May 20th, 2012
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FRENCH CAMP – Diana Muoz had hoped to be eating strawberry-and-cream white cake today to celebrate her oldest daughter’s 21st birthday.
Instead, she will be doing what she has done every day for the better part of a month: sitting at Brandy Marie Arreola’s hospital bedside, reading to her and telling her how much she is loved.
A suspected domestic violence attack has left Arreola in a coma for weeks. She is unable to function. She only recently began breathing on her own and still requires a feeding tube for sustenance.
“Every day I talk to her, give her a bath and tell her to wake up,” Muoz said. “God can take me if she comes back.”
Muoz isn’t exactly sure when the beating took place. But she suspects paramedics were not called for several days because of a sizeable bedsore on Arreola’s back when she arrived at a hospital.
The Stockton Police Department report is sketchy, saying only that Arreola was found in the 1000 block of North San Joaquin Street and not even saying whether she was inside any sort of shelter.
Arreola is unable to communicate from her bed at San Joaquin County General Hospital. Her arms often hang limply instead of returning her mother’s frequent hugs. When she opens her eyes, they cannot focus on the “Get Well Soon” balloons in her room, the plush toy or the anguished face of her mother. Arreola’s face contorts from time to time, and her arms and legs occasionally posture and twitch, but doctors say Arreola is not in control of her motor skills.
“Hi, baby, what do you want momma to get you for your birthday?” Muoz said as she stroked Arreola’s raven hair and kissed her forehead during a visit Tuesday evening. “I love you. I’m here.”
When Muoz asks her daughter if she can hear her, the only response is the automated clicks and hisses of the machine removing fluid from Arreola’s lungs.
Muoz cycles from grief for her daughter to rage at the suspect in custody to contempt for California’s prison realignment plan, which she believes also is to blame for the attack.
Raoul Leyva, 33, is in custody in connection with Arreola’s beating, according to Stockton police.
The two had known each other only for about a month, Muoz said.
Leyva was not the man she wanted her daughter to date, and she disliked him from the start. He was rude and disrespectful, she said.
Records show he has been incarcerated on an intermittent basis since 2004 for convictions including possession of a controlled substance for sale and vehicle theft. He also has a conviction in San Joaquin County for sending material to seduce a minor, according to booking records.
Leyva was arrested in late March for failing to register as a sex offender or report to his parole officer. The state Board of Parole hearings ordered him to serve a 100-day jail term April 9, but Superior Court Judge Richard Guiliani released him from custody April 11, according to records.
Guiliani said when the County Jail reaches its capacity – there are 1,255 beds available – certain lower-level offenders have to be released. AB109 has added about 200 more prisoners. Because the county is dealing with increased inmate numbers, the court has to prioritize between sending people who have technical parole violations and those who have committed new crimes, Guiliani said. Parole violators are released first.
He was considered a low-level offender, ordered to serve his sentence in the San Joaquin County Jail instead of state prison, because California is reducing its prison population under the realignment law AB109.
He should have been incarcerated, Muoz said, rather than being free to brutalize her daughter.
“Why didn’t he do his time in prison?” Muoz asked.
Had his arrest for parole violation taken place prior to the implementation of the 7-month-old realignment, prison is where he would have been.
Instead, Arreola was attacked within two weeks of Leyva’s release, and he quickly became the prime suspect, according to authorities.
Police have not disclosed who reported the assault.
The victim’s mother believes her daughter’s attack went unreported for several days before someone finally called for help. She believes this in part because when she first saw her daughter in the hospital, Muoz said, Arreola had a softball-sized bedsore a half-inch deep on her back.
“It smelled like death,” she said.
The wound, and Arreola’s other scabs, bruises and scrapes, are healing, but her long-term prognosis is bleak. She moves her legs and arms sporadically in her hospital bed and occasionally opens her eyes, but her pupils still do not react, Muoz said. She just awoke from a coma early last week, her mother said.
Muoz maintains her daughter was either intimidated or unduly influenced by Leyva.
“She has his name tattooed on her leg,” she said. “After knowing him a month.”
She recognizes symptoms of domestic violence, Muoz said, because she herself is a survivor of an abusive marriage. Arreola’s father, who died in 2004, regularly beat Muoz, she said.
“Brandy witnessed it, and for the longest time I was too scared to leave,” she said. “I told her it’s not normal for a man to treat you like I was being treated.”
Witnessing abuse is not the only hardship Arreola experienced.
She had been legally disabled from an injury incurred as a 16-year-old. A car had struck her as she was crossing the street, and she sustained a brain hemorrhage, Muoz said. Arreola’s short-term memory was affected, her mother said, but she would have been able to live on her own.
“But she never was the same mentally,” she said.
Muoz says Arreola is a “girly girl” who likes dressing in skinny jeans and would live in the moment. Shortly before her daughter’s beating, Muoz gave her a Coach purse, South Pole pants and high heels made by Roccawear.
“They looked better on her,” she said.
Muoz refuses to engage her negative emotions around her hospitalized daughter.
She does not talk about her own worries, heartbreak or even her anger at the man she suspects put her daughter in the hospital bed.
“I only talk about happy things with her,” she said.
But there is little to be happy about regarding Arreola’s prognosis.
“The doctors say she is as good as she’s going to get,” Muoz said. “But I believe in miracles.”
And if a miracle doesn’t happen, Muoz intends to turn her daughter into a cautionary tale for women everywhere.
“If a man hits you once, he will hit you again,” she said. “I will tell her story if she can’t.”
Contact reporter Jordan Guinn at (209) 546-8279 or jguinn@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/crimeblog.
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May 20th, 2012
In our regular Sunday feature, FIFA.com presents you with some of the biggest names in football who will be celebrating their birthdays over the coming week.
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May 18th, 2012
By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff
In 1819, French physician René Laennec published a description of the cacophony of sick lungs, deciphered with his new invention: the stethoscope. Some 18 months later, doctors in New England read about his discoveries, delivered across the sea and by horseback to their offices in one of the early editions of what would become the venerable New England Journal of Medicine.
Laennec’s discoveries altered the practice of medicine in a way so fundamental that we see the effects each time our doctor listens to the sounds in our chest. Its among the first of many enduring changes in medicine that were documented by the journal and are being celebrated this year as the publication reaches its 200th anniversary.
The journal, now operated by the Massachusetts Medical Society, is marking the occasion with a special website, a series of articles, and a symposium in June meant to highlight how far the field of medicine has come in two centuries.
“This is an opportunity to take a look and see how much better off we are now than our forbearers,” said Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor in chief.
The commemorative website includes an interactive timeline of the milestones in medicine that have appeared on the journal’s pages. For a selection, see this story by the Associated Press.
The manner in which the journal has reported on such advancements is a story in itself.
When Robert Koch gave a famous lecture in Berlin in 1882 identifying the bacteria that caused tuberculosis, the news was dispatched to the journal via telegraph and printed a week later, Drazen said.
Nearly a century later, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out its weekly bulletin reporting on four previously healthy homosexual men who had contracted an unknown infection — what would become known as HIV — the news reached editor Arnold “Bud” Relman by phone and the first articles on the disease appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine soon after, Drazen said.
Of course, the internet has brought further evolution. Today, five times more people read the journal online than in print, said Edward Campion, web editor.
“Our core mission remains the same: To get the best information to doctors,” Drazen said. “We do it the best way we can. … For the physician who’s 60, we publish a print magazine every week. For the physician who’s 30 we have a very active website.”
The journal plans to improve it mobile formats and launch a tablet application this year, Drazen said.
The age of the internet has only increased the journal’s importance, Drazen said.
“Because there’s so much information on the web, when you see our name on something, you can trust that it’s not someone trying to sell you something,” he said.
The landscape of medical research has changed, too. Through much of the 19th century, the journal reported mostly on advancements made in the medical hubs of London, Paris, and Berlin. Today, it often cites the work of researchers here in the greater Boston area who have taken center stage, due in no small part to the work of the journal founders and the people who have led it through the years.
Chelsea Conaboy can be reached at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @cconaboy.
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May 18th, 2012
The Golden Gate Bridge opened 75 years ago next Sunday, so it’s fitting that many birthday events for the legendary link to points north should cluster around next weekend.
But if you have other plans or feel timid about confronting potential traffic gridlock, don’t worry: Many events continue for several weeks or months. Here’s a selection:
“Wild Flight of Imagination: The Story of the Golden Gate Bridge.” The exhibition’s title comes from a 1921 promotional prospectus for the bridge. Works by artists hired by bridge lobbyists are on view here for the first time in years. Also included are photographs and scrapbooks depicting the lives of workers on the project. Some of the images on view are by photographers as well-known as Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange. Through Oct. 14, noon-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. $5 suggested donation, ages 5 and younger free. California Historical Society, 678 Mission St., San Francisco. 415-357-1848, www.californiahistoricalsociety.org.
Paul Goldberger. Hear the architecture critic in conversation with Allison Arieff of the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association, as they discuss what makes a civic structure iconic and what’s hot in the architecture world now. 8 p.m. Tuesday. $20-$25, students $10. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St. 415-292-1200,
href=’http://www.jccsf.org’>www.jccsf.org.
“Before the Bridge: Sight and Sound at the Golden Gate.” An exhibit on the sensory experience of the Golden Gate before the bridge, featuring photography, maps, charts, paintings and recordings of natural and nautical sounds. Wednesday through Oct. 28, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. Free admission. 104 Montgomery St., Presidio Main Post. Presented by the Presidio Trust and the Walt Disney Family Museum.
Kevin Starr. Author of “Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America’s Greatest Bridge.” In conversation with Chevron Corp. historian John Harper. 6 p.m. Thursday, Commonwealth Club, 295 Market St., San Francisco. $20, $7 students. 415-597-6700, www.commonwealthclub.org.
“The Bridge on the Big Screen.” A series of films presented free, showing how the Golden Gate captured the imagination of Hollywood and the hearts of moviegoers. Opens Saturday and continues through Sept. 15. Kickoff celebration — with a screening of “It Came From Beneath the Sea,” live music by Poor Man’s Whiskey and food for purchase from Off the Grid and the Disney Cafe — takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, outdoors on the Main Post Green, near 34 Graham St.; free admission. Upcoming films, screened outdoors on the Main Post Green: “Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco,” June 2; and “Superman: The Movie,” June 9. For each, visitors are asked to arrive at 6 p.m., screening starts at dusk. Indoors at the Walt Disney Family Museum (104 Montgomery St.): Each film begins at 6 p.m. — “Vertigo,” June 16; “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” July 21; “A View to a Kill,” Aug. 18; and “Monsters vs. Aliens,” Sept. 15. Free admission. Very limited on-site parking is free, but use of public transit is strongly encouraged; information at www.presidio.gov/GGB75.
Tributes for 75th Anniversary of the Bridge at Fort Mason Center. Launched in January, this series of events and programs will culminate May 27 with a daylong event. Activities include a farmers market; music by the Fortuna High School Band and Choir from Humboldt County throughout the day; a selection of bridge-related books and memorabilia at Readers Bookstore; a “SEAT” exhibit that allows visitors to sit down to enjoy the view of the Golden Gate; and a fireworks display at 9:30 p.m. Starting Tuesday will be the open-ended “Goldengate Variations” by Stuart Kinmond, 30 images combining photography, digital techniques and drawing, at the Cafe in Building C. Fort Mason Center, bounded by Van Ness Avenue and Laguna and Bay streets at the bay. www.fortmason.org/events.
Local Artists’ Interpretations of the Bridge. Presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Visit the museum next Sunday for a Family Day featuring bridge-related activities, and stop by the Blue Bottle Coffee Bar anytime this summer for a special-edition bridge-themed dessert. See an online exhibition of photographs of the Golden Gate from the SFMOMA collection at www.sfmoma.org, and discover reflections by writers and artists on the bridge on the Open Space museum blog. At the SFMOMA Artists Gallery at Fort Mason Center, see a bridge-related exhibition, May 26 through July 31. www.sfmoma.org.
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May 16th, 2012
Britain’s world number four Andy Murray celebrated his 25th birthday here on Tuesday with a hard fought 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 victory over veteran Argentinian David Nalbandian to reach the third round of the Rome Masters.
The day session match which ended well into the intended start of night play for top-seeded holder Novak Djokovic, was a struggle for survival on the clay between the pair, with Murray recovering from a break down in the third.
Murray, seeded four and a semi-finalist here last year, frequently hung his head to catch his breath after monster points and could be seen gripping at his lower back at the end of rallies.
It took 2 hrs, 37 min for the Scot to prevail, managing 29 winners and converting eight of his 18 break point chances – and he barely looked as if he had the energy to eat a slice of the birthday cake that was brought onto court.
The match was the first for the pair on clay and left 2004 finalist Nalbandian disappointed after Murray edged a torrid final set to advance on his first match point.
Murray, who stands 5-2 in their head to head series, won his first match since losing in the quarter-finals in Barcelona to Milos Raonic and then skipping last week’s Madrid event with back pain.
“I’m very happy to win, considering how the last few weeks have gone,” said Murray.
“When you haven’t hit that much, it’s not so comfortable. Hopefully I can go on from here.”
Djokovic didn’t seem at all disturbed by the delay and breezed through to the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 masterclass dished out to young Australian Bernard Tomic.
Madrid champion Roger Federer will take to the court on Wednesday to open against Argentine Carlos Berlocq.
The world number two had been unsure of his physical status and had waited until the last minute to decide if he could compete this week with only days to go before the French Open gets underway on May 27.
Rome is one of the few big events the Swiss has not won after losing two finals.
In other second-round matches, Spaniard David Ferrer, the sixth seed beat Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) while Spanish veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero upset 13th seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils 7-5, 6-3.
In the first round, tenth seed Juan Martin del Potro overcame French doubles specialist Michael Llodra 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 while the latter’s compatriot Gilles Simon and 11th seed beat American Donald Young 6-2, 7-5.
Juan Monaco, the Argentine 14th seed, won as did 16th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who beat Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 7-6 (8/6).
Past and present Wimbledon champions Maria Sharapova and Czech Petra Kvitova reached the third round with straight sets victories, though the Russian second seed was made to work hard.
Defending Rome champion Sharapova, who won her Wimbledon title aged 17 in 2004, needed nearly two and a quarter hours to get past 36th-ranked American Christina McHale 7-5, 7-5.
Kvitova, the fourth seed, accounted for Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-4 in sunny, breezy conditions.
In the first round, two seeds went out as Sorana Cirstea of Romania upset former number one, 2007-2008 winner and 15th seed Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4).
Italy’s Flavia Pennetta, whose 2006 quarter-final was her best showing at home, beat Russian 16th seed Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 7-6 (7/2).
Serena Williams, winner in Madrid, started with a defeat of Galina Voskoboeva 6-2, 6-3.
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May 16th, 2012
It's time to make a decision. Do you carry on as before, allowing yourself to be swept along by events over which you have no control? Or do you set yourself a goal and go for it with all your heart? You know the answer – now make the…
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May 14th, 2012
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May 14th, 2012
THE Journal celebrated its 180th birthday on Saturday with messages of congratulations from well-wishers pouring in. Now even more of the region’s leading figures, businessmen and women and well-known movers and shakers have sent in their Happy Birthday messages to mark the milestone.
David Dunn, chief executive, Sunderland Software City:
“The Journal has always been considered one of the foremost publications here in the North East and has a major part to play in the local community. Its daily business coverage has helped to highlight the North East as a hot-bed of innovation and creativity, particularly in the area of software. We wish the newspaper a happy birthday and wish it every success in the future.”
Prof Chris Brink, vice-chancellor, Newcastle University:
“The Journal provides a vital voice for the North East to highlight the excellence of the region. For 180 years it has covered complex topics including science, technology and education in a very comprehensive and engaging way. Long may it continue to do so.”
Ronnie Campbell, Labour MP for Blyth Valley:
“I’m delighted to wish The Journal a happy 180th birthday. I have read the paper for many years and have cause to be grateful for some of the good racing tips provided by Doug Moscrop. The thing I like about The Journal, apart from its good general news coverage, is that the business section keeps you up to date about how companies are doing in your constituency and across the North East, which is important for MPs like me who are down in London all week.”
Janet Macleod Trotter, Morpeth-based historical and mystery novelist:
“A very happy 180th birthday. As a former columnist and critic for The Journal I have a real soft spot for this newspaper. It provides a good balance between regional and national news, as well as interesting features and excellent coverage of sporting and cultural events – something for all the family. Congratulations on this great achievement.”
Roger Styring, deputy leader of Northumberland County Council:
“I am a daily reader of The Journal, and like the way that it keeps me up to date with local and regional news. It provides an invaluable source of information on key events and happenings, in both words and pictures. I hope that it thrives and survives for many more years to come.”
Durham cricket coach Geoff Cook:
“Happy birthday to The Journal – Durham CCC has certainly appreciated your loyal support over the last 20 years.”
Magistrate and school governor Anita Atkinson, from Weardale, County Durham:
“Congratulations on The Journal for 180 years of excellent reporting. It is a well-respected and highly regarded newspaper in Weardale.”
Transport historian James Taylor, from Carrville, Durham:
“I never miss The Journal. It always is a good read and gives wide-ranging regional coverage.”
Canon Graham Usher, Rector of Hexham:
“The Newcastle Journal promotes its local community and is an important means of celebrating all that is good about the North East of England.”
Jim Mackey, chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust:
“I would like to wish The Journal a happy birthday and offer my congratulations on 180 years of delivering the news to the North East.”
Kate Wilson, English heritage inspector of ancient monuments in the North East:
“The Journal has supported and championed the amazing historic environment of the North East for as long as English Heritage can remember. From covering a range of events at places like Belsay Hall and Lindisfarne, to telling the story of Heritage at Risk projects including Bowes Railway, Bolam Coyne and Tynemouth Station, the paper has brought the best of the region’s architecture and historic landscapes to its readers.”
Martin Callanan, Conservative MEP, said:
“The Journal has a very special place at the heart of the North East. As well as setting the news agenda, stimulating healthy political debate and campaigning for some great regional causes, The Journal has maintained the highest standards and has embraced the new digital era through its website and Twitter feed. It is an essential part of my day. Here’s to another 180 years.”
Mayor of Hexham, councillor Rad Hare:
“The Journal, as much a part of the North East as Blaydon Races – long may it bring news and views to our doorstep.”
Mary Manley, owner of Barter Books in Alnwick:
“For 180 years an integral part of North East life bringing us a great balance of local and international news, a monthly Culture magazine that flies out of our shop, and (according to all our staff!) some of the best sports coverage around. You have seen us through great changes during these 180 years and supported us throughout. And we, in return, send our thanks and best wishes for a long and prosperous future.”
Richard Evans, director at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North:
“Happy Birthday to the Journal! The North East is so lucky to have such a vibrant, intelligent, and sometimes critical friend in The Journal. So a huge thank you from everyone at Beamish for an incredible 180 years worth of memories. Many congratulations to Brian and the team – and thanks for all your ongoing support for culture in the North East, it really is important and very much appreciated.”
Mara-Helen Wood, director of University Gallery, Northumbria University:
“Reading through the University Gallery’s press cuttings is like stepping into the gallery’s archive of exhibitions with articles covering the first Munch exhibition shortly after the gallery opened in 1978, to the current Brita Granstrom exhibition which opens next week. That’s almost 35 years of invaluable coverage and support by The Journal’s writers and critics whose reviews have been instrumental in the gallery’s continuing development. The gallery and the many artists we represent thank The Journal on its 180th anniversary.”
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May 12th, 2012
NASA / SDO
Sunspot region 1476 points toward Earth like a loaded gun in this picture from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Experts say the active region is capable of generating major X-class flares.
We’re not only closing out the week — we’re closing out the first 10 years of Cosmic Log. It was on May 13, 2002, that I first began noting the follies and mysteries of science, space and society in this space. To mark the occasion, I’m presenting not just one, not just two, but three sets of brain-teasers.
The first puzzle has already played out on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. I asked Facebook followers to figure out which four-digit number is best associated with the picture above, and it just took a couple of minutes for multiple commenters to come up with the answer: 1476, the designation for the active region that’s currently front and center on the sun’s disk and capable of throwing X-class flares in our direction.
Mitch Siff was the first to put it all together, and I’m sending him my last pair of sun-viewing safety glasses, suitable for watching the May 20 annular solar eclipse from his home in Colorado. Michael J. Tiano was also quick on the draw, and he’ll be getting my second-last pair of 3-D glasses, along with a scary 3-D picture of yours truly.
It’s worth noting that a solar storm was one of the first topics tackled in Cosmic Log 10 years ago.
Space Needle unscrambler
Earlier in the week, I reported on the finals of a “Space Race 2012″ competition at Seattle’s Space Needle that resulted in Arizona law-school student Gregory Schneider winning a future suborbital trip into outer space. The final test was to solve a series of 10 brain-teasers while walking around a narrow ring-shaped platform just outside the Needle’s 520-foot-high observation deck. I mentioned a couple of sample questions on Wednesday, but in honor of Cosmic Log’s 10th birthday, here’s the full set of 10 questions. The first commenter to give the correct answers to all 10 teasers — in a single comment, not a series of comments — will be eligible to receive my last pair of giveaway 3-D glasses.
Unscramble the five following words:
1. PALOLO
2. IODEATSR
3. VGATIYR
4. OERREMTETI
5. EFCRCAPTSA
6. How many stars are in the Big Dipper?
7. For the Space Needle’s 50th Anniversary, the roof was painted which color: Orbital Orange, Galaxy Gold, Meteor Melon, Re-entry Red.
8. True or false: The planet Venus rotates clockwise. It is the only planet to do so.
9. Which is NOT the name of a NASA shuttle: Atlantis, Voyager, Discovery, Endeavour.
10. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first men to walk on the moon in which year: 1968, 1967, 1969, 1966.
Cosmic Log history lesson
Finally, here are some trivia questions about the past 10 years of Cosmic Log. First person to get all the answers correct in a single comment will be eligible to receive a signed copy of my book “The Case for Pluto.” (I’m not holding my breath.)
1. Where did the name “Cosmic Log” come from? A space mission? A TV show? A comic book? Or did I just make it up?
2. Which “Star Trek” actor was interviewed for Cosmic Log? Nichelle Nichols? Leonard Nimoy? William Shatner? George Takei?
3. Which would-be celebrity astronaut was interviewed for Cosmic Log? Lance Bass? Mark Burnett? James Cameron? Victoria Principal?
4. Which Apollo astronaut was NOT interviewed for Cosmic Log? Buzz Aldrin? Alan Bean? Pete Conrad? Harrison Schmitt?
5. Which magician has been interviewed for Cosmic Log? The Amazing Randi? The Amazing Kreskin? David Copperfield? Penn Jillette?
6. Which medium/channel/psychic has been interviewed for Cosmic Log? Mary T. Browne? Theresa Caputo? Allison Dubois? JZ Knight?
7. Which TV show has been the subject of Cosmic Log postings? “American Idol”? “Dancing With the Stars”? “The X-Files”? All of the above?
8. What is the “CLUB Club”? A hangout for Cosmic Log fans in Seattle back in the early days? A concept I proposed for an anti-theft device? A list of book recommendations? A members-only gallery of cosmic pictures?
9. What kind of celestial object got its name in part because of Cosmic Log? Asteroid? Comet? Crater? Mountain?
10. Who was the object named after? Douglas Adams? Alan Boyle? Stephen Hawking? Robert Heinlein?
I’ll provide the answers to both of the 10-question teasers on Sunday, the 10th anniversary, and if I’m in a generous mood for the start of the next 10 years, I may give away a book even if no one gets all of the Cosmic Log trivia questions right.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com’s science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by “liking” the log’s Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out “The Case for Pluto,” my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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May 12th, 2012
“Old Derry down Derry” is 200 years old on 12 June. This is the pseudonym that Edward Lear used for his first book of limericks, A Book of Nonsense (1846). It gives a hint of where in the history of nonsense he positioned himself, as versions of “Derry down derry” can be found across the folk-songs and plays of Britain and Ireland. Quite why this deeply troubled man ended up disturbing the decorum of Victorian life and language is not totally clear. His life’s love was for art. He yearned to produce a masterpiece of landscape painting but ended up with a series of empty, moody canvases. He was a quiet, atmospheric watercolorist who illustrated his travels with real feeling. He is still known as one of the best painters of exotic birds, but it’s the combination of his absurd words and scratchy line-drawings that has survived the best.
The nonsense writing came about during his stays at the Knowsley estate of Lord Stanley, who had hired the young Lear to paint his menagerie. The adults noticed the children disappearing off to the steward’s room, and when they found that they were seeking out the funny drawings, poems and stories of the young painter, he was summoned upstairs, where he carried on entertaining everybody. It wasn’t entirely easy, with Lear observing: “the uniform apathetic tone assumed by lofty society irks me dreadfully … nothing I long for half so much as to giggle heartily and to hop on one leg down the great gallery – but dare not.”
He may not have hopped, but he produced a gallery of people who tore off their hair, ate thousands of figs, murdered themselves with forks, died of despair, and were troubled by dreams, baked in a stove, eaten by a puppy, split in two but mended with very strong glue. This is a catalogue of disruption of bodies even as society was tying them up in corsets and waistcoats – but then Lear’s own body was disrupted by his secret and stigmatised illnesses: epilepsy and depression.
Later, he found the voice of ever-wandering creatures – a Pobble, a Dong, a Scroobius Pip and Jumblies – that are often on the hunt for a love they don’t find. Perhaps these are skewed versions of Lear himself, just as his mock botanical textbooks are glorious misrepresentations of the Victorians’ quest to name everything.
A full calendar of celebrations can be found at nonsenselit.wordpress.com/. Tomorrow I will be attending a plaque ceremony at Lear’s home in Stratford Place, London W1 and the day after I’ll be performing a Lear tribute with Roger McGough at the British Library. I’m also looking forward to broadcasting Lear from a phone box outside the Story Museum, in Oxford.
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