It’s June 4th and I hope we’re ready to talk about this book. @soror @Big Buckin' Longhorn @linders Here are some questions to get started, but feel free to post others or talk about anything you like about the book. What did you think? Did you like the characters? Have you read other books like this? Have you read other books set in Japan? Has anyone seen the TV series? I kept thinking about the challenges of translating this book. I love books about words and reading one from a Japanese perspective was lovely.

In your example, I would hope someone would say something about the racist statement immediately. I think pulling someone aside can be a decent strategy at times, but not in this case when someone who is a implied target of the statement is sitting there. I do think it’s imporant to extend some grace when you’re pointing out a racist statement to someone because sometimes they honestly don’t know, and if you don’t know the person well, you don’t know if racism is normal for them or not. The problem is that a lot of people consciously choose to say horribly racist things, rather than unknowingly doing so and saying something to them won’t help at all. It’s really hard for me to imagine that someone wouldn’t be aware that implying that terrorists have “dark” skin is racist so in this case I would be *much* more concerned about the target of the statement, not the person making it. I think that saying something right then is important. It’s okay to say that you don’t agree with something someone else said, and silence sometimes implies that you do agree, or at least that you were more worried about hurting the feelings of the woman who said the racist statement than supporting the woman who was actually the target (intended or not) of the statement.

I agree, ABC never should have brought her on and they got exactly what they bargained for. I won’t defend that decision at all. If they had dithered around for a day or a week, waiting to see what the reaction would be or if it would all die down and they could get away with keeping the show, I wouldn’t think they’d done the right thing either. But it’s entirely possible they could have kept the show if they’d waited and I still think they are losing money by cancelling. It was the very quick decision to cancel the top-rated television that I think was unusual, before sponsors announced they were pulling out or boycotts started. But I also don’t feel super passionate about the position and think the opposite position has good points.

We could spend a lot of time trading inappropriate comments that various public figures have made. Sometimes people get fired for them, sometimes they get elected to important positions for them. There is plenty of hypocrisy to go around and plenty of calls for all sorts of people to be fired. In this specific case, I am glad that ABC looked beyond profits, something that is too rare for American businesses, and quickly fired Roseanne.

Yes! Completely different.

We’ll be starting a discussion of The Great Passage by Shion Miura on Monday, June 4th. There’s still plenty of time to read the book. If you’d like me to tag you in the discussion post on the 4th, leave a comment here and I’d be happy to do that.

I’m in a similar position with a nonprofit that started on FB. We recently moved all of our work to Basecamp. It does require people to learn a new platform and it’s not free, but it’s a million times better than FB or email or any of the free discussion groups. It has made a huge difference in our ability to communicate with each other, especially since we live all over the world. We did try using various google products, and we still do for some things, but basecamp has been far more effective for us.

I think that in most other TV shows, one racist cast member could be fired and still keep the show alive. But there is no possible way for “Roseanne” to continue without Roseanne. I agree that many people are being indirectly punished for her racism, but they should blame her, not ABC.

I have only been summoned while living outside of the US.

There are lots of strategies people used in the past to cool their homes. One really common method in the hottest parts of the Middle East are windcatchers (malqaf in Egyptian Arabic or badgir in Farsi) that funnel air through the house. Also, in super hot places like Saudi Arabia, people usually built in wadis. There are few ancient towns here that are built in exposed areas. Cities like Riyadh never could have been built to the size they are today without air conditioning. Wadis are noticeably cooler in the summer.

I’m not quite sure what to vote. We have individual wall/roof units in each room (including the kitchen and the garage, since it’s apparently not uncommon for drivers to live in the garage here) but they’re not window units and they’re not portable. So it’s not central air but they are more built in than the second option implies. Central air would be crazy expensive here. We just turn on the AC in the rooms we’re currently in, except I have to leave the AC in the kitchen on almost year round to keep the food from going bad immediately. I also store medications in the kitchen since the bathrooms get quite hot during the day.

I really like cities too, but they have to be living cities with a history, not artificial cities like the one I currently live in.

I have very limited transportation options right now, so I’ve had to make the grocery store one of my happy places since it’s the only place I go most weeks. When I do get to leave the city, this is where I want to go.

I spend $60-$90/week and feel like I can buy whatever I want (if it’s available here, that is), so $70/week wouldn’t be difficult if I trimmed a bit in a couple of places. But this country has a low cost of living, even in the most expensive city. I looked at the current $70/week budget on the website mentioned in the OP and it’s all about buying whatever is marked way down at the grocery store. That isn’t doable for most families. She’s shopping nearly every day and never knows what she’ll find at the grocery store. That actually is how I have to shop in most countries, but most US families need to spend less time on shopping and cooking that than allows. I think it’s smart to figure out where clearance items are at the grocery store (can food be on clearance or is there another word?) and check what’s available, but not all grocery stores do that. It would be a fun challenge to cook decent meals based on clearance food for a little while, but not something I’d want to do long term.

Sending lots of hugs.

I make plain yogurt and I love several Turkish brands of labnah, but I’ve never been a fan of any brand of Greek-style yogurt I’ve tried in the US. I suspect that is mostly because I prefer whole milk yogurt and skim milk yogurt always tastes a bit off to me, strained or not. As for the tang, I incubate my yogurt as long as possible so it has plenty of flavor. I rarely eat it sweetened, although I do love it sweetened with vanilla sugar and topped with homemade granola. Yogurt is more traditionally used in savory dishes rather than as a sweet treat so there are plenty of ways to eat it without sweetening it. A simple favorite here is strained whole milk yogurt topped with zaatar and eaten with flatbread.

I think it’s worth going though every single item you own when you move and decide if you want to take it somewhere else. If you’re packing yourself, that’s easy to do. If you’re hiring people or if someone is helping you, then do a lot of organization first. Here’s what I do (we’re in the middle of our 24th move right now). Pull stuff out of closets and look through everything and think about whether you really want to deal with it again on the other side of the move. Have a few designated rooms in the house where stuff collects. Don’t worry about packing or anything since the movers will do it, just have a space where the stuff you want to move goes. This helps me go through everything, but it also keeps the movers from having to be in every single room for a long time. I like to have spaces where the movers don’t have to go so I can take a break on moving day without worrying that something will get forgotten in a room. Also have a spot for stuff that you’ll want to unpack first, or make sure that some boxes are set aside to be pulled out of the truck first so you can tackle them immediately. For me, that’s the kitchen and clothes, plus games. If possible, have the movers bring in those boxes first and you can begin unpacking the important things immediately so that even if you’re out of energy when the movers leave, you’ve already done the things you care about most. This requires at least two adults to be on hand so one can direct the movers while another unpacks. Personally, I don’t like to have the movers unpack the boxes, but some people do. I hate to have piles of things around to put away and just working through the boxes is much easier for me. I have the movers come back later to take away all of the empty boxes. This time I have been cleaning while the movers are packing which has been really nice. This might be obvious to some, but since most of our moves haven’t had packers doing a lot of the work, I didn’t think about this before now. It gives me something worthwhile to do because I hate sitting around while the movers are working since I just want the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. Good luck! You’ve already done a lot of the work preparing the house to sell so you’ll be fine.

We’re moving in a few weeks so the goal is to eat the odds and ends of food we have around and only buy vegetables and milk. But our stuff is already shipped of so I’m working with limited kitchen supplies which makes it hard to think of things to eat. I have enough fish for two different meals so I’ll probably make coconut turmeric fish with rice and greens one night and maybe some fish with toasted garlic and some zucchini and more rice. We have a little bit of about five different kinds of rice to work through. There’s also two pounds of cooked ground beef that will probably because lasagna two different days. The garbanzo beans will go into koshary and fattah. The black beans will probably go with more rice and maybe some salsa. There are a few packages of different kinds of noodles that will probably get combined with tofu and whatever sauce I have ingredients for. I also have arugula pesto in the fridge I need to use, and some dosa batter. I’d eat out sometimes to avoid some stress, but it’s Ramadan here and no restaurants are open till 6:30, plus the traffic is awful then since everyone is trying to get to their iftar on time. I think our meals will get more and more eclectic as we get further into Ramadan.

I’ll probably turn it on, but it’s in the afternoon for me so it’s not hard to watch. There’s no way I’d get up for it. I was in Kyrgyzstan for the last one so I watched while I was chopping vegetables for dinner. I still remember the odd sense of dislocation from watching such a high-profile event in the UK from a kitchen that didn’t even have plumbing in a town in pretty much the middle of nowhere. Today I’m getting ready for the movers who are coming tomorrow so it will be a nice break to watch for a bit.

Let’s plan on The Great Passage on June 4th. I’ll post a reminder a few days before. Thanks!

That’s a good idea. I randomly chose a book and got The Great Passage. If there are no objections, let’s do that one. It’s a little over 200 pages and looks like a quick read. Could we start discussing on June 4th, or do we need more time? The 15th?

The original idea was to read through the nine books that amazon had available for free a few weeks ago, so hopefully people would already have the books. Here’s a list: The books include: The House by the River by Lena Manta Still Waters by Viveca Sten The Great Passage by Shion Miura Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan The Question of Red by Laksmi Pamuntjak The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen Ten Women by Marcela Serrano Maybe we could read through this list and continue on with others if people wanted to?

Everyone, what book shall we read next?

I was thinking that too when I looked at Light of the Fireflies. It looks like it is rather depressing too.

What do you think the title refers to?