Speak For Yourself...

Not for me, thanks.

I was once on a cruise where Trevor Brooking gave a talk. (I've got all the celebrity stories, me.) At the end there was a Q&A with the audience. Obviously I had nothing to ask. I barely knew the guy. I'd realised, quite soon after leaving Southampton, that cruising was not for me and so the Trevor Brooking evening was merely the latest in a week of diversions that were killing time 'til I reach dry land.

But back to my celebrity tales. Trevor asked if there were any questions and a guy near the front stood up. I can't recall what he asked but I remember how he started. 'I think I speak for the whole room when I say...' then followed with lots of generic arse licking about what a wonder Big Trev was. At some point the words formed a question requiring a response but by then I'd lost interest.

All I remember is that the guy in the audience annoyed me. Why would he presume to know what I (and everyone else) thought about Trevor Brooking? I could have had Very Strong Opinions about the man that were not covered in his fawning as he took on the role of Audience Spokesperson. I left the talk, irked by the audience member's poor choice of words that I remember to this day, and not the banterous anecdotes with which we can only assume Trevor Brooking regaled the room.

That experience came to mind last week. I read that the writer of the Harry Potter books had been tweeting again. This time, telling Lisa Nandy (with her pro-Trans support) that she was one of the reasons 'many women on the left don't trust Labour to defend their rights.' As a woman on the left, I'd really like for the wizard writer not to talk on my behalf. Like the guy on the boat, she doesn't represent me. Trans rights are human rights and I'd expect a political party that I vote for, to support ALL women, not just the ones some people decide are the right type. 

Like the boat guy, that author is not my spokesperson. And for all the boat guy knows, Trevor Brooking might be a terrible human being. (Disclaimer: He's probably not. Don't sue me.) But it isn't hard. Speak for yourself and not other people. It's simple.

Me, searching for space errors.

Writing News

As I mentioned last week, I've now got a formatted manuscript. This means that the pages of the book show how they'll look when they're printed and bound. The font, size, and chapter headings are all set. It's beginning to look a lot like... a book! But that brings a whole host of new niggles to iron out. A literary snag list, if you will. As I read through now, it's not so much spellings and typos I'm looking for. It's spacing issues. Each new chapter must start on a new page. The Contents, Acknowledgements, and About the Author page have to start on the right hand side. And my personal fave - I can't have the last few words of a chapter on their own at the top of a blank page. Something needs to shift so they jumps back to the previous one. Things needs spacing properly. Of course, the minute you make an edit near the start, the whole thing changes and more issues arise further on. It's time consuming but - and it's marvellous to feel this way - ultimately satisfying.

Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell
as Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse.

Culture

Strictly's back! Woohoo. I think it's week three or four now but I'm happily immersed for the long haul. (Come on, Layton!) But last week, two other cultural things came from it. After seeing Angela Scanlon and Carlos do a Fosse/Verdon homage from The Damn Yankees I was reminded of the mini series, Fosse/Verdon that the BBC had shown in 2019. It's an eight parter, now on Disney, and it was glorious. Michelle Williams plays Gwen Verdon and she's phenomenal. The second cultural thing was being reminded of Michelle Williams' excellent Golden Globe acceptance speech for her role in the show. Give this a listen and stop yourself from whooping. If you even can!

Food and Drink

Is now the time to tell you about my current favourite pizza topping? No? Yes? Excellent. Well it's simple as anything but brings me deep joy. It's a margherita with olives. Yep. That's it. Short and sweet. A margherita with olives will never not make me happy. I had one on Saturday night at my niece's 4th birthday get together and it was excellent.

Out and About

The niece's 4th birthday bash was actually fun. I mean, I knew it would be on a 'big family get together' level, but not 'actual fun for realsies.' And why? Well, for reasons I'm still not clear about, the Bond family went bowling. Yeah, bowling! It's not been something we've done before, but we went and it was top notch bantz. I assumed, of course, that I'd be terrible at the whole thing but in fact I turned out to be... average. I'll take that any day. 

It's Longer Ramble time next week. Brace yourself for longwinded thoughts on goodness know what. I remain unapologetic. I'll simply be speaking for myself. 

Have a lovely week, folks.