Recently in Life Category

Mum & DadPeople don't lose battles with cancer. From the BBC's Will & Testament blog:

It's unfortunate, however, that The Daily Telegraph chose to run with the headline "Sudders the blogger loses cancer fight". Anyone familiar with Sudders's story must know that the word "lose" does not apply in his case. Nor does it apply, in fact, in the story of anyone who dies following a cancer diagnosis.

I've watched both my parents die of cancer (that's them on the right, setting off on their honeymoon, back in the 60s). Dad lasted 9 months from diagnosis, Mum two and a half years. Dad made my brother's wedding, and was healthy for it, when the initial diagnosis was that he wouldn't. Mum lived an active and healthy life, even attending (and enjoying) a charity ball, weeks before she died. Neither of them lost their fights with cancer. In both cases, death was inevitable. But they both took what they needed from the life they had left. The stock phrase "lost their battle" puts the emphasis on the wrong place; the cancer, not the life.

The problem is lazy journalism - the rote use of familiar, stock phrases instead of crafting something accurate and individual to the case. I had an editor once who used to tell me that she'd made my stories more "punchy". Inevitable, that meant she'd added the phrase "hit out at" to the copy, or some variation thereof. To read the average issue of that publication, you'd think that the industry was full of fisticuffs.

It's part of that journalistic arrogance, in an unconscious way; the reduction of an individual story composed of people into a stock category box. And, as the web allows real, human stories to emerge the way Adrian Sudbury's did, we can't afford to do that any more.

Wrong: Dogs in Costumes

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This is wrong:

Hula DogAnd there's plenty more where that came from.

We publish this. I'm so very proud.

The Owl Army

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Ann Tinworth, 1939 - 2008

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Mum & I at the ball
There are some phrases that your head just refuses to accept as applying to you. "My Mum is dead" is one of them. But my head is going to have to get used to the idea, as Mum passed away, surrounded by her family, last Wednesday.

Thought For The Day

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If you wear contact lenses, make sure you put the left eye one in the left eye, and the right one in the right eye. If you don't, you'll end up having a terribly confusing morning and you'll have a splitting headache by lunchtime.
Back in London, back at work. And this is what has been occupying me today:

  1. Movable Type 4.1 has been working very well for us during my week away. We're into "steady as she goes" mode, until we go up to 4.2 next month.
  2. The bad family news seems to have mysteriously, but pleasingly, changed into good family news
  3. This blog is now protected by Typepad Antispam, rather than Akismet. I hope this will solve problem discussed in posts passim.
  4. Is is me, or is Twitter really up the spout?
  5. What is this Plurk of which you tweet?

I Am Not Blogging

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I annoy am not* blogging, because I am on holiday on the south Devon coast.

And I'm only posting this because I'm playing with my iPhone, while Lorna gets me a Guinness.

See you all on Monday.

*Note to self - beware the iPhone's autocorrect when posting from the pub.

Tea, Papers & Chemo

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Tea, Papers & Chemo, originally uploaded by Adam Tinworth.

She's a cheery soul, my mother.

The Hospital Run

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The Hospital Run, originally uploaded by Adam Tinworth.

It's only 10 minutes from the apartment to the Norfolk & Norwich
Hospital, but an intervening school and badly-phased set of traffic
lights can extend this rather.

Ah well, just two more runs to do on this chemo cycle.

And yes, the car was well and truly stationary when I took this shot.

Moblog Wednesday: Breakfast

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Moblog Wednesday: Breakfast, originally uploaded by Adam Tinworth.

And here I start a day's experimentation with blogging from my iPhone.

Breakfast for us here means a quick trip to the deli at 38 St Giles St
in Norwich, a fabulous little place adjacent to Adlard's Restaurant.
They do a mean Americano and their coissants are the best I've tasted
outside those from the boulangerie near my brother's place in France.
Highly recommended.

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