Ugliness

There's a diner that I go to quite regularly. Besides the good food I enjoy the relxed atmosphere and the fact that most of the folks that work there are pretty nice people. When I go to places to eat I want to feel comfortable and having friendly, pleasant folks around you certainly helps. It also helps if they are easy on the eye and by that I don't mean good looking necessarily just nothing that jars.

Well, that went out the window today because they have hired a young waitress covered in tattoos. Ugh! I know, each to their own but this put me off my food. As I paid my bill I asked who does the hiring. I really felt like saying to the manageress that she might want to take into consideration how appearance can adversly affect cutomer satisfaction.

Why is there so much ugliness out there. All in the cause of being allowed 'to express oneself'. Good lord, what about the fact that we have to endure scruffy, uncouth, loud, rude and now self-inflicted ugliness?

Where did taste get lost?

One of the books I am reading at the moment is a biography of Charles Dickens.

It is written by Peter Ackroyd who wrote a wonderful book on my old home town, London. I started to read Dickens' when I was a child, about nine or ten I think. What is interesting to me is that when I re-visited the books of his some ten years ago - I have a lovely sixteen volume, leather-bound edition of his in my office - I found it harder to read than it was all those years ago. This is attributable to the change in what we read these days, at least that is my rationale.

Another point that draws me to Dickens is that my in-laws lived in an area that is forever linked to Dickens. It is in the garden of England, Kent, around Rochester, Chalk village and Chatham. It is there you will find one of the houses that Dickens brought, Gad's Hill Place. When he was a child Dickens father had pointed out this house to young Charles as a symbol of what you can achieve if you work hard. He obviously never forgot.

For me, his tales paint a heartrendering account of what young children were exposed to in those days in the middle of the nineteenth century. You feel the suffering of the child. You experience what Dickens himself experienced when his father was thrown into debtor's prison and the young lad was forced to work in a blacking factory. The hardship, the loneliness and the bleakness stand out. What hope can there be? Well, in Charles Dickens case, it gave him the drive to succeed. It also placed deep in his psyche a doubt of his security in life no matter what fame and fortune he acquired.

He had a prodigious output, a restlessness and was always more beloved by the middle and lower classes than by his literary peers. His public readings, whether in working mens clubs or at official functions were incredibly popular.

He may not have the literary stature of good old Will (Shakespeare) - and I am a huge fan of his - but there is something in Dickens that I connect to.

I think I shall have to rename this blog because it needs to cover all the arts. It is time for me to write about some literature.

Consider it done.

For those of you who are wondering why I was writing about war in my Art-Music blog, well, let's just say it's about the Art of War.

Here's a thought.

Why would we expect the French to fight to liberate the Iraqis when they wouldn't fight to liberate themselves?

And another comment by Tony Blankley,

"M. Jacques Chirac, the well-tailored-70-year old French president...revealed himself to be a vulgar, unsubtle bully.
According to the Associated Press, M. Chirac 'launched a withering attack...on eastern European nations who signed letters
backing the U.S. position on Iraq.' He accused [Poland and her neighbors] of acting irresponsibly by expressing their [support for the U.S.]. ... It is worth recalling that while French soldiers were throwing down their rifles in 1940 as the Germans advanced, the flower of Polish manhood charged into the invading Nazi tanks on horseback in the last and most gallant cavalry charge in history. Of course, they were killed to the last man. While the Poles were dying with their boots on, the French were living on their knee-pads -- during which, they cheerfully ferreted out and shipped their French Jews off to the German death camps. How dare the French [chastise] the Poles...."

And finally, I like this one also,
"We thought we were preparing for war with Saddam Husein and not Jacques Chirac." Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Alexandr Vondra, responding to French President Chirac's scolding of European countries who have publicly supported the United States' position on Iraq.

Now, I know that war is not a 'good' thing but how many history lessons do we need to know that appeasement or weakness or whatever you want to call it never works?

Well, here we are in February, 2003, and although it's not the brightest of days here in the Valley of the Sun it's not as bad as it has been in the North-East and Europe over the last couple of weeks.

World news -

Still have the Chamberlain brigade prevaricating over Iraq. Of course, France has a particular vested interest (when doesn't she?) which is why they don't want their trade deals messed up.

History had repeatedly shown that strong action is needed when dealing with rogue states. The road to disaster is paved with good intentions.