After Meg was safely in bed, I treat myself to a bit of TV and last night was the first of the annual series of the Royal Institution Christmas lectures (on science) for young people. This year there is a series of three on the subject of 'Food' and the presenter was the doctor and medical journalist, Chris van Tullekan. I have actually bought his latest book 'Ultra -Processed People' (on the subject of the ills of the junk food that we eat to which he argues we are addicted ) but I have only the opportunity to dip into it for the first few pages so far. Last night's lecture was on the subject of the progress of food through the alimentary canal and was very well done with excellent little bits of apparatus and evidently good audience participation. So I shall look forward to the next few nights with pleasure. The other bit of news was just breaking as I flipped over to see the news headlines and this was the headline that ex-President USA president, Jimmy Carter, had died at the age of 100. He achieved far more as an ex-President than he ever did in his one four year term as president and at the age of 100 had survived both a brain tumour and an aggressive form of skin cancer. He acted as a roving emissary once retired as President and did his bit on conflict spots throughout the world. I would imagine that he is regarded after his death with a great deal of affection and respect on both sides of the political divide even in a society as polarised as the contemporary USA. Now immediately after his death, even his presidency is being reassessed. Because of the capture of Americans by the then Iraqi regime and a failed attempt to free them some would say that the American presidency was doomed - America only likes winners and not those defined as losers. But as his biographer has pointed out, he brought a peace treaty to the Middle East and put in train the development of sophisticated weaponry for which Reagan reaped the benefits. Carter's greatest accomplishment as chief executive was getting the government out of Americans' lives in myriad ways. His deregulation of home brewing, for example, helped usher in the modern craft beer movement, and that has created jobs at brewpubs in every city and town in the country. Carter's deregulation of the interstate trucking and freight rail industries injected new competition into cartels that had long operated under government protection. Similar changes to federal rules governing commercial airfare made it cheaper and easier for Americans to travel long distances to see friends and family (which makes it fitting that Carter passed away during the busiest travel season ever). It is even said that Carter was one of the greatest one-term presidents ever.
One of the interesting quirks to this end of year period is the fact that the BBC's Radio 4 'Today' programme gives over its platform to a range of different guest editors for this week between Christmas and the New Year and for Monday of this week it was Baroness Floella Benjamin.After being awarded the BAFTA fellowship this year for her contribution to television, Baroness Floella Benjamin OM DBE will focus on the importance of childhood on 30 December. Her guest edit will also look at the impact of children moving away from consuming content from public service broadcasters to unregulated online platforms. Children's TV legend Baroness Floella Benjamin has said a 'crisis' in dedicated programming for youngsters is pushing them to adult material on YouTube 'detrimental to their wellbeing'. Ten years ago children used to watch two hours of TV on average but the rise of streaming services and video sharing sites like YouTube has seen that figure decrease by 70% in a decade. Baroness Benjamin argues that unless there was a push towards improving offerings for children the knock of effect on their welfare could be seismic. She said: 'I feel that children's programs as know them are in crisis because children are migrating to online platforms and watching mainly adult material which for some could be detrimental to their wellbeing.
On Monday morning, we were expecting a couple of workers at 8.00am but nobody turned up on cue. Looking at my phone messages last night, I was informed to expect a single carer this morning but no time slot was mentioned so I imagine that Meg's getting up will be delayed by an hour. What eventually happened is that I did get two carers but delayed by three quarters of an hour with no explanation and under these circumstances, Meg is always a bit more difficult to get up as she has been awake for hours and needs some breakfast to function adequately. I am going to document these events more fully from now on as I rather let things slide over the Christmas period but I am finding that I am acting as a second carer.
Meg and I went down into town and collected our newspaper before returning and then I made a special lunch of bits and pieces involving onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, apple, sultanas in a kind of stir-fry. Our major treat this afternoon was a viewing of the film shown last night on the life of Maria Callas which was fascinating. There were several very rare clips of film of Callas at her absolute best as well as the documenting, in great detail, how the singer's career collapsed after a bout (she claimed) of bronchitis. The point about Callas is that you felt that she was not just acting but almost becoming the character she was portraying. Her biography is certainly a complex one and I suppose history will judge her as 'the diva of all divas' given her reputation as temperamental and, indeed, tempestuous. Although thought of as being Greek, Maria Callas was actually born in Brooklyn, New York and then taken to Greece as a teenager by her Greek parents. She indicates in her biography that she was very much pushed into opera singing by her mother and by her first husband but she accepted that as 'her destiny' There were several interviews of her in French in which she was not only exceptionally fluent but animated as well and I think Paris was her favourite city. One is always somewhat surprised to see good French coming out of the mouths of those born in America. Maria Callas learned to speak French from her personal assistant, Mezzadri, who followed her to Paris.
© Mike Hart [2024]