How pleasing to make bread - by hand, not with a machine. The vat=rieties of flour and other ingreedients, such as olive oil and eggs. Thinking to create my own yeast.

You set up a ‘Friends Group’ to support the library and hopefully the staff who work there.
You end up running some sort of ‘service’ from the building after the staff lose their jobs.
Can you see the problem?
#libraries
#volunteerism

I have enjoyed the first four episodes of Miss Fisher's Mysteries, set in Twenties Melbourne. Well made. Three series in all, so plenty of episodes, perhaps too many? Something to watch once in a while.

Got a meeting tomorrow at Parliament where I’ll be raising the desperate situation facing the public libraries sector & workforce and the need for stronger policy/legislation and more funding.
Wish me luck.
#savelibraries

It looks as though the Middle East will become a nuclear flashpoint. I sit and type in #Hove , terrified. Is this Cuba six decades on?

Happy 100th to Sir Neville Marriner (or 'Snev' as he was called!). I only knew him towards the end of his life. We toured China and Macau together with ASMF Orchestra. He stayed on for hours signing CDs/LPs. Best line just before going on stage: 'We'll be right there behind you!'

I bought another copy of Anne Dolamore's Olive Companion - which is beautifully illustrated (not photographs) - as a present which was swiftly relished, and studied. Seek out a copy.

LONESOME WHISTLES

A note about Twentieth Century (1934).

christopherhawtree.com/films.html

I had never seen Pasolini's Theorem - and regret filling this gap in knowledge. Had to give up so tedious a thing, interesting though its premise was.

I am reading again Marianne Moore's poems, and marvel that she did not collect the three-page, mid-Thirties 'Pigeons'. So well observed.

Many of us feel the same. Please do consider the views of your listeners Sam Jackson

I am reading Marianne Moore's poems again, in the splendid edition by Heather Cass White (2017) which goes back to the original texts - and includes MM's own adroit index to her collection Observations.

Dennis Duncan

BEYOND THE FRONT

A note on Dirk Bogarde in Cast a Dark Shadow.

christopherhawtree.com/films.html

Is there a 'what time can we go home' cup?

Just the choice of the word ‘mortified’ is the cherry atop a delicious cake made of schadenfreude.

Food, I sometimes think, is mostly about rituals. One of my most important rituals w:my sister Dr Emily Wilson consists of getting the tofu banh mi hoagies from Fu-Wah deli every time I visit her in Philly. I wrote about these sandwiches & recreated them in THE SECRET OF COOKING

I’ve been reading cookbooks all my life and always dreamed of writing one. Finally, I did and am so proud and happy that THE SECRET OF COOKING 4th Estate Books has been shortlisted for Debut cookbook of the year at the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. Thank you to the judges.

The Moon is moving away from the Earth at 1.5 inches per year - the same rate at which fingernails grow.

. nytimes.com/2024/04/09/sci…

The eclipse across a swath of America has set Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain' running through my mind even though I have a bicycle rather than a Lear jet

IN THE CHARITY SHOP

I have added to the website a scene, which I think stands in its own right, from my boarding-house novel Gamboge - along with a note about it.

christopherhawtree.com/gamboge_-_in_t…