Relevant: Having a bearing on or connection with the matter at hand.
Writers, you’ll be pleased to know that this post is relevant to you. That’s not even a pun.
The first interesting hit I got for relevant – and I emphasise, interesting – was this:
Young, Fresh and Relevant
is a yearly open submission journal with the aim of carving a space for writing within the visual arts. YFR hopes to be accessible for a new generation of young (in their practice rather than age) artists who may never have had their writing published, as well as aiming to attract practitioners who are more familiar with the Art Writing / publishing scene.
The editors say ‘There is currently no open call but email us anyway with texts, images, questions or invitations.’
The journal is available from a select group of libraries and bookshops in London, Glasgow. Ghent, Berlin and Tokyo – addresses are on the home page.
Obstinate: stubbornly refusing to change one’s opinion or chosen course of action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so.
Again, I’m going for randomness today (ahem… 2 days late)because it makes life interesting. You find all sorts of new and interesting snippets when you search the internet for a random word and as I’ve said before, if Dave Gorman can make TV series out of this stuff…
And it’s a lot more interesting than a post about how obstinate I am.
It’s odd how sometimes Google will offer pages and pages of dictionary definitions for a random word, and other times you struggle to find one. Today, I had to click though a few pages of definitions before I got to anything else. These are literally the first three hits, and the first two are all about troubled and bloody pasts…
Sounds like a book, I thought as I clicked. Until the huge words ‘EAT WITH US’ filled my screen. The Obstinate Daughter is the name of a restaurant – sorry, ‘Food Fort – on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. So why, I hear you cry, is it called The Obstinate Daughter? Over to them…
Our name, The Obstinate Daughter, is an homage to the rich Revolutionary War history of Sullivan’s Island. On June 28, 1776, under the command of Colonel William Moultrie, the defenders of Fort Sullivan foiled the British fleet’s attempt to capture the city of Charleston in the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. This first American Patriots victory inspired a London political cartoon of the defiant defenders of Charleston: “Miss Carolina Sulivan, one of the obstinate daughters of America, 1776”. To us, The Obstinate Daughter is a beautiful reminder that the stubborn refusal to change one’s course of action can change the course of history.
The Obstinate Daughter Restaurant
‘A Southern restaurant that is influenced by French, Italian and Spanish cuisine.’
The restaurant serves pasta, pizza, and a large selection of other delicious-sounding seafood and vegetarian options. If I ever visit my cousin in North Carolina, I might just pop down there; it’s not far.
This is a film by Patricio Guzmán, whose 1976 film The Battle of Chile documented Salvador Allende’s government, the events leading to the coup led by General Pincohet, and Allende’s death – events ‘largely barred from the collective consciousness of the Chilean people
Hearing only the official version, a generation of young Chileans has grown up with little knowledge of the historical facts surrounding the events of September 11, 1973…
Now, Guzmán has returned to show The Battle of Chile in his homeland for the first time, and to explore the terrain of the confiscated (but maybe reawakening) memories of the Chilean people.
CHILE, OBSTINATE MEMORY visits with Chileans who experienced the coup first-hand (some of whom are seen in The Battle of Chile from 25 years ago). Survivors reminisce as they watch that film, recognizing lost comrades and recalling their courage, gaiety and love of life. Those who were not killed during the coup itself were crowded into the National Stadium in Santiago, where many were tortured, disappeared, and never seen again. Survivors talk about the terror that characterized the Pinochet regime until the dictator was finally obliged to relinquish power.
Cruelty to animals.
Winkles.
Racism.
Mussels.
Homophobia.
Haggis.
Forced marriage.
Artichokes.
Those ‘sentimental sayings pictures’ on Facebook that people share – you know, the ones that seem to give the impression that vowing to always interfere in your child’s life, even when they’re an adult, is an admirable thing and not a symptom of your graspy neediness and control freak tendencies (er… no, it’s not admirable. It’s their life, you’ve got yours. Get over it.) Or that, no matter what, you should love your child/mum/dad/auntie whatever (er – statistically, a fair few of your friends you share this stuff with will have suffered some kind of abuse at the hands of a relative, or perhaps just plain don’t get on with them – and they don’t need you to make them feel guilty about not agreeing with the sentiment that ‘their Dad will always be their hero’ or ‘their Mum will always be their best friend’. ‘I know all of my friends are warm-hearted caring people so they will all share’... emotional blackmail at its very best!
How many people are honest enough to put what they really think in the comments…
Nauseating!
As for the ones that are sexist claptrap created by people who can’t even spell… pur-lease!!
Majestic: ‘having or showing impressive beauty or scale’.
Scotland. Nothing to do with the Queen, although I’m not denying she’s majestic in that ‘good evenin’, You Majesty’ way, and once Techy Husband and I did find ourself meandering around the back of the Balmoral estate by accident when we got lost.
Scotland has more majestic scenery than you can shake a stick at, and I’ve been lucky enough to see some of it.
My favourite trip was up through the Glen Shee pass – through the Cairngorms up towards Braemar – at Easter one year, when the sun was shining and the mountains were still covered in snow. Amazing!
The other lovely area to visit on a snowy sunny day is The Lecht between Tomintoul and Cockbridge, on the Glenlivet Estate. It’s a beautiful walk and if you like a bit of history, you can walk along the valley to the old crushing mill building that still stands there – all that remains of an old iron mine.
This picture of my lovely mum-in-law, above, was taken on a visit to The Lecht on a day when there was snow, rain, hail and hot bright sunshine all within an hour.
This picture on the left was taken in the hail phase!
It’s an easy walk alongside the burn from the Well of the Lecht car park – and even the view from the car park is amazing (this was the rain phase!).
The walk along the burn itself is lovely and the views make it well worth the walk, but having an end point to your walk is great too – and inside the crushing mill building, which is a great place for kids (and dogs!) to – er – mill about in, there are information signs explaining the history of the mine.
Whatever road route you take, the drive to The Lecht will be an experience too. It’s a beautiful area and there’s a great view of Corgarff Castle from the Lecht road.
I’ve enjoyed exploring parts of central and Eastern Scotland and seeing beautiful burns and majestic(!) mountains – this year we’re going to the Isle of Skye for our holidays, so I’m looking forward to exploring the West with its lovely locks and inspirational Isles!
The keener of eye amongst you will have noticed that this post is a day late.
Languid: ‘(of a person, manner, or gesture) having or showing a disinclination for physical exertion or effort’.
Yes, well, that was me yesterday evening after a very busy day of writing articles about weddings and other less exciting stuff. I was not the ‘weak or faint from illness or fatigue’ kind of languid, either; I just thought I’d finished everything and plain ‘ol forgot about the A to Z.
So I’d best be off to do the M post. Can’t have that being a day late too, can we.
To compensate for the mind-blowing inadequacy of this post and its complete lack of useful or interesting content, I shall reward your time with this cute picture of a languid polar bear – and of course, my humble apologies.
Intriguing: ‘to arouse the curiosity or interest of by unusual, new, or otherwise fascinating or compelling qualities’
I’ve written about things that intrigue me before.
In What Pleases The Human Eye, I wrote about my fascination with certain mathematical shapes, and how I find the fact that we humans find certain shapes pleasing to the eye (even when there seems no good evolutionary reason why) even more intriguing. Plus of course historical mysteries like The Shell Grotto in Margate, which I wrote about in A is for Amazing.
I’ve no idea who one of my great-grandfathers was. His name is missing from my late grandmother’s birth certificate, whilst the man her marriage certificate names as her father has the same surname as her mother’s maiden name…This is either a)fake b)a coincidence, because the surname is very common d)suggests incest as it is the name of a fairly close family member. a) is most likely.
That’s pretty intriguing. I’ve had help from the local archivist, too. No luck. I’ll probably never know who my great-grandfather was.
What else do I find intriguing? Anthropology. Human evolution, which I even studied it at degree level for a while. Some of the earliest hominid fossils discovered look nothing like each other, yet both have features that indicate they’re possibly our ancestors. You can discover more about this here on the Smithsonian site. How can that be? So much for the missing link…
Other things that have ‘fascinating or compelling’ qualities for me are Jonathan Creek (not the last mini series though; what was going on there?!) and the new Sherlock Holmes. I like a good mystery with twists and turns. And Jodi Picoult novels (oooh, she’s so good).
I love letters, postcards and diaries from the past too – I sometimes get my fix from the brilliant website Letters of Note. And finally, I’m constantly intrigued by the plethora of facts, references and articles offered to my tiny little brain via the marvellous skills of the Qi Elves (via Twitter and on the website – you can find out more about the Elves themselves here) and Maria Popova’s fabulous Brain Pickings website.
In fact, I may not be intriguing, but I’m pretty darn intrigued on a daily basis. So there.
In 
e last mini series though; what was going on there?!) and the new Sherlock Holmes. I like a good mystery with twists and turns. And Jodi Picoult novels (oooh, she’s so good).