Alex Roumbas
Harlot's Sauce is subtitled A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece, and that it certainly is. What's remarkable about this memoir and sets it apart from others in a similar vein is how much Greece herself becomes a character in the story. To borrow a tagline used with some regularity these days: there were three people in her marriage. The fact that one of them was a country makes it all even more interesting to read.
Patricia met 'Gregori' and fell in love. Their cultures were different - she was American-born of Italian descent and he was Greek born and a reluctant immigrant to the States - but, on the surface of it, not wildly so. After all, Patricia and her Jewish friend Margie's home lives are already dominated by the guilt trips, family occasions and obligations inherent in their cultures when compared to those of their WASP friends Donna and Kurt.
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Columnists
The BBC's Breakfast show was buzzing with discussion about the results of a survey of fertility specialists which shows that, while 72% think IVF should be offered on the NHS more widely than it is, 47% of those questioned think lifestyle should restrict access. In other words, smokers and fatsos don't get to have help having children. At the moment, many doctors offer lifestyle change advice (as, I think, they should to any prospective parents) but access is not denied on the basis of bad habits.
There's a practical point behind the discrimination - the treatment is hideously expensive and possibly less likely to take if you are physically unfit. But all this does is create a discussion on the cusp of the dilemma because we're all too emotionally involved with the idea of having children to face the truth.
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Alex Roumbas
Surviving members of the Women's Land Army and Women's Timber Corps are to have their contribution to the war effort recognised - finally. Fifty former 'Land Girls' and 'Lumber Jills' will be awarded badges of honour in a ceremony at Downing Street attended by Gordon Brown (that's our Prime Minister; I know, I forget he exists too).
More than 30,000 applications for badges have been received and more events are planned to mark the immense agricultural support offered by the women. I nearly wrote lumber support but that sounds alarmingly like punnery...
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Columnists
Forgive the punnery, but it more or less makes my point for me. I've been taking an interest in the female bishop debate, but it was this quote from a BBC report today that made me realise that the whole vote might be over equality of a very different kind:
Says Reverend Miranda Threlfall-Holmes of Durham:
"It's important for the whole country because bishops sit in the House of Lords, and there's currently a group of people within the legislation of this country which is closed at the minute to women, which is wrong."
Well, yes, it is wrong to close it from women, but wouldn't it be better to close it from bishops?
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Alex Roumbas
The London Metro's Guilty Pleasures section can provide some entertainment on the long and meandering route to work, but very occasionally the nature of its reporting does leave a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth.
This morning, it was all about Madonna's alleged marriage woes. Her publicists have been forced to make a public statement that she 'rarely' wears her wedding ring anyway, in response to reports that the lack of bling means the marriage is on the rocks. It's a pretty ridiculous thing to have to talk about anyway, but Metro's response of "Oh, well, that's alright then" really got up my nose.
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Alex Roumbas
An Indian court has ruled in favour of Air India's ban on overweight flight attendants on the grounds of health and safety. The Delhi high court was responding to a case filed by five ex-employees who had been grounded due to their weight. They are expected to appeal against the decision.
I don't think it's beyond the reach of the imagination to imagine that there might be a cutoff point in fitness terms after which someone cannot continue in their job. My cousin was grounded by United Airlines after he lost the tip of a finger in an accident and could no longer be 100% certain that he had enough dexterity in that hand to get the emergency exits open. So, without seeing said flight attendants, I'd be unwilling to judge Air India and the Delhi court too harshly.
Except that it's not the whole story...
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Alex Roumbas
Since I now work in the non-profit sector, I get a lot of emails and tweets about supporting this or that person in their fundraising aims. It's always a pleasure to pass on the message to friends, but today I read a tweet which introduced me to a whole organisation I had never before heard of.
Clicking on the half-marathon fundraising page, I ended up discovering Girls on the Run. GOTR, as it's also known, trains girls between the ages of eight and 12 for a 3.1 mile / 5km run (or walk), but it does a lot more than that besides. The emphasis on the group events is to underpin self-esteem, talk about nutrition and give girls pride in their achievements.
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Columnists
The long-awaited Sex and The City movie is going on general release in the UK today, as well as having its New York premiere. IMDb has reported that, together with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it's attracting an unusual demographic of cinemagoers (Indy is for the geriatrics like me, apparently).
The audience in question is women in their 40s and early 50s. Like, erm, the women in the movie. Paul Dergarabedian of Media by Numbers told the AP that the primary audience would be women from 20 to 55 and that "a huge female audience can create a blockbuster of a movie if there's enough interest". Wow. I really needed statistics to work that blistering conclusion out - we're only 50 percent of the population, after all.
But hang on - why are we turning up in force to see it anyway?
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Alex Roumbas
Over the weekend, I finally got round to indulging in a little cinematic comic book living. I enjoy my comic book adaptations (more than I ever generally enjoyed the comics themselves) because they appeal to a part of myself that always opted to play the Wicked Witch over Snow White in school because she was a witch damn it, which meant she was powerful! One of the best things about the comic book world is that women are often strong and complex characters, just like the men.
And sometimes they're just a bit pathetic. Oh dear.
There's a lot to like about Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. turns in a pitch perfect performance as a pampered playboy who learns lessons about compassion and consequences the hard way (getting a battery powered magnet for a pacemaker). The script is frequently sharp, and the special effects impressive. Sadly, the women are either insipid or faintly ridiculous.
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Alex Roumbas
To a certain extent, I know it's my own fault for watching BBC Three. But in my defence, Cate liked Lily Allen's show and I thought Being Human was quite good. Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the trite, unoriginal and above all offensive car crash that was Scallywagga.
Maybe I'm saying this with a haze of nostalgia, but the sketch shows of my youth seem to have been quite imaginative. The Mary Whitehouse Experience is forever in my heart for the spectacularly childish History Today; even Absolutely's Gwyneth and Denzil raised a chuckle. But the "kidult comedy" (ugh) had no such inventiveness. A series of totally predictable, badly acted and amusement-free vignettes culminated in a scene so poorly written as to be offensive to women and men.
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