Heffernan: Celebrating Jane Austen's masterpiece of manners

?An old maid writes with the detachment of a god.?

In honor of the bicentennial of the publication of ?Pride and Prejudice,? I give you the above words, by D. A. Miller, America's most swashbuckling reader of Jane Austen.

That?s the central mystery of Jane Austen?s novels. And what a mystery it is. The author?s voice, though we?re always reminded it belonged to a sour-faced spinster who couldn?t score a husband to save her life, flatly refuses to make itself meek. Meek? Jane Austen?s voice doesn?t even make itself human.

Rather, the Austen world spirit sweeps in omnisciently to ?Pride and Prejudice,? which turns 200 today, laying down universal truths like Solomon or HAL. From there it manipulates the pouts and slaps and rosy countenances of all the single ladies?the Catherines and Elizabeths and Emmas?all the coquettes, ing?nues and hysterics for whom Jay McInerney and all of us wild-eyed Janeites still pine.

The sadistic Austen voice brings authority, stern judgment and only the ghost of a chance for redemption: Her girls, after all, are always caught in the gears of a tightly engineered Austen marriage plot, from whose bourn. No traveler returns.

The Austen voice can mock, rig and savor that plot only because it?that Austen-god?suspends itself well outside the life-threatening grip of courtship and matrimony.

This, anyway, is the argument of Miller in his book, ?Jane Austen, or the Secret of Style.? I can think of no better way to celebrate the bicentennial of ?Pride and Prejudice,? Austen?s great novel of bulimia (among other matters) than with Miller?s book, which like anything good?Mr. Darcy, strong tea, food?can make the brain ache in big doses.

?Great novel of bulimia?? That?s right. Professor Miller, who taught me in graduate school to see the god in the spinster, also showed me what a tyrant Austen was about the importance of being thin and brief (good) versus being fat and prolix (bad, very bad). (Worse than you know.)

His lecture on this subject led to my fascination with the character of Charlotte, Elizabeth?s would-be best friend. You?ll recall that Elizabeth Bennet is the heroine of ?Pride and Prejudice,? the witty resourceful daughter of an emotionally abusive dad who likes Elizabeth best because she?s kind of a tomboy, and smart; she also sucks up to him by slagging off her sisters. In that way, Elizabeth reminds many female reader-types of ourselves?trying to upstage other maybe prettier girls as frivolous nitwits in the name of winning the attention of Important Men. Oh, and then hating ourselves for it.

In any case, Elizabeth has a friend, Charlotte. Charlotte is plainer than Lizzie, with no game in the drawing room. In short, she?s nowhere near as cool as Lizzie, so Lizzie bestows confidences on her?huge emotional outpourings of shame and remorse that she reserves for Charlotte alone, believing, in the immemorial way of popular girls, that the plainer girl is lucky to hear even the snotty, hiccupping self-pity of a superstar like Elizabeth Bennet.

Of course, Lizzie never reciprocates by listening to Charlotte, which is why she is appalled to find out that Charlotte is not with her in lockstep on her oft-repeated resolution not to marry a loser. Charlotte, who?s been an obedient sidekick to Lizzie for half the novel, turns the tables and boldly elopes with a loser?a former suitor of Lizzie?s, in fact?and Lizzie is absolutely crushed. Deservedly so. She can?t control everyone! (Only her maker, Austen, can.) It?s a horror when you realize this; take it from me.

How is this bulimia? I?ll tell you. Lizzie is all about being brief and witty; only goofy girls or sententious men talk too much. To monopolize conversations is like eating whole cakes. It shows no restraint and it?s disgusting. At the same time there?s much talk of Lizzie?s light-footedness and general low body weight. This is in contrast to the droning bore, Miss Bates, who is coded as fat and also can?t shut up.

But how does Lizzie keep her conversation and her figure in fighting shape? Does she have naturally modest appetites for food and attention? No. She is roiling with the same hungers everyone has, but she?s put herself in an empire-waist straitjacket of wit, wit and more wit, so she has nowhere to go when she just wants to babble and sob. To binge. To purge.

That?s where Charlotte comes in. By expressing herself to Charlotte at length and in sordid hues?gorging on cupcakes of emotion and then barfing them up in the silent, yielding bin of her friend?Lizzie frees herself up to impress Mr. Darcy by seeming slim and tart. (Is that the acid reflux?)

Go back and read ?Pride and Prejudice? and see for yourself. It?s about courtship, all right, but it?s also about the ways we try vainly to keep ourselves aloof from emotions and the whims and longings of our mortal bodies. Some of that, in younger years especially, involves using our friends. (Susanna Sonnenberg explores this and more in her beautiful and unsparing new book, ?She Matters: A Life in Friendships.?) And some of it involves becoming authors ourselves and hoping that that will, once and for all, immunize us from being human. Here?s to that effort, vain and tender. Happy birthday, ?Pride and Prejudice.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/happy-anniversary--jane-austen--spinster-god-195103217.html

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Dutch Queen Beatrix announces she is to abdicate

Image taken of a TV screen showing Dutch Queen Beatrix announcing she will abdicate April 30, 2014, during a speech prerecorded in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, has ruled the nation of 16 million for more than 32 years and would be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. (AP Photo/NOS Television/Peter Dejong)

Image taken of a TV screen showing Dutch Queen Beatrix announcing she will abdicate April 30, 2014, during a speech prerecorded in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, has ruled the nation of 16 million for more than 32 years and would be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. (AP Photo/NOS Television/Peter Dejong)

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2011 file photo, Dutch Queen Beatrix, center, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, left and Princess Maxima, second left, arrive at the "Hall of Knights" to formally open the new parliamentary year in The Hague, Netherlands. Queen Beatrix announced she is to abdicate in favor of Crown Prince Willem Alexander during a nationally televised speech Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, has ruled the nation of 16 million for more than 32 years and would be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2011 file photo, Dutch Queen Beatrix formally opens the new parliamentary year with a speech in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011. Queen Beatrix announced she is to abdicate in favor of Crown Prince Willem Alexander during a nationally televised speech Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, has ruled the nation of 16 million for more than 32 years and would be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. (AP Photo/Toussaint Kluiters, Pool, File)

FILE - In this April 30, 1980 file photo, Princess Juliana, just after her abdication, kisses her eldest daughter Queen Beatrix, left, on the balcony of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch Queen Beatrix announces she is to abdicate in favor of Crown Prince Willem Alexander during a nationally televised speech Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, has ruled the nation of 16 million for more than 32 years and would be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. (AP Photo/ Ferry van Groen, File)

FILE - In this April 30, 1980 file photo, Queen Beatrix is shown during her crowning ceremony at Nieuwe Kerk, or New Church in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch Queen Beatrix announced she is to abdicate in favor of Crown Prince Willem Alexander during a nationally televised speech Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, has ruled the nation of 16 million for more than 32 years and would be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. (AP Photo, File)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? Dutch Queen Beatrix announced Monday that she will abdicate on April 30 after 33 years as head of state, clearing the way for her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, to become the nation's first king in more than a century.

The announcement, in a nationally televised speech, signaled an end to the reign of one of Europe's longest-serving monarchs, whose time on the throne was marked by tumultuous shifts in Dutch society and, more recently, by personal tragedy.

The queen's abdication from the largely ceremonial role had been widely expected, but it is sure to bring an outpouring of sentimental and patriotic feelings among the Dutch, most of whom adore Beatrix. In everyday conversation, many of her subjects refer to her simply by the nickname "Bea."

"Responsibility for our country must now lie in the hands of a new generation," Beatrix said in the speech delivered from her Huis ten Bosch palace just days before she was to turn 75.

"I am deeply grateful for the great faith you have shown in me in the many years that I could be your Queen," she added.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a staunch monarchist, paid his respects in a speech that immediately followed Beatrix on all Dutch television channels.

"Since her coronation in 1980s she's applied herself heart and soul for Dutch society," Rutte said.

The timing of the announcement makes sense at multiple levels. It comes just days before Beatrix's birthday, and she is already the oldest ever Dutch monarch: the pragmatic Dutch do not see being king or queen as a job for life. The nation also celebrates the 200th anniversary of its monarchy, the House of Orange, at the end of this year, Beatrix said.

Observers believe she remained on the throne for so long in part because of unrest in Dutch society as the country struggled to assimilate more and more immigrants, mainly Muslims from North Africa, and shifted away from its traditional reputation as one of the world's most tolerant nations.

In her Christmas Day speech in 2010, Beatrix made a heartfelt plea for unity, saying, "with each other we all make up one society."

Beatrix was also thought to be giving time for her son to enjoy fatherhood before becoming King Willem-Alexander: he has three young daughters with Argentine investment banker Maxima Zorreguieta.

Beatrix has frequently said that the best years of her life were her time as a young mother, before her coronation in 1980.

The abdication also comes at a time of trial for Beatrix. This time a year ago she was struck by personal tragedy when the second of her three sons, Prince Friso, was left in a coma after being engulfed by an avalanche while skiing in Austria.

And even in a job that is mostly ceremonial to begin with, the previous government stripped her of one of her few remaining powers: the ability to name a candidate to begin Cabinet formations after elections of the national parliament.

Meanwhile Willem-Alexander, 45, is prepared to assume the job.

He is a trained pilot and expert in the quintessentially Dutch field of water management who has long been groomed for the throne, often joining Beatrix on state visits and sometimes even flying her home.

Willem-Alexander, a member of the International Olympic Committee, courted controversy with his choice to marry Maxima, whose father was an agriculture minister in the military junta that ruled Argentina with an iron fist in the late 1970s and early '80s.

Beatrix's choice of husband, Claus, who died in 2002, was met with resistance in 1966 because he was a German national and the Nazis' World War II occupation of the Netherlands was still an open wound for many who lived through it. But, like Maxima, he won the hearts of his adopted nation and there was a huge outpouring of grief at his death.

Beatrix's reign began in difficult economic times and there were riots in Amsterdam at her coronation, as thousands of demonstrators protesting the city's housing shortages fought pitched battles with police just a few hundred meters (yards) from the downtown palace where she was crowned.

But throughout her reign she was a calming influence on society, particularly in the aftermath of the 2002 assassination of populist politician Pim Fortuyn and the murder two years later of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist.

Although she was widely respected for her unpretentious style, it took Beatrix much of her reign to attain the admiration and popularity of her late mother, former Queen Juliana, who was more openly loving toward her people.

But in recent years, personal tragedies exposed a softer side to the queen and brought her closer to her subjects.

Claus's death took a toll on her, and it was apparent how deep her reliance on the quiet man had been: she was filmed leaning heavily, almost hanging on Prince Friso's arm as they entered the church for his funeral.

In another blow, a deranged loner tried to slam a car into an open-topped bus carrying members of the royal family as they celebrated the Queens Day national holiday in 2010. The driver killed seven people gathered to watch the royals and the brazen attack shocked the nation.

Then, in 2012, Prince Friso ? who had been such a support after Klaus's death ? was engulfed by an avalanche as he skied, plunging him into a coma from which he has yet to wake.

Beatrix went back to her busy official schedule soon after the accident, but it again spurred speculation that her reign could be nearing its end.

____

Associated Press writer Toby Sterling contributed from Amsterdam.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-28-Netherlands-Queen/id-2b99989160cd4030ba718f5b446cd247

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Calls and Mail Increase Colon-Cancer Screening Rates

PHILADELPHIA?A mailing or phone call to help patients get screened for colorectal cancer significantly increases their chances of actually getting tested, according to a study published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention by researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson.

The research team, led by Ronald E. Myers, PhD, professor and director of division of population science, in the Department of Medical Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University, performed a randomized, controlled trial of 945 people aged 50-79 to test the impact of a new, preference-based navigation intervention, as opposed to standard mailing or usual care, on screening rates.

A third of the patients received a ?tailored" phone call to encourage them to perform their preferred screening test (colonoscopy vs. at-home blood stool test), plus a mailing of preferred information; another third were sent information on colonoscopy and a stool blood test kit; while the last third received no intervention.

Patients who received a phone call and/or mailing were almost three times as likely to undergo screening six months later compared to those who had no intervention. However, there was no significant difference between the phone and mailed interventions versus mailings only on screening rates.

While colorectal cancer screening rates are increasing in the United States, rates lag behind those for breast and cervical cancer screening. Screening and early detection of colon and rectal cancer holds tremendous promise for reducing the toll of colon and rectal cancer.

Source: http://www.endonurse.com/news/2013/01/calls-and-mail-increase-colon-cancer-screening-ra.aspx

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Obama to tread carefully in immigration debate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will wade cautiously into the debate over U.S. immigration reform on Tuesday, seeking to build momentum for a new bipartisan plan to offer a pathway to citizenship for the country's 11 million illegal immigrants.

Reflecting the growing clout of Hispanic voters, Obama will travel to Nevada little more than a week after his second inauguration and make the case for swift action by Congress to overhaul immigration laws.

Immigration reform could give Obama a landmark second-term legislative achievement, but he is expected to tread carefully in a speech in Las Vegas, just a day after a group of influential Senate Democrats and Republicans laid out a broad plan of their own.

Obama's challenge is to help build public support for the senators' framework, which is in line with many of his main ideas for a sweeping immigration overhaul, while not alienating his fiercest Republican foes who might resist anything with the Democratic president's name on it.

While Obama is likely to use the bully pulpit of the presidency, backed up by a White House-organized grass-roots campaign, he will likely be more circumspect for now about how personally involved he becomes in congressional negotiations.

"The minute it becomes Obama's plan, the Republicans kick automatically into opposition," said Bill Schneider, a political scientist at George Mason University in Virginia. "The White House knows to back off for now."

Scheduled to speak at a Las Vegas high school at 11:15 a.m. PST, Obama does not intend to unveil legislation of his own. He will instead urge lawmakers to press ahead with their efforts even as he restates the "blueprint" for reform he rolled out in 2011, which called for an "earned" path to citizenship, administration officials said.

The flurry of activity marks the first substantive drive in years to forge an agreement on fixing America's flawed immigration system. Though the debate is likely to be contentious there is a growing consensus in Washington that the conditions are finally ripe for tackling the problem.

Obama and his fellow Democrats see their commitment to immigration reform as a way to solidify their hold on the growing Latino vote, which they won handily in the 2012 election. Nevada, for example, has a fast-growing Hispanic population that helped Obama carry the state in the November election.

Many Republicans, worried that their party has alienated Hispanics with anti-immigrant rhetoric, are suddenly open to cooperation on the issue as they seek to set a new tone.

DEVIL IN THE DETAILS?

The eight-member Senate group includes John McCain, a Republican from the border state of Arizona; Charles Schumer, a centrist Democrat from New York; and Republican Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American favorite of the Tea Party movement who has helped garner support from influential conservatives.

Translating the aspirations expressed by the group into an inevitably lengthy and complicated bill will itself be a major challenge in Congress. At the same time, the White House wants to see further details before Obama will fully embrace the senators' approach.

In an attempt to build support, the Senate proposal would couple immigration reform with enhanced border security efforts aimed at preventing illegal immigration and ensuring that those foreigners temporarily in the United States return home when their visas expire.

Under the proposal, undocumented immigrants would be allowed to register with the government, pay a fine, and then be given probationary legal status allowing them to work.

Ultimately, these immigrants would have to "go to the end of the line" and apply for permanent status. But while waiting to qualify for citizenship, they would no longer face the fear of deportation or harassment from law enforcers if they have steered clear of illegal activity.

Obama's aides consider it a breakthrough that Republican members of the bipartisan group of senators have agreed to a path to citizenship, a concept that many in their party have long opposed as tantamount to amnesty for law-breakers.

The White House remains wary, however. The president's aides have written up extensive legislative language for an immigration overhaul and will step in with their own formal proposals if the Senate effort falls apart, an administration official said.

Immigration reform, sidelined by economic issues and healthcare reform during Obama's first term, is part of an ambitious liberal agenda he laid out in his second inaugural address. That agenda also includes gun control, gay rights and fighting climate change.

Last summer, Obama took executive action so that the federal government stopped seeking to deport illegal immigrants who had arrived in the United States as children - a dramatic change that was celebrated in the Hispanic community.

After winning the bitterly fought election, Obama promised to tackle the issue comprehensively early in his new term.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-tread-carefully-immigration-debate-061214111.html

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Golden Globes 2013 Predictions: Best Picture

A strong field of contenders has made this category harder to predict than ever.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

Anne Hathaway in "Les Miserables"
Photo: Universal Pictures

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700074/golden-globes-2013-best-picture-predictions.jhtml

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Global South urges Church of England to pull back on gay bishops

Left: Rt Rev Robert Patterson

Nine primates urge the House of Bishops to rethink gay partnered bishops

George Conger? in Anglican Ink
January 12, 2013

The Global South Coalition of Anglican Primates ? representing a majority of members of the Anglican Communion ? has urged the House of Bishops of the Church of England to rescind its decision to permit clergy in gay civil partnerships to be appointed to the Episcopate.

By allowing partnered gay clergy to become bishops, the Church of England was jeopardizing the lives of Anglicans in majority Muslim countries, who would become targets of rage from extremists who would not appreciate the distinction being drawn by the House of Bishops between sexually active gay bishops and bishops who had entered a legal relationship defined by sexual activity, but who would nonetheless refrain from sexual activity.

Signed by nine archbishops, the statement follows responses from the Archbishops of Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria last week decrying the initiative.

The explosion over gay civil partnerships appears to have been an ?own goal? on the part of the House of Bishops of the Church of England.? The Bishop of Sodor and Man, the Rt. Rev. Robert Paterson ? who had been charged with leading a committee investigating the question ? has stated the matter was taken out of his committee?s hands by the House of Bishops executive committee.

The final statement released on 20 Dec 2012 was not in exact accordance with the recommendations of his committee.? He noted the bulk of the business of the meeting had been devoted to the women bishops question and the civil partnership issue was not given a thorough hearing.? What was adopted was a holding statement -- non-answer driven by legal advice that would satisfy parties until the final decision was made later this year.

In their letter, the Global South said their problem with the statement arose from the bishops abdication of responsibility on this issue with their clergy.

would ?widen the gap? with its sister churches in the Anglican Communion

??There is already an ambiguity regarding civil partnerships per se. We learnt that most civil partnerships, according to the Office for National Statistics in the UK, take place among the most sexually active age group. In addition dissolutions of civil partnerships are now increasing especially in the last few years. This puts into question the motives behind this civil partnership and adds to our confusion in the Global South.?

They noted that when the Church of England allowed civil partnerships in 2005, they said that ?The House of Bishops does not regard entering into a civil partnership as intrinsically incompatible with holy orders, provided the person concerned is willing to give assurances to his or her bishop that the relationship is consistent with the standards for the clergy set out in Issues in Human Sexuality.?

The Global South archbishops asked, ?Now, with allowing candidates for episcopacy to do the same, to whom should they give assurances? Clarification on this point is needed.?

?Sadly, both the decision to permit clergy to enter civil partnerships and this latest decision which some call it a ?local option,? are wrong and were taken without prior consultation or consensus with the rest of the Anglican Communion at a time when the Communion is still facing major challenges of disunity.?

Church doctrine and discipline should not be crafted by lawyers or bureaucrats, they argued. ?The Church, more than any time before, needs to stand firm for the faith once received from Jesus Christ through the Apostles and not yield to the pressures of the society.?

Source: http://contact-online.blogspot.com/2013/01/global-south-urges-church-of-england-to.html

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