubs went out of business in the 1990s, charme lovers moved the party to the nearby Madureira overpass, where they could dance undisturbed. …

“The movements that define the dance are at once familiar to urban street dancers yet uniquely ‘Carioca,’ as anyone or anything from Rio de Janeiro is known. The swings carry a hint of bossa nova’s sway; the two-steps have a distinct samba flavor; and the bold hip bounces channel Brazilian funk. …

“For many younger people, the charme scene under the overpass has increasingly become a symbol of Black identity and culture that is unique to Rio’s working-class neighborhoods.

“ ‘This is our ancestry,’ Ms. Martins said. ‘The previous generation showed us this space where we can express ourselves.’

“During the nighttime partying, older revelers mostly hung back. They swayed, stepped and turned with more subtle, sensual movements. ‘We learn from the new kids, and they learn from us,’ said Bruno Oliveira, 44, a clothes salesman wearing a bejeweled cap. ‘It’s love, it’s peace.’ ”

More at the Times, here. Great pictures, especially the videos.

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Making Cymbals in Massachusetts

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 3, 2025| 6 Comments »

Photo: Robin Lubbock/WBUR.
Cymbalsmith Peter Nelson works on a cymbal on a lathe at the Zildjian cymbal factory in Norwell, Massachusetts.

My brother has a book coming out about long-lived companies in the US. It’s not uncommon for businesses in Europe to keep reinventing themselves over centuries, but it is here. So that was one reason I was drawn to a report from WBUR radio about a cymbal maker in Massachusetts that has been turning out high-quality instruments for 400 years and counting. It’s called Avedis Zildjian Co. 

Andrea Shea has the story: “From symphonies to rock music, marching bands and advertising jingles — we hear Zildjian cymbals everywhere. Drummers across the globe know that name because it’s emblazoned on every gleaming disc. What’s less known is the Zildjian family has been making their famous cymbals — with a secret process — for more than 400 years. Of course, not all of those years were in Massachusetts.

“Since the 1970s, the Avedis Zildjian Co. has operated under the radar in Norwell, Massachusetts. We jumped at the chance to get inside the world’s oldest cymbal manufacturer.

“Even in Massachusetts many people have no idea an industrial factory outside of Boston designs, casts, blasts, rolls, hammers, buffs and tests at least a million Zildjian cymbals each year.

“ ‘There’s a lot of mystique and a lot of history at this facility,’ said Joe Mitchell, the company’s director of operations, as we walked past loud, hulking machinery. He’s one of the few privy to a Zildjian process that’s been shrouded in mystery since the height of the Ottoman Empire. It begins in a room that’s off-limits to the public.

“ ‘Behind this door is where we have our foundry,’ Mitchell explained. “This is where we melt our metal and where we pour our castings.’ …

“He leaned over a bin filled with chunky, rough-hewn metal discs. Even in their nascent state, Mitchell said the castings possess the secret to Zildjian’s sound. He struck one lightly to release an enchanting, reverberant ring.

“The company’s proprietary alloy was alchemized 13 generations ago in Constantinople (now Istanbul) by Debbie Zildjian’s ancestor, Avedis I. He was trying to make gold, she said, but he ended up concocting a combination of copper and tin. ‘The mixing of those metals produced a very loud, resonant, beautiful sound,’ she said.

“Debbie explained that in 1618 the Ottoman sultan summoned Avedis to the Topkapi Palace to make cymbals for elite military bands. The metalsmith’s work pleased the ruler, who gave him permission to found his own business in 1623. The sultan also bestowed Avedis the family name ‘Zildjian,’ which actually means cymbal maker. …

“Zildjian became synonymous with cymbals after her grandfather Avedis III, an ethnic Armenian, emigrated to the U.S. in 1909. Two decades later he re-located the family’s cymbal business from Turkey to Quincy, Massachusetts, with his uncle.

“At the time jazz was exploding, so Avedis III travelled to New York City so he could develop new sounds with pioneers, including Gene Krupa. ‘Not only was he a fabulous drummer,’ Debbie said, ‘he was also very flamboyant in his style.’ This made Krupa an ideal ambassador for Zildjian.

“The company really took off with a little help from the Beatles’ 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. ‘Everybody wanted to become a musician,’ Debbie said, ‘and it was in a matter of months that we were totally backordered because Ringo was a huge celebrity.’ …

“In 1973, Zildjian moved to a state-of-the-art factory in Norwell.  Debbie said her father Armand, who was then running the company, loved music. …

“Armand, who started working in Zildjian’s melt room when he was 14, eventually brought Debbie and her sister Craigie inside to teach them the secret process. The family business had always been passed down to the eldest male, but Debbie and Craigie were their father’s heirs.

“ ‘For us, it was very natural on the inside, but the music industry had a hard time accepting women in the business,’ Debbie said. ‘The players were all men, manufacturing was done mostly by men, the salespeople were all men.’

“Craigie became CEO in 1999. Now she’s president and executive chair of the board of trustees. Debbie gravitated to manufacturing and oversees Zildjian’s proprietary alloy process taught to her by her father.

“Over the decades, drummers across all genres have embraced Zildjian cymbals – from Lars Ulrich of Metallica to Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.

” ‘I normally play about six cymbals plus hi-hats,’ she said, ‘They are the sound I’ve been playing my whole life because most jazz drummers play Zildjian cymbals.’

“Carrington founded and directs Berklee College of Music’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice in Boston. She’s also a Zildjian artist, which means she exclusively endorses and plays the company’s cymbals. Carrington said they’ve helped forge her musical identity since she was 10 years old. …

“Carrington’s drum kit is like a painter’s palette. The sound of each cymbal guides her to the next stroke. She’s visited the Zildjian factory many times and still marvels at what they do. ‘I don’t know the secret sauce,’ she said, ‘but to make a piece of metal sound so pretty — and become this beautiful instrument that’s a part of every kind of music that you hear — is pretty remarkable.’ ”

More at WBUR, here. Aren’t the kinds of work people get into for a career endlessly fascinating? Whokid ever imagines they will grow up to be a cymbal maker?

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A Different Kind of Bookshop

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 2, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: Paul Singer/GBH News.
Ellie Paris-Miranda inside her new bookshop in downtown Brockton, Massachusetts. This shop aims to build social networks as well as sell books.

I am thinking of a friend in Manhattan, a writer who loves books. Currently in her 90s, she passed through a difficult year with her husband’s illness. After he died, she didn’t feel like doing anything. She stayed home. She turned down overtures from friends.

Then one day, she tells me, she decided to go outside and walk a few blocks on Broadway. She had heard that there was a new independent bookstore. When she walked in and felt the literary atmosphere there, she began to cry. “These are my people,” she said.

That’s just one example of what a bookstore can mean to someone.

Paul Singer reports at GBH radio about other kinds of meaning a new bookstore intends to provide: “On a chilly Sunday afternoon in Brockton, Mayor Robert Sullivan sat in a cozy corner of a new bookstore on Main Street and read a bilingual children’s book to a couple dozen patrons and staff.

“The mayor had arrived to celebrate the opening of the Dr. Ellie Paris Social Bookstore and Ice Cream Cafe, a new storefront shop intended to encourage literacy and social networking particularly among Brockton’s large immigrant population.

“The book he read, Tiagu and Vovo, is written in English and Cape Verdean Creole and tells the story of an immigrant family learning the new language. 

“Ellie Paris-Miranda, the owner of the shop and an immigrant from Cape Verde herself, said having the mayor reading this book symbolizes why she wanted to open a bookstore.

“ ‘I really want to foster literacy, education, and upward economic mobility through giving communities access to not only books, but also a network,’ she said. …

“In her other job, Paris-Miranda is a tenure-track assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Wheaton College in Norton.

” ‘There’s this positive correlation between building successful business with the quality of the network, the relationships that you have that can be used as a financial resource,’ she said. ‘Especially for low income people, starting businesses and women who often don’t have all the resources needed.’

“The shop is just a few blocks from city hall and the courthouse, so she hopes her neighborhood customers will rub elbows and get to know city leaders over a sandwich or an ice cream cone.

“True to her own roots, Paris-Miranda’s shop shelves prominently feature books about financial planning and business strategy, as well as books in a variety of languages. She also refers to her customers as clients. …

“ ‘My “clients” are like long-term relationships I am building,’ she said.

“Eventually, Paris-Miranda said, she plans to teach English classes at the shop, as well as other programming on entrepreneurship and personal finance.

“The new bookstore is riding a wave of new interest in local bookshops, said Beth Ineson, executive director of the New England Independent Booksellers Association.

“ ‘We’ve had such a boom in eastern New England since basically 2020 for bookstores opening,’ Ineson said. … ‘We’ve had as many new stores join my organization in the past four years as the previous ten combined.’ …

“Part of the reason for this boom, Ineson said, is that the pandemic left many storefronts vacant, making commercial real estate more affordable. But another part of it is the need for community.

“ ‘It is really on everybody’s mind now how these stores can become places for community and for intellectual engagement,’ she said. …

“In Brockton, the Ellie Paris Social Bookstore replaces an empty storefront with the sound of chatter and a smoothie blender.

“Matt Stanton, a lifelong Brockton resident and member of the city’s Beautification Committee, said he hopes the new bookstore can be an engine for downtown revitalization.

“ ‘To me, this could be a catalyst to just, you know, really bring the downtown back,’ he said. ‘There’s a couple shops right up the street. If somebody comes in here, they walk up to the store in the next block. And it’s just great.’ ”

More at GBH radio, here.

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Kenyan Kids Meet Classical Music

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 1, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Malin Fezehai for the Washington Post.
Steve Otieno (described below) rehearsing with the Ghetto Classics orchestra in Kenya.

Charitable work is complicated. It is not always possible to do the good for people that you intend. But if you are making a meaningful difference in some lives, that may be enough.

In Kenya, an orchestra called Ghetto Classics aims to help poor children achieve something fine and eventually move away from the dangers of their extreme poverty.

Katharine Houreld writes at the Washington Post about both the successes and failures of the orchestra.

“The violin’s quaver steadied and swelled through the gloomy concrete staircase, escaped through the wire mesh and soared over the packed-dirt playground before dissipating in the acrid smoke drifting in from the smoldering dump site next door.

“It was the last day of class before Ghetto Classics broke up for Christmas, and 14-year-old Steve Otieno was practicing his Christmas carols for his final performance of 2024. Undeterred by the demolition of his home last month, the floods that devastated his neighborhood in Nairobi this year, or the eye-watering stink of burning plastic all around him, he stroked the strings to coax forth each note of ‘Joy to the World.’

“ ‘Music makes me feel calm when I’m stressed,’ he said shyly. ‘Some people have drugs. For me, it is music.’

“Steve is one of thousands of children from the poorest neighborhoods of the Kenyan capital who have been introduced to classical music by Ghetto Classics. The organization was set up in 2008 by Elizabeth Njoroge, a classically trained singer who studied pharmacology at her parents’ urging but longed to return to music. A chance encounter with a priest trying to fund a basketball court at a Catholic school in the Nairobi slum of Korogocho inspired her to raise money for the first class of musicians there. …

“Now Ghetto Classics provides lessons to about 1,000 students, who feed three orchestras, a choir and a dance group. Njoroge raises funds to support its expanding programs.

“Ghetto Classics works in schools and community centers in Nairobi and Mombasa, but its headquarters is in the St. John compound in Korogocho, where a church, school and community all share space. A tarmacked basketball court and a dirt field for soccer are enclosed by a sagging chain-link fence and scraggly trees; on one side of the compound, the children have planted a garden to try to filter out the choking smoke.

“Ghetto Classics has performed for former president Barack Obama, first lady Jill Biden and Pope Francis. Alumni are studying in the United States, Britain and Poland.

They include one determined pianist who learned to play by watching videos and repeating the motions on a piece of cardboard on which he’d drawn keys.

“The lessons provide a refugee for students suffering from hunger, domestic violence and crime, said violin instructor David Otieno, who is not related to Steve. He joined the program a decade ago as a student; now he’s one of 45 graduates working as paid instructors.

“The tall, dreadlocked 29-year-old credits Ghetto Classics with saving him from the neighborhood gangs. He witnessed his first homicide when he was still in primary school, and as he grew up, the gangs sucked in friend after friend. His teachers became so worried he’d be killed, he said, that they collected money to move his mother and six siblings to a safer neighborhood where he could continue his music.

“Back then, he said, the group shared 10 violins among 30 students. Now he has his own instrument. Once shy and fearful, he has played in Poland, in the United States and at State House, the Kenyan president’s home in Nairobi.

“ ‘The violin gives you a voice,’ he said. ‘It makes you talk to people you’d never otherwise talk to.’ His students filed into the compound bumping fists.

“Thousands of kids enroll in Ghetto Classics, but most fall away. The discipline is demanding. … About a dozen young musicians who spoke to the Washington Post said their parents had never seen them perform. Some were single parents too busy working, some weren’t interested and some were actively opposed. …

“When opera singer David Mwenje started with Ghetto Classics, his father was skeptical, he said, but he came to see him perform and was won over — a bittersweet memory to which Mwenje clings now that his father has died.

“Mwenje sang for six years, including for Pope Francis at the Vatican, before turning professional in 2021. His first audition landed him the role of Okoth — a messenger who must tell a village medicine man that his daughter has taken up with foreign missionaries — in Nyanga: Runaway Grandmother with Baraka Opera Kenya at the Kenya National Theatre. It was the first ray of hope in years darkened by his father’s death and the covid pandemic that shuttered his school, he said.

“ ‘Through this opera, I could control all my pain,’ he said. ‘I also love to sing “Bring Him Home,” from Les Misérables, because the song reminds me of my dad and I feel like I’m pleading with God to bring him home.’ ”

More at the Post, here.

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Saving Water in California

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on February 28, 2025| 3 Comments »

Photo: Jenna Garrett/The Guardian.
Eric Haas in his backyard in Oakland, California. The California professor had a rainwater and greywater capture system installed at his highly efficient urban home to conserve water. 

I like reading about people who are handy at fixing or making things. Probably because I’m not. Other than sewing on a button or baking cookies, I don’t do much in the do-it-yourself line, but I know some of you do, and I’d love to hear about it.

Today’s article is part of a Guardian series on people who figure out ways to limit their impact on the environment. Sometimes that means working with companies specializing in sustainable building practices. Eric Haas told his story to Victoria Namkung.

“I joined the Peace Corps after college in 1985,” Haas explains, “and was a math and science teacher in Buchanan, Liberia. There, I started to realize that large parts of the world don’t live with all the energy consumption and materialism that we do in the US.

“I started seeing people’s innovative ways of keeping their houses warm or cool and how they would get their water. I had to carry my own water at times and be very conscious where it came from. These experiences started cementing this idea that life could take into account the environment you lived in.

Relatively simple ideas could make a huge difference in the comfort and quality of your house. You adapt and your lifestyle can adapt. …

“When our family settled in Oakland, California, in 2007, part of the decision in buying a house was whether it was somewhere I could finally focus on water conservation and other low-carbon-footprint projects like installing solar panels, insulation and high-efficiency appliances.

“I hired Dig Cooperative Inc, a local contractor known for pioneering water-conservation systems across the greater Bay Area, to install a rainwater and greywater collection system at our home. I have about 4,000 gallons of water I can collect, which translates to about 7inches of rain coming off the roof. Filtered rainwater is used to fill the toilets and washing machine and water most of our plants. It can also be saved on site for emergency use in case of a fire or an earthquake.

“The greywater system takes our ‘used’ shower, bathroom sink and washing machine water and diverts it to the backyard to water our vegetable gardens and six fruit trees. …

“During 2024, the typical household in our area used an average of 124 gallons of water a day. We used an average of 39 gallons of water a day, less than a third.

“It wasn’t hard and the whole project took about a week. Rain barrels needed to be purchased and set up and the ground had to be leveled. I have a relatively small and simple house and connecting the rainwater and greywater system into the existing plumbing just took a day or two.

“The whole project cost about $15,000. We still have a water bill because the shower, sink and dishwasher water use regular city water, but it’s a fraction of what it used to be. … Compared to the average water user, I save about $220 a year on my water bill. So, my rainwater and greywater systems do more for my local environment than they do for my wallet.

“Since moving to Oakland, I’ve noticed a lot of climate-related changes. Before, nobody had air-conditioning, and I never even thought about it. Now it’s almost a necessity on select days. When I first put in the system, there was enough rain periodically in California’s dry season to fill up the tanks enough that I never had to go back to city water for the first several years. Now it only lasts for about 10 months. The dry season is so dry and when we’ve got extra rain in the rainy season my tanks overflow and drain into the sewer because they’re full.

“We have to approach our water use differently in California. … Our overuse of water now impacts our quality of life. We have water-restriction days where they ask you not to use as much water, including not flushing our toilets every time, and we’re encouraged not to have a lawn. … You can still have a really nice garden. We have a hot tub, we have a regular shower, but because those things are connected into this larger system, we have a much smaller impact.

“I feel like I’m doing something real and concrete, and every time I hear the greywater pump go on or when I hear the pump from our rainwater system go on to fill up the washing machine or  toilet, that’s water that I’m not taking from the system and that matters.

“Every time it rains, I love to go out and look at the gutters and see how much it’s pouring into the system. It brings me joy to interact with the natural environment in this small way in my urban house.”

More at the Guardian, here. My DIY climate hack is a Guardian series about everyday people across the US using their own ingenuity to tackle the climate crisis in their neighborhoods, homes and backyards.

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Wildflowers May Rescue Farmers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 27, 2025| 5 Comments »

Photo: Lee Tesdell.
Behind farmer Lee Tesdell in the photo are rolled-up strips of prairie sod containing native plants that help improve his land’s resistance to climate change. 

There are so many things we have taken for granted in our natural world. Consider weeds. We might have noticed that various flying things liked their blossoms, but we didn’t like them.

That is, until we started noticing that we wouldn’t have much food if those flying things didn’t pollinate plants.

Now some farmers who used to kill weeds are bringing them back. As Rachel Cramer reports at the Guardian, strips of native plants (weeds) on as little as 10% of farmland can reduce soil erosion by up to 95%.

“Between two corn fields in central Iowa,” she writes, “Lee Tesdell walks through a corridor of native prairie grasses and wildflowers. Crickets trill as dickcissels, small brown birds with yellow chests, pop out of the dewy ground cover. …

“This is a prairie strip. Ranging from 10-40 metres (30-120ft) in width, these bands of native perennials are placed strategically in a row-crop field, often in areas with low yields and high runoff. Tesdell has three on his farm.

“He points out several native plants – big bluestem, wild quinine, milkweed, common evening primrose – that came from a 70-species seed mix he planted here six years ago. These prairie plants help improve the soil while also protecting his more fertile fields from bursts of heavy rain and severe storms, which are becoming more frequent.

“ ‘To a conventional farmer, this looks like a weed patch with a few pretty flowers in it, and I admit it looks odd in the corn and soy landscape in central Iowa,’ … he said. ‘I’m trying to be more climate-change resilient on my farm.’ …

“Prairie strips also help reduce nutrient pollution, store excess carbon underground and provide critical habitat for pollinators and grassland birds. Thanks to federal funding through the USDA’s conservation reserve program, they’ve taken off in recent years.

“But the idea started two decades ago with Iowa State University researchers and Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge managers. Lisa Schulte Moore, a landscape ecologist and co-director of the Bioeconomy Institute at Iowa State University, who was integral to the research, knows that large patches of restored and reconstructed prairie are vital, especially for wildlife, but she argues that integrating small amounts of native habitat back into the two dominant ecosystems – corn and soya beans – can make a big difference. …

“In north-central Missouri, farmer Doug Doughty has been adding and expanding conservation practices, like no-till, for decades. He also has a few hundred acres of prairie enrolled in the USDA’s conservation reserve program. This past winter, he added prairie strips, as part of a plan to tackle nutrient pollution. High levels of nitrates and phosphorus can wreak havoc on aquatic habitats and the economies that depend on them. There are also health risks for people. Nitrates in drinking water have been associated with methaemoglobinaemia or ‘blue baby syndrome,’ and cancer. …

“During an outreach event in the Iowa Great Lakes region, Matt Helmers uses a rainfall simulator to demonstrate runoff and erosion with different conservation practices. He’s one of the prairie strips researchers and director of the Iowa Nutrient Research Center at Iowa State University. …

“During a big rain storm, each prairie strip in a field acts like a ‘mini speed-bump,’ said Helmers. A thick wall of stems and leaves slows down surface water, which reduces soil erosion and gives the ground more time to soak up water. Below ground, long roots anchor layers of soil while absorbing excess water, along with nitrates and phosphorus.

“Farmer Eric Hoien says he first heard about the conservation practice a decade ago, right around the time he was becoming more concerned about water issues in Iowa. But the final push to add 24 acres of prairie strips came from something Hoien saw in an plane above the Gulf of Mexico.

“ ‘I looked down and for what was probably 20 minutes, it was just like the biggest brown mud puddle I’d ever seen. And so I knew that, that stuff they say about the dead zone, from 30,000 ft, was real,’ Hoien said. …

“Hoien says prairie strips offer other benefits close to home. Neighbors often tell him they appreciate the wildflowers and hearing the ‘cackle’ of pheasants. He also enjoys hunting in the prairie strips and spotting insects he’s never seen before.

“The strips are hugely beneficial for pollinator populations, which have been dropping around the world. Researchers point to a combination of habitat loss, pesticide exposure, parasites and diseases, along with warmer temperatures and more severe weather events due to climate change.

“ ‘If we can help them have a place to live and something to eat, they can be better equipped to cope with those kinds of stress that they’re inevitably going to encounter in their environments,’ says Amy Toth, who is also part of the prairie strips research team and an entomology professor at Iowa State University. Research shows both the diversity of pollinator species and overall numbers are higher in prairie strips compared to field edges without native plants.

“And strips of native plants aren’t just good for pollinators. Researchers, including Schulte Moore, found a nearly threefold higher density of grassland birds on fields with prairie strips. She says that grassland birds have declined more than any other avian group in North America since 1970. …

“Schulte Moore says a group of forward-thinking, innovative farmers and partnerships with non-profits, foundations, universities and agencies in the midwest have helped prairie strips gain traction, but then a ‘monumental shift’ happened with the 2018 Farm Act, when prairie strips became an official practice in the federal conservation reserve program.” More here.

Pray that these federal conservation programs are not already slashed.

And for more on the prairie’s vast potential, read about Buffalo Commons, a movement launched by my husband’s classmate and his wife in the 1980s, here.

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