Englishman in New York

A very nice couple we know, Paul and Clarissa, recently lost their two-week old daughter Amelie, who had a congenital heart defect:

Let me summarize that one more time - we visited our pediatrician during Congenital Heart Defect Awareness week while Amelie was displaying symptoms of a congenital heart defect and we were told nothing was wrong.

I guess we’ll never get the answers to these questions, and maybe the onus should be on the parents. Either way, my faith in doctors has taken a severe dent.

We’re continuing the research on CHDs, not only to find answers for Amelie, but to be prepared should we decide on children in the future. A one in 125 chance is a little too close for comfort. I might even forward the research on to our pediatrician. He may find the information useful and enlightening.

Questions…

Had Amelie been diagnosed earlier, it is likely she’d still be here today. All she required was a relatively routine surgery to correct the narrowing of the aorta. Shortly before she died the cardiologist explained to me that although heart surgery has risks, this kind of surgery was performed routinely without complication. Of course, this is all speculation, but the “what if…” is too much to bear at times.

Amelie would have been four weeks old today. Happy Birthday my sweet princess!!!

I don’t think there is anything I can add. I guess, I just wanted you to know. And, if possible to help. Information about the Amelie Dobek Memorial Research Fund is here. And Paul’s blog is here.

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Ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham is to star in a fly-on-the-wall documentary about her forthcoming move to the US after signing a £10m deal with NBC.

The programme will “look inside her world”, her spokeswoman confirmed, but will not feature her footballer husband David, or their three sons.

How can a documentary look inside Victoria Beckham’s world without featuring her husband and three children?

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As good a training ground as the Western Morning News was, and as beautiful as the Cornish coastline could be, my two years as a trainee reporter in the Westcountry from 2001 to 2003 were mostly miserable. One of the few bright patches was my friend Ben, now a reporter at the Dorset Echo, who has set the good burghers of Weymouth atwitter with this tale of a hotel owner who could give Basil Fawlty a run for his money:

One pensioner was told by the owner to wash in the sea after she complained about having no hot water in her room

Another says she was informed she could not have her grapefruit and porridge in separate bowls because ‘there was not enough room on the table

Evening entertainment involved the owner shouting risqué answers to quiz questions

Owners told guests they could ‘pack their bags and go’ if they didn’t like it and even pointed out there was a railway station not far away.

Ben’s Dorset Echo piece is here. A 90-second example of Fawlty customer care follows.

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It was our third wedding anniversary this weekend. Sofie was supposed to be in South America on business but the trip was postponed at the last minute, which means we got the best anniversary gift—an unexpected chance to spend the weekend together.

Saturday, we visited the international art fair, the Armory Show, at Pier 94. Above is a peek inside one of the more fun works. Can you spot Sofie? (Unfortunately, I forgot to make a note of what the work was called and who it was by.)

Here, an Englishman in New York takes a closer look at Jake and Dinos Chapman’s CFC72540310.2 at the White Cube exhibition stand.

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Perhaps it was my anniversary mood, but I was quite taken with this love story about Celia Cruz and her husband Pedro Knight, by Emily Brady in the New York Times City section yesterday.

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Since my mum and dad are away, it seems the perfect time to link to this (not safe for work) example of time-based typography. What?

From Motionographer website:

The basic idea of the project is to take a piece of audio from wherever (movie, song, poetry reading, answering machine) and then represent that audio on screen using only typography.

Still unclear? Take a look at What Does Marsellus Wallace Look Like? (Via Metafilter.)

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Chair destroyed
By Andrew Daniels

AN OFFICE chair was destroyed after it was set on fire on the grassy area, off Maude Street, Kendal, this afternoon (Friday).

Fire crews from Kendal attended along with police.

A spokesman for the fire and rescue service said: “A delinquent set fire to an office chair in the middle of a grassy area and it was extinguished using one hose jet.”

Chair Destroyed, The Westmorland Gazette. (Submitted by The Chief.)

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An Egyptian court has sentenced an internet blogger to four years’ prison for insulting Islam and the president.

Abdel Kareem Soliman’s trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.

He had used his weblog to criticise the country’s top Islamic institution, the al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

His trial lasted five minutes.

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David at Ironic Sans is an ideas machine:

If I had the time, the means, and the resources, I’d make a series of large paintings of those little cards that describe paintings in museums. They would be paintings of the cards that describe themselves. For example, I’d do a painting in oil on canvas that describes itself as being an oil painting on canvas. Then I’d hang it in a gallery next to a little card that’s identical to the painting, but is actually there to describe the painting. I’d do a whole series, with different materials. Oil on canvas, Acrylic on wood, etc.

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Looks like Billy Weaver has been enjoying the snow. (A Brooklyn Lad)

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NEWARK, Feb. 19 — A Kearny High School junior on Monday drew some legal heavyweights into his battle with school officials over a teacher’s proselytizing in class.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the People for the American Way Foundation and a partner from a large Manhattan law firm stood beside the student, Matthew LaClair, as he and his family threatened to sue the Kearny Board of Education if their complaints are not resolved. Last fall, Matthew, 16, taped the teacher, David Paszkiewicz, telling students in a history class that if they do not believe that Jesus died for their sins, they “belong in hell.”

On the recordings, which Matthew made surreptitiously starting in September, Mr. Paszkiewicz is heard telling the class that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah’s ark and that there is no scientific basis for evolution or the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe

Student, 16, Finds Allies in His Fight Over Religion, New York Times

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