Some Mothers

Here's a tale about Bobby Fischer's mother, on the picket line at Grunwick,

In 1977, standing on the Grunwick picket line in north-west London, I recognised Regina Fischer and introduced myself. "Ah yes," she said grimly, "you're the one who writes all those horrible things about Bobby." I explained that I would be delighted to learn that Bobby's alleged views on the inferiority of women, the evils of socialism and the duplicity of the Jews had been totally misrepresented, and I would be sure to get published whatever she told me.

...

She considered this offer carefully. After some thought, she handed me a slice of the orange she was eating and said: "I forgive you." She added some words on the significance of vegetarianism and the meaningfulness of giving fruit. "But now," she said with absolute conviction, "I will stop this bus."

Arthur Scargill's miners had tried and failed to stop the Grunwick bus.

As it reached the gate, Regina threw herself in front of its wheels. Braking sharply, it ground to a halt. This was the only time during the historic Grunwick strike that the infamous bus was stopped by a demonstrator.

Graham Taylor
London

Definitely a "strong-willed woman". And where would we be without optimism of the will?

Democrats for Romney

As "approved by some guy you've never heard" of here's an appeal by Democrats for Romney.



You know it makes sense.

Hawk and A Hacksaw Gig

How do you describe Hawk And A Hacksaw? I suppose you could use words like Hungarian folk, Balkan wedding songs, Turkish folk. Whatever words you use if you like that sort of thing then you'll like Hawk and a Hacksaw. Oh, I forgot to say, it's party music.

Here's some pictures I took at a gig, at the Malt Cross in Nottingham on 5th December 2007. The lineup for this gig was Jeremy Barnes, Heather Tost on violin, Kovacs Ferenc on trumpet and violin, and Balazs Ungar on cimbalom (which is a hammered dulcimer, my sources tell me).

Jeremy Barnes and Heather Tost.



Jeremy Barnes and Kovacs Ferenc.



The whole band.



The logo on a drum



As an encore the band walked into the audience for some crowd participation. It was hard to tell the band apart from the audience if not for the instruments.

There's a review of an earlier Hawk and a Hacksaw gig here. And there's a cracking review of a night on the same tour at Anti-Social Life.

Hawk and A Hacksaw Review

Coming soon: pictures of a Hawk and A Hacksaw gig.

That Was Then In The Here and Now

There I was reading this week's super soaraway SW when I saw this gem of logical reasoning:

If the left allies with the invader, the eventual resistance will hate the left. Feminism is now very weak in Afghanistan because in the 1980s Afghan feminist women supported the Russians and their violent occupation.

So Jonathan Neale is arguing that if not for the political mistakes of Afghanistani feminists in the 1980s you would be unable to move for Feminist books and Feminist practices in downtown Kabul.

Oh! Optimism of the will. Wild wonderful optimism.