Planning A Club Meeting or party in October and want a theme? Biro, Black History and national and international days and other ideas

  October 

October is the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere. In Ocober you can celebrate black history month, space week, 

Black History Month. Black history month is celebrated by the museum of inventions in the USA by the story of the man who invented the breadcrumb machine. As you eat you can write a poem using a Biro, thinking of Virgil or older persons or teachers. Let's go, with our list.

1 International Day of Older Persons.

Birthday of Henry Clay Work who wrote My Grandfather's Clock.

2 International day of non violence. Birthday of Gandhi. World Statistics Day.

3 World Temperance Day.

Death of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind: quotation Tomorrow is another Day.

4 Animal Day. Habitat Day. Space week (4th to 10th).

5 Unesco World Teachers' Day.

6 UK National poetry day. National noodle day.

7 World Cotton Day. (World Space Week from 4th to 10th.)

8 International Podiatry (foot health) day

9 World Post Day.

10 World mental health day.

11 Birthday of Eleanor Roosevelt who said, Nobody can ever make you feel inferior without your permission.

12 Columbus Day. Spanish national holiday.

13 UN Day for Natural Disaster Reduction.

14 World Standards Day.

15 Birthday of Poet Virgil who was epic poet Laureate under Augustus.

Global UN World handwashing day.

16 World Food Day

17 International day for eradication of Poverty.

18 (2021 - depending on the equinox, Bahai feast of knowledge.)

19 Mother Teresa's Day, Albania.

20 World statistics day

21 UK Apple Day.

22 Australia: Unofficial wombat day.

22 National nut day. International Stuttering awareness day.

23 Hungarian republic day.

The name of László Bíró (‘Leslie Judge’) is known worldwise because the Budapest-born newspaper editor invented the eponymous (named after a person) biro. Seeing fountain pen ink ran and smudged paper, Bíró with the help of his brother, György, a chemist, create a pen with a revolving tip - a ballpoint.

Bíró patented his pioneering everyday object in 1938, abut being a Hungarian Jew, he was forced to flee Nazi-occupied Europe. He settled in Argentina, where his biro was produced and his pens helped RAF aircrew during bombing missions over Germany. Bíró died in 1985 – but lives in our memory every 29 September, when Argentines celebrate his birthday on the nation’s annual Día del Inventor.

24 United Nations Day.

25 Start of World Diasarmaent Week

26 Birthday of Napoleon Hill, author of think and grow rich.

27 UNESCO Audiovisual heritage - words and music from the past (national anthems) 

28 UK National Chocolate Day.

29 Disarmament week (Oct 25 to 30th)

30 Death of Emma Wheeler Wilcox. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone. World Thrift Day.

31 Birthday of Keats: A thing of beauty is a joy forever. I never was afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among of the best. World Cities Day.

Useful Websites

https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/october-international-days/

Who Said What When by Angela Lansbury, a paperback book, printed on demand by www.lulu.com, ID 14952577, has a quotation for the birth, death or other event of famous people every day of the year.

Quick Quotations by Angela Lansbury, also from lulu.com, has a section at the end listing national and international holidays for each month.

What To Expect When Invited To Funerals: A Christian Cremation or Liberal Jewish Funeral In London and more

A family travelled from Australia to London for their friend's funeral. It's snowing. Will we reach the funeral and get back? Are modern funerals like those in the old days?

My late father told me that when he was a teenager in the late 1930s in London, England, he organized the cars to the cemetery for his grandfather's funeral on a snowy day. The car got stuck in the snow and stopped. My father had to get out and push, standing with one foot on the running board, then turn the cranking handle. My father's uncle Gus, nicknamed the Joker, quipped, "Your Grandad doesn't want to go!"

The snow in the suburbs is worse than the warm centre of London. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
Winter seems to be funeral time. Is it the cold killing everybody off? Or the cold days and short days, and dark depressing everybody?  I was invited to another funeral this week in 2018. Invited is not the right word, not etiquette. You are not invited. That's for weddings and celebrations. You are informed. It was modern. The message came by what's ap.

My lime green car is not the appropriate colour for a funeral. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

We can hardly see to drive. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Whose car will we travel in?

The mourners travel with the coffin in a cortege. Here are the funeral cars which went to a Christian cremation. Funeral cars look alike - unless you have a horse and carriage.

 Funeral Car In Black. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

What else did I find out I needed to know? Parking.

Parking
Parking - is it easy? The last two or three cemeteries I went to had big parking areas. But this week's was in the centre of London and very difficult parking. A good thing I went with somebody else.

Liberal Jewish Cemetery. Quite different to the Orthodox ones. Despite the theory that 'anything goes nowadays', most mourners wore black or dark colours. My plan to wear black to play it safe turned out to be correct.

Clothing Colours
Nothing worse than being the only person in bright pink at a funeral of over two hundred people all in black, when you are not even related. (That happened to me at a Catholic church in Southern England in 2017. I wasn't wearing bright pink, dusty rose, but it looked luminous like bright pink. I felt as inconspicuous as a flashing Belisha Beacon.)

Seats and No Seats
This month, Feb 2018, the funeral of a young man with cystic fibrosis, died in his late thirties, had over 200 people. His friends included those who had flown in from Australia. Latecomers did not get seats. I was standing inside. The last people to arrive, even worse off, were left outside, could not get in the door. They could not sit. They could not see nor hear the speeches.

There were three speeches by the mother, father and sister. No microphone, so those outside could not hear.

A Christian Cremation Funeral
In January I went to the cremation of a Christian neighbour, who had reputedly died (committed suicide?), after depression. The white coffin and pink flowers helped uplift the spirits. At the cremation, the coffin was left behind as we filed out, and curtains closed around the coffin.

Liberal Jewish Burial Funeral
For a Jewish burial in England, the coffin sits in the prayer hall while the eulogy (speech of praise) is read after the prayer. The Jewish minister was a woman.

The prayer books open back to front, because of the Hebrew, but the English is on the opposite page. You may have to share prayer books.

Reading Hebrew
If you want to learn the Hebrew alphabet you can do so on Duolingo Tinycards. You can also brush up on your Hebrew words and phrases and simple sentences with Duolingo.

Services seem to start, or continue with at least one paragraph about we are all dust, and live briefly as the grass.

Jewish Prayers
You might be interested in learning the Kaddish (prayer said at funerals, actually an affirmation of belief in and trust in God) in Hebrew or English or both. In the Liberal prayer book which was used, some of the paragraphs read were from the Song Of Songs. You can find the sources at the back of the prayer book (following the numbered pages. The back which looks like the front because the book goes backwards).

In the audience we had members of a Toastmasters International club, of all religions and none.

How To Get A Copy Of The Speech
You are not supposed to take photos or videos. I think that's a pity. Often the person reading the eulogy has a handwritten or typed copy of the speech. If you wish to read it, or send it to a relative of yours who could not attend, they might send it to you or give it to you. If there's only one copy and they don't want to part with it, you could take a photo of it with your smart phone to read later.

(At another cremation, of my ninety-year-old distant aunt, I emailed a copy to the speech to the lady who ran the care home. She had gone to the wrong cemetery by mistake.)

I made a mistake not taking an umbrella.

That person with the umbrella did the right thing. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I was once told that Ashkenazi graves, for 'German' and also European people, have upright headstones, but graves for the Sephardi ('Spanish' -also Moroccan and Middle Eastern). This UK cemetery has both.

Wheeling The Coffin

At the Liberal Jewish funeral, the coffin, covered in dark cloth, was then wheeled out to the graveside, a long walk, with the coffin and the family at the front of the procession.

The oblong hole for the coffin was large and has wooden or other reinforcements to keep the walls upright. The cemetery attendants lower the coffin. Then they wheel off the bier, a bit like an empty hospital trolley, ready to collect the next coffin.

Spooky, seeing the black-coated men trundle off in the distance, without the coffin. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

At really big cemeteries the elderly and infirm can take an electric buggy a bit like a golf cart. Remember to wear closed shoes, not your high heels, in case your grave is at the end of the grassy field, especially if it is or was raining or snowing. In case it is raining or snowing, even if you travelled there by car, you might need an umbrella for the cemetery walk. Plus gloves and a warm hat and scarf.

The Practicalities

The coffin is wheeled to the graveside, where the removed earth is in a pile. At a Jewish cemetery, rabbi, the minister, is likely to say a few words in Hebrew. Then the rabbi may throw in a handful of earth, and the immediate family are the first to pick up a handful, or use a spade to throw in a lot.

No Flowers
At the Christian cremation, we had flowers on display. At a Jewish funeral generally no flowers.

A Romanian Eastern Orthodox Christian cemetery, full of colourful real or plastic flowers. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

No Hand Washing?
Traditionally, at a Jewish cemetery we would wash hands and say a prayer during the hand washing. You might think that it's healthy to wash your hands. But apparently, the prayer and ritual cleansing and re-starting life, symbolically is equally important, or more important, or the only important thing, depending who you ask. But this was Liberal Jewish. No hand-washing.

We debated whether everybody would go back into 'the chapel'. I was sure they would. You always do. Firstly, for a quick final prayer, secondly and/or to tell everybody they are all invited to tea wherever, and prayers later, at that address or another.

Then we drove off to the funeral tea. Nobody was organizing cars. I was now shunted to a different car, with different friends.

Mixed colour bread. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Funeral Tea - The Best
At a Jewish event, usually a kosher caterer. This event had a caterer who provided as far as I could see, no alcohol but several types of soft drinks.

Bagels with smoked salmon. What looked like aubergine wraps. Two people told me they were good. But I liked the smoked salmon half bagels, with either poppyseed or sesame seed.
I asked who did the catering. Somebody said Danieli.

Most unusual were the sandwiches in a mixture of breads including a bread which looked like a marble cake, with dark brown bread contrasting with white.

For 'dessert' skewers of fruit, giant red strawberries, yellow pineapple chunks, green fruit. While eating tea, yuou are likely to meet people from all over the world.

Esperanto on the grave, in Warsaw, Poland, of Zamenhof, who invented the international language. Photo by Adrian Grycuk in Wikipedia article on Zamenhof.

The Cemetery
If you linger in a cemetery, or go looking for your own family's graves, you will find Hebrew useful. If you don't have time to learn it, print out the Hebrew-English so you can read gravestones. It is enormously satisfying to read a word or two in a foreign language.

Many people nowadays are hunting for their ancestors' graves to help with their life history. Latin would be useful looking at Roman tombstones in museums. Esperanto for the grave of Zamenhof, the founder of the easy international language.

Useful Websites
Hebrew Alphabet
tinycards.duolingo.com - Hebrew
Hebrew Language
Duolingo.com - Hebrew

Kaddish
The kaddish is written in Aramaic, the language of the people, as well as some literature, at the time of the Romans and Jesus. Oddly enough, it focuses on god and eternity rather than the soul of the deceased. A bit like singing God Save the Queen at the end of a cinema performance in the old days, a solemn ending calling on the Almighty, trusting that your fragile brief life is part of the eternal good, and hoping that the Almighty will soon bring peace and life to all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaddish (Multiple technical translations.)
https://www.shiva.com/learning-center/sitting-shiva/kaddish/ (A soothing modern translation.)

Find A Grave
findagrave.com 70 million memories.

Catering For Funeral And Other Events
Daniels Catering
Tel: 020 8455 5826 Mob: 07931 576779
cafdan@aol.com
www.danielsbakery.co.uk

http://www.kosher.org.uk/caterers

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/whats-difference-between-kosher-and.html

What To Say
To orthodox Jewish mourning family you say: "Wish you long life."
When saying goodbye to other guests and relatives you might say, "May we meet again - on happier occasions!"

More on funerals:
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/what-was-good-about-middlesex-stadium.html

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/frank-talk-about-jewish-funeral.html
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on funerals and learning languages. Please like, follow, and share links to your favourite posts.

Frank Talk On Jewish Funerals, Finding Ancestors' Graves, Amy Winehouse and Alma Cogan

Problem
I am invited to a Jewish funeral. What do I wear? What do I say? What do I write? What will happen?

Answers
Apparently, most of the world's Jews are in the USA and most of them are not orthodox. However, if you are one of the non-Orthodox majority, or married into the faith, or are a neighbour or friend or colleague, you might be glad to have some idea of what to expect.

Invitations
Technically you aren't invited to a funeral. You are merely informed that it will take place and then it's up to you whether you will attend.

This year, for the first time, October 2017, we received notification of a friend's mother's funeral by mobile phone in a text message.

It helps to let the organizers know if you are attending. Then they can organize cars and catering.

What Do I Wear? Black?
I went to one shiva wearing black leather trousers and was told I should not be wearing trousers nor leather.

I went to a funeral wearing all black and everyone else was wearing colours. Strangers came up to me and expressed condolences thinking I was the widow.

I therefore wore dark green with an orange scarf and multi-colour jacket this time. When we drove in I saw that all the people, from three separate funeral, men and women, were all in black. Luckily I was wearing a reversible jacket, so I was able to turn it inside out ante cover the oranges scarf and the black hood covered my hat. I should have put my black hat in my bag, just in case.

Stones on a gravestone in a Jewish cemetery. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I am trying to remember the grave from Schindler's list. I remember the long line of people putting a stone on the grave, which tells the living that you have visited.

Shoes
I had known to wear black shoes in case they got muddy. I wanted to wear boots. I didn't have anything suitable. Wellington boots, white plastic with a red St George's cross, whilst ideal for many occasions such as camping, did not seem suitable for a Jewish funeral. People were dressed very smartly, as if for a wedding - but black, as if for a wedding of somebody dead.

Wear walking shoes. Cemeteries can be huge. It was a 15 minute walk to the grave, then back again. No wonder I saw benches by two graves. There's not enough room between most of the gravestones for a bench.

A Minyan
You are supposed to have a minyan, a quorum, a minimum of ten males to say the ritual prayers at a funeral, therefore a Jewish male who was not expecting to go to the funeral might be asked along at the last minute to make up numbers.

Why does this shortage occur? Because even if you have twenty people, the women don't count. The death might occur unexpectedly and a Jewish funeral will be arranged within 48 hours (not on a Sabbath) so people might not have time to travel from overseas. If the person is old, all their contemporaries, their friends, might already be dead. Some of the males are not Jewish and therefore can't be counted in the minimum, because that is the rule and for the sensible reason that they won't know enough Hebrew to say prayers and generally help and support.

Timing of Funeral Ceremony
Arrive in advance. Funerals are short and strictly timed. The staff are busy running people to the grave and back on electric carts. You cannot have delays. You will miss your funeral and end up at somebody else's. You need to arrive before the end and stay to the end of the prayers after the burial, because the location of any tea is announced at the end.

The Cemetery
Put the location of the cemetery in your satnav. Chestnut, in North London, is very confusing because there are two cemeteries, one orthodox and one less Orthodox. At one funeral we went to at least two cars of people were delayed by going to the wrong cemetery.

You might want to visit a grandparent's or ancestor's grave whilst you are at a cemetery. It's handy to keep in your diary the names of ancestors and famous people and where they are buried. I was able to see a photograph of a gravestone when I typed a name on a board in the cemetery forecourt. I now have records of two ancestors in a cemetery. If I had thought about it, I could have typed in Alma Cogan's name and photographed her grave, or a picture of it on the board.

Name Board
Park your car and walk to the front of the prayer hall. There may be more than one funeral. A board outside states the name of the person who is about to be buried. If you arrive earlier you see another name. Yes, you are in the right place. you just have to wait for your family's name to appear and not go up and join the wrong group. You may have two or even three sets of people, all in black.

If in doubt, look for a rabbi, and ask him which funeral. Or a cemetery official.

FINDING YOUR ANCESTOR'S GRAVE

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Cemeteries have gone high tec. This is wonderful. You can type in your ancestor's name and up comes the date of burial of everybody with the same surname, the section and the row. 

In the prayer hall
The women stand on the right, then men on the left.

Prayers and Prayer Book
The Prayer book is in both Hebrew and English.

Hand Washing
You wash your hands afterwards. A sign reminds you to wash your hands after the burial before re-entering the hall and picking up the prayer book for the post funeral prayers.

Orthodox people will probably be praying as part of the hand washing ritual which is done, as Queen Elizabeth first said about her annual bath -'whether I need it or not".

This seems sensible, if you are touching the earth to throw it into the grave. But it is supposed to be ritually cleansing, in effect symbolically washing away the misery of the mourning and enabling you to start afresh washing away the depression and starting life again with hope.

The House and Chairs
1 The mourners, the immediate family, sit grouped together, traditionally on low chairs to be closer to the earth. This is handy, so you can line up after the prayers, and find them during the evening.

2 You greet and comfort each one, and say the traditional greeting, "Wish you long life!"

In my opinion this is a very sensible thing to say, because some mourners will feel quite despondent, even suicidal, so it helps, rather than saying negative things to say something positive and future orientated.

The Mirrors
Mirrors are covered.

Covered mirror in the downstairs cloakroom. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Prayers / Shiva
Prayers are said in the evening. This could take place for one night, two or three nights, for the benefit of those who were unable to attend earlier, or all seven nights, as is a tradition, to enable more people to arrive and give the mourners more people to offer comfort and distraction. If you can't make the funeral, ask about the Shiva. Shiva means seven, the seven nights of mourning, 'sitting shiva' - sitting mourning and receiving guests for seven evenings.

Food and drink
You are likely to be offered tiny shots of kosher alcohol and alternative non-alcoholic drinks.

Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse, the singer, 14 Sept 1983-23 July 2011. Confusingly her funeral was held at Edgewarebury Lane Cemetery but she was cremated at Golder's Green Crematorium. Her gravestone is in Bushey Jewish Cemetery where her name is added to the tombstone of another relative, I presume her grandmother. Her songs included Back To Black. She was given a place in Madame Tussaud's, Baker Street, London. Her statue is in Stables Market, Camden Town, London.

Amy Winehouse. Madame Tussaud's, Baker Street, London, England. Photo by Wolfgang Kopp in Wikipedia. 

Alma Cogan
Alma Cogan, singer, May 19 1932-Oct 26 1966 is buried in Bushey Cemetery. Alma Cogan, known as the girl with the giggle in her voice, was a friend of the Beatles. Her songs included Don't Do A Tango With An Eskimo. She died of throat cancer.

Useful Websites
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=73797369 Amy Winehouse grand gravestone in Edgwarebury Lane Cemetery, Edgware, Middlesex.
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=10464873&PIpi=32822560 Alma Cogan's grave in Bushey Cemetery.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Bill Gates Free Museum, Water, and Toilets

Washington state, USA, top left, is where you can visit Bill Gates' free museum near the Seattle Center and Space Needle.

I am going to tell you about problems with toilets, how to solve them, and the Bill and Melinda Gates museum and exhibition center you can visit, and read about, in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Problems (and solutions)
Here's are some problems which have bothering me, and some of them are being solved by Bill and Melinda Gates.
1 Traveller's Tummy

Either you or your family or somebody you know has had diarrhoea on holiday, after a meal out at a restaurant. Hand washing can stop your re-infecting yourself. Those signs in UK toilets in restaurants are not just for patrons. The signs are a legal requirement to remind staff to wash their hands.(If the sign is in the toilet, probably staff use this toilet and there's no other one for staff.)

2 Piles

Somebody you know at some time has developed constipation or hemorrhoids (piles), nowadays thought to come from too long sitting down at home, work and on transport. (So how come my now retired gardener got piles? But he may be just one exception. Two things are 100 percent certain, as American Benjamin Franklin said, death and taxes. All other stats are mainly about probabilities and how near you can get to 100 percent, such as reducing fatalities.)

3 Toilet Safety
Women in India and other countries have been attacked when going out to the fields or open land at night because homes have no indoor toilets. More toilets are needed in homes and public buildings.
Toilets in Malaysia and some toilets in Singapore have kiddie low-level urinals. Often near the door of the Ladies. I saw a boy's urinal in the Ladies in the new station, Cashew station, in Singapore.

4 More Toilets Needed
Local authorities have not enough money to build toilets and are closing those which exist to save money on maintenance. Toilets should be a priority. Volunteers, paid toilets with one free cubicle (which was the norm in 1950s Great Britain when people would say euphemistically, 'I have to spend a penny'). Shopping malls and railway stations where the free communal toilet is paid for my all the shops and used by staff and customers, with hourly checks.

5 Toilets Are Being Built
Some organizations are building toilets in Africa. But in places without running water, you need to dispose of waste without open sewers, nor infecting water such as rivers, beaches, and the sea.

Story

Through a London branch of Toastmasters International, the Harrovians speakers' club in London, I met Apollo, who changed jobs and came back to tell us how he was helping a project to provide toilets in Africa. He said, "It's very gratifying. In my previous work, nobody thanked me. After I helped install a toilet in Africa, a happy woman came to me with tears in her eyes and said, 'Thank you'.

6 Urine and sewage must not pollute public places (such as lifts in skyscrapers and stairwells in car parks) so we need more public toilets. Singapore and the UK have has evidence from modern technology of people committing offences and have been able to take punitive and preventive measures.

All of us, every day, have personal needs. We all need a drink of water and a toilet throughout the day, at home and when travelling.

Nowadays people carry bottled water with them everywhere, adults and children. America is the best country for water.

The United Nations tells us we need to adopt a squatting position on the toilet, and to wash our hands, with soap, after going to the toilet and before eating. Once we have sorted out ourselves, we need to ensure that everybody worldwide has access to indoor toilets and hand washing. Who says?

Story
I came across this news in a roundabout way through my daily research. I was looking for events this month and throughout the year. I looked up the United Nations days of the year. I found two interesting pages, one which sounded abstract, on statistics, the Statistics Day, I've already heard a lot about water, Just A Drop charity at World Travel Market, but the other which seemed more purely practical, World Toilet Day. Statistics and toilets are connected.

Let's look at hand washing. I had seen reports that hand-washing cuts down on diarrhea, or re-infecting yourself.

Singapore Signs
I had also seen the signs in Singapore about washing your hands with soap, and how to wash the back of your hands and how long to do it. The Singapore newspapers, heavy and light, and the internet had run articles about hand washing and backup stories showed how to persuade people to wash their hands, and wash with soap and wash longer. (Oops - do you use soap EVERY time? From now on I will!

Answers (and more problems)
The United Nations.
Bill Gates is investing. We need new designs of toilets to cope with those who want to squat in places with only pedestal or throne toilets and opportunities to sit on a throne or pedestal in places with only squatting toilets.

Most places worldwide have only one type of toilet. Anybody from England in the old days (the 1950s to today) would have gasped and shouted to others in horror on trips overseas, "It's a French toilet!" Two or three or four decades later I noticed the French restaurants, hotels, and homes had mostly abandoned their squat toilets. The French tourists in Singapore, finding a squat toilet at the end of the row of cubicles in the ladies, said, "Oh la la! Toilette Turque!" (Oh, no! A Turkish style toilet.)

How does this affect me as a traveller? Or as an armchair traveller researching at home, somebody in the tourist industry, organizing a meeting, choosing a venue, giving to a charity, spreading the news on the media? What about giving to charity, paying tax, local government?

What worries me about the Daily Mail article headline is that it spreads the seeds of doubt in the mind of those who think you should not bother to wash hands.

I have had a nurse in a doctor's surgery tell me that it's pointless to wash her hands before giving me a blood test 'because germs are in the air all around you' and her supervisor at a hospital had told her not to waste time on washing herself and the patients. A year later I got a different set of stories story about all the precautions and guarantees, that the needle for each patient was new, and she washed her hands between patients etc.

I caught myself infected by the doubt and thinking about washing hands, "Oh, it doesn't matter". I am glad to re-read the research and remind myself that: yes, it does matter.

One study purports to show that squatting improves the speed and ease of going to the toilet.

After a member of my family had what could have been life-threatening lymphoma, four of us spend hours every week exchanging emails on academic studies about the statistics of recovery and different treatments.

***

The good news is

1 Bill Gates is encouraging and investing in research to improve and distribute toilets worldwide.

2 You can visit his FREE museum on the subject in Seattle, Washington. 

FREE MUSEUM TO VISIT IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON USA

VISITOR CENTRE

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center
440 Fifth Ave N.
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 709-3100 ext. 7100
Open Tues-Sat
10 am - 5 pm
Admission free

GO TO PAGE TO SEE Nov 2nd 2017 Discovery Center Launch Party 5-8 pm pacific time.

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Visitor-Center

Read on:
You may be interested to check out for yourself the two pages I looked at - as well as the article in the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3830867/Why-NOT-wash-hands-soap-GOOD-thing-health-allergy-expert-explains.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer
One of my next posts will be on what to see in Seattle, Washington. Please share links to your favourite posts. You can follow and comment on this website and contact me on Facebook messenger

***
PS

I then remembered an article in the Daily Mail and went to look it up. My view is that the headline is misleading. the United Nations figures are very clear. So are the facts in the body of the Daily Mail article.

The United Nations report and Statistics figures show that about 1 in 6 children in the early 1800s and in some of the under developed third world countries die before the age of five today. That is far higher than the numbers dying from nut allergies.

It doesn't mean we should allow people to die from nut allergies. But nor does it mean we should stop washing our hands, as the article said, for the very young and fragile, the elderly, those in the food service industries, should still wash hands.

Looking at the statistics, as well as from general knowledge, you can see that survival rates in maternity hospitals, hospitals in general, are statistically improved by hand washing. The Un statistics show that the death rates and illness rates go down dramatically with hand washing. Hand washing reduces diarrhea as well as breathing problems. Ability to thrive and work depends on the brain, the lungs, and the heart. Diarrhoea affects not only the circulation of the blood but the lungs.

Inspecting meat by the Glatt kosher inspectors involves checking the lungs to see if an animal was healthy. Now I can see why.

STATISTICS VALIDATION ASIDE
The statistician in the family was the final arbiter of the conclusions. We looked first at the credentials. 
Was this somebody's opinion? 
Did the researcher have more than one person studied to prove the conclusion. 
('My Dad did x, such as smoking, and survived,' is not a guarantee to other people. Why? Because Dad might be the only survivor of 999 who died doing the same thing.)

If genetics plays a part, somebody else's Dad might have a strong constitution. People who are sick need to know what prevention and cure treatments help people like patients who are already ill and have different genetics or inherited characteristic and constitution. 

We were always looking at: 
how many people were studied; 
over what period of time; 
were the results greater than the normal statistical variation which would normally occur by chance, from the toss of dice; 
and were the same results found later by other studies elsewhere - 
plus how recent was the research?  

Was there a control group? If eating bananas or baked beans happened in countries which had WWII, that might seem to prove that baked beans or bananas created WWII. But if eating bananas before and after WWWII, or in countries not involved in WWII, you can see that bananas did not cause WWII. (The same applies to praying for rain, which keeps failing until eventually weather changes independently of the prayers, and predicting whether you will have a boy or girl and giving the money back to the 50% who had a boy and could be bothered to complain and ask for money back.) Did recent studies back up the earliest ones?

***

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer

One of my next posts will be on what to see in Seattle, Washington. Please share links to your favourite posts. You can follow and comment on this website and contact me on Facebook messenger. Please look at my books on Amazon.com and Lulu.com If you buy one and find me I can sign it for you or your friend and write a personal message.

Excuse me, I just need to go and 'spend a penny'.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

French word of the day: clairvoyant - French speaking Toastmasters clubs - French translations

This word came up as word of the day at Toastmasters speakers' training club. I associate clairvoyants with con artists claiming to see the dead. However, I was most interested to hear the analysis of the word, clair as in clear, and voyant, as in voyeur, seeing.
   Interestingly, one of the examples of the use of the word given was: 'I am not clairvoyant.' (Followed by, 'However I predict you will soon get a job.'
   Tres bien. (Very good.)

If you are running a meeting, people are not clairvoyant. You have to tell everybody where to find the fire exit, toilets, the food, even the station to get home, and offer a lift. You have to tell them to turn off their phone, and turn it back on.

Toastmasters
   If you want to practise your French, you can attend a French speaking Toastmasters Club at home or at your destination. Members of Toastmasters International can buy a Toastmasters manual in French and several other languages.
   In Singapore you can attend a Mandarin speaking club. (Only recommended if you speak some Mandarin. I went to one assuming it would include some English but only one person spoke any English and I had to sit smiling politely most of the evening whilst not understanding a word.
  When I gave a speech in English to thank my hosts, I have no idea whether my translator understood anything, or simply made up what she imagined I might have said. I should have taken a sheet of translations in advance, plus a thank you speech translated with Google translate.
  In this sort of situation, you need a working phone, a spare battery, a downloaded dictionary, plus a few vital phrases including

Failing all else, follow the men to the toilet door and make hand over eyebrows sign for I'm looking.
Or make prayer sign, looking sign and hand washing sign.

English - French
Where is - the toilet: Ou est ... ( Failing all else - find the image of a toilet/ drinking glass, bottle, station, bus stop, car park, fire exit, fire extinguisher, doctor)
Thank you very much - merci beaucoup
Delighted to meet you - enchante (you might copy what the other person says)
My name is - Je m'apelle
What is your name? Qu'est ce que c'est - et votre nom madame/monsieur ?
Where is the station? Ou e s t la gare? V o u s  p o u v e z  m' a c c o m p a n e z? (You can accompany me)
I am going back to  / I am walking to - Je dois r e n t re  a ... Je marche v e r s
Can you give me a lift in your car? Est-ce-que  v  o u s  a v e z  u n e  v o i t u r e   Je  v a i s
Can somebody show me the way?
What time does this meeting end? A qeu elle h e u re   n o u s  i r o n s  f i n i  r? (At what time do we finish?)

Because of spellchecker, if you are doing a lot of translation, you might find it useful to print one page in English, then switch the computer language to French. Only do this if you speak fluent French and have somebody (family friend or nearby computer/phone shop) who can turn the computer back to English - write what you did to get the French, so you can reverse the process and get back to English.

I have given speeches and evaluated speeches in England, France, Singapore, China, Thailand, the USA, Australia and translated speeches at conferences in France and typed up speeches in correct English for speakers at conferences in India.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons, author, speaker.