RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Insult Islam: You Die (Orhan Pamuk)

There was, for example, the poet Nurettin, who admired all things European but took little interest in politics until the day a radical Islamist news paper unearthed something he’d written years earlier-an essay on art and religion-and distorted it to charge that he’d insulted our faith”; afraid of looking frightened, Nurettin dusted off his old ideas and passionately reasserted them; the army-backed secular press warmed to his fine Kemalist words and inflated their importance to make him seem the lifelong hero. Then one morning a device in a plastic bag hanging from the front tire of his car blew him into so many bits that his ostentatious throng of mourners had to march behind an empty coffin.

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS American Literature: Wait for the End of Segregation? (Martin Luther King Jr.)

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters: when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society….then you will find it difficult to wait.

Martin Luther King Jr., “Letters from Birmingham Jail”, 1963.

BEYOND PUPPYDOM: INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, EXPLORATIONS AND MAYHEM: RORY DYLAN STEPHEN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: ONCE STUNG ALWAYS SHY

I can scarcely believe I am in Switzerland undergoing “medical treatment” but then again after my Southeast Asian abduction adventures my life seems destined to be one of a rapid maturity. My philosophy is roll with the punches. Playing along with my abductors in New Jersey, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia saw me through safely so “playing along” with medical treatment may see me through that. And feeling so crappy upon my return to Toronto when I should be the happiest pup in town means to all reasonable people something may not be copasetic “upstairs”.

I enjoyed my breakfast of oatmeal and poached chicken the latter being no decent substitute for the Singaporean chicken I devoured in great quantities in Singapore. And I’d prefer a congee over oatmeal! I am getting along so well with Giak my roommate. Poor fellow had a leg blasted off just outside of Siem Reap while sniffing for landmines. He cries in his sleep and for some reason I do as well. A big part of my heart is in Southeast Asia perhaps this is why I enjoy Giak’s company. He’s big mutt of God knows what lineage.

We started my first day with a one-hour Alpine walk in the fresh air. I am feeling like Hans Castorp in Thomas Mann’s “Magic Mountain” breathing in this clean mountain air and then it happened. I was stung in my nose by an alpine bee I was chasing and it hurt like hell. I started shaking and our guide, Fritz, was about ready to call an air ambulance fearing a severe allergic reaction but as there was no swelling, shortness of breath or drooling we continued on our way. Chasing stinging insects was fun once upon a time but once stung always shy!

RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Wouldn’t Hesitate to Chop You to Pieces for “Offending” Islam (Orhan Pamuk)

“Those religious high school boys you saw in the cells today have your face permanently etched in their memories. They’ll throw bombs at anyone and anything; they don’t care as long as they are heard. No one who’s even slightly westernized can breathe free in this country unless they have a secular army protecting them, and no one needs this protection more than intellectuals who think they’re better than everyone else and look down on other people. If it weren’t for the army, the fanatics would be turning their rusty knives on the lot of them and their painted women and chopping them all into little pieces. When the day comes, they’ll kill you for just being a little westernized, for being frightened and forgetting the Arabic words of a simple prayer….”

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Berate Europe (Orhan Pamuk)

But now, no one could hear anything above the booing and catcalls and angry whistles from the religious school boys. Despite the guilty, fearful silence at the front of the auditorium, few could hear what Funda Eser was saying that when the angry girl tore the scarf off her head, she was not just making a statement about people or about national dress, she was talking about our souls, because the scarf, the fez, the turban, and the headdress were symbols of the reactionary darkness in our souls, from which we should liberate ourselves and run to join the modern nations of the West. This provoked a taunt from the back rows that the entire auditorium heard very clearly.,

‘So why not take everything off and run to Europe stark naked.’

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS CANADIAN WINE: PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY CHEATERS?

Approximately 220 kilometres from Toronto and 370 kilometres from Montreal lies Prince Edward County or “the County” as it is affectionately known as. It has its own geographical designation as some of it wines are “VQA Prince Edward County” but many of the wines bottled in the County are made from grapes trucked in from Niagara. So if you are looking to discover the terroir of Prince Edward County in your glass you may be “cheated”. Many tourists “discovering” the wines of Prince Edward County are drinking wine made from Niagara grapes! Many, I suspect, have no idea of the trucked in grapes and many wouldn’t care.

One example is Three Dog Winery’s Dog House Red which is a generic VQA Ontario made from Niagara grapes specifically 44% Merlot, 32 % Cabernet Franc and 24% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Aroma: Black cherry, raspberry, wet stone and milk chocolate.

Palate: Mild tannins and restrained acids. Balanced as they say. Cherry, milk chocolate and a tad of rhubarb. Short finish.

Cellarbility:  I wouldn’t push my luck beyond 2027.

Food Match: Minced pork pappardelle. Or perhaps a pizza from a wood burning oven like they have at the winery.

Price: $18CDN.

RKS CANADIAN WINE Rating 89/100.

(Three Dog Winery 2023 Dog House Red, VQA Ontario, Three Dog Winery, Picton, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5%)

RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: The One by One Islamist Clean Up in Turkey (Orhan Pamuk)

The Islamists have embarked in a clean up operation. They’re taking care of us one by one. If you want to save your skin. I would advise you to increase your faith in God at the earliest opportunity. It won’t be long. I fear, before a moderate belief in God will be insufficient to save the skin of an old atheist.

Orhan Pamuk, “Snow”, 2002

RKS Literature: Easy American Victims: Inept and Unflappable Delhi Pickpocket (Salman Rushdie)

India can be a tough country for Americans, who are seen as walking dollar signs and, what as innocents abroad: legitimate targets, easy meat. Within hours of checking in at their five-star South Delhi hotel, they had been importuned, without ,leaving the grounds, by money changers offering them the best black rate in town for their greenbacks, vendors of semi-precious stones which could have been polished pebbles, taxi drivers whose cousins ran a marble factory nearby, by hotel lobby palmists, young men of and women of quality offering serious negotiable currency for their cameras and clothes, older men inquiring of Marco whether Madonna was, in the first place, educated, and in the second place, available, and if so, for what fee; and an elevator pickpocket who was at once incompetent and unflappable, so that when Marco pointed out his hand was in the wrong pocket, the fellow simply extracted the offending limb, smiled broadly and said with a disarming shrug. It is an overcrowded country. What to do, we are used to treating our neighbour’s pocket as our own.

Salman Rushdie, “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”, 1999

RKS Literature: The United States the Real Victor in Vietnam (Salman Rushdie)

My idea was that the war in Indochina hadn’t ended at the time of the ignominious U.S. withdrawal. They’d left a wooden horse standing at the gates, and when the Indochinese accepted the gift, the real warriors of America-the big corporations, the sports culture of basketball and baseball, and of course rock’n roll-came swinging out of its belly and overran the place. Now in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi too, America stood revealed as the real victor. Indochina became just another consumer-serf of (and supplier of cheap labour to) Americana International. Almost every young Indochinese person wanted to eat, dress, bop and profit in the good old American way: MTV, Nike, McWorld. Where had soldiers had failed, U.S. values-that is greenbacks set to music-had triumphed.

Salman Rushdie, “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”, 1999

BEYOND PUPPYDOM: INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, EXPLORATIONS AND MAYHEM: RORY DYLAN STEPHEN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: RORY’S TREATMENT PLAN OUTLINED

Dr. Skilos has an aura of trust and perhaps a bit too much garlic fumes! He outlined what he thought would be my treatment plan;

Meditation: To manage the racing thoughts clouding my brain I was to mediate four times a day, two in a learning how to meditate group. I was to learn that the here and now was what counted not what had been. Managing the catastrophe.

Individual counselling lessons: Three a day with Dr. Skilos and one of his colleagues Dr. Jennifer Blintzman. Why was I not acting “normal”. What was eating away at me and why.

Proper nutrition: Who doesn’t love Southeast Asian food but too much of me beloved chicken congee laced with MSG was bound to cause irritability. Simple poached food and plenty of fruits and vegetables. One thing for certain I do not think I could return to eating kibble.

Establishing a proper routine: My wild routine in Southeast Asia might have seemed fun. But irregular hours, parties and high living can be deleterious to a puppy. Three Alpine walks a day. Classical music hour after breakfast and jazz hour after dinner. Lights out at 22:00 hours. Up at 08:00.

One episode of Lassie and The Littlest Hobo each day: There can be inspiration in a quiet canine way without political intrigue and extreme danger.

Confrontational situationality; The final test of recovery would be a return trip to Singapore for a “boring” visit. If I could return to the old haunts of Singapore  frequented with Bobby Fong Jr. and the beautiful Amira and remain cool calm and collected that would mean evidence of improved mental health.